fudulike

[fudulike]

It can be difficult to find them if you don't know where to look!

The most obvious one that springs to mind (for me) is Cath Maige Tuired ('The Second Battle of Mag Tuired'). He doesn't turn up until about half way through, but he then ends up having an important part to play in the story, for sure.

Then there's Baile in Scáil ('The Phantom's Frenzy'), which is a bit earlier than CMT and has quite a different feel/setting.

Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann ('The Violent Deaths of the Children of Tuirenn') is quite a lot later than the previous two, in the version as we know it today. This one kind of overlaps a bit with some of the events from CMT, but some of the details may seem a bit contradictory. This is par for the course when we're dealing with myths and tales like this.

Lug is involved in Compert Con Culainn ('The Conception of Cú Chulainn'), and as Cú Chulainn's dad/mentor he pops up in the Táin Bó Cúailnge.

Lug also crops up in the dindshenchas (place-name lore) a fair bit, but he's probably best known for the dindshenchas tales on Tailtiu, Carmun, and Nás. A lot of the details about Tailtiu (and CMT) are also referenced in the Lebor Gabála Érenn ('The Book of the Taking of Ireland').

The dindshenchas of Loch Lugborta may be worth a mention here, too. This ties in with How the Dagda Got His Magic Staff, although Lug's only really mentioned passing here.

I think these cover most of his notable appearances in the myths (off the top of my head, anyway).

Okay I'm gonna sound so dumb and out of touch here but can someone give me some names of myths about Lugh? I've tried but I can't find anything I can actually read. It's all just "heres common traits associated with him!" From like jewelery websites or something. Even just descriptions of a story will work, I recently went down a rabbit hole trying to find the story where Oisín met Niamh just by the phrase "Irish story dude goes into fairy world comes out years later". I just need a starting point, y'know?

[fudulike]

In Serglige Con Culainn Emer complains that Cú Chulainn's lovesickness has deprived her of 'sleeping in wedlock' with him since he was brought down by it. She complains to Láeg (essentially blaming Láeg for his inaction in the situation) in verse, saying:

He comes not from Emain — because of the shape that has parted us. My voice is weak and dead because he is in an evil state.

A month and a season and a year without sleeping in wedlock, without a man who was pleasing of speech — I have not heard [such], o son of Ríangabur.

That's the only reference that springs to mind. If it's any help, this is discussed by Jo Findon in A Woman's Words: Emer and Female Speech in the Ulster Cycle (around pages 122-124).

Just throwing this out to my fellow Ulster Cycle nerds, btw, for Reasons™: are you aware of any unambiguous references to Cú Chulainn and Emer having sex? I can't think of any, and in the absence of children one could argue nobody can prove that they did*, but possibly I'm missing something. Grateful for any suggestions!

*I'm not trying to denigrate or diminish their relationship, just prove a point about modern heteronormative expectations and frameworks for what it means for characters to be married, etc. After all, since Cú Chulainn has up to five children with other women, we might expect him to have kids with Emer, and the fact that he doesn't is Noticeable and invites consideration.

[fudulike]

It's definitely a thing, but not just with the Dagda and his children (these relationships are often rather fluid, anyway). The Dagda did end up accruing a lot of kids, though, so it often ends up pointing back to him.

It could have something to do with the fact that fire has an intimate connection with the arts (including poetry, smithing, leechcraft, etc.), and many of the gods or members of the Tuatha Dé Danann are associated with the arts in some way. There's a sense that the illuminating quality of fire gives it a sympathetic association with the revelation of hidden knowledge, matters of inspiration, creation, eloquence, and that sort of thing. By extension, it surely touches on matters of fertility and cosmology, too.

The prevalence of these fiery themes could have something to do with the concept of divinity, as well, which might trace back to Indo-European roots. The word for a god/deity (día/dée) can be traced back to the PIE *deiwos, which ultimately brings up connotations of "celestial, luminous, radiant." Matters of radiance, brightness, lightness (and by extension whiteness) are also quite common, as we see with Nechtán and Bóand (which makes sense considering their associations with the well of Segais and poetic inspiration, etc.). There's also Bóand's father Delbáeth (possibly derived from delb and áed, meaning something like "shape of fire'), too, along with a number of other Delbáeths in the TDD family tree, including a son of Ogma. Ogma is sometimes given the epithet grianainech, "sunny-faced." Áine is "brightness, glow, radiance," while Núadu has a number of epithets that may refer to something bright or shining (Airgetĺam, "Silver/Shining Arm," Necht, "pure, white"), too.

Néit's name may trace back to *nei- (‘be lively, excite, shine’), though that's far from certain, but the Táin does talk about the "torches of Badb, virulent rain-clouds and sparks of blazing fire, were seen in the air over his [Cú Chulainn’s] head with the seething fierce rage that rose in him." I'm sure there's more, but the gist here is that we do also see fire being represented in its more destructive function, which probably isn't surprising.

Also, has anyone noticed that the Dagda disproportionately has kids associated with fire/the sun/light?

Brighid is obvious

Áine and Grain (if you view them as sisters rather than the same goddess) are associated with the sun

Aillen is called "the burner" (and plays the harp and timpán as a weapon)

Aed/Aodh, who's name means "to kindle" or "to burn"

Aengus, who was famously born when the Dagda held the the sun still for nine months and who's sometimes associated with Midwinter

Midir, potentially, if you consider him to be a lunar deity

Is this a Thing? This has got to be a Thing. Maybe it has to do with the Dagda being associated with fertility, imbas, creation, or skill?

[fudulike]

I think the sea connection is speculative (and somewhat tenuous at best), mainly from Núadu's apparent connection to the Romano-British Nodons (a cognate), whose temple at Lydney incorporated a lot of aquatic imagery. The temple itself was situated overlooking the river Severn, so that's probably not surprising, but Núadu himself does appear to have some associations with rivers as well, through his identification with Bóand and the Boyne in the dindshenchas (and other sources). R.A.S. Macalister also noted a piece of folklore that explains Núadu’s silver arm as being a "poetical description" for "a narrow strait of water between two islands," although he didn't go into any detail about what that folklore was. He did consider the idea to be "rather fanciful," though. (See here).

The relationship between Nechtán and Núadu is more than a bit confused! On one occasion, in Immacallam in Dá Thúarad, Bóand is said to be the wife of Núadu (where "the arm of Núadu's wife" is identified as a part of the Boyne, something that's also mentioned in the dindshenchas), but she's otherwise identified as the wife of Nechtán (or Elcmar). Nechtán himself is occasionally said to be a son of Núadu (in Airne Fíngein), although he's more usually described as a son or grandson of Náma (a descendant of Bres, which may be significant in itself, seeing as Núadu and Bres consistently seem to be set at odds with one another). In Airne Fíngein, when Nechtán is said to be Núadu's son, Núadu is given the epithet Snáma, which may have encouraged some of the confusion here. This confusion may also have been further encouraged by the way in which Núadu – or a version of Núadu, you could say (who's portrayed as a legendary king) – is known as Núadu Necht, while there's also the apparent connection via Bóand, too.

Continuing to get as much sources on Nuada as possible, one thing I've come across only a few times is that some consider him to have a connection to the sea, akin to being a sea god, although to my knowledge right now I haven't found any connection of Nuada being a god of the sea

which then led me to Nechtan being coined as a god of the sea, however he was much more connected to wells considering the tale of Nechtan and Boann, so now I'm left curious how this overlapping of Nuada and Nechtan happened when their tales don't overlap in context

[fudulike]

Clidna is probably best known for the wave that's associated with her – the Tonn Chlidna (Wave of Clidna). There are stories explaining its origins in the dindshenchas – there are a couple of metrical versions of the story, and a prose version. Clidna is also mentioned in the Acallam na Senórach (The Colloquy of the Two Sages).

Patricia Lysaght's The Banshee: The Irish Supernatural Death-Messenger has some bits and pieces about her as well (spelled Clíona here, for search purposes!).

Coincidentally, I've just finished reading Manchán Magan's Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape, and he touches on the traditions surrounding Clidna and her wave, too (it was a really good read). Magan mentions her association with the Uí Fidgenti, which will give you an idea of the families she might still be linked with. She apparently also adopted the Fitzgeralds and MarCarthys, becoming their bean sí, too.

Hello! I'm somewhat of a beginner who is struggling with research. I'm in university full time, so all my time/energy is directed towards my degree. It leaves little room for spiritual research, and honestly I get overwhelmed so fast on the rare occasion I have time to do it. I'm at a point where I'm not sure where to start with Irish paganism, so to speak. Any advice?

On a more specific note, do you know where I could learn more about Clíodhna? I’ve had an incredibly intense draw to her for a long time. Even when I’m too tired and burnt out on research, I still feel her pull.

This is my general recommended reading list

But I'd point out for a beginner

Celtic Cosmology and the Otherworld: Myths, Orgins, Sovereignty and Liminality, Sharon Paice MacLeod

Celtic Myth and Religion, Sharon Paice MacLeod

Irish Paganism: Reconstructing Irish Polytheism, Morgan Daimler

Celtic Heritage, Alwyn and Brinley Rees

and any papers by John Carey, Berry Cunliffe, Fergus Kelly, Miranda Green, J. P. Mallory (since you're at university you probably have ready access to a lot of these)

As for Clíodna, this is actually the first I've heard of her, but since she has been included in the lineage of a few families you may actually want to look into those families and see what, if anything, you might dig up

[fudulike]

Turnips (Brassica napus) were only introduced to Britain (and probably Ireland) from around the mid-eighteenth century. So it's unlikely they're pre-Christian in origin. The earliest references to turnip lanterns come from the late eighteenth century – with the earliest reference that seems to have been found so far coming from the US. I'm not sure of the context of the reference itself (there's only a wee snippet shown) but it doesn't seem like it has anything to do with Hallowe'en specifically, which is interesting.

The funny thing about the turnip lantern is that it's often said to be an Irish tradition but there don't seem to be any firm references to them (in Ireland) from before the twentieth century (though if anyone knows otherwise I'd be grateful if you could point me in the right direction!). I've found someone mentioning a "carved gourd competition" from 1837 in Limerick but I've not been able to actually verify the claim. Besides that, they're mentioned in Scottish and English sources from the nineteenth century (not sure how far they go back in Wales yet, but they're a tradition there, too; in the Isle of Man it's presumed they were first carved at some point in the early 1800s, being introduced in the late 1700s). But from what I can tell from the Irish Folklore Commission's archives, the accounts (from the 1930s and 1940s) mostly talk about them as a childhood toy/pastime. They're only occasionally associated with Hallowe'en in any explicit sense, and this agrees with the evidence from England and Scotland, too, though the association with Hallowe'en becomes increasingly pronounced over time.

The turnip lantern's link with Ireland is often explained as originating with the story of Stingy Jack, who tricked the devil and was refused entry into hell (after also being barred from heaven). As the story goes, the devil gave Jack a burning ember from the fires of hell to light his way as he was doomed to wander the earth, which – some versions like to insist – Jack then put in a turnip he'd been snacking on so he could carry it around. The earliest version of the story from 1836 makes no mention of the turnip, though, and neither does a version from 1851. I'm not sure when turnips came to be involved but it's not an original part of the tale. The story was actually meant to explain the phenomenon of the will-o'-the-wisp, not the turnip lantern, although the term "jack-o'-lantern" – which we now know as another name for vegetable lanterns (turnip or pumpkin) – was itself originally a name for the will-o'-the-wisp (as far back as the sixteenth century in England). There are variants of the story known across a large part of Europe that tell the same story, including one involving a character named "Will," which then explains why it's will-o'-the-wisp, even. So it seems the shift in meaning of "jack-o'-lantern" is probably where the confusion/conflation with turnips comes in.

In Scotland, they also used kail-runt torches (or "candle and castocks," which are cabbage stems with the cabbage hollowed out and a candle stuck in the end). The earliest reference I'm aware of so far dates to 1731, being depicted in a painting known as The Cromarty Fool. Although this means they technically pre-date the turnip lantern, cabbage/kail was probably only introduced to Scotland sometime in the early Christian period, so it's not likely to be particularly ancient either.

As for the pumpkins, it seems they already had a seasonal association at this time of year due to Thanksgiving, and they just leant themselves to being carved for Hallowe'en, too. They were already festive, widely available, and easier to work with than turnips. That seems to be pretty much it.

Incidentally, though, aside from pumpkins and other kinds of squash, I've found one source from the US that recommends using cucumbers and apples, too!

Do you know if Jack o lantern pumpkins have a history in paganism or is it a commercialism thing?

There was a history of turnip carving in Ireland for Samhain (here's a good post that addresses this history). Now the exact reason why we switched to pumkins.... I'm not really sure? I assume it was a 'new world' development where pumkins were just easier to find than turnips of the appropriate size on this side of the world?

[fudulike]

Can I just awkwardly raise a hand and say hi, I wrote this book... And while I'm glad you're finding something of value in it I'd just like to take this opportunity to apologise for the horrific run-on sentence there, lol.

Seriously, though. I do hope you find it helpful. If you have any questions I'd be happy to help if I can.

Behold the fairy mound before your eyes;

It is plain for you to see, it is a king’s dwelling,

It was built by the harsh Dagda:

It was a shelter, it was a keep renowned for strength.156

Although the name is translated as ‘the harsh Dagda’ here (which is a perfectly valid interpretation), the range of other meanings that are suggested by dúr could be interpreted as equating dúr (or duir, as it’s sometimes spelled) with dair (also sometimes spelled duir), because dúr can be given to mean ‘hard, rigid, solid,’ but also ‘firm, resolute, hardy,’157 which offers a perfect complement to the hardy qualities of the oak. In the context of the Dagda having built the brug itself (using construction materials like oak), where the strength of its fortifications are emphasised, a translation of ‘the steadfast Dagda’ would perhaps be more apt, or perhaps even ‘the oaken Dagda.’

– "A Guide to Ogam Divination" by Marissa Hegarty.

[fudulike]

Yeah, I can think of tons of articles but there’s not a whole lot that’s specifically dedicated to the filid in terms of books that really springs to mind.

Perhaps the most useful book I can think of is Kim McCone’s Pagan Past and Christian Present, which has a really good chapter on “Fire and the Arts” that involves a discussion of the filid and imbas forosnai. He references Joseph Falaky Nagy’s The Wisdom of the Outlaw which has some good stuff on imbas as well, but... ugh. It’s incredibly hard to find. I’ve heard rumours of a new edition for years but it’s yet to materialise as far as I’m aware.

Elva Johnston’s Literacy and Identity in Early Medieval Ireland isn’t about the filid specifically but it does deal with them quite a bit. There’s not a whole lot about imbas, though, and I think if you’re looking for information about how they practiced/composed/etc., more than anything else, then you’re probably going to be disappointed.

J. E. Caerwyn Williams’ The Irish Literary Tradition (translated by Patrick Ford) has a good bit about the filid, but I’m not sure there’s a huge amount on imbas (it is discussed, though).

Mark Williams’ Fiery Shapes: Celestial Portents and Astrology in Ireland and Wales 700-1700 also has a bit about imbas and divinatory practices in general (as they’re portrayed in myth and literature). The focus here is more on the portrayal of druids than the filid themselves, though there is something of an overlap. 

Thomas O’Rahilly’s Early Irish History and Mythology may also be worth a mention here, on the understanding that although it’s an incredibly influential work in its day, it’s also deeply flawed in some respects. 

can anyone recommend a good book or two about the Filidh? or anything to do with imbas forosnai

ik there's a million articles online but I can't learn stuff reading on a screen, it just doesn't stick in my head as well

[fudulike]

OK, so the translations/discussions of the Bríatharogam I’m familiar with are Damian McManus’ article on Irish Letter-Names and Their Kennings, and a quick outline of the kennings in A Guide to Ogam. Which I presume you’re already looking at? 

George Calder includes translations of some versions of the Bríatharogam in his edition of Auraicept na nÉces, and he offers some very different translations at times (not much explanation of where he’s coming from, though). Anders Ahlqvist has done a more recent translation of the Auraicept but last I checked I couldn’t find any way to access it online (and I’m not sure it includes the Br��atharogam). 

Howard Meroney also has an article on the Bríatharogam titled ‘Early Irish Letter-Names,’ which includes a discussion of the kennings, etc., but that's about it as far as I can remember off the top of my head... 

You’ll need accounts with JSTOR and/or archive.org to access all but Calder’s book.

McManus says he explains his reasoning for his translation of lúth in his discussion of the letters S and NG, but if he does then I blinked and missed it! He does point to other letters as well, though, so there might be something if you dig deeper? It all seems a bit convoluted and I really don’t think he explained himself well on this one, but I think the general gist here is that the context in which lúth is used, throughout the kennings, would seem to be relating to food as well as some way of making a living, thus “sustenance” is the best interpretation?

Here’s what I think he may be getting at: 

One of the kennings for the letter S (Sail) is lúth bech, which he interprets as “sustenance of bees.” Willow catkins are extremely attractive to bees so they really like them (the willow is wholly reliant on bees for pollination so they have to be attractive, really), but they’re also one of the first flowers that come out in the spring, so the bees must like them doubly because they’re just about the only food-source available to them after a long winter. Bees need flowers like willow catkins to make their honey, which is how they “make a living,” thus we have this double meaning relating to matters of “sustenance” (and thus the kenning here suggests letter name for S is most likely Sail, “willow”). 

The letter L is glossed lúth cethrae, which is translated “sustenance of cattle.” The kennings interpret this letter name in different ways but the one that applies here would suggest that the letter-name for L was understood by the glossator to be Lus (”plant, herb”), because that’s the sort of thing cattle eat. They need to be provided with this food to sustain themselves, so that humans can keep them for their milk, meat, and other by-products to help sustain ourselves (or that probably would’ve been how the glossator saw things, anyway). So “sustenance” is again suggested as an apt interpretation.

GG (or NG) is glossed as lúth lego, which McManus gives as “sustenance of a leech.” I’m guessing this is a sort of pun, because a physician would make medicines or concoctions that are a sort of food, and that’s how they made a living (and thus sustained themselves). 

Likewise for O’s lúth fían, or “sustaining equipment of warrior/hunting bands” refers to the weapons (made from ash, or Onn – pointing to the letter-name), by which they made a living, both in terms of their hunting and acting as swords for hire. 

That’s what I think is going on here? (I could be wildly and desperately wrong, though.) I hope the links are helpful, at least!

My Irish/gaeilge linguistics folks!

Can anyone explain to me why in the Bríatharogam 'lúth' is translated like 'cothaigid' (ie. sustain, maintain, feeds, nourishes) and not the way 'lúth' is translated in other contexts (ie. energy, movement, vigor)?

[fudulike]

It sounds like Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin’s An Introduction to Early Irish Literature might fit the bill? It’s decent for the beginner – not too dense. Jeffrey Gantz’s Early Irish Myths and Sagas might be a good one for the myths themselves, along with John Koch and John Carey’s The Celtic Heroic Age. 

Mark Williams has a number of books that also might appeal? The Celtic Myths That Shape the Way We Think is a bit less dense – aimed more at the beginner or casual reader – while Ireland’s Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth offers a bit more to chew on. These will give some good context, but the latter one also provides you with an idea of what you’re dealing with when it comes to “Scottish myth,” which is kind of a complicated subject! 

For the myths themselves I’d recommend Mary Jones’ website. Most of the translations offered here are public domain, so they’re going to be pretty old (nineteenth century in some cases). That may well be because the tales themselves haven’t been given a new translation, or because those new translations aren’t as accessible as they could be (unfortunately), although for the more popular (and longer) tales like the Táin Bó Cuailnge (’The Cattle Raid of Cooley’) you’ve got some options... As for the rest, things are changing, slowly but surely (I know a new edition of the Dindshenchas (’Place-Name Lore’) is due out soon, for example, which is sorely needed).

The CODECS website is a fantastic resource that I couldn’t recommend highly enough. If your brother ends up wanting to look for a specific tale, or a certain subject, say, then searching on CODECS will provide a list of any relevant books, articles, or whatever else that may be related. There are links to anything that might already be freely available online, and it can really help in giving pointers to reliable resources. 

Some older books that are still popular include Proinsias MacCana’s Celtic Mythology, Marie-Louise Sjoestedt’s Gods and Heroes of the Celts, and Alwyn and Brinley Rees’ Celtic Heritage. These ones tend to appeal to pagan/polytheist audiences more, but being older they’re a bit outdated in places. They were written at a time when there was a tendency to treat Celtic cultures as a single culture instead of several distinct (but related) ones, so that’s something to bear in mind. The Rees brothers are perhaps a bit too enthusiastic in their comparative approach (some might say). 

I think you can find most of these titles on archive.org (to “borrow” if you sign up for an account).

Hello, all. I have a small request.

My brother has recently become interested in my work as a scholar, a pagan and a witch, but unlike myself, our roots as Irish immigrants to Scotland has made him more curious about Gaelic polytheism than Norse. I can help guide him with the bare bones of what to look at next, but specifics are beyond me.

I'm looking for trustworthy beginners resources to provide him on Scottish and Irish mythology. We aren't looking for texts on worship, but preferably texts like the myths and stories themselves perhaps with commentary on their context. Given I'm not familiar with the field and what scholars, translators and writers are more trustworthy, I'm seeking outside input.

If you have any books to recommend, I'd appreciate the guidance.

[fudulike]

This is an excellent list! Thank you so much for posting that video, especially.

I thought it might be helpful to note that archive.org offers a library service for some books that are still in copyright (besides the public domain ones they offer open access to), which you can “borrow” certain books from. Irish Folk Ways, in the list above, is one of those, and it’s completely free to access. You just need to sign up for an account. There are a number of other great books you can access on there, including Kevin Danaher’s The Year in Ireland (which also has some useful stuff) and some of Eddie Lenihan’s books, though I’ve not got around to reading those yet. Even when I have a hard copy version I find borrowing them online is really handy because the search function is often way more helpful than the indexing is when I’m researching a specific topic.

If you don’t mind some further recs? Please ignore if so (and I’m so sorry).

The first one that springs to mind is Ilona Tuomi et al (Eds.), Charms, Charmers and Charming in Ireland: From the Medieval to the Modern (Cardiff, 2019). It’s a collection of articles on magical practices in Ireland, which cover a variety of different angles (medieval and modern, I guess). It seems like a good complement to Andrew Sneddon’s book, offering a bit of an update in some areas, perhaps? One of the articles talks about a family of charmers in Ireland today who offer a cure for shingles, touching on how and why such roles have survived up to the present, which is really fascinating. The book is quite pricey, unfortunately – not as bad as some that I’ve seen and the eBook version is a bit more reasonable. It’s worth it if you can afford it, though. It’s possible some of the articles have since been made available online, I don’t know.

John Carey’s Magic, Metallurgy and Imagination in Medieval Ireland: Three Studies (Aberystwyth, 2019) is a little book with a more reasonable price tag. It’s a collection of three articles Carey had previously published (at least one was originally published in Irish, I think, but it’s been translated for the first time here). The articles focus on different aspects of magical practices that were recorded in the medieval manuscripts, with the first article focusing on a number of charms that were preserved in them (amongst other things) in particular, so it also includes up-to-date translations. It isn’t really focused on the bean feasa or anything but it does provide some background and context to Irish magical practices in general, which may be useful – framing the continuum of practice, as it were? 

The same goes for Jacqueline Borsje’s Celtic Spells and Counter-Spells (the link is directly to the pdf, hope it works), and Borsje also covers matters relating to the evil eye in her The Celtic Evil Eye and Related Mythological Motifs in Medieval Ireland (2012), which touches on the “power of words” in a magical context, too. 

To be honest, Borsje’s work is a bit of a treasure trove of magical articles. There’s also (links to pdfs again):

A Spell Called Éle

Druids Deer and “Words of Power”: Coming to terms with evil in Medieval Ireland

Love Magic in Medieval Irish Penitentials, Law and Literature: A Dynamic Perspective

Rules & legislation on love charms in early medieval Ireland

Bernard Mees’ Celtic Curses (2009) is another one that might help provide a broader context to certain magical practices (amongst other things). 

Irish Folk Magic: Resources

Hello! So I’ve been asked by a few people about where to find resources on irish folk magic so I thought I’d share where I get my info from in a post.

Remember that Irish folk magic is not an organized practice, so there is no one book or one place to go for it (Though I would love to write a book on it in the future!) At the moment bits and pieces of the practice are found within folklore, charms and cures, superstitions, passed down through Christian families and within tales of the Bean Feasa (Wise woman), irish cunning folk and Fairy Doctors. Use these terms when you’re searching for more info in the future!

Note: I recommend you have a good understanding of witchcraft in general before you delve into these resources so you’ll know what to look for. Although Christianity is very tied to irish folk magic, you can look past it and pay close attention to what herbs, plants or items they are using, how they use it and what they use it for. These resources are not going to spoon feed you irish folk magic, you need to look for it within the texts and take note of it yourself if it’s useful to you. For example, In the book “Ancient Cures, Charms and Usages of Ireland”, there is a story of a Priest who performs an exorcism on a possessed man. The Priest beats the man with a stick of Blackthorn to banish the demon from his body. From this, I then took the note “Blackthorn is used for banishing demons or negative spirits”. If you keep this in mind while you research, you’ll find lots of useful stuff!

Either way, I will still be making more posts on irish folk magic when I find more useful info!

Books: ***Some links here you can read the whole book for free!

Irish Folk Ways by E. Estyn Evans

***Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland by Lady Wilde.

Ancient Cures, Charms and Usages of Ireland by Lady Wilde (A lot of stuff in here is unsanitary, immoral or silly despite them being legitimately used and believed in. Take things in this book with a grain of salt but make use of the herbal, edible and tree usages! Do research on the plants before you use them yourself. Always be cautious with unknown plants)

***Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions by James Bonwick

The Book of the Cailleach : Stories of the Wise Woman Healer

Witchcraft and Magic in Ireland by Andrew Sneddon

***Irish Cursing and the Art of Magic by Thomas Waters

Irish Superstitions by Daithi O hOgain

Irish Witchcraft from an Irish witch by Lora O'Brien (The title for this book is misleading. It’s more irish paganism than witchcraft but it’s useful if you’re looking to practice both irish folk magic with irish paganism)

Fairycraft by Morgan Daimler (This is more of a modern take on how to incorporate the irish Fairy Faith into modern witchcraft practices, kinda like a modern version of the old Bean Feasa or Fairy doctors did)

Online:

Duchas https://www.duchas.ie/en Duchas is a huge collection of irish folklore, gathered and written down here in Ireland. Collected from old folk who still practice folk magic, superstitions, folk medicine or remember their own grandparents doing so.

It’s confusing at first but type in a word you’d like more info about and many documents relating to the word will pop up. Example: Lavender- https://www.duchas.ie/en/src?q=lavender If you click on the title, it’ll open the page up for you and the digital version of the document will be on your right which makes things easier to read. From this search I learned that soaking your bed sheets in lavender and rosemary water will help fight sleeplessness! Very useful for magickal workings :) If you search around and try different words, you’ll find hidden gems!

The Witch, the Bean Feasa, and the Fairy Doctor in Irish Culture By Morgan Daimler https://www.academia.edu/17823067/The_Witch_the_Bean_Feasa_and_the_Fairy_Doctor_in_Irish_Culture Check out Morgan Daimler’s books on irish paganism, her stuff is fantastic!

Bean Feasa https://beanfeasa9.wordpress.com/ This website is a modern take on the irish Bean Feasa. There’s a bit of valuable info on there that I think would be good to know. Bean Feasa were irish wise women (Woman of knowledge) known to heal using herbal remedies and help from the otherworld.

Biddy Early https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biddy_Early Biddy Early was a famous irish wise woman and possible witch. Research on her could be very beneficial when researching irish folk magic. There’s a book on her that’s probably out of print so it’s expensive, but have a look around and try to find a different copy if possible. https://www.amazon.com/Biddy-Early-Wise-Woman-Clare/dp/1856353168

Others:

https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/menu.php?lang=en&menuitem=03 This website is a good quick way to write in Ogham

Podcasts:

Folklore Fragments by UCD (They have loads of episodes on youtube and they are very useful! Keep a pen and paper ready to write down useful info)

[fudulike]

This is excellent! 

(I’m sorry if the following makes me that guy, but) I think it’s worth noting that a current theory suggests it’s possible the reference to ‘Bel’ in Cormac’s Glossary (and other, earlier glossaries) may well have been referencing Baal (whether directly or indirectly). Besides Cormac there are almost identical explanations for Beltaine from a glossary known as the Dúil Dromma Cetta, and another one called O’Mulconry’s Glossary, and they’re probably earlier than Cormac’s work. Each of the glossaries gives basically the same gist – that Beltaine can be understood as being derived from Bel (a ‘pagan idol’) and tene (’fire’), so Beltaine is therefore ‘Bel’s fire’ (although this is contradicted elsewhere in the glossaries, where Beltaine may be explained as an ‘evil fire’ or a ‘prosperous fire’).  

It’s thought this reference to ‘Bel’ is likely to have been inspired by the work of a century arch-bishop, Isidore of Seville. His writing was incredibly popular throughout medieval Europe and the Irish were particularly keen on him, and they liked to model their work on Isidore’s own. In his Origines, Isidore includes an entry on Baal (written in Latin) where he writes “Bel idolum Babylonium est” (’Bel/Baal is an idol of the Babylonians’), which is quite similar to how things are explained in Cormac’s Glossary (and the others): “BIL from Bial i.e. an idol god, unde beltine ’May day’ i.e. fire of Bel.”

As one of the only pagan deities who’s mentioned in the Bible, the Irish would have already been familiar with Baal, so given how much they loved Isidore it’s possible they drew inspiration from him in their own explanation of Beltaine. They wouldn’t have had much of a problem with framing Ireland’s past paganism in a Biblical manner, if only for the fact that it would help “prove” Ireland’s own prehistory was very much a part of world history (which was, by definition, Biblical history). 

Assuming this is all correct, though, it’s not clear if they were referring to Baal directly, or if the intention was to meld him together with a native deity – possibly a cognate of Belenus – or that perhaps they were just trying to nativize Baal himself (to make it seem more authentic, maybe). It certainly doesn’t mean that Baal really was worshipped by the pre-Christian Irish, though, obviously. 

As far as Beltaine’s actual meaning/etymology goes, there’s no real consensus on how we should interpret it beyond the fact that pretty much everyone these days will agree the second element (-taine) really does refer to a fire (te[i]ne). The first element (Bel-) could refer to bil, meaning ‘good, fortunate, safe,’ which would fit with the way the fires are said to have been used in a rite to safeguard cattle from disease in the coming year (thus ensuring prosperity, since cattle were a primary form of wealth in early Ireland). At the same time, though – just to be extra confusing – bil can also be given to mean ‘evil, bad,’ hence the other (contradictory) interpretations for Beltaine that are offered in the glossaries, which would fit with the Christian perspective of the author(s), at the very least. There are a number of other possible interpretations that could work, too (e.g. Beltaine is a ‘bright fire’), but it’s really not clear which one is right. 

Important Facts about Bealtaine from an Irish Reconstructionist

Spelling and Pronunciation

OI. Bealtaine (Bell-tin-Na) has more recently been written as I. Beltaine or Anglicized Beltane (Bell-tain). In the Cormac Glossary it is said to derive from the deity Bel and OI. 'Tene' meaning fire.

Dates

Most Reconstructionists celebrate Bealtaine on April 30th-May 1st, sundown to sundown. Iron age Irish (and other Celts) structured their days from sunset to sunset so while we now track this time as stretching over two days, they would have seen this period as one single day, being the first day of the month of May by the Gregorian calendar. Some Reconsructionists might prefer to celebrate by the Julian calendar which would place this holiday on May 13th-14th (by the Gregorian calendar), still of course from sundown to sundown. In the most traditional sense this holiday would have been celebrated when the livestock was moved from the winter grazing fields out to the summer grazing fields.

Importance in Mythos

Most mythological reference to this holiday comes in the form of the movement of peoples or invasions of peoples.

The mythological invasion of Partholon and his people occurred on Bealtaine and the plague that wiped them out also began on that date and lasted a week. The Tuath De Danann are said to have arrived on the island on Bealtine as well and lastly the Sons of Mil are said to have invaded on this date also (Macalister, 1940).

In later times when Christianity had made its mythologies the way of the land and the old deities were moved to the status of Fae this idea of movement and invasion seems to have persisted. Traditions hold that this date is a dangerous time for mortals as the aes sídhe are moving amongst the daoine sí and may stop by unsuspecting homes to ask for butter or perhaps some water, but if this request is granted they will steal the homes luck for the year.

I will make a note here that while the Cormac Glossary notes the deity Bel there is no Celtic/Gaelic deity of this name (though there is a Mesopotamian one) and this seems to cause a lot of confusion, especially when it comes to Wiccancentic ideas and articles. Cormac was likely referring to the Celtic/Gaelic deity Belenus NOT the Mesopotamian Bel. Belenus/Belenos was associated with the sun and healing and during the Gallo-Roman period was often noted to be the Gaelic Apollo. There is evidence to suggest that Belenus/Belenos was known throughout the Celtic/Gaelic world, though we don't have any specific information about how prominently he was worshiped in Ireland itself it is relatively safe to assume that the Iron age Irish would have known who he was.

Celebration Traditions

Like on Samhain, at the opposing 'end' of the year livestock were transitioned from one grazing area to another. While on Samhain, when the 'dark' half of the year begins and the livestock are moved in from summer grazing to winter grazing, Bealtaine is the opposite. It begins the 'light' half of the year and livestock are moved from the winter grazing out to the summer pastures. At both holidays to ensure healthy animals and protect them from any malicious factors great bonfires were built (most notably on the hill of Uisneach) and livestock would be driven between them.

There seems to be a traditional emphasis on the protection of homes, barns, livestock, peoples, and crops. Generally this seems to be a time when warding against ill luck for the community became a focus. Yellow, specifically yellow flowers (primrose, gorse or hawthorn blossoms), appear to have played a role in this as they have been used to decorate, but when exactly this tradition originated is unknown. The healing wells of Ireland and specifically the dew on the morning of Bealtaine have been thought to be important. Some traditions hold that the dew, when washed with will bring beauty, while others think if drank by the milk cows it would cause them to produce more, but again the origins of these traditions are relatively unknown.

Interesting History to take into Consideration

Given Bealtines long lasting history in Irish mythological tradition of being associated with mass movements of peoples and a need to protect ones family and community in this tumultuous time it is -possible- these ideas persist due to the movements (and possibly famines or plagues) during the "Megadrought" of the Bronze age (1250-1100 BCE). Most studies have focused on the effects of the Mediterranean at this time, but it is reasonable to assume the ripples of effects could have been felt strongly enough in Ireland to leave a lasting impression, especially since it is not outlandish to assume that people fleeing the Mediterranean area, which was no longer able to adequately sustain them, may have fled to the more temperate British Isles and passed on their trauma through oral tradition. This could possibly be backed up by looking at the etymology of 'Bel' not as referencing Beleus/Beleos but as referencing the Irish Balor (or perhaps they are different aspects of the same figure) who embodies not the life sustaining properties of the sun but the deadly and destructive ones. Balor balcbéimnech, 'Balor the strong smiter,' Balor birugerc, ' Balor of the piercing eye,' Balor mae Doit meic Néid, 'Balor son of Dot son of Néit.'

This is obviously only my personal opinion and can be taken or dismissed as one likes.

[fudulike]

This is absolutely stunning!  

so so extremely excited that this project I spent almost all of last year on is finally coming together! as of today (8th Jan '23) I'm just waiting for the back cover to be finished and then they'll be printed!

you can preorder here and follow me for updates here

[fudulike]

You seem particularly knowledgeable about Brigid, so maybe you would know. Is there any evidence for the association with Brigid and hearth fires (I know the smithing link) outside of Kildare? Is it possible Brigid/fire association (at least in regards to Imbolc) was regional idea?

Hi!

This is a difficult one to answer if you're looking for evidence that relates specifically to the goddess, but what we do know about her (e.g. from Sanas Cormaic's entry on Brigit and her two sisters who are described as a poetess, a physician, and a smith respectively) would suggest some sort of fiery connotations. Fire was an integral part of those three professions, albeit in different ways (practical, cosmological, etc.).

The lore relating to Brigit the saint also relies on a lot of fire imagery/miracles, etc. Some see this as an indication of the saint's pagan roots – her origins as a goddess who came to be repackaged (or syncretised, euhemerised, conflated, or however you might explain it) as a saint. Some would argue the fire related details are simply a reflection of Christian thinking (with God's whole penchant for burning bushes and the like – vastly simplifying here). In particular, if you prefer to interpret the eternal flame that Brigit's nuns are said to have tended at Kildare as a pagan survival (comparable to the Vestal Virgins of Rome, for example) then it would seem the evidence suggests the goddess and the saint really are related to one another.

Dorothy Ann Bray deals with all that in her article Saint Brigit and the fire from heaven, which you can read online (free!). It gives a pretty good outline of the whole issue with pointers to further reading. In particular, though, Kim McCone's chapter on Fire and the Arts gives a good idea of the significance of fire in Irish tradition, where he specifically deals with Brigit (amongst others). You can read that online, too, but you'll need to have an account to "borrow" the book from archive.org.

I suppose the long and the short of it is: If you accept Brigit's fiery connotations then it makes sense that this would include the hearth. On the one hand, this may be supported by the way in which Brigit is specifically addressed in some of the kindling and smooring prayers (alongside Mary, usually, because an apocryphal tradition insists that Brigit is said to have been her midwife). The prayers themselves aren't pagan, of course, but the practices themselves would appear to be, and the ways in which Brigit is treated in relation to them (it could be argued) is consistent with the broader traditions surrounding her.

The hearth is often linked with other kinds of sacred fires – the hearth being ritually smoored and revived each night and day, and occasionally being extinguished and then re-lit from a sacred fire brought from a temple or a special bonfire, or whatever. The hearth-fire effectively becomes that sacred flame housed within the domestic sphere. It brings a bit of the sacred into the secular, perhaps, and so it gives us a connection with the divine (or "other," maybe?). We see this in Gaelic tradition, and we find similar practices in Greek, Roman, and (I think...) Norse or Scandinavian religions. So if Brigit is linked with fire then I see no reason why this wouldn't extend to the hearth as well.

Fire in itself has long had a religious and cosmological significance in many religions. This is something we see in pretty much any Indo-European religion, and it was obviously an important concept to the pre-Christian Irish. A lot of Irish deities have names that suggest fiery connotations of some sort, perhaps as a way of signifying or emphasising their divinity, or their divine agency. Brigit's name doesn't appear to be one of them, actually, but she's far from the only deity to have fiery connotations. That in itself may have implications in terms of how we understand her.

I'm not sure that answered your question! I hope it gave you some pointers in the right direction, though, and if there's anything else I can do (or need to clarify, lol) feel free to ask.

[fudulike]

To add to what’s already been said here...

With some figures, like Nuada, since CMT was clearly a text with a lot of political backing to it….we can’t be sure that there was a pre-Christian belief in his death.

I think it was John Carey who commented that he couldn’t find any reference to a deity actually dying that dated from before the tenth century. CMT is generally accepted to be a ninth century tale, but with later additions made in the eleventh or twelfth century or so. If memory serves, those earliest references to the deaths of any gods would probably be the poems that form part of the Lebor Gabála Érenn, which were composed in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The poems were largely intended to ‘prove’ the gods were human (descendants of Adam and Eve just like everyone else), so while it was acknowledged that the Tuatha Dé Danann were exceptional in many ways, it was important to show they were mortal. I’m pretty sure Carey touched on this in the first chapter of his book, A Single Ray of the Sun. 

As far as knowing whether gods really were understood as gods, we do have multiple references – from medieval (Christian) scribes – that categorically state their divinity as fact. Sanas Cormaic (’Cormac’s Glossary’) describes Néit as a god of battle (based on the meaning of his name, I’m sure), and it also names a number of other gods as gods, too, including Anu/Ana, Dían Cécht, Brigit, the Dagda, and in Manannán’s case it kind of debates the point. The Morrígan and Badb are described as goddesses in Tochmarc Emire, where Néit’s divinity is mentioned, too. The Dagda’s name is explained as meaning ‘the Good God’ in Tochmarc Étaíne (and a bunch of other places, one of which also describes him in Latin as a dei terreni, or ‘god of earth/earth god’). A number of deities are also called upon in charms (mostly medicinal, some simply protective), including Dían Cécht, Goibniu, Flidais, and Manannán. By the time we see these being written down it’s unlikely they were still worshipped as gods, but their names may have been reframed, surviving as ‘tradition,’ I suppose. It’s what you did in those situations, and it was supposed to work, so why change it?

The gods in general – the ones who eventually came to be called the Tuatha Dé Danann, anyway – are sometimes referred to as the dée ocus andée (’the gods and un-gods’), and we have an early poem (eighth century, I think) that calls upon the gods and un-gods in bestowing a blessing upon a certain king. The phrase is also used in a blessing that Cú Chulainn gives to the Morrígan in an episode from the Táin, and it’s possible there’s a reference to the Gaulish equivalent of these andee, or ‘un-gods,’ on a Gaulish curse tablet (where they’re referred to as andedion). All of this would suggest the phrasing is most likely genuine.

We have references to figures who are still being worshipped in some way into the fourteenth century (in the case of Mongfhind), and beyond (e.g. veneration of Donn at Knockfierna), and the way the literature presents these figures, in general, would also suggest evidence of their divinity – hidden though it might be by the time their stories were written down. There certainly is a question as to how far we take these descriptions as gospel, of course, but the broad strokes, at the very least, support our case here.

Linguistics can tell us a bit about how the gods were understood in a variety of ways. We have names like the Dagda or Loígde that make explicit reference to the fact of their divinity; Loígde is referenced on an ogam inscription which gives an earlier linguistic form of her name, LOGIDDEAS, which can be given to mean ‘Calf Goddess.’ She’s described as a distant ancestor of the person the inscription is commemorating, and most of the inscriptions that use the same sort of formulaic expression to describe this sort of relationship would appear to reference a deity as well. 

The ogam stones – inscriptions that give the name of a person who’s being commemorated, for one reason or another, which may date from around the late fourth century CE through to the seventh – also preserve personal names that show people called their kids things like LUGUQRIT (’he whose form is like that of Lug’) or LUGUDECCAS (’he who venerates Lug’). There are a bunch of other linguistic features on these inscriptions that tell us something about the sort of relationships people may have had with their gods, too, but this is just to give you the gist. It would certainly seem to confirm that not only did people understand certain figures as being divine, they actively venerated them too.

Perhaps the most obvious way we can identify deities is by finding cognates – the names of deities from other Celtic cultures that are clearly related to the Irish gods we’re looking at. Núadu has a Romano-British cognate in Nodons/Nodens (who had a temple dedicated to him at Lydney), and a later Welsh cognate in the form of Nudd (and Lludd); Lug has cognates in the Gaulish Lugus, Welsh Lleu, etc; Néit has a cognate in the Celtiberian Nietos; Brigit has a Romano-British cognate in Brigantia, etc. 

On top of that, Celtic languages often make use of what linguists might call a ‘divine suffix’ (or individualising suffix) – where a name that happens to end in -onos (or -ona, -on-) will indicate that it’s specifically referring to a divinity (or a mythological figure, depending on who you ask). These suffixes are usually pretty obvious in Gaulish, for example – e.g. Cernunnos, Epona, etc. – but Irish lost them at a relatively early date. They’d all but disappeared by the time Ireland had started churning out its famous manuscripts, so they’re not very obvious to us. On rare occasions, however, we might be able to spot these divine suffixes in the very earliest writing that’s survived – especially in names that are preserved on the ogam stones (the majority of which are written in an early form of Irish that pre-dates the manuscript tradition; in the very earliest inscriptions, from the late fourth or fifth century CE, the suffixes hadn’t been dropped yet). We might also find these suffixes in the cognates that have survived, where the language still preserves them: Nodons, for example, has this suffix, and we also know he had a temple dedicated to him (so we know he’s a god, right?). We also know that the Irish Núadu is cognate with Nodons (and Welsh Nudd/Lludd), which would suggest that they’re both expressions of what was once the same deity. Besides their names, we can see they have a lot in common with one another by looking at the evidence from Nodons’ temple, and from the literature that features Núadu, for example. There’s a lot more to it than that, but for the sake of brevity (lol) the balance of evidence would therefore suggest the Núadu is most likely to have been understood as a god, too. 

So a lot of the evidence we have here isn’t necessarily immediate or obvious, but it’s there when you know where to look for it (and therein lies the crux, I guess). Much of the evidence that survives – the myths and everything else – has been filtered through various lenses, so we have to look at them critically. We can’t take anything at face value, really, but that doesn’t mean we should dismiss it, either.

So since you brought it up yesterday in the reply, I have to ask, how do we know that the Gods in Gaelic Polytheism were seen as deified figures? Maybe my research is poor, but that reminds me heavily of post christianization of both the Irish Gods and Heathen Gods.

So we have to rely on the ancestor veneration that’s referenced in regard to Gaelic peoples, we have to look at why these Irish born monks felt the need to write down these stories and adapt them to be acceptable in the eyes of their god, we have to look at folkloric practices like paying the rents and the roles these figures take within the folklore and the myth.

But ultimately we don’t know how the ancient Gaels viewed the figures we now consider gods- but we can make certain assumptions about the roles these figures played in Gaelic society.

[fudulike]

Dedicated books on Dál Riata are hard to come by, unfortunately. Decent ones, anyway. I can think of a few books but mostly it’s academic articles out there. 

Sally Foster’s Picts, Gaels and Scots springs to mind (which I think has been updated relatively recently in the 2010s, maybe? Originally published in the 90s).

Ewan Campbell’s Saints and Sea Kings: The First Kingdom of the Scots offers a good basic introduction to the subject and the Dál Riata’s place in Scotland but I suspect it might be a bit too basic? It’s a fairly short and glossy book with lots of illustrations. 

Campbell also has an article that offers some food for thought, titled Were the Scots Irish? The “related papers” on the side-bar there will take you down a few good rabbit holes, with Alex Woolf’s paper, Ancient Kindred: Dal Riata and the Cruthin, being a response to Campbell’s own. The citations alone will probably help you find a springboard to more sources. 

John Bannerman’s Kinship, Church and Culture: Collected Essays and Studies looks like it’s worth a look as well, though I haven’t read it myself. 

next up in my to-read pile, it's really really short but it was the only book I could find on the subject that I can afford right now. if anyone can recommend any other books about Dalriadan history please please send them my way

[fudulike]

hi! i was wondering if you knew- does the lebor gabala erenn have any known authors? or, at very least, is the person who compiled all the pieces in it known?

Sorry for how long this took! I'd say it's that time in the semester but...it's. Always that time in the semester. But, in my defense, this is the kind of question you don't skimp on, and it's one dear to my heart because I've actually been considering doing a small series called "mythmakers" on the different personalities behind some of the myths, mainly because (1) I feel like we get very comfortable, myself included, as treating these as sort of...floating stories that don't have an author, that they're all part of some consensus, when they were very much authored and (2) because I feel a certain debt to them, since they DID preserve the texts I love. I owe them for that, and so does every Celticist who's used a manuscript they copied down.

So, you've probably gotten tired of me saying this, but first off, we've got to ask ourselves "What IS Lebor Gabála Érenn?" And the answer is surprisingly complex. Because, on the surface, you could say "It's a pseudohistorical text written in the 11th century, one of the key parts of the collection of medieval Irish texts commonly if not anachronistically called 'The mythological Cycle', that details the history of the Irish people from the time of Noah to time of the historical Irish kings." And you wouldn't be WRONG. Not necessarily.

BUT: Here's the thing when we say that: We don't mention that it's divided into four recensions (I always want to say five, please feel free to give me a virtual bitchslap when I do, it's generally considered to be four) divided into sixteen individual manuscripts that are considered to substantially differ from one another, and multiple other copies. I believe I once read that just about every important scribe of the time would have had his own copy to use as a reference and, though I wouldn't want to be quoted on that, I certainly wouldn't be surprised.

Furthermore, there is substantial evidence supporting the existence of a "proto LGE" that didn't survive. We know that it showed up in Cín Dromma Snechtai, aka the Holy Grail of any expert in medieval Irish literature, which contained a number of early texts and might have dated back as far as the 8th century. (The latest possible dating is the 10th century, though, to my knowledge, the 8th century dating is generally viewed as being the correct one.) Even if we are to assume the latest dating for CDS, we know that some version of LGE was available to the anonymous writer of the Historia Brittonum, because he used it as a source and brought in the Irish invasions (notably NOT including the Tuatha Dé and Fir Bolg, even though a group similar to the Fir Bolg settle just off of Ireland in this account.) We know, therefore, that the TDD and the Fir Bolg were relatively late to the scheme (though we also know that the CDS version DID include, for example, the Fir Bolg's captivity in Greece, because one of the scribes of LGE mentions them stealing ships from the King of Greece in their escape.)

So, to recap: We have at least ONE pre-LGE LGE, then a gap of a period of time before our first surviving recension, in the 11th century (the oldest manuscript is 12th century, but the language is ~11th). Do I think that more were made in-between the time of Historia Brittonum and the 11th century? Absolutely. I can't see them NOT, given how important this was to them. I think that there was probably an increased *demand* after the 11th century, but I don't see any reason for a gap of as many as three hundred years. But, if these copies and recensions existed, they're lost. Just like CDS and whatever manuscript the author of Historia Brittonum was using. Like...again, I know this is something that I harp on about and harp on about, but...there's such a feeling of loss at times in this field. It's so sad sometimes looking back and just....imagining what the world could have looked like if things had been different, better. (And like, I want to emphasize, before I'm accused of getting teary eyed over manuscripts instead of people: It's never JUST the manuscripts. It's...it's everything. The manuscripts are just easier to conceptualize. Because I feel like if you try to wrap your head around EVERYTHING, all at once...you'll go a bit insane.) Like, there was this booming manuscript tradition, one of the richest in Europe at its time and so much is just. Gone. And there's so much we don't know and can't know and so much we still have to do because of all the years that we've spent playing catch up.

But. Happier stuff.

What I'm saying is, we can't know the individual name of the first person to compile the wonderful scrapbook of mythological material known as LGE together. That being said...we do know the names of at least some of the poets who wrote poetry for LGE, the poems being integrated into the text.

Eochaid Ua Floinn (936-1004) -

Flann Mainistrech mac Ethigrinn (died 1056)

Mael Muru Othna (died 887)

Tanaide (died 1075)

Gilla Cómáin mac Gilla Samthainde (alive in 1072)

Many of the most famous sections of the text actually come from one of these men -- such as, for example, the Death Tales of the Tuatha Dé (that was one by Flann, for the curious.)

You'll note that most of these poets were active in the mid-11th century -- their poetry wasn't written FOR LGE, but it was included by the anonymous compiler, and they were probably written about the time that it was compiled. And, to us, this seems very normal because it's the LGE we know, but sometimes I do think about what if we were creating a massive book all about the History of the World , and we decided to include Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Justin Beiber, and Billie Eilish songs. Not to say that they aren't GOOD, but like. You have to be damn confident that they would stand the test of time. (Of course...we know in LGE's case....they DID.)

Here are the known scribes, as noted by Mark Scowcroft in his groundbreaking study of LGE, Leabhar Gabala: The Growth of the Text:

Recension 1:

Aed mac Crimthainn, the Book of Leinster

Ádam Ó Cianáin, the Book of Fermoy (WONDERFUL clear handwriting, by the way.) James Carney wrote an article on his work back in 1969, 'The Ó Cianáin Miscellany'. An interesting man in what little we have left of him, it appears that he studied under another scribe, Seóan Mor Ó Dubhagán. On one manuscript that he was writing in, we see the inscription by another scribe, possibly another student, below a little cipher, signed "Gilla Patraig", that says "ni melladh meraighi so 7 ar Dhia re Adumh na foillseagheadh do duine eile e" (this is no crazy deception, and for God's sake don't let Adam show it to anyone else.) Which gives the wonderful image of two young students creating a secret code, possibly to pass notes to one another, and the other one KNOWING that the other one is just ITCHING to tell it to someone else. Students have always been students.

Recension 2:

Torna Ó Maoil-Chonaire, TCD MS E.3.5, no. 2 (died in 1532). His son, Seán, had a school of learning that is mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters as "the tutor of the men of Ireland in general in history and chronology, and who had all that were in Ireland learning that science under his tuition." Clearly, his father left a great legacy.

Ádam Ó Cuirnín, The Great Book of Lecan (written 1418). He was, apparently, an apprentice of Mac Fir Bhisigh, listed below, and, along with him and Murchad Riabach Ó Cuindlis, wrote the Banshenchus. (Along with others, of course, given that the Great Book of Lecan is...the GREAT Book of Lecan for a reason.)

Muirges mac Páidín Ua Maoil-Chonaire, RIA MS Stowe D.iv.3 (who died 1543 according to the Annals of the Four Masters)

Dubaltach mac Sémuis, NLI Philipps MS 10266

Luán mac Taidg, RIA MS 24.P.13 (written 1621)

Domhnall Ó Téinn, RIA MS 23.H.28 (18th century) He also transcribed, among others, Leabhar na Ceart (the Book of Rights, a legal tract) and the Annals of Innisfallen.

Seán or Diarmaid Ó Réagáin, British Library MS Addit. 18948 (written 1829-1835 -- yes, REALLY, that is NOT a typo -- you had manuscripts being created in Ireland up until the 19th century, there was an actual business for scribes who could read and copy manuscripts, though, as in the case here, they sometimes modernized the language.)

Recension 3:

Gilla Ísu Mac Fir Bhisigh, the Great Book of Lecan, 1417-1418. You might recognize the surname -- they were one of the most prominent scribal families of the time, particularly with regards to geneologies. His son, Tomás Cam, has been identified as the scribe of parts of the Yellow Book of Lecan, the Book of Lecan, and several others by Tomás Ó Concheanainn, and a member of the family, Dubhaltach mac Fhirbhisigh, wrote the absolutely massive work known as Leabhar na nGenealach, and was one of the last of the great scribal families alive in Ireland when he wrote it down in the mid 17th century.

Magnus Ó Dubhgennáin, the Book of Ballymote, written between 1384-1406

Richard Tipper, TCD MS H.2.4 (1728)

Tadhg Ó Neachtain, TCD MS H.1.15 (1745)

Aodh Ó Dálaigh, RIA MS Stowe D.iii.2 (1746). Part of a longstanding family of poets. Employed by Francis Stoughton Sullivan, a Fellow at Trinity College. Standish Hayes O'Grady would write, regarding his pen, that [O'Dalys' transcriptions] suggest that both his patron was very easily satisfied, and that ink was not the only fluid present on the scribal table."  OUCH. Still, as noted by Ní Shéaghdha in her article, "Irish scholars and scribes in eighteenth-century Dublin”, he was employed for 16 years, longer than some of his more brilliant, but feckless contemporaries and, along with LGE, he wrote down the poems in the Liber Hymnorum, which has become hopelessly faded over the years and is preserved in his transcription work.

One thing that Scowcroft points out, and that I'm going to parrot, is that these three 18th century manuscripts all contain sections that were lost in the earlier manuscripts and, again, not to keep going on about this, but that is another reminder of how *fragile* these texts are. If it weren't for these three guys writing well after the time we generally associate with the production of manuscripts was over...we wouldn't have whole sections of the work. And they knew what they were doing -- they were part of a circle that actively sought to preserve and transcribe as many manuscripts as possible and that are responsible for the preservation of many of the manuscripts that are currently still in existence.

LGE is...a magnificent text. Truly one of a kind among Irish manuscripts and....honestly pretty unique in a general European context as well. It's a contradictory, challenging scrapbook of a text, with hundreds of hands at least going into its creation (you saw the ones I just mentioned, but what about the scribes who took over when the others were having an off day? Their students? Their mentors? Their friends? It's not uncommon to see multiple hands in a manuscript, so you have to take that into account. What about the lost texts? All the copies?), every single one with his own ideas of how a text like this should look and with their own biases, life histories, and cultural contexts (when you consider that you're dealing with scribes from at least the 11th century to the 19th, over 800 very turbulent years.) Every single one of the poets I cited, even though they lived roughly contemporary to one another, also had their own thoughts on the texts they were writing, their own reasons for writing them down.

They often disagreed, VIGOROUSLY. They often insulted one another's scholarship. And yet....every single one of them, even and perhaps especially the ones who remain anonymous, including that anonymous 11th century compiler who put all the material from all these places together and put them into one manuscript, was part of something great. Because of their work, because of how beloved and respected this work was, it did something that so many didn't: Survive. LGE does not represent a single text so much as it represents a tradition, one that...to some extent, I consider myself a part of. If you ever get that book done, you'll be a part of it. Not in the way that they were, not in the same cultural context, but...we all love this material, enough to fight for it, enough to do what we can to preserve it in some way and carry it on. Whether we're working by candelight or a LCD monitor. I just hope that, if there's any sort of afterlife out there, they know that...even if some of them are only known by their names, and some of them didn't even get that...we haven't forgotten, and it wasn't in vain.