The deep ground before governance. The physical island, the spiritual landscape, the keeills and holy wells, the accommodation principle that would define Manx life for a thousand years. Celtic Christianity layered over older traditions without displacing them. Manannán's rent paid in rushes at midsummer. The spirit taxonomy — phynnodderee, buggane, mooinjer veggey — all carried Manx Gaelic names, not Norse imports. The world before Tynwald was recorded, when the Island's identity was already formed.