Lugh
In Irish romance, son of Kian, and father of Cuchulain. He was brought up by his uncle Goban, the Smith, and by Duach, King of Fairyland. It was prophesied of Lugh that he should eventually overcome his father's old enemy Balor, his own grandfather. So instead of killing the three murderers of his father, Kian, he put them on oath to obtain certain wonders, including the magical spear of the King of "Persia" and the pig-skin of the King of Greece, which, if laid on a patient, would heal him of his wound or cure him of his sickness. Thus equipped, Lugh entered the Battle of Moytura, against the Fomorians, and by hurling a stone which pierced through the eye to the brain of Balor, fulfilled the druidic prophecy. Lugh was the Irish Sun-god; his final conquest of the Fomorians and their leader symbolises the victory of light and intellect over darkness. Balor was god of darkness, and brute force as embodied in the Fomorians. By his title of Ildanach, or "
All Craftsman," Lugh is comparable to the Greek Apollo. He was widely worshipped by Continental Celts. Lully, Raymond: The life of this alchemist was a curious and eventful one, and all its diverse chapters bespeak him a man of titanic physical and mental energy, quite incapable of doing anything in dilettante fashion, but instead throwing himself heart and soul into every quest which chanced to appeal to him. Raymond's father was a Spanish knight, who, having won the approval of John I., King of Arragon, was granted an estate in Majorca; and it was in that island of the Balearic group that the future alchemist was born, probably in the year 1229, but the date is uncertain. Thanks to the royal favour which his father enjoyed, Raymond was appointed Seneschal of the Isles while he was still a mere youth; but hardly had he acquired this position ere, much to the chagrin of his parents, he began to show a strong predilection for debauchery. He paid amorous addresses to women of all sorts, while at length, becoming enamoured of a married lady named Eleonora de Castello, he began to follow her wherever she went, making no attempt to conceal his illicit passion. On one occasion, indeed, he actually sought the lady while she was attending mass. And, so loud was the outcry against this bold, if not sacrilegious act, that Eleonora found it essential to write in peremptory style to her cavaliere servente, bidding him desist from his present course. The letter failed to cool the youth's ardour, but anon, when it transpired that the lady was smitten with the deadly complaint of cancer, her admirer's frame of mind began to alter speedily. Sobered by the frustration of his hopes, he vowed that henceforth he would live differently, consecrating his days to the service of God.
So Raymond espoused holy orders, but, as was natural in the case of a man of such active and impetuous temperament, he felt small inclination for monastic life. His aim was to carry the Gospel far afield, converting the children of Mahomet, and with this in view he began to study Lutin, The Arabic; while having mastered that tongue he proceeded to Rome, eager to enlist the Pope's sympathy in his project. Raymond failed in the latter particular, yet, nothing daunted he embarked on his own account at Genoa about the year 1291, and having reached Tunis he commenced his crusade. His ardour resulted in his being fiercely persecuted and ultimately banished; so perforce he returned for a while to Europe, visiting Paris, Naples and Pisa, and exhorting all good Christians to aid his beloved enterprise. But in 1308 he ventured to go back to Africa, and at Algiers he made a host of converts, yet was once more forced to fly for his life before the angry Mussulmans. He repaired to Tunis, thinking to escape thence to Italy, but his former activities in the town were remembered, and consequently he was seized and thrown into prison. Here he languished for a long time, never failing to seize every opportunity which presented itself of preaching the gospel, but at last some Genoese merchants contrived to procure his release, and so he sailed back to Italy. Proceeding to Rome, he made further and strenuous efforts towards obtaining the Pope's support of a well-equipped foreign mission; but Raymond's importunity herein proved abortive, and, after resting for a brief space at his native Majorca, the heroic zealot took his life in his hands, and returned to Tunis. Here he even proclaimed his presence publicly, but scarcely had he begun preaching when he reaped the inevitable harvest, and after being savagely attacked he was left lying on the sea-shore, his assailants imagining him dead. He was still breathing, however, when some Genoese found him, and carrying him to a ship they set sail for Majorca. But the missionary did not rally, and he died while in sight of his home, the date being 1315.
Raymond's proselytising ardour had made his name familiar throughout Europe, and, while many people regarded him as a heretic because he had undertaken a mission without the pope's sanction, there were others who admired him so much that they sought to make him a saint. But he was never canonized, and the reason, per-- haps, lay in the well-known fact that he had engaged in alchemy. He is reported to have made a large sum of gold for the English king, and, while there is really no proof that he ever visited Britain, the remaining part of the story holds a certain significance. For it is said that Lully made the money on the strict understanding that it should be utilised for equipping a large and powerful band of missionaries, and the likelihood is that he thought to employ his chymical skill on behalf of his beloved object, and approached some European Sovereign with this in view, thus giving rise to the tradition about his dealings with the English monarch. Be that as it may, Raymond's voluminous writings certainly include a number of alchemistic works, notably Alchimia Magic Naturalis, De Aquis Super Accurtationes, De Secretis Medicina Magna and De Conservatione Vita; and it is interesting to find that several of these won considerable popularity and were repeatedly reprinted, while so late as 1673 two volumes of Opera Alchima purporting to be from Raymond's pen were issued at London. Five years before this a biography by Vernon had been published at Paris, while at a later date a German historian of chemistry, Gruelin, referred to Lully as a scientist of exceptional skill, and mentioned him as the first man to distil rosemary oil.