Irish Myths: The Children of Lir

Irish Myths: The Children of Lir

Today we have a featured story from The Emerald Isle, and Dee Dee Chainey talks to Ronan Burke, who runs the website – a great place to find stories of Ireland and its legends! - See more at: Folklore Thursday

Today we have a featured story from The Emerald Isle, and Dee Dee Chainey talks to Ronan Burke, who runs the website – a great place to find stories of Ireland and its legends! - See more at: http://folklorethursday.com/myths/the-children-of-lir/#sthash.MoSpAuKi.uDww3Ny2.dpuf

Today we have a featured story from The Emerald Isle, and Dee Dee Chainey talks to Ronan Burke, who runs the website – a great place to find stories of Ireland and its legends! - See more at: Folklore Thursday

Today we have a featured story from The Emerald Isle, and Dee Dee Chainey talks to Ronan Burke, who runs the website – a great place to find stories of Ireland and its legends!

Read it here: Folklore Thursday.

Barry Cunliffe: Who Were the Celts?

Exploring Celtic Civilizations | An Online Celtic Studies Coursebook

Exploring Celtic Civilizations | An On-line Celtic Studies Course-Book

Exploring Celtic Civilizations is an on-line course book suitable for undergraduates introducing the field of Celtic Studies: the various kinds of evidence available about Celtic-speaking communities through over two millennia and the methods available for understanding them. This digital course book thus presents texts as well as other sorts of evidence, such as aspects of material culture (e.g., archaeological artefacts), through on-line exhibits and data visualizations.

"Does Witchcraft Work?" by Professor Ronald Hutton

Professor Ron Hutton @ 5X15 Bristol from 5x15 on Vimeo.

Ronald Hutton is Professor of History at Bristol University and the historian on the trust which runs English Heritage. He is a leading authority on the history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs. He has published fifteen books and seventy-four essays, on a wide range of historical subjects.

Metamorphoses: a Comparative Study of Representations of Shape-Shifting in Old Norse and Medieval Irish Narrative Literature by Camilla Michelle With Penderson

This is the thesis by Camilla Michelle With Pederson, BA, titled "Metamorphoses: a Comparative Study of Representations of Shape-Shifting in Old Norse and Medieval Irish Narrative Literature"

Natural Histories: The Nightshades

Natural Histories: The Nightshades

Listen to BBC Radio 4's programme, in partnership with the Natural History Museum, on this group of fascinating plants.

It is hard to think of a more diverse and wonderful group of plants. They enchant us, poison us, make us feel sexy, give us hallucinations, heal us and feed us.  The screaming mandrakes in Harry Potter and the shamanistic dreams of tribal elders eating giant trumpet flowers testify to the magical powers of this group.

Its culinary properties enhance the ever intricate flavours of modern cuisine while its fatal attractions have been used by murderers, most famously Dr Crippen.

This is the group that contains mandrake, potatoes, chillies, aubergines, deadly nightshade and tomatoes. These are the plants that have entered our culture through food and medicine, drugs and love.

It is strange that the European plants in the group are mainly poisonous yet those that grow in the New World are often spicy and enriching.

Fearing anything that looked like nightshade the first plants that were brought here from the New World were regarded with suspicion, yet quickly we adopted them, so much so that it is impossible to conceive of Italian food without tomatoes or Friday night fish and chips, yet they are aliens in a strange land. We have a lot to thank this group for.

It soothed us before anaesthetics, sent our imaginations flying and tempted us with alluring flavours - and they are still pushing the frontiers of both medicine and food today.

Tha fios fithich agad