The mythologies of the world are collective cultural dreams, and as such should be analyzed first from cultural perspectives. How do myths of the ancient Egyptians or Greeks, for instance, reflect the realities of the Egyptian and Greek cultures? When compared, however, mythologies reveal certain universal themes or motifs that point to larger trans-cultural issues such as the place of the human species in creation or the nature of deity as a concept. World Mythology: A Very Short Introduction is organized around the universal motifs. Creation, the Flood, the Hero Quest, the Trickster/Culture Hero, the Pantheons, the High God, the Great Goddess. Veteran mythology scholar David Leeming examines examples of each motif from a variety of cultures-Greek, Egyptian, Norse, American Indian, African, Polynesian, Jewish, Christian, Hindu-treating them as reflections of the cultures that "dreamed" them. He compares and analyzes them, exposing their universal significance and creating a "world mythology."

Noted French scholar and linguist discusses the gods of the continental Celts, the beginnings of mythology in Ireland, heroes, and the two main categories of Irish deities: mother-goddesses-local, rural spirits of fertility or of war-and chieftain-gods: national deities who are magicians, nurturers, craftsmen, and protectors of the people.

Containing Ireland's most popular prayers and blessings, this book is packed full of inspirational words to take comfort in. In turn these words provide us with hope, joy and solace. This little book, designed to fit in the smallest bag or pocket, will bring those old words back to life, reminding us that poetic lines and wise sayings can wrap around you like a hug, making the world seem a better place for a while.

Romance of the Perilous Land is a roleplaying game of magic and adventure set in the world of British folklore, from the stories of King Arthur to the wonderful regional tales told throughout this green and pleasant land. It is a world of romantic chivalry, but also of great danger, with ambitious kings, evil knights, and thieving brigands terrorising the land, while greedy giants, malevolent sorcerers, and water-dwelling knuckers lurk in the shadows. As valiant knights, mighty barbarians, subtle cunning folk, and more, the players are heroes, roaming the land to fight evil, right wrongs, and create their own legends.

Prophecy, Fate and Memory in the Early and Medieval Celtic World brings together a collection of studies that closely explore aspects of culture and history of Celtic-speaking nations. Non-narrative sources and cross-disciplinary approaches shed new light on traditional questions concerning commemoration, sources of political authority, and the nature of religious identity. Leading scholars and early-career researchers bring to bear hermeneutics from studies of religion and literary criticism alongside more traditional philological and historical methodologies. All the studies in this book bring to their particular tasks an acknowledgement of the importance of religion in the worldview of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Their approaches reflect a critical turn in Celtic studies that has proved immensely productive across the last two decades.

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 Cu 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. Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson was born in 1909. He began his career as a lecturer in Celtic at Cambridge, before becoming the first chair of the Department of Celtic Language and Literature at Harvard. He undertook war service with the Uncommon Languages section of British censorship and subsequently held professorships at Harvard and Edinburgh. Professor Jackson died in 1991.

In this masterclass of mindfulness and spiritual awareness, Fiann O Nuallain brings old Irish proverbs to life for the present generation. Proverbs stand the test of time because, as we explore their meaning, we find they contain timeless wisdom that can help us lead happier, calmer and more meaningful lives. By Time is Everything Revealed contains fifty-two proverbs - one for every week of the year - each carefully chosen to speak directly to the worries and stresses that have become part of modern life. The author unlocks each proverb's meaning and combines it with a mindfulness exercise to offer a new set of tools for mindful living, psychological wellbeing and spiritual awareness.

This book is a magical journey into the realms of the Sidhe, the graceful "People of Peace" who are the overlords of the Faery Kingdoms. With beautiful full-colored illustrations by Jeremy Berg and text by David Spangler, author of Apprenticed to Spirit and Subtle Worlds, this is a journey not only into a mystical realm but also into the potentials of the human spirit and the possibilities of a new consciousness within humanity. "This joyous and powerful story sits well amongst other tales of faery and brings its own enchantment. I really found myself carried off as I read, and emerged at the end with a feeling of having been a lot further than I thought. I'd put this right alongside Goethe's 'Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily' as of a kind that can only be written by a true initiate. And the pictures which accompany it carry their own power - drawing deep on the wells of lore and truth." - John Matthews, author of The Western Way and How To See Faeries.

The presence of gods was felt in every corner of the Celtic world, and influenced all areas of life in Celtic society. This fascinating book delves into these corners to examine all aspects of the gods, ritual customs, cult objects and sacred places of the ancient Celtic peoples. Miranda Green introduces the Celts and the evidence that they left behind, placing them in their geographical and chronological context, and continues on to look at Celtic cults of the sun and sky, animals and animism, mother goddesses, water gods and healers, as well as examining the influence of religion on war, death and fertility. Embracing the whole of the Celtic world from Ireland to Australia, and covering from 500 BC to AD 400, this is a rewarding overview of the evidence for Celtic religions, beliefs and practices which uses modern scholarship to bring a mysterious and captivating part of European history to life.

It has long been held by most theologians, anthropologists, and other academicians that the world has never known pure Goddess-worship. In particular they deny that it ever existed in the British Isles. In fact, the exact reverse is true. For the vast majority of the islands history, the veneration of a female Supreme Being (Mother-Goddess) was the only religion known. Indeed, until the Early Neolithic Age (4,500 BCE) the concept of a male deity (Father-God) did not even exist in Europe. As award-winning Tennessee author and Southern historian Lochlainn Seabrook readily shows in his important work, The Book of Kelle, proof of Anglo-Celtic Goddess-worship is overwhelming and plentiful. The nations of Britain, Ireland, and Scotland themselves, for example, were all named after goddesses, as were many of their rivers, islands, towns, hills, and mountains. Reinforcing this evidence is the fact that many surrounding countries and regions also take their names from female deities. Among these we have Italy, Holland, Denmark, Crete, Malta, Albania, and Scandinavia, just to name a few. Europe herself is named after a goddess, as is our planet, and even our universe. While Mr. Seabrook touches on these various topics, the final focus of the book is on the Goddess Kelle, who gave her name to her most ardent followers: the Kelts or Celts. Known by poets as the Blessed Lady of Ireland, Kelle s story is a rich and fascinating one; one that Seabrook traces back to early Asia, where she is still worshiped to this day as the Goddess Kali. Lochlainn Seabrook is the winner of the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal, awarded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Known as the American Robert Graves after his celebrated British cousin, Seabrook is a seventh-generation Kentuckian of Appalachian heritage, the sixth great-grandson of the Earl of Oxford, the twenty-first great-grandson of King Edward I, the fortieth great-grandson of British Queen Boudicca, and the author of over thirty popular books. A specialist in thealogy (Goddess-oriented religion), his works include: Britannia Rules: Goddess-Worship in Ancient Anglo-Celtic Society; Christmas Before Christianity: How the Birthday of the Sun Became the Birthday of the Son; The Goddess Dictionary of Words and Phrases; The Quotable Jefferson Davis; The Quotable Robert E. Lee; Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner ; Abraham Lincoln: The Southern View; The Unquotable Abraham Lincoln: The President s Quotes They Don t Want You to Know ; A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest; The McGavocks of Carnton Plantation: A Southern History; Nathan Bedford Forrest: Southern Hero, American Patriot; Carnton Plantation Ghost Stories: True Tales of the Unexplained From Tennessee s Most Haunted Civil War House ; UFOs and Aliens: The Complete Guidebook; and The Blakeneys: An Etymological, Ethnological, and Genealogical Study.

The early medieval manuscripts of Ireland and Britain have preserved tantalizing clues pertaining to the cosmology, religion and mythology of native Celtic cultures. In this unique collection of new studies and translations, ancient source materials and research from the fields of archaeology, linguistics and comparative religion illuminate the depths of these indigenous beliefs and practices. The book focuses on three themes-Cosmology, Sovereignty and Liminality-and explores sacred origins, three cosmic realms, four directions and the World Tree, seasonal cycles, religious practitioners, goddess figures, and the acquisition of poetic inspiration and Otherworld wisdom. An excellent resource for students of Celtic mythology and religion, Irish, Scottish and Welsh folklore, comparative religion, world mythology, Goddess studies, and those interested in their Celtic heritage.

Tanis Helliwell 's newest book Pilgrimage with the Leprechauns: a true story of a mystical tour of Ireland is a romp to the sacred sites of Ireland accompanied by a leprechaun who is helping her and her thirty fellow pilgrims face their blind spots. They have a topsy-turvy encounter with the mischievous, wise humour that the Irish call "The Craic." In addition to being an amusing story, Helliwell's book is chock fun of information about nature spirits or elementals, as they like to call themselves. The trolls, elves, goblins, and brownies are as real for the reader as the various humans whom they partner. For anyone planning a trip to the sacred sites of Ireland, or to Ireland itself for that matter, this book abounds in nuggets as precious as the pot of gold that the Leprechaun holds at the end of the rainbow.

In this practical and inspiring celebration of the festivals of the Celtic seasonal Wheel of the Year, Danu draws on her many years of personal practice and teaching to skilfully revive the ancient rituals and traditions of all eight festivals - Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lughnasadh, Autumn Equinox, Samhain and Winter Solstice - helping you weave a more soulful, nature-centred way of living into your everyday existence. Throughout the book, beautiful illustrations in the Celtic style capture the special atmosphere of each festival.* Learn to call upon the deities to support and assist you in your journey* Explore Celtic starlore to glean spiritual insights from the heavens* Make meaningful gifts for friends and family* Cast spells for creativity, fertility and blessing* Decorate your home with crafts and altars to manifest sacred space* Use the abundance of nature in recipes for self-healing and for delicious feasts* Explore the deeper meanings of the festivals through magical guided visualizations

The mystery, magic and myth of Manannan. The sea is a powerful, driving force for many people, a source of sustenance as well as danger. It is no surprise that Manannan, the Celtic God of the sea, should be an important figure but one who is also as ambiguous as the element he is associated with: a trickster, a magic worker, an advisor and a warrior. In this book you will get to know the many faces of Manannan, called the son of the ocean, and learn of his important place in mythology and the pivotal role he plays in many events. 'This highly intelligent but accessible book belongs on the shelves and nightstands of lovers of Celtic myth.' Courtney Weber, author of Brigid: History, Mystery, and Magic of the Celtic Goddess

Writing well over a thousand years ago, the Celtic saints and their followers who penned them reflected not just the cares and concerns of their own times, but also gave voice to the universal human experience - the hopes, fears, joys and anxieties that are as much part of modern existence as they were in the Dark Ages. Meditations on birth, death and everything else that comes in between, as well as comments on the rhythms of everyday life, are mixed with musings on the natural world, the divine and, of course, the eternal questions that everyone asks.

This interdisciplinary volume of essays examines the real and imagined role of Classical and Celtic influence in the history of British identity formation, from late antiquity to the present day. In so doing, it makes the case for increased collaboration between the fields of Classical reception and Celtic studies, and opens up new avenues of investigation into the categories Celtic and Classical, which are presented as fundamentally interlinked and frequently interdependent. In a series of chronologically arranged chapters, beginning with the post-Roman Britons and ending with the 2016 Brexit referendum, it draws attention to the constructed and historically contingent nature of the Classical and the Celtic, and explores how notions related to both categories have been continuously combined and contrasted with one another in relation to British identities. Britishness is revealed as a site of significant Celtic-Classical cross-pollination, and a context in which received ideas about Celts, Romans, and Britons can be fruitfully reconsidered, subverted, and reformulated. Responding to important scholarly questions that are best addressed by this interdisciplinary approach, and extending the existing literature on Classical reception and national identity by treating the Celtic as an equally relevant tradition, the volume creates a new and exciting dialogue between subjects that all too often are treated in isolation, and sets the foundations for future cross-disciplinary conversations.

Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2020 From the author of The Long Take, shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of both the Walter Scott Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize. 'I've long admired Robin Robertson's narrative gift . . . If you love stories, you will love this book.' Val McDermid Like some lost chapters from the Celtic folk tradition, Grimoire tells stories of ordinary people caught up, suddenly, in the extraordinary: tales of violence, madness and retribution, of second sight, witches, ghosts, selkies, changelings and doubles, all bound within a larger mythology, narrated by a doomed shape-changer - a man, beast or god. A grimoire is a manual for invoking spirits. Here, Robin Robertson and his brother Tim Robertson - whose accompanying images are as unforgettable as cave-paintings - raise strange new forms which speak not only of the potency of our myths and superstitions, but how they were used to balance and explain the world and its predicaments. From one of our most powerful lyric poets, this is a book of curses and visions, gifts both desired and unwelcome, characters on the cusp of their transformation - whether women seeking revenge or saving their broken children, or men trying to save themselves. Haunting and elemental, Grimoire is full of the same charged beauty as the Scottish landscape - a beauty that can switch, with a mere change in the weather, to hostility and terror.