The Epics of Celtic Ireland

The Epics of Celtic Ireland PDF Author: Jean Markale
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892818150
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Some of the most powerfully moving tales in Western literature are found in the epics of Celtic Ireland. In this collection, Markale restores these texts to their original form and reveals how deeply these mythic tales have shaped modern thought.

The Epics of Celtic Ireland

The Epics of Celtic Ireland PDF Author: Jean Markale
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892818150
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Some of the most powerfully moving tales in Western literature are found in the epics of Celtic Ireland. In this collection, Markale restores these texts to their original form and reveals how deeply these mythic tales have shaped modern thought.

Ploughing the Clouds

Ploughing the Clouds PDF Author: Peter Lamborn Wilson
Publisher: City Lights Books
ISBN: 0872868915
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
The Rig Veda, written in India about 1500BC, praises a holy plant called Soma, which is sacrificed and consumed, granting the drinker an experience of enlightenment and ecstasy. The late Gordon Wasson identified Soma as a "magic mushroom," Amanita muscaria, and he and his followers discovered that such Indo-Europeans as the ancient Greeks, Iranians and Norse had also used a Soma-type plant. In Ploughing the Clouds Peter Lamborn Wilson investigates the probability of a Soma cult in ancient Ireland, tracing clues in Irish (and other Celtic) lore. By comparing Celtic folktales, romances, epics and topographic lore with the Rig Veda, he uncovers the Irish branch of the great Indo-European tradition of psychedelic (or "entheogenic") shamanism, and even reconstructs some of its secret rituals. He uses this comparative material to illuminate the deep meaning of the Soma-function in all cultures: the entheogenic origin of "poetic frenzy," the link between intoxication and inspiration.

A Celtic Miscellany

A Celtic Miscellany PDF Author: Kenneth Jackson
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141935235
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
Including works from Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Breton and Manx, this Celtic Miscellany offers a rich blend of poetry and prose from the eighth to the nineteenth century, and provides a unique insight into the minds and literature of the Celtic people. It is a literature dominated by a deep sense of wonder, wild inventiveness and a profound sense of the uncanny, in which the natural world and the power of the individual spirit are celebrated with astonishing imaginative force. Skifully arranged by theme, from the hero-tales of Cú Chulainn, Bardic poetry and elegies, to the sensitive and intimate writings of early Celtic Christianity, this anthology provides a fascinating insight into a deeply creative literary tradition.

The Táin

The Táin PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0192803735
Category : Cuchulain (Legendary character)
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
The Táin Bó Cuailnge, centre-piece of the eighth-century Ulster cycle of heroic tales, is Ireland's greatest epic. It tells the story of a great cattle-raid, the invasion of Ulster by the armies of Medb and Ailill, queen and king of Connacht, and their allies, seeking to carry off the great Brown Bull of Cuailnge. The hero of the tale is Cuchulainn, the Hound of Ulster, who resists the invaders single-handed while Ulster's warriors lie sick. Thomas Kinsella presents a complete and living version of the story. His translation is based on the partial texts in two medieval manuscripts, with eleme...

Women of the Celts

Women of the Celts PDF Author: Jean Markale
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892811502
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Historian Markale takes us deep into a mythical world where both man and woman become whole by realizing the feminine principle in its entirety. The author explores the rich heritage of Celtic women in history, myth, and ritual, showing how these traditions compare to modern attitudes toward women.

Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance

Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance PDF Author: Roger Sherman Loomis
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1613732104
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
King Arthur was not an Englishman, but a Celtic warrior, according to Loomis, whose research into the background of the Arthurian legend reveals findings which are both illuminating and highly controversial. The author sees the vegetarian goddess as the prototype of many damsels in Arthurian romance, and Arthur's knights as the gods of sun and storm. If Loomis's arguments are accepted, where does this leave the historic Arthur?

Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland

Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland PDF Author: Brent Miles
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 1843842645
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
An examination of the ways in which works of Classical literature influenced and were received by the native Irish tradition. Original, innovative work which elucidates a number of individual narratives; but more significantly, by placing these texts in their proper intellectual context, the author demonstrates how the world of learning in eleventh- andtwelfth-century Ireland really worked. He illuminates a world of medieval education and scholarship; he tells us (as no-one has done previously) what medieval Irish classicism was all about. Dr Máire ni Mhaonaigh, St John's College, University of Cambridge. The puzzle of Ireland's role in the preservation of classical learning into the middle ages has always excited scholars, but the evidence from the island's vernacular literature - as opposed to that in Latin - for the study of pagan epic has largely escaped notice. In this book the author breaks new ground by examining the Irish texts alongside the Latin evidence for the study of classical epic in medieval Ireland, surveying the corpus of Irish texts based on histories and poetry from antiquity, in particular Togail Troi, the Irish history of the Fall of Troy. He argues that Irish scholars' study of Virgil and Statius in particularleft a profound imprint on the native heroic literature, especially the Irish prose epic Táin Bó Cúailnge ("The Cattle-Raid of Cooley"). BRENT MILES is a Fellow in Early and Medieval Irish, University College Cork.

Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race

Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race PDF Author: Thomas William Rolleston
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 373267830X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
Reproduction of the original: Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race by Thomas William Rolleston

Celtic Mythology

Celtic Mythology PDF Author: Philip Freeman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190460490
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Most people have heard of the Celts--the elusive, ancient tribal people who resided in present-day England, Ireland, Scotland and France. Paradoxically characterized as both barbaric and innocent, the Celts appeal to the modern world as a symbol of a bygone era, a world destroyed by the ambition of empire and the spread of Christianity throughout Western Europe. Despite the pervasive cultural and literary influence of the Celts, shockingly little is known of their way of life and beliefs, because very few records of their stories exist. In this book, for the first time, Philip Freeman brings together the best stories of Celtic mythology. Everyone today knows about the gods and heroes of the ancient Greeks, such as Zeus, Hera, and Hercules, but how many people have heard of the Gaulish god Lugus or the magical Welsh queen Rhiannon or the great Irish warrior Cú Chulainn? We still thrill to the story of the Trojan War, but the epic battles of the Irish Táin Bó Cuailgne are known only to a few. And yet those who have read the stories of Celtic myth and legend-among them writers like J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis-have been deeply moved and influenced by these amazing tales, for there is nothing in the world quite like them. In these stories a mysterious and invisible realm of gods and spirits exists alongside and sometimes crosses over into our own human world; fierce women warriors battle with kings and heroes, and even the rules of time and space can be suspended. Captured in vivid prose these shadowy figures-gods, goddesses, and heroes-come to life for the modern reader.

Finn and the Fianna

Finn and the Fianna PDF Author: Daniel Allison
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750995858
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
The stories of Finn MacCoull and his warriors were once told at every fireside in Scotland and Ireland. After centuries in obscurity, this collection brings the tales soaring to life again. Here you will find Diarmuid, whom no woman can help but fall in love with, and Ossian, a warrior-poet raised in the woods by a wild deer. There is Grainne, ancient ancestor of Iseult and Guinevere, and Finn himself, whose name was once a byword for wisdom, generosity and beauty. Enter a world of feasting and fighting, battles and poetry, riddles and omens; join Finn and the Fianna on their never-ending quest to drink deeper and deeper of the cup of life.