#echo feels a lot more recent too but ive been lied to apparently

[angstywildcats]

they're calling 7 year old maprojects classic....................... ( slowly withering into dust) (/LH)

[inkbrusher]

what's something obscure that you wanna go ham about? i definitely have topics that i like talking about that no one else seems to care about, and the feeling sucks, so what's something you really just wanna infodump?

hmm, of course when put on the spot i cant really think of specifics as i feel like a lot of it lies dormant till it comes up in conversation ahah...

at the moment i suppose it’s irish mythology. ive only ever been lightly aware of some of the tales, but over the summer i decided to nab a few books and since then ive been picking away at them as well as supplementing with online research just for fun, and i find it really enjoyable! i think it is in part because a lot of irish mythology is extremely specific about where it takes place in the country, and often explains the names of places and stuff. 

like recently my sister found out that a place we always visit when we go over, called torc waterfall, is named that because the old hero fionn mac cumhaill apparently slew a boar there (torc being the irish word for boar). which idk, it’s just so cool to me, seeing these old histories echoed in the land in a way i can see or have seen firsthand. makes it all feel so much more real.

reading a lot of this has made me think more about the manmade dichotomy of mythology vs religion too, which of course i’m aware of, having been raised catholic as a child and unlearning much of it and seeing what damage christianity has done to many cultures. while reading these i’m often like... these tales were essentially a history for these people. so what makes jesus providing fish and loaves for a crowd ‘religion,’ but the dagda’s cauldron that never empties ‘mythology?’ sometimes it makes me hesitant to even call it ‘mythology’ and make me want to call it like. old irish canon or something but i default to mythology anyway since that’s what people know it as.

it’s fascinating but saddening at the same time to see the christian influences echoed in the tales. irish mythos is divided into 4 cycles of tales that are vaguely chronological, the first one being called ‘the mythological cycle’ having to do with the original gods aka the tuatha dé danann. it’s apparently the cycle we have the most fragmented knowledge of but reading thru what i can, you can really feel the hand of christian scribes back in the day revising the tales... like often they are very hesitant to outright call them gods at all (even though you can clearly tell by their actions and abilities that that’s basically what they are) and often they try to undermine the figures with sillyness probably to make them look like silly pagans. it makes me wonder how much has been lost to revisionism tbh

but yeah! there’s 4 rough cycles: the mythological cycle, the ulster cycle, the fenian cycle and the cycle of kings. as i said, the mytho cycle has to do with the original gods. i think my favorite tales from it were the wooing of etain and the children of lir. i really just like the origin tales of how the gods came to the country too, fighting the fomorians and such.

the ulster cycle has to do with a lot of old heroes, like cú chulainn. i’m currently in the middle of reading the táin bó cuailnge which is the main centerpiece of this cycle and possibly ireland’s most famous piece of classic literature. it’s wild! also kind of unintentionally funny...! the fenian cycle is i think what most people are kind of acquainted with, it has to do with the warrior bands called the fianna led by the hero fionn mac cumhaill (or you may have seen him called finn mc cool). the cycle of kings i think just has to do with family lineage of old kings so idk if i’m going to dig as much into that but nonetheless.

i’ve always been fascinated by mythological traditions and stories so it’s about time i actually try directly reading some. it makes me want to try reading those of other cultures too, though it’s a little tricky finding out where to start in many places...

but anyway! it’s been very fun getting into! i feel like i’m kind of learning a new history about my da’s country in a way. making me miss ireland more tho since we were supposed to go again this summer T__T