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Myth and History in Celtic and Scandinavian Traditions explores the
traditions of two fascinating and contiguous cultures in
north-western Europe. History regularly brought these two peoples
into contact, most prominently with the viking invasion of Ireland.
In the famous Second Battle of Mag Tuired, gods such as Lug, Balor,
and the Dagda participated in the conflict that distinguished this
invasion. Pseudohistory, which consists of both secular and
ecclesiastical fictions, arose in this nexus of peoples and myth
and spilled over into other contexts such as chronological annals.
Scandinavian gods such as Odin, Balder, Thor, and Loki feature in
the Edda of Snorri Sturluson and the history of the Danes by Saxo
Grammaticus. This volume explores such written works alongside
archaeological evidence from earlier periods through fresh
approaches that challenge entrenched views.
This wide-ranging book contains twelve chapters by scholars who
explore aspects of the fascinating field of Celtic mythology - from
myth and the medieval to comparative mythology, and the new
cosmological approach. Examples of the innovative research
represented here lead the reader into an exploration of the
possible use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Celtic Ireland, to
mental mapping in the interpretation of the Irish legend Tain Bo
Cuailgne, and to the integration of established perspectives with
broader findings now emerging at the Indo-European level and its
potential to open up the whole field of mythology in a new way.
This volume includes "Milesians and Alans in the Northwest of the
Iberian Peninsula and the Mythical Invasion of Ireland," by Manuel
Alberro; "The Breton Compositions of Jean Cras," by Paul Andre
Bempechat; "The 'Gallic Disaster': Did Dionysius I of Syracuse
Order It?," by Timothy Bridgman; "Dangerous Liaisons," by Marion
Deane; "Cernunnos: Looking a Different Way," by David
Fickett-Wilbar; "Epic or Exegesis? The Form and Genesis of the Tain
Bo Cualnge," by John J. Fisher; "Introducing King Nuadha: Mythology
and Politics in the Belfast Murals," by Alexandra Hartnett;
"'Gaelic Political Scripture': Ui Mhaoil Chonaire Scribes and the
Book of Mac Murchadha Caomhanach," by Benjamin James Hazard;
"Voice, Power, and Narrative Structure in Orgain Denna Rig," by
Bettina Kimpton; "Cu Chulainn: God, Man, or Animal?," by Erik
Larsen; "The Celtic Seasonal Festivals in the Light of Recent
Approaches to the Indo-European Ritual Year," by Emily Lyle; "The
Date and Provenance of Vita Prima Sanctae Brigitae," by Laurance
Maney; "Spirit and Flesh in Twentieth-Century Welsh Poetry: A
Comparison of the Works of D. Gwenalt Jones (1899-1968) and Pennar
Davies (1911-1996)," by D. Densil Morgan; "Joseph Cooper Walker's
Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (1786): Significance and
Impact," by Lesa Ni Mhunghaile; "Old Irish *desgabal and the
Concept of Ascension in Irish Religious Texts," by Brian O Broin;
"Oenach Aimsire na mBan: Early Irish Seasonal Celebrations, Gender
Roles, and Mythological Cycles," by Sharon Paice MacLeod;
"Literature Reviews in An Claidheamh Soluis: A Journalistic Insight
to Irish Literary Reviews in the Revival Period 1899-1932," by
Regina Ui Chollatain; and "Celtic Ornament, Irish Gospel Book
Decoration, and the Illustrated Prose Lancelot of Yale 229," by
Elizabeth Moore Willingham.
The various Indo-European branches had a shared linguistic and
cultural origin in prehistory, and this book sets out to overcome
the difficulties about understanding the gods who were inherited by
the later literate cultures from this early "silent" period by
modelling the kind of society where the gods could have come into
existence. It presents the theory that there were ten gods, who are
conceived of as reflecting the actual human organization of the
originating time.There are clues in the surviving written records
which reveal a society that had its basis in the three concepts of
the sacred, physical force, and fertility (as argued earlier by the
French scholar, Georges Dumezil). These concepts are now seen as
corresponding to the old men, young men, and mature men of an
age-grade system, and each of the three concepts and life stages is
seen to relate to an old and a young god. In addition to these six
gods, and to two kings who relate in positive and negative ways to
the totality, there is a primal goddess who has a daughter as well
as sons. The gods, like the humans of the posited prehistoric
society, are seen as forming a four-generation set originating in
an ancestress, and the theogony is explored through stories found
in the Germanic, Celtic, Indian, and Greek contexts.The sources are
often familiar ones, such as the Edda, the Mabinogi, Hesiod's
Theogony, and the Ramayana, but selected components are looked at
from a fresh angle and, taken together with less familiar and
sometimes fragmentary materials, yield fresh perspectives which
allow us to place the Indo-European cosmology as one of the world's
indigenous religions. We can also gain a much livelier sense of the
original culture of Europe before it was overlaid by influences
from the Near East in the period of literacy. The gods themselves
continue to exert their fascination, and are shown to reflect a
balance between the genders, between the living and the ancestors,
and between peaceful and warlike aspects expressed at the human
level in alternate succession to the kingship.
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