#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“
#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`
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
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: Three soldiers deserted their army and each took a different path. The sergeant and corporal were tricked and imprisoned by a lady at her palace. The private, however, won her heart and they planed to marry. Repeatedly put to sleep by a tailor’s tricks, the soldier received gifts from his fiancée: a golden ring, a penknife and a golden pin. Despite the tailor’s efforts, the soldier set out to find his beloved in the Kingdom of the Green Mountains. An eagle from the kingdom agreed to carry him, but grew weak from hunger. The „eagle agreed to continue on her journey; but only if the soldier would let her have a bite from his thigh.
After eating from both of his thighs, soldier and eagle finally arrived at the kingdom of the Green Mountains.“ After his wounds had healed, the private reunited with his beloved after showing her the tokens of their past. They married, and he freed his old friends imprisoned in the lady’s castle. Each found their own happily ever after.
Source: The Kingdom of the Green Mountains - Folklore Scotland
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: "The Swans Swim Sae Bonnie" tells of two sisters, one dark and one fair, who were inseparable in their childhood. Over time, however, the dark sister developed jealousy of her fair sister, who was favoured by others. This jealousy grew into hatred as both sisters competed for the love of the same man. In an act of desperation, the dark sister drowned her fair sister in the river. Later, three fiddlers used parts of the fair sister's body to improve their musical instruments, leading to a ghostly revelation that exposed the dark sister:
“It’s yonder he sits ma aul-man the king,
It’s yonder she sits ma mither the queen.
It’s yonder she sits ma fause sester Jean
An sae lightly she pushed me inta the stream.”
The dark sister was burnt as punishment. John fell into madness. The king, however, now had no children at all.
Source: https://folklorescotland.com/the-swans-swim-sae-bonnie/
#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
#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
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: Prior to the Second Battle of Moytura, #Lugh, God of Lightning, was heartening the men of #Ireland by the crane dance curse (corrghuineacht). He chanted as he went leftwards round the men of Erin, on one foot and with one eye closed.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
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
#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
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#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#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`
#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“
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: Among the talismans #Lugh demanded from Tuireann's three sons as punishment for the murder of his father #Cian were three apples (according to the tale, from the Hesperides Garden in the East of the World). Only these apples will satisfy me, as they are the best and most beautiful in the world. This is what they are made of: Their colour is that of polished gold, and the head of a one-month-old child is no larger than any one of these apples. When you dine on them, they taste like honey, and bleeding wounds and the most malignant diseases disappear. The apples do not diminish when eaten, even if one eats from them for a long time and constantly. Whoever succeeds in taking one of these apples has accomplished his greatest feat, since he will never lose it again.
Source: Guyonvarc'h/Le Roux Die #Druiden