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#irish mythology
alternativeulster · 8 months
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more people need to know about irish mythology. it's just balls to the walls insane. if you thought greek mythology was wild let me introduce you to:
nessa and her 12 gay dads
queen medb cheating on everything and everyone, starting a war over a cow, ruining innumerable lives and then getting killed by cheese
fionn gets raised by 2 random lesbians
fionn kills a guy for stealing his girlfriend, drops the magic healing water several times on purpose
oisín goes to live in the immortal fairy land with his immortal fairy wife, misses ireland, comes back to visit, falls off his horse and fucking dies (may or may not have gotten in a fight with saint patrick before dying)
fuck them kids, they're swans now
guy accidentally gets job of "being the king's dog" at age 5, changes name to dog
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nanamis-username · 5 months
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samhain 🧡 a banshee & a dullahan
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trans-cuchulainn · 1 year
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bloctg4 · 7 months
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please share the setanta gossip video you put on IG here, i know the tumblr nerds will appreciate it and i want to share it with them 💚
ÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚ yass
d'athraigh setanta a ainm? slé!
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hi more ulster cycle art based on this passage: “From the Monday after the feast of Samain at summer’s end to the Wednesday after the feast of Imbolc at spring’s beginning, Cúchulainn never slept — unless against his spear for an instant after the middle of the day, with head on fist and fist on spear and the spear against his knee” - táin bó cúailnge tr. thomas kinsella
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blackcrowing · 6 months
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Important Facts about Samhain from an Irish Celtic Reconstructionist
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Pronunciation
SOW-in or SOW-een ~NOT~ Sam-han, Sam-win etc.
Dates
Most reconstructionists celebrate Samhain on Oct 31-Nov 1, however some may choose to celebrate on Gregorian Nov 13-14 as this would match the Julian dates of Oct 31-Nov 1. Some also believe that it was a three day festival spanning Oct 31- Nov 2 on which Nov 2 is specifically devoted to ancestral veneration, but there is no specific evidence of this, only possible extrapolation from more modern practices.
Following the Celtic method of days beginning at sunset, regardless of the specific dates you choose to celebrate on your festivities should begin at sunset and end at sunset.
Importance in the Mythos
Ná Morrighan has a strong connection to this time of year thanks to the story of Cath Dédenach Maige Tuired (The Last Battle of Mag Tuired) in which she is found depicted as the ‘Washing Woman’ (sometimes washing herself in the river and other times washing the bloodied armor of the soldiers that would die that day), on the eve of the battle which is also Samhain. The Dagda approaches her and couples with her (creating the ‘Bed of the Couples’ along the bank of river and granting Dagda her blessing in the battle to come). This encounter seems to over emphasize the liminality of the encounter by taking place during the changing of the year and with the couple each standing with ‘one foot on either bank’ of the river.
She and her sisters (Badb and Macha) then use various forms of magic to rain destruction on their enemies (in the form of fire and blood). After the day is won Morrighan speaks a prophecy that describes what is taken by some to be the end of days and others to be the events which will later lead to the Ulster Cycle.
Beneath the peaceful heavens lies the land. It rests beneath the bowl of the bright sky. The land lies, itself a dish, a cup of honeyed strength, there, for the taking, offering strength to each There it lies, the splendour of the land. The land is like a mead worth the brewing, worth the drinking. It stores for us the gifts of summer even in winter. It protects and armours us, a spear upon a shield Here we can make for ourselves strong places, the fist holding the shield Here we can build safe places, our spear-bristling enclosures. This is where we will turn the earth. This is where we will stay. And here will our children live to the third of three generations Here there will be a forest point of field fences The horn counting of many cows And the encircling of many fields There will be sheltering trees So fodderful of beech mast that the trees themselves will be weary with the weight. In this land will come abundance bringing: Wealth for our children Every boy a warrior, Every watch dog, warrior-fierce The wood of every tree, spear-worthy The fire from every stone a molten spear-stream Every stone a firm foundation Every field full of cows Every cow calf-fertile Our land shall be rich with banks in birdsong Grey deer before Spring And fruitful Autumns The plain shall be thronged from the hills to the shore. Full and fertile. And as time runs its sharp and shadowy journey, this shall be true. This shall be the story of the land and its people We shall have peace beneath the heavens. Forever
(based on the translation by Isolde Carmody)
It is also mentioned in Echtra Cormaic that on this festival every seven years the high king would host a feast, it was at this time new laws could be enacted. (but it seems that individual Tuathas or possibly kings of the individual providence may have done this for their territories at Lughnasadh).
It seems to be a time considered especially susceptible to (or of) great change as it is the time which the Tuatha de Danann win victory over the Formorians and take control of Ireland, the invasion of Ulster takes place at this time in Táin bo Cúailnge, in Aislinge Óengusa Óengus and his bride-to-be are changed from bird to human and eventually he claims kingship of Brú na Bóinne at this time of year.
Celebration Traditions
Samhain is the beginning of the “dark half” of the year and is widely regarded as the Insular Celtic equivalent of the New Year. The “dark half” of the year was a time for story telling, in fact in this half of the year after dark is considered the only acceptable time to tell stories from the mythological and Ulster cycle (the Fenian cycle being assumed to be no older than the 12th century based on linguistic dating). Traditionally anything that had not been harvested or gathered by the time of this festival was to be left, as it now belonged to the Fae (in some areas specifically the Púca).
This was also an important time for warding off ill luck in the coming year. Large bonfires would be built and as the cattle were driven back into the community from the pastures they would be walked between these bonfires as a method of purification (the reverse custom of Bealtaine where the livestock were walked between the fires on their way out to the summer pastures). Assumed ritualistic slaughter of some of the herd would follow (though this perhaps had the more practical purpose of thinning the herd before the winter and creating enough food for the feasting). In some areas the ashes from these fires would be worn, thrown or spread as a further way to ward off evil.
Homes would be ritualistically protected from the Aos Sí (Fae or ‘Spirits’) through methods such as offerings of food (generally leaving some of the feasting outside for them), carving turnips with scary faces to warn them off (we now tend to do this with gourds), and smoke cleansing the home (in Scottish saining) traditionally with juniper, but perhaps rowan or birch might be an acceptable alternative. It is likely these would be part of the components used in Samhain bonfires as well, for the same reason.
Lastly based on later traditions as well as links in the mythology this is a time where divination practices or those with the ‘second sight’ were regarded to be especially potent.
Art Credit @morpheus-ravenna
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llyfrenfys · 2 months
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See, I personally find this quest to find pagan/pre-Christian elements in Welsh/Irish literature quite unnerving - I don't know about anyone else.
There's something to be said about genuinely discovering pre-Christian elements in a narrative or story and that being where evidence and study has led you. But I see some people on this fruitless quest to find pagan elements in very Christian texts and sometimes it feels like if no pagan elements can be found, people start making stuff up out of whole cloth - and that can be very dangerous for already not-well known texts in minoritised languages!
There's already so much misinformation out there about Irish/Welsh texts and literature in general - so it hurts to see people carelessly adding to the misinformation either out of ignorance or lack of respect for the source material.
I promise you the source material being Christian doesn't ruin it - you can in fact, enjoy these myths without making them into something they're not!
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amylouioc · 3 months
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Grianstad shona daoibh!
In Ireland, the Winter Solstice is often associated with the Newgrange passage tomb in County Meath. Each year, as the sun rises on the Solstice, it aligns perfectly with tomb to illuminate the passage within.
Lots of historical, scientific and even crazy (I’m looking at you Ancient Aliens) theories exist as to why this occurs, but there is also some stories within our mythology associated with the event, including the Dagda’s affair with the Goddess Boann.
The Dagda was thought to be an Irish god of fertility and strength. A wife of one of his aides, Boann, a goddess of the River Boyne, was particularly entranced, and the couple soon began a clandestine affair. Affairs don’t stay secret when a god of fertility is involved, and Boann quickly fell pregnant around springtime.
Boann resided at Newgrange, and when her husband left for a hunting trip, the Dagda cast a spell to make the sun standstill for nine months and pause time. Boann carried her baby to term and eventually gave birth to Aengus, a god of youth and love. Despite it now being Winter, on Elcmar’s return he felt as if only a day had passed and the affair went unnoticed. That is until one day, when an adult Aengus would eventually arrive to duel Elcmar for Newgrange, which he deemed his birthright.
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allmythologies · 4 months
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irish mythology: danu
danu is known as the mother of irish gods. she is the mother goddess of the tuatha dé danann – in fact, these supernatural beings take their name from Ddnu, as the name tuatha dé danann translates to ‘the peoples of the goddess danu.' she is strongly associated with nature, as well as regeneration, wisdom, death, and prosperity. it’s thought that she passed on her own wisdom to members of the tuatha dé danann, as well as her creative and crafty talents.
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aodhan-art · 5 months
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A commission of Brigid for @bloodtreachery (awww, it was SUCH a pleasure to do it!). I put an emphasis on her aspect as a poet, hence the fire of poetry ablaze! The poem in the flames is a liberal translation of these lines from The Hosting of the Sidhe into Old Irish (courtesy of my wonderful husband):
...if any gaze on our rushing band, We come between him and the deed of his hand, We come between him and the hope of his heart.
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notacluedo · 2 months
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seen so much cú chulainn art I need to contribute
I went with the wild multicoloured blond ombré hair bc it sounds cool
Based on that one Michelangelo sketch with that guy :/
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90% of the time I'm like "the only reason why the medieval Irish material seems bizarre is because it isn't taught as part of the standard humanities curriculum -- Greek Mythology is just as bizarre, you're just USED to it, stop reducing this stuff to Lol That's So Weird", but then I do have to be like. "Anyway the postulated father god of the postulated pre-Christian Irish pantheon, if ever such a thing existed in a uniform way, creates a zombie apocalypse in one text that allows him to become king of Ireland and his wife is a crow (part time) that commits crimes and castrates a Viking warlord (who has a really messy family life btw). He also has a xylophone made out of corpses in another text." and I have to be like. "Okay, so maybe the Irish texts ARE a little bit. Out there. On occasion."
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the-evil-clergyman · 2 years
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Queen Maeve, from The Century Magazine by J. C. Leyendecker (January 1907)
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belle-keys · 6 months
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World Mythology: Fey, Faeries, and Fairfolk
“Faeries, come take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind, run on the top of the disheveled tide, and dance upon the mountains like a flame.”
- adapted from The Land of Heart's Desire by William Butler Yeats
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egregiousanathema · 7 months
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Re-listening to "A Wizard Abroad"; there's a mention of the dewey decimal system number that Nita's wizard's manual camouflages itself as. The camouflage is as a children's book called "So You Want to be A Wizard" and the DD number for it is given as "793.4". I looked that up and it's "793 Indoor games & amusements". Very cool of @dianeduane to include that in a book in 1993; you'd probably have needed to be sitting in your local library to learn that if you were reading at the time of publication. Also: happy 30 years to book which made me look up how to pronounce names from Irish mythology.
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bywandandsword · 7 months
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Current brainworm, none of the Celtic cultures' creation myths have survived, even though they almost certainly had one. The closest we have is the Lebor Gabala Erenn from Irish mythology, but it isn't a creation story, it records the various settlements of Ireland, ending in the Gaels. However, it is thought that there are reflections of an earlier creation myth in the LGE and in the Tain, and there are similar themes that validate that the Gaels at least viewed the creation of the landscape in this way from various other stories. Additionally, we can compare other Indo-European creation myths to figure out what elements the Gaelic creation myth almost certainly would have had. These include:
Before creation, there is a void of some kind
In that void, fire interacts with water/ice to create the first life
A primordial bovine, most likely a cow (bulls were more common in IE cultures that emphasized pastoralism over crops. The Romans had a she-wolf, because they had to be edge lords)
One primordial being or possibly a set of twins who are sustained by the milk of the cow
One of the twins/the primordial being is dismembered to create the physical world
So already we have the makings of a general creation story, and if you're familiar with Norse mythologies, you might recognize it. In fact, it's thought that the Norse creation myth has retained the most elements of the original IE myth
However, scholars point out that the primordial being that is killed is called *Yemo, meaning "twin", which means there was likely originally two first beings. In the one sacrificing the other, the act renders the brother doing the sacrificing as the First Priest, who creates the concept of death, but in doing so turns that death into the living world. The sacrificed brother is then typically rendered as the First King and Ruler of the Land of the Dead. By setting up this order for the world, the First Priest establishes that life cannot exist without death (whether it be harvesting crops or butchering livestock), and typically, these myths continue and establish the role of the priests in society, who's job it is to ensure the continuity of the original sacrifice and maintain the living world
Now, here's where we get into my speculation;
I think it's likely that the Irish creation myth involved a set of twins. Off the top of my head, I think that possible reflections of this can be found in the brothers Amergin and Donn and in the Donn Cuailnge and Finnbhennach from the Táin. With Amergin and Donn, Donn insults the goddess of the land and is drowned. In doing so, Donn becomes a god of the dead and all the souls of the dead have to gather at or pass through Tech Duinn. Amergin however, secures the support of these goddesses and is able to go on and give order to the Gaelic rule of Ireland by deciding who will rule what and serves as the Chief Ollam (bard) of Ireland. In the Táin, after the main Plot has gone down, the Donn Cuailnge and Finnbhennach fight and the the Donn Cuailnge ends up killing Finnbhennach. As the Donn Cuailnge passes through the landscape, pieces of Finnbhennach drop off his horns and form/name part of the landscape. I think it's also interesting how in both these stories, one of the duo is explicitly associated with the color white (Amergin is called "white knees") and the other one is dark, but the opposite one dies first in the stories
Also, if we look at myths like the creation of the Shannon and the Boyne rivers, where in the goddesses Sionnan and Boann, respectively, die in the rivers' creations, we further see that the death of one figure to create an element of the landscape is a relatively common one, so a creation story similar to the one I hypothesize the Irish had wouldn't have been outside of pagan Irish belief
Additionally, if we look at the duíle, kind of like the Irish elements/natural features, we see that the nine elements/features are each explicitly associated with body parts. Stone is associated with bones, the sea with blood, the face with the sun, ect. I think this could be a call back to that earlier creation myth
Off the top of my head, that's what I've been mulling over. Idk, I might be completely off the mark, but if anyone wants give their thoughts, I'd love to hear them. I'm certainly not an expert in Irish mythology and there may be some key factor that completely sinks this idea
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