Editing Manannán mac Lir (section)

=== Manx folklore ===
[[File:South Barrule.jpg|thumb|South Barrule, reputed home of Manannán on the Isle of Man]]
According to the local lore of the [[Isle of Man]], Manannán was the island's first ruler.

;First ruler
A document called the "Supposed True Chronicle of Man" (16th century) asserts that Manannan was the first "ruler of Mann" and "was as paynim (pagan), and kept, by necromancy, the Land of Man under mists", and imposed as tax a bundle of green rushes, which was due every [[Midsummer Eve]] at a place called Warfield (the present-day [[South Barrule]]).{{sfnp|Moore|1891|p=6}} More or less the same thing is stated in verse within "[[Manannan Ballad|The Traditionary Ballad]]" aka "Manannan beg va Mac y Leirr" (1504), whose third quatrain ran:<ref name="train-manannan-beg" />{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|[[Arthur William Moore|A. W. Moore]] edited and gave a different translation to 6 strophes relevant to Manannan.{{sfnp|Moore|1895|pp=41–42}} [[Sophia Morrison]] reprinted Moore's translation as old ballad.<ref name="morrison-manannan" />}}
{{Verse translation
 | lang = gv
 | italicsoff =
 |Manannan beg va Mac y Leirr<br />Shen yn chied er ec row rieau ee<br />Agh myr share oddym's cur-my-ner<br />Cha row eh hene agh An-chreestee
 |Little Manannan was a son of Leirr;<br /> he was the first that ever had it [the island];<br /> but as I can best conceive,<br /> he was himself a heathen.
 | attr1 =Anonymous (1504). [[Joseph Train|Train, Joseph]] ed. tr. (1864)<ref name="train-manannan-beg" />
 | attr2 =Translated by Joseph Train (1854), as modified with annotation in the ''Dublin Review'' (1865)<ref name="dublin-review1865">''The Dublin Review'' 57 (1865), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ih4YAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA83 83f.]</ref>
}}

The poem thus identified the [[King of Mann|king of the island]] as one {{lang|gv|Manannan-beg-mac-y-Lheirr}}, 'little Manannan, son of the Sea' (or, 'son of [[Leir of Britain|Leir]]'). Manannan was later banished by Saint Patrick according to the poem.<ref name="train-manannan-beg" />{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|[[Sophia Morrison]] also prints a prayer invoking Manannan Beg that was known to her.<ref name="morrison-manannan" /> [[W. Y. Evans-Wentz]] remarked this prayer was a product of substituting St. Patrick's name with Manannan's.<ref name="evans-wentz" />}}

As to the Manx offering [[Juncus|rushes]] to Manannán, there is evidence these wild plants—which typically grow in wetlands—were sacred to him.<ref name="ohogain">Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. ''Myth, Legend & Romance: An encyclopaedia of the Irish folk tradition''. Prentice Hall Press, 1991. pp.286-288</ref>

;Illusory magic
According to tradition, Manannan once held [[Peel Castle]], and caused a single man guarding its [[battlements]] to appear as a force of a thousand, thus succeeding in driving out his enemies.{{sfnp|Moore|1895|p=43}} Manx storyteller [[Sophia Morrison]] repeats this story except reducing the amplification to hundredfold men, and referring to the rampart "a great stone fort on [[St Patrick's Isle|Peel Island]]".<ref name="morrison-manannan" /> She also appends a story that Manannan once crafted makeshift boats out of [[sedge]]s, creating an illusion of a larger fleet, causing the Viking invaders to flee in terror from the bay of Peel Island.<ref name="morrison-manannan" />