The placement of a horseshoe above a door is a hotly debated topic. Some argue that it should go right side up, the horseshoe catching luck and giving luck to the home; others argue the shoe should be upside down, pouring good luck on visitors.
Myrddin Wyllt was a 6th-century prophet who inspired the Merlin legend. After being traumatized by war, Myrddin fled into a Scottish forest and became a hermit. He supposedly wrote down his intense visions, which are collectively known as "The Prophecies of Merlin."
🎨 Alan Lee
#FolkyFriday: Queen #Medb went to her chief #druid and demanded of him what her own lot in the Tain Bó Cuilgne should be. But the druid said only: “Whoever comes back in safety, or comes not, thou thyself shalt come.”
Source: Dru Magus #Myths and #legends of the #Celtic race“
#Celtic#FolkyFriday: Before #Fionn mac Cumhaill, stood three figures: one a tall man, with tangled grey hair and beard, the ugliest man he had ever seen; and by his side stood a grim old woman with three heads, and each of the heads was yelling most horribly. Hut the third figure was more appalling than the other two, for it was the body of a man without a head, and in the middle of his breast a single eye rolled and turned about, and shone with a dull green glare. Fionn, however, was in no way frightened by these dreadful looking beings. The old grey man laughed, and said, as he locked and barred the door: "We shall certainly kill you and your companions before the morning breaks." In the darkness of that enchanted house a fierce fight began. The grey old man wove spells to weaken the heroes' limbs, while phantoms attacked them on every side with weapons cast in that dark underworld from whence they came. In the morning the pale light of dawn shone through the broken door, dispersed the darkness of the hut, and both house and phantoms disappeared from sight.
Source: Heroes of the Dawn by Violet Russel
In the Goetia, Astaroth is a duke of Hell who encourages slothfulness and laziness. His breath stinks, and he loves to claim that he didn't really fall from Heaven; it was all a misunderstanding. Astaroth knows much about the past and future, and the liberal arts.
🎨 Louis le Breton
For centuries, university students dabbled in sorcery to rebel against their parents. Thus, many demons in the Goetia specialize in finding treasure and/or teaching academic disciplines such as science or literature. Quick money and acing tests appeal to students.
🎨 Louis le Breton
#Celtic#FolkyFriday: Near Plévenon a farmer was compensated for the damage done to his wheat field by a cow belonging to the fairies. They gave him a small loaf of bread, telling him that it would not reduce as long as it was eaten only by the family but would vanish if even a single crumb was enjoyed by a stranger. The fairy bread lasted the farmer’s family for over two years but suddenly disappeared when a piece had been cut for a passing beggar.
Source: https://bonjourfrombrittany.wordpress.com/2023/01/14/the-fairies-of-the-swells/
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: High King Art mac Cuinn had a one night stand with Achtan, daughter of a druid/smith named Olc Acha. One night, however, as Achtan slept, exhausted from her day’s travelling, her infant, #Cormac mac Airt, was stolen by a she-wolf and raised alongside her cubs.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack https://twitter.com/DaraSands/status/1325749794388709376
#Celtic#FolkyFriday: This is how High King Cormac vanished: One morning he went out alone from Tara over the plain, taking the direction in which his wife and children had passed away a year before, and soon little fingers of mist began to curl about his feet, and then to flit by him like long trailing scarves, and he was lost in the #Otherworld.
Source: The Vanishing of Cormac | Emerald Isle Irish and Celtic myths, fairy tales and legends https://twitter.com/BardMythologies/status/1202901250028818432
#Celtic#FolkyFriday: The Tarbfheis, or bull feast, was a ceremony used to select the next High King. It involved the sacrifice of a white bull, after which the Druid, or poet, would ‘chew the flesh and drink the broth’. I’m assuming the meat was cooked, since broth was a component of the ceremony. Following this meal, the poet was wrapped in the bull’s raw hide to dream. If his dream was unsuccessful in identifying the new King, he faced death.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FolkyFriday: True, or more likely, Christian propaganda? „The ancient texts of the Metrical Dindshenchas claim that the people of Ireland worshipped the God Crom Cruach at Samhain, by offering up their firstborn child in return for a plentiful harvest in the coming year. The children were killed by smashing their heads on the stone idol representing Crom Cruach, and sprinkling their blood around the base. This stone idol has been identified as the Killycluggin Stone.“
Source: Ali Isaac