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.

"The Curse of Macha"

Big Chris Lennon of Belfast-based Digital Mist Productions will begin shooting his brainchild ‘The Curse of Macha’ this August, a feature-length production inspired by ancient Irish myths and legends including the ‘Táin Bó Cúailgne’. The film is currently in pre-production based on the screenplay Chris co-wrote with Paul Micheal.

In all seriousness though, the story is set during 4th Century Ireland and focuses on a woman named Emer who is forced to face the horror of her missing children when her village is set ablaze amid an invasion.

Source:  Bad Haven.

Táin Bó Cúailnge more closely based on "real-life" than previously thought

Researchers have used mathematics to conclude that ancient Irish epic, Táin Bó Cúailnge, may be more closely based on real-life societies than previously thought.

The study takes a numerical look at how interactions between characters in the ancient Táin Bó Cúailnge compare with real social networks.

The whole article can be read via the Irish Times website.

Shelf of Myths

Shelf of Myths, a photo by i-c-photos on Flickr.

A selection of my books on myths, though I noted the other copy of the Mabinogion has been misplaced.

Books on the Shelf

Celtic Shelf, a photo by i-c-photos on Flickr.

A selection of books on one of my bookshelves.

The Curse of Macha: Pilot Feature Film Production

This project is being funded through donations by the general public, using We Fund.  If you're interested in helping, or are just curious, please click here to read more.

Awakened by the onslaught of an invasion, Emer is forced to succumb to the horror of her children missing and the burning flames of her dying village. Rather than accept her fate, she breaks free of the carnage to find another village and a group of warriors willing to take up her cause and find out the truth of this nightmare.


What unfolds is a daring attempt to reach the ancient city of Emain Macha, the stronghold of the Ulaidh (Ulster) Tribes. But with political and religious influences on the struggle for power over the northern territories of Ireland, our heroes our met with overwhelming odds stacked against them. It is with Emer, that the fate of the Ulaidh tribes lays, and through her courage and strength the promise to embrace her children once more.


Many myths and legends have echoed through Ireland's forests, none so infamous than the Táin Bó Cúailgne, an epic tale of greed, lust and pride. 3 deadly sins that have plagued Ireland's shores for an eternity. Our story focuses on one mother’s nightmare and one peoples plight in a land steeped in religious and political turmoil.  Set in the 4th Century AD, Ireland is a land inconstant upheaval. Kings, Queens, Priestess and Warlords battle among themselves for power. All the while the masses struggle to survive daily life in an Ireland that is one dark environment.


The Film is based on the Irish myths of the Táin Bó Cúailgne, our story is an original screenplay by Chris Lennon and Paul Michael.

Land of the Seal People

 

Author: Duncan Williamson
ISBN: 1841588806/9781841588803

I read "The Land of the Seal People" having just finished David Thomson's excellent "The People Of The Sea: Celtic Legends And Myths: Celtic Tales of the Seal-folk". I was hoping it would match it for warmth and wonder, but I was to be slightly disappointed. Although each tale comes with a paragraph explaining where it was heard and a description of the teller is included, names not always included for obvious reasons, the atmosphere in which the tales were told is missing and the attachment gained from learning more about the teller is lost. To that end, I could not warm to these tales as much as I could to those told by Thomson.

"The Land of the Seal People" doesn't just focus on the selkie, but includes encounters with others of the supernatural kind and, as much as I enjoy these, I was a little disappointed as I was hoping to learn more about the seal people and/or selkies. I was also put off by the overuse of the character name Jack, which featured heavily about 3/4 of the way through the book. It seemed to me that in every tale, Jack has lost his father young and was left an only child supporting his mother. True, each of Jack's adventures was different, but I started to become disinterested the moment I saw the name Jack.

Because I did not get the same feeling reading "The Land of the Seal People" as I did "The People Of The Sea: Celtic Legends And Myths: Celtic Tales of the Seal-folk", I doubt I will be re-reading it and I am unsure as to whether I should read Duncan Williamson's other books on a similar topic. I did enjoy reading both books and seeing the connection to the film "The Secret Of Roan Inish" though I did learn that the book on which the movie is based was originally set in Scotland. Overall, I enjoyed the book but I think it might have endeared itself to me more had I read it first, and then Thomson's book.  

Rating: 3½/5.

Unforgiving

I have to acknowledge that I am an unforgiving person. I have always been so, even growing up within the Catholic faith, forgiveness was a tenet I never understood. Turning the other cheek was something I thought you ought to do when drawing back your fist, or other weapon before striking your enemy down with full force.

I have always felt that when someone wrongs me, I am entitled to compensation of a sort, even if its just an apology, but I'd prefer they suffer as I had. Perhaps this is why the laws of the ancients always appealed: they always extracted a price for wrongdoing. For instance, the price extracted by Lugh from the Sons of Tuireann for the slaughter of Cian. Although Lugh thought the tasks he set might kill them, the Sons of Tuireann return triumphant, and the debt is satisfied. To me that (almost) makes sense.

It has always been a strange thing to me that the male of the species is able to engage in violent, physical combat and, even if one comes out clearly the winner, both can consider the matter which was the catalyst for the fight closed and resume their previous (good) relationship. I acknowledge this is not always the case, but I have seen it occur often enough, and it occurs regularly in the myths. For my own part, I can consider a matter closed, but it will remain on record in my memory banks.

Don't get me wrong: I don't demand compensation for every slight or from every opponent. I am quite happy to debate matters, and will even take an opposing side in order to gain a deeper understanding of another's point of view, or just to play devil's advocate. I rarely take offence during an argument and rarely do I take such things personally; in fact, others have commented on my inability to take personal offence. Provided no personal insults are slung, I see no reason to seek satisfaction.

What I cannot do is forgive anyone, or anything that attacks me, my family or my friends, nor will I forget, which may separate me from the ancients. Just because someone pays the price for their actions against me, it does not necessarily follow I will forget the matter. A trust will have been broken and no compensation can restore trust.

I realised over the weekend, that I have no qualms about being the unforgiving sort. I used to feel (the Catholic) guilt over not being able to forgive, or turn the other cheek, but not anymore. Its how I feel; how I am. I am not inclined to change either.

The Myths

I have been following with interest a conversation about myths and how they are viewed by pagans. This stems from a comment whereby someone said:

Hellenic/Romanesque pagans ... [can't] ... all literally believe their myths actually happened.

I thought this rather presumptious. To my mind, the myths did occur. Maybe not exactly as we hear (or read) them today (generations of bards altering each tale to suit their listening audience), and maybe not in this world, but certainly in one form or another. I'm sure some of the characters may have changed, or merged (as he scriptwriters are want to do when rendering a book suitable for a screenplay), descriptions may have altered, feats exaggerated and so on, but that's not to say that the feats of the gods, heroes and ancestors didn't occur at all.

I am also of the belief that the myths were not concocted simply as a means of informing our ancestors of the best way to live their lives. In some instances, this may be true, but surely not all?

Perhaps I am taking things too literally myself?

History or Myth - Which should come first?

I have a dilemna - and its ongoing. Which do I read first: history or myth?

I know that I need to read the myths associated with the British Isles, but I have also been informed, by people I respect, that I need to read them in context. But, how is this achieved if you havent' read the history first? And, just how much history do you need to know before you start reading the myths?

Its all very confusing to me. I try to read a book a week and I try to alternate between myth/folklore, history and general pagan subjects. The problem I'm finding is that when you read one history book, (e.g. Hutton's "The Druids"), it often contains references to other works with comments like "If you wish to explore further, then read ...". Well, fine. Except I will be reading a book under the myth/folklore section next week and, after that, I have this history book which is relevant to the next myth/folklore book I'm reading and so on.

I checked my library catalogue the other day to find 125 books on my "to be read" list and 75 on my wishlist. If you add that up, that's about 16 years reading, provided I ignore all bibliographies and recommendations contained within those books. This is quite daunting and I am having to consider whether I should just read the myths/folklore/tales and disregard the history; applying a modern sensibility to the texts.

I wonder how others have managed or are managing to do this?