In Aedan's post, he referred to them as representing the Irish ideals of art, science and poetry. It is interesting and somewhat sad to consider how they slowly became diminished from their original high status - whatever that status may have been. In the Mythological Cycle they are indeed portrayed as a race unto themselves. Already, however, they are falling from power, seemingly a past-tense tribe of shapeshifters and magicians who might have once been gods. Their "death tales" are most poignant. Yet they linger on, immortal, even after they are defeated and supposedly banished. Stories of Lugh, Manannan and others appear much later. This time-warp is a particular quirk in ancient Irish literature. Often time as we know it is simply not a factor, and sequences of events can sometimes seem impossibly jumbled. With the Tuatha de Danaan, it is probably the strongly rooted ancestral memory (if one believes in such a thing) that makes these figures live on. Today the Danaans are shrunken down to the size of fairies, a reflection of their belittled presence. It is widely believed that this was the result of the shift from Paganism to Christianity, as the old gods were displaced by the new. Now they are the little people who live under the Irish hills. Does the world no longer need the Tuatha de Danaan? Will they someday return? Or perhaps they have never really gone after all.