#Calatin was a wizard, and he and his 27 sons formed, as it were, but one being, the sons being organs of their father, and what any one of them did they all did alike. They were all poisonous, so that any weapon which one of them used would kill in nine days the man who was but grazed by it. When this multiform creature met Cuchulain each hand of it hurled a spear at once, but Cuchulain caught the twenty-eight spears on his shield and not one of them drew blood.
Source: Myths and Legends of the #Celtic Race by Thomas William Rolleston
RT @lorraineelizab6
Cailitin/Calatin stems from warrior-druid in The Cattle Raid of Cooley. Cailitin was an ally of Queen Maeve of Connacht &, on her behalf, he & his kinsmen did battle with Cú Chulainn, Ulster's champion.
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: Why were all the mirrors in Emain Macha once covered? In Lough Rudraige the king of #Ulster, #Fergus mac Léti, encountered a water monster called a #Muirdris, which frightened him so much that his head turned around to face his back. He survived, but his #druids faced the difficult question of whether this change made him a blemished king and therefore unfit to reign. Through some loophole of interpretation, they determined that having one’s head on backward was not a blemish, but to keep Fergus from knowing what had happened, they covered all the mirrors in Emain Macha, the great royal residence of Ulster. And so Fergus lived happily enough for seven years, until a woman he had mistreated revealed the truth. Fergus returned to Loch Rudraige and killed the muirdris, but fell dead of exhaustion afterward, his head still facing backward.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
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RT @lorraineelizab6
Fergus mac Léti, King of Ulster met a sea-monster called Muirdris in Dundrum Bay! His face became contorted in terror! Disfigurement disqualified from kingship so mirrors banned around him! Later he found out. Went back & killed it, but then died of exhaustion! #FairyTaleTuesday
#Aoife turned her four step-children into swans and banished them for nine hundred years out of jealousy of her husband’s love for them. In appropriate punishment she was changed into a demon of the air (in some versions, a crane).
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
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RT @lorraineelizab6
When #childrenofLir's grandfather #Bodb heard of what #Aoife had done he transformed her into an air demon for eternity! #FolkloreThursday
#MythologyMonday: While in Judeo-Christian cosmology heaven is usually seen as the abode of the dead and of the divine forces, the #Celts located both in the #Otherworld, which could be found out to sea, under a hill, or in an invisible universe parallel to ours, but never in the sky.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
RT @lorraineelizab6
Irish mythology Otherworld: Tír na nÓg (Land of the Young), Tír na hÓige (Land of Youth), Tír Tairngire (Land of Promise), Tír fo Thuinn (Land under the Wave), Mag Mell (Plain of Delight), Ildathach (Multicoloured place) & Emain Ablach (Isle of Apple Trees)! 🎨? #MythologyMonday
A roughly human-shaped figure constructed from straw at harvest time, the Corn Dolly/Maiden was often crafted from the last sheaf cut at harvest-time. Its origins are obscure but clearly mythic or ritual. In # Scottish and #Irish folklore The Dolly is associated with two figures of arguable antiquity: the #Cailleach or hag and #Brigit or the Bride, who may have been the hag’s maiden form. Often the Corn Dolly was stored in a house or barn from fall until spring, when it played a role in sowing or other rituals associated with new life.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
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RT @lorraineelizab6
In Scotland/#Ireland, the 1st farmer to finish the grain harvest made a corn dolly, representing the Cailleach (Queen of winter) from the last sheaf of crop. The last farmer had to care for it for the next year; so they'd have to feed/house the hag all winter! #SuperstitionSat 🌽
@Alanis@TheAcademy@Starbucks Cliona/Clíodhna. Queen of Banshees of S Munster & goddess of love/beauty, & patron Co Cork. Has 3 brightly coloured birds who eat apples from an otherworldly tree! Their song heals the sick! Put to sleep by music played by sea god's minstrel & drowned in Glandore harbour, Co Cork