#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
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: The words of #Niamh of the Golden Hair sparked in Oisin a irresistible craving to live with her in the #Otherworld:
“Delightful is the land beyond all dreams,
Fairer than aught thine eyes have ever seen.
There all the year the fruit is on the tree,
And all the year the bloom is on the flower.
There with wild honey drip the forest trees;
The stores of wine and mead shall never fail.
...“
Source: Dru Magus „#Myths and #legends of the #Celtic race“
James Macgrigor encountered a Kelpie disguised as a stallion. Recognizing it, he stroke its nose with his claymore, severing its magical bridle bit. The Kelpie pleaded for its return, revealing its transformational powers and ability to reveal hidden beings: “If you look through the holes in the bit, you will see all manners of fairies and witches and devils.” Macgrigor lifted the bit to his eyes and peered through, and sure enough, the world he saw was bright with colour and full of beings invisible to the human eye. He was so enamoured by the contraption that he wanted to study it in more detail. He was also not deaf to the Kelpie’s claim that without the bit, he would die, and Macgrigor saw an opportunity to free the people of the surrounding area from the Kelpie’s reign of terror.
Macgrigor, captivated by the bit’s power, decided to study it further, leaving the Kelpie in a vulnerable state. Despite the Kelpie’s pleas and threats, Macgrigor cleverly kept the bit, learning about the #Otherworld. #Celtic
„Rarely is a Kelpie the victim of a trick, but after that day, no one went missing on the banks of Loch Ness ever again, all thanks to the cunning of James Macgrigor.“
Source: The Kelpie of Loch Ness - Folklore Scotland https://twitter.com/gonzalokenny/status/1790707801330688016?s=19
„In England the fall equinox period was devoted to harvest fairs marked by mummers’ parades in which mythological characters like Robin Hood and Maid Marion danced with animal archetypes like the Hobbyhorse.“
„As the syllable hob usually indicates a connection with the #Otherworld, the hobbyhorse is thought to derive from Celtic practice, perhaps related to the horse goddess Epona.“
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://twitter.com/MrPunchNFriends/status/1445832160380796929
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: The Cailleach Bheur was associated with #winter and the protection of animals during the season. This blue hag, was reborn every All Hallows Eve and brought back the winter weather with her magical staff, which froze the ground with every tap. On Beltane Eve she returned to the Earth, throwing her staff beneath a gorse bush before turning to stone.
Source: https://druidry.org/resources/furze
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: When Balor sold the Glas Gaibhneach, „he did not give Goibniu the magical halter rope to which he knew the cow was bound to return each evening. Without having the halter to restrain the cow, Goibniu employed a warrior called Cian to guard the beast. Balor distracted Cian by a ruse and when Cian took his eyes off the cow, Balor led her off quickly to his island fortress.
Cian followed in a boat owned by the powerful #Otherworld deity Manannán mac Lir. Balor had locked his daughter Eithne away from the company of men as he feared a prophecy that he would die at the hands of his own grandson. On reaching the island Cian got access to Eithne who was soon pregnant and delivered a son, Lugh. Eithne gave Cian the magical halter rope and the child and he left the island with them on Manannán’s boat along with the Enchanted Cow. Manannán fostered the child and when Lugh grew to manhood he killed Balor at the Second Battle of Moytura, thus fulfilling the prophecy.“
Source: Antiquarian Research in Co. Sligo as a Background to the Mythology and Archaeology of Moytura by Eamonn P. Kelly
One day, Cormac, the High King of Ireland, was captivated by a youth dressed in splendid robes and finely costumed. Over his shoulder he carried a nine-belled stick, each bell shaped like a golden apple. The music it produced was so enchanting that Cormac bartered his wife, son, and daughter for it. This caused great sorrow among his people, which he alleviated with the stick’s music.#Celtic
Source: The Vanishing of Cormac | Emerald Isle Irish and Celtic myths, fairy tales and legends
A year later, Cormac, missing his family, followed their path into a misty, unfamiliar land. This was the #Otherworld, a place of beautiful meadows, woods filled with singing birds, and flowers he’d never seen before. He encountered Manannan and Fand in a grand Dún, where he was invited to stay for the night.
In the Dún, Cormac was presented with the magical cup of Manannan. This cup would break when a lie was spoken and would only get whole again when a truth was told.
Cormac was reunited with his family. The joy of their reunion was immense, and they returned to their people, bringing with them Manannan‘s treasures: the bell-branch and the magical cup and the cloth of gold that had covered the table where they sat in the palace of Manannan.
Source: The Vanishing of Cormac | Emerald Isle Irish and #Celtic myths, fairy tales and legends
#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
#MythologyMonday: In #Wales the fertility god #Amaethon was a human farmer able to make even the most unlikely wastelands bloom. He owned a dog, a deer, and a lapwing that he stole from the king of Annwn, the #Otherworld, suggesting that the source of this world’s abundance rests in the mysterious realm beyond. This relatively obscure god was one of the children of the mother goddess Dôn.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
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RT @adversecamber20
Amaethon, Welsh god of farming, brother to Gwydion the master magician, both found in the #Mabinogion. Together they used sorcery to win the "Battle of the Trees". He was instrumental in union of Culhwch & Olwen, legend behind Hunting the Giant's Daughter #FolkloreThursday
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: The #Irish ritual of the one-legged crane dance curse (corrghuineacht) is a form of magic-working, the power of which is intensified when practised standing on one leg, with one arm outstretched, and with one eye closed like a crane (ir. corr). The ritual position itself is known as glám dícenn (meaning ‘satire which destroys’). It was thought that the open eye was able to look directly into the magical #Otherworld, whilst standing on only one leg indicated being present in neither one world or the other.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
When the sun sat at the horizon, it was the point in #mythic time when the #Mórrígan drove her cattle back into #Oweynagat. Every night at sunset they entered the #Otherworld through the souterrain entrance of this cave.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and Folklore
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: The scenes of the portrayals on the Gundestrup cauldron correlate image-by-image with the beginning and end of the Táin and with the major episodes outlined in the seventh-century poetic narrations of the Táin. Plate E of the Gundestrup cauldron, in particular, displays the major events of the Aided Fraich episode. The dead Fraech is carried off into the #Otherworld and returns alive.
Source: G. Olmsted "The Gundestrup and Chiemsee Cauldrons: Witnesses to the Art..."
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: #Hy-Brasil is an island in the #Otherworld west of #Ireland. Hy-Brasil shows up in a seven year cycle and is the seat of #Bresal, High King of the World, his name lives on in #Brazil. #Bresil was a magic realm, neither sea nor land, yet both.
Sources: Helmut Birkhan #Kelten and Michael Dames Ireland: A Sacred Journey
Unknown author, Argentine Ptolemy, Ireland and Brazil, 1513, public domain
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: There are many examples of the hare having connections with the #Otherworld in #Irish #mythology and folklore. Hares are associated with #spring, thus with the Goddess of the season, and represented love, fertility and growth. In Europe, that Goddess was Eostre, after whom Easter is named, but in #Ireland #Brigid is the Goddess of Spring, or Imbolc.
Source: https://substack.com/@aliisaac
#Celtic#LegendaryWednesday: Mabon ap Modron was rescued from his captivity at Cáer Loyw, a synonym for the #Otherworld, where he had been since he was stolen from his mother three days after his birth. Mabon repayed Culhwch by helping him to fulfill the tasks required for Culhwch's marriage to Olwen, a princess that charmed all with her outstanding beauty.
Source: Helen Benigni/Barbara Carter/Eadhmonn Ua Cuinn „The Myth of the Year“
#Celtic#LegendaryWednesday: #Cróchan Crogderg (= ”bloodred”) was an obscure goddess or heroine who gave birth to the great queen/goddess #Medb in the cave of #Cruachain. Medbs royal seat was named after Cróchan which means cuporcauldron. Both form an entrance to the #Otherworld, a miniature well. Source: Patricia Monaghan The Red-Haired Girl From The Bog`
#Celtic#LegendaryWednesday#WyrdWednesday: There are many examples of the hare having connections with the #Otherworld in #Irish #mythology and #folklore. Hares are associated with #spring, thus with the goddess of the season, and represented love, fertility and growth. In Europe, that goddess was Eostre, after whom Easter is named, but in #Ireland #Brigid is the Goddess of Spring, or #Imbolc.
Source: https://aliisaac.substack.com/
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: At two-year intervals, the wizardly pig-herders Rucht and Runce of the #Otherworld became stags, warriors, ghosts, dragons throwing snow on each others land, and finally 2 worms. As such, they impregnated 2 cows, causing them to be reborn as the magical bulls #Finnbennach of Cruachan and #Donn of Cuailgne. Source: Sylvia Botheroyd #Irland`
Like Cáer and Angus, Midir and Étain shape-changed into swans, circled the area and then disappeared into the mound of the #Otherworld.
Source: Helen Benigni/Barbara Carter/Eadhmonn Ua Cuinn „The Myth of the Year“ #Celtic
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: In the #Otherworld High King Cormac „came to the gateway of a great and lofty Dún, where he entered in and asked hospitality. Out came Manannan dressed in a cloak of blue that changed into silver or to purple as its folds waved in the light.“
Source: The Vanishing of Cormac | Emerald Isle Irish and Celtic myths, fairy tales and legends
Cú Roí mac Dáire and Cú Chulainn returned from the #Otherworld „to Eriú with the three treasures of the Fálgae – namely, three red-eared milk-abounding cows who each produced the milk of ten cows every day, with three cranes called the three men of Ochain upon their backs, the great cauldron rich in gold and silver from which a hundred men could come away satisfied, and Bláthíne daughter of Mend.“ #Celtic
Source: Blathine, Lady of the Sidhe | The Ulaid Cycle (emeraldisle.ie)
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: Manannan had bartered a branch with nine golden apples for Cormac’s wife and his children. This way he brought #Ireland’s High King to his palace in the #Otherworld to be his guest for the sake of Cormac‘s wisdom.
Source: The Vanishing of Cormac | Emerald Isle Irish and Celtic myths, fairy tales and legends
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: „In the metrical Dindshenchas one Bresal is credited with the building of the great tumulus of Dowth (Sidh mBresail) and once again the manipulation of time occurs. His sister casts a spell that fixes the sun in the sky so that a day might last indefinitely and allow the task to be completed. Bresal lustfully commits incest with her and the spell is broken and the sun departs. Since the construction work has been darkened (ro dubad), Dubad (darkening) is said to be the name of the mound thereafter.“
Source: Prof. John Waddell „The #Otherworld Hall on the Boyne“
#MythologyMonday: The #TuathaDéDanannrefined the art of brewing until the ale of their smith and brewer #Goibniu was strong enough to endow the drinker with immortality. #Irish epics connect ale with the festival of #Samhain, when the boundaries between this world and the #Otherworld were blurred.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore