The Celtic Circle
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Celtic Solar Goddesses: from Goddess of the Sun to Queen of Heaven
CELTIC SOLAR GODDESSES: FROM GODDESS OF THE SUN TO QUEEN OF HEAVEN by Hayley J. Arrington A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Women’s Spirituality Institute of Transpersonal Psychology Palo Alto, California June 8, 2012 I certify that I have read and approved the content and presentation of this thesis: ________________________________________________ __________________ Judy Grahn, Ph.D., Committee Chairperson Date ________________________________________________ __________________ Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D., Committee Member Date Copyright © Hayley Jane Arrington 2012 All Rights Reserved Formatted according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition ii Abstract Celtic Solar Goddesses: From Goddess of the Sun to Queen of Heaven by Hayley J. Arrington Utilizing a feminist hermeneutical inquiry, my research through three Celtic goddesses—Aine, Grian, and Brigit—shows that the sun was revered as feminine in Celtic tradition. Additionally, I argue that through the introduction and assimilation of Christianity into the British Isles, the Virgin Mary assumed the same characteristics as the earlier Celtic solar deities. The lands generally referred to as Celtic lands include Cornwall in Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Brittany in France; however, I will be limiting my research to the British Isles. I am examining these three goddesses in particular, in relation to their status as solar deities, using the etymologies of their names to link them to the sun and its manifestation on earth: fire. Given that they share the same attributes, I illustrate how solar goddesses can be equated with goddesses of sovereignty. Furthermore, I examine the figure of St. -
ML 4080 the Seal Woman in Its Irish and International Context
Mar Gur Dream Sí Iad Atá Ag Mairiúint Fén Bhfarraige: ML 4080 the Seal Woman in Its Irish and International Context The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Darwin, Gregory R. 2019. Mar Gur Dream Sí Iad Atá Ag Mairiúint Fén Bhfarraige: ML 4080 the Seal Woman in Its Irish and International Context. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42029623 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Mar gur dream Sí iad atá ag mairiúint fén bhfarraige: ML 4080 The Seal Woman in its Irish and International Context A dissertation presented by Gregory Dar!in to The Department of Celti# Literatures and Languages in partial fulfillment of the re%$irements for the degree of octor of Philosophy in the subje#t of Celti# Languages and Literatures (arvard University Cambridge+ Massa#husetts April 2019 / 2019 Gregory Darwin All rights reserved iii issertation Advisor: Professor Joseph Falaky Nagy Gregory Dar!in Mar gur dream Sí iad atá ag mairiúint fén bhfarraige: ML 4080 The Seal Woman in its Irish and International Context4 Abstract This dissertation is a study of the migratory supernatural legend ML 4080 “The Mermaid Legend” The story is first attested at the end of the eighteenth century+ and hundreds of versions of the legend have been colle#ted throughout the nineteenth and t!entieth centuries in Ireland, S#otland, the Isle of Man, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, S!eden, and Denmark. -
Cuchulain of Muirtheme
Cuchulain of Muirtheme Lady Gregory Cuchulain of Muirtheme Table of Contents Cuchulain of Muirtheme..........................................................................................................................................1 Lady Gregory.................................................................................................................................................1 Dedication of the Irish Edition to the People of Kiltartan.............................................................................1 Note by W.B. Yeats.......................................................................................................................................2 Notes by Lady Gregory..................................................................................................................................3 Preface by W. B. Yeats...........................................................................................................................................12 I. Birth of Cuchulain....................................................................................................................................15 II. Boy Deeds of Cuchulain..........................................................................................................................18 III. Courting of Emer...................................................................................................................................23 IV. Bricrius Feast.........................................................................................................................................34 -
Measgra Dta : Miscellaneous Irish Poems
Hcct. lo\ /h^fly44,% pUltjtS»^ . T-4 /'/0 f.^ 5'\//>^ /U^í7^N/j^ w, v/,,/ x/ MEASGRA DANTA I téaxaí gaelge as LSS.— I IRISH TEXTS FROM MSS.— MEASGRA DANTA MISCELLANEOUS IRISH POEMS EDITED BY THOMAS F. O'RAHILLY PROFESSOR O» IRISH IN THE UNIVIRSITY OF DUBLIN PART I CORK UNIVERSITY PRESS EDUCATIONAL CO. OF IRELAND DUBLIN AND CORK 1927 seAn inglis agus a cho., LOCH GAKMANj DO CaiLÓBHUAIL AR ROBIN FLOWER FHORADLIM an DÍOLAIM SEO MAR BHEAGCHÓRTHA MÓRMHBASA — PREFACE It is liow six or eight years since the eighty poems comprised in the present volume were first collected by me with a view to publication. Most of these poems have never before appeared in print. I have divided the book into two parts, each with its own notes and vocabulary, in the hope of making it the more accessible to students. The poems range in date from about the twelfth century down to the early nineteenth. They deal with a variety of subjects—friendship, poverty, natural beauty, and so on, but not with love, which has already a whole volume to itself in Dánta Grádha. They are often of unequal merit ; but of the best of them it can be said with confidence that they are poems of which any Uterature might well be proud. In selecting the poems I have armed at giving preference to those which are simple in style and which can be appreciated to-day by a reader who is unequipped with special knowledge of Irish history or genealogy. Accordingly I have in general avoided the official panegyrics and elegies composed by the poets of the schools, and also the more formal kind of devotional verse as practised by the same poets. -
The Dagda, Thor and ATU 1148B: Analogues, Parallels, Or Correspondences? 1
The Dagda, Thor and ATU 1148B: Analogues, Parallels, or Correspondences? 1 JOHN SHAW University of Edinburgh Abstract Since ancient times celestial thunder gods have been a familiar feature in mythologies throughout the Indo-European language area. Their Irish counterpart, the Dagda, is a major personage at the centre of the Mythological Cycle, and his possible connections to the Scandinavian god Thor are examined here. Following a brief section dealing with questions of methodology, points of comparison are addressed which include the two gods’ common primary role as defenders of their realm; their place in the assembly of gods; their principal weapons and implements (iron club/hammer/harp, cauldron); their associa- tions with cosmology and artisans; and their visits to the abode of their monstrous adversaries, incorporating elements of the burlesque. Both gods appear in versions of the international tale ATU 1148B ‘The Thunder Instrument’ (Thor in the Old Norse poem Þrymskviða, and the Dagda’s recovery of his harp from the Irish Mythological Cycle), and the nature of the parallels between the two versions is examined. The question of a borrowing during the Viking era, or of an inherited body of tradition possibly from Indo-European times, is discussed: the international tale type also leads to the myth, at a further temporal and geographical remove, of the Greek god Zeus and the theft of his thunderbolts. A proposed sequential account of the development and evolution of both gods from remote antiquity is provided. Keywords: Thor, The Dagda, comparative mythology, Celtic mythology Thunder gods, with their all-powerful thunderbolts and hammers, have featured prominently in mythological traditions from Scandinavia to India, providing parallels that have suggested a variety of ancient common origins (West 2007, 238–55). -
As Guest Some Pages Are Restricted
F ORE WORD ’ m s ar i oems a a s and o -s n s ar r E b d c p , b ll d f lk o g c y r v r r her sto y back to the Christiandawnand e enea lie . They are history with the added charmof a personal a r o ac a ot o i anna s note, th ill f tu lity, n to be f und n l a ron s e s n the o es n ears of the nd ch icle . Th y i g h p a d f e e i e c mns e a na e en p opl n pi mo e t of th ir ntio l lif . Wh we r a h s or onar w s ma e ina f ar e d t e t y of Cl t f, e y p thiz a w s r c e But who off w y ith the is ues the e de id d . among us feels the loss of Bri an as did his fr iend a t o f t a monarc M c Liag, he p et ? He wrote o he de d h as anaide de camp might h ave writtenof Washing to as r or Rob n, Rudya d Kipling has wr ittenof L d r s s o na v a es ou and e t . Thi p etic rrati e of b ttl f ght wonis a goldencommentary extending throughout the w o course of r s or I man cases h le I i h hist y . -
The Celtic Harp at Stonehenge
The Celtic Harp At Stonehenge - structure in ancient Celtic thought ©1994 CW BAYER 1 © 1994 by C. W. Bayer Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 94-092038 ISBN 0-9628890-1-6 www.nevadamusic.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author. See more books at: www.nevadamusic.com 2 And now, for lords who understand, I'll tell a fable: once a hawk, high in the clouds, clutched in his claws a speckled nightingale. She, pierced by those hooked claws, cried, 'Pity me!' But he made a scornful answer: 'Silly thing, why do you cry? Your master holds you fast, you'll go where I decide, although you have a minstrel's lovely voice, and if I choose, I'll have you for a meal.... Hesiod, Works and Days, c.700BC 1 There are some, although few indeed, on whom divine favour has bestowed the gift of contemplating, clearly and very distinctly, with scope of mind miraculously enlarged, in one and the same moment, as though under one ray of the sun, even the whole circle of the whole earth, with ocean and sky above it. St. Columba c. 580AD2 The nation that disdains the mission of art invites the fate of having nothing to look backward to with pride and nothing to look forward to with hope. Amherst College, Oct. 26, 1963, John F. Kennedy 3 Contents INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... -
A Sixteenth Century Bardic Poem Composed for Seán Mac Conmara, Lord of West Clann Chuiléin1
A sixteenth century bardic poem composed for Seán Mac Conmara, Lord of West Clann Chuiléin1 The corpus of bardic poetry that has survived the collapse of the Gaelic order consists of some two thousand poems, now catalogued as part of the Trinity College initiative known as the Irish Bardic Poetry Database.2 Irish bardic poems are unique in historical sweep and purpose and also their discipline in terms of complexity of composition and regulated metre. Medieval and early modern Ireland was a divided polity where Gaelic lordships existed alongside the palatinate territories of Anglo-Irish lords, and where a gradation of ‘Gaelicisation’ penetrated deep into the latter territories. This resulted in a mixed culture that appreciated – and used – Gaelic concepts of law, kinship and literature.3 In Gaelic regions, it was the secular hereditary bardic families that ran schools of history and poetry and sought the patronage of the ruling lineages. In a society where lineage and status were important qualifiers for land and power, the preoccupation with poetry crafted to assert one’s lineage rights over subordinate vassal-septs was an important reason why patronage of bardic families was an essential requisite of any ambitious Gaelic lord. This paper concentrates on the late sixteenth century bardic poem Créd fá seachnaim síol Aodha? composed by Domhnall Ó Maoilchonaire for his patron Seán Mac Conmara, Lord of West Clann Chuiléin. It was possibly written as an inauguration ode in the early 1570s for Seán. The Mac Conmara of West Clann Chuiléin were the lineal descendants of the Uí Chaisín kings of east Clare and had their principal residence at Dangan (Daingean Uí Bhigín) tower-house north-east of Quin village.4 This paper will give an overview of the role of bardic poetry in late medieval Ireland as well as glean information on the bardic families settled in Thomond. -
The Celtic Circle
The Celtic Circle Ancient Celtic monks carved patterns into stone and painted onto illuminated manuscripts designs of complex knot work. To them, the intersecting lines represented the thread of life returning unendingly to its source. In harp therapy, we draw upon some of these ancient practices to weave the various strains of the gift of music into a seamless journey that completes a circle. In his book entitled “Ancient Music of Ireland”, first published in 1890, Edward Bunting details the three Gaelic strains that a proficient harper needed to command on his instrument before he could become a “professional”. They are: Geantraighe (in English characters: Geanttraidheacht) – Love, or music of a graceful and expressive order. Goltraighe (in English characters: Gollttraidheacht) - Exciting sorrow, or melancholy music. Suantraighe (in English characters: Suanttraidheacht) – Soothing, or sleepy, composing strains. The history of three strains can be traced back to ancient stories. Here is an excerpt from the website: http://www.vincentpeters.nl/triskelle/history/thedagda.php?index=060.015.010.060.010 about the three strains of music. The harp of The Dagda is known by two names: Daurdabla, translated as Oak Of Two Green, and Coir Cethair Chuir, Four Angled Music. Sometimes the name Uaithne is used for the harp, but Uaithne was in fact the harper. In the course of the history the harp would evolve to a national emblem of Ireland. Three Noble Strains of Ireland Boann gave Uaithne three sons. The birth of the oldest boy, Goltraiges, was extremely painful for the mother, while the second, Gentraiges, was born in joy. -
Place Names of the Decies
THE PLACE-NAMES OF DECIES By VERY REV. P. CANON POWER D. LITT. M.R.1.A. SECOND EDITION CORK UNIVERSITY PRESS OXFORD: B. H. BLACKWELL. LTD. 1952 Published by The Cork University Press, University College, Cork. Printed in Ireland by Eagle Printing Co., Ltd., South Mall, Cork, Printers to the Cork University Press. FOREWORD Patrick Power was born at Callaghane, three miles from Waterford, on 8th March, 1862. He was educated at Ballygunner National School, the Catholic University School, Waterford, and St. John's College, Waterford. He was ordained in 1883 and for three years he worked on temporary mission in Liverpool. Being threatened with tuberculosis, he went to Australia, where he spent seven years in the diocese of Wilcania-Forbes, being Rector successively of Cobar, Bourke and Wilcania, New South Wales. He came into contact with the aborigines; and it as probably in Australia that his interest in archaeology was first developed. On his return to Waterford he was attached to the Cathedral for three years; he then successively became Diocesan Inspector of Schools, Chaplain to the De la Salle Training College, and Curate at Portlaw. About 1900 he published a Manual of Religious Instruction, which ran to thirty editions and was used extensively in this country during the first two decades of the century; it appears to be still in use in Australia. His interest in place-names, ecclesiastical antiquities and archaeology soon became more than a paragon or hobby. He made extensive explorations throughout Waterford. Even in his student days he published in local papers articles on Waterford history. -
Complete Cattle Raid of Cooley, Irish and English
The Cattle-Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúalnge) is the central epic of the Ulster cycle. Queen Medb of Connaught gathers an army in order to gain possession of the most famous bull in Ireland, which is the property of Daire, a chieftain of Ulster. Because the men of Ulster are afflicted by a debilitating curse, the seventeen-year-old Cuchulain must defend Ulster single- handedly. The battle between Cuchulain and his friend Ferdiad is one of the most famous passages in early Irish literature. This HTML edition pairs an adaptation of the English translation of Joseph Dunn (1914) with the Irish transcription of Ernst Windisch (1905.) You may be interested in: ● some notes about the preparation of the HTML edition. ● a facsimile of the manuscript from the Book of Leinster ● index of place and personal names ● pronunciation guide ● The Story of Mac Dathó's Pig The Cattle-Raid of Cooley ● 1. The Pillow-Talk ● 16a. The Healing of the Morrigan ● 2. The Occasion of the Táin ● 17. The Great-rout on the Plain of ● 3. The Rising-Out of the Men of Murthemne Connacht at Cruachan Ai ● 17a. The Slaughter of the Youths of ● 4. The Foretelling Ulster ● 5. The Route of the Táin ● 17b. The Scythed Chariot ● 6. The March of the Host ● 17c. The Appearance of Cuchulain ● 7. The Youthful Exploits of Cuchulain ● 17d. Dubthach's Jealousy ● 7a. The Slaying of the Smith's Hound ● 18. The Slaying of Oengus Son of by Cuchulain Oenlam ● 7b. The Taking of Arms by Cuchulain ● 18a. The Misthrow at Belach Eoin and the Slaying of the Three Sons of ● 18b. -
Harp Healing Gwers
The Lamont Harp The Healing Harp (From Druid Tradition) By Susa Morgan Black, FSA, Scot Harper, Druid (OBOD) Quote “Music is the principle that unites body, soul, and spirit.” – Boethius, 6th century philosopher. - The Healing Musician, Stella Benson Irish Legends The Daghdha (Dagda) was the Chief Druid and King of the mythical Tuatha Dé Danann – the faerie race of Ireland and Scotland. He played an enchanted harp, called Una, which produced three magical strains of music – Geantraí, Goltraí, and Suantraí. At the battle of Moytura between the Tuatha de Danaan and the Fomorians (their ancient enemies), the Druid King’s magic harp was stolen. The Dagda traced the harp to the hall of the Fomorians, and found it hanging on their great wall. Such was the Dagda’s power that he sang to Una, and the harp came to him of its own accord, floating through the hall to its master’s hands. Before the Fomorians could react, the Dagda played the first strain – Geantraí (merriment), which caused everyone to laugh and dance, unable to stop themselves. He next played his second strain, Goltraí (sadness), which caused all to weep uncontrollably. Then he played his third strain, Suantraí (sleep), which caused all present to fall into a deep slumber. Stepping carefully among the stentorian snoring of his enemies, the Dagda and his magic harp swiftly made their escape. (Walton, 1992) In another legend, the Dagda had his own harper, Uaithne, who was husband to the River Goddess, Boand (the holy Irish river, Boyne). When Boand delivered her first child, it was a difficult delivery and she cried out in pain.