Irish/Gaelic mythology literature
June 24, 2017 7:44 AM Subscribe
I’ve recently watched a few movies drawing on Irish/Gaelic (not sure of the difference) mythology:
The Secret of Kells, The Secret of Roan Inish, and Song of the Sea. I'd like to go to the source of the myths. What books can you recommend?
"Gods and Fighting Men" by Lady Gregory is a fantastic resource and collection of these classic stories. Online HTML version here, other versions available here.
posted by alchemist at 8:40 AM on June 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by alchemist at 8:40 AM on June 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
James Stephens, who wrote The Crock of Gold, also published a collection of Irish Fairy Tales. I think for a sense of the kind of 'twilight' feeling that hangs around Irish folk culture it's exemplary.
And to get more of a feel for that sensibility, some early 20th Century Irish literature: they were concerned with what Irishness might be after centuries of English oppression and sometimes reworked the old legends in ways that were super conscious of the contemporary context. So The Crock of Gold itself, and maybe Flann O'Brien's At Swim Two Birds.
posted by glasseyes at 8:48 AM on June 24, 2017 [4 favorites]
And to get more of a feel for that sensibility, some early 20th Century Irish literature: they were concerned with what Irishness might be after centuries of English oppression and sometimes reworked the old legends in ways that were super conscious of the contemporary context. So The Crock of Gold itself, and maybe Flann O'Brien's At Swim Two Birds.
posted by glasseyes at 8:48 AM on June 24, 2017 [4 favorites]
That's a bit of a tangential answer I posted there, but it's not a straightforward question. Ideas of nationalism and local character and reclaiming lost and disappearing traditions were generally part of the Europe-wide 19C movement to collect and record not just folk tales but also folk music and song. Without them we wouldn't have Lady Gregory's work, or the Welsh tales The Mabinogion in its present form, or Grimm's Tales for that matter. The Irish context is more contested than many and to me the elegaic feeling, the sense of impermanency and the piercing sense of loss is endemic to those tales. Well maybe it's just a fancy, it's not as if I'm a scholar. But I feel that sensibility is also present in the films you mentioned.
More info about Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan) here.
More about James Stephens, here and here.
posted by glasseyes at 9:24 AM on June 24, 2017 [3 favorites]
More info about Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan) here.
More about James Stephens, here and here.
posted by glasseyes at 9:24 AM on June 24, 2017 [3 favorites]
Miranda Aldhouse-Green is an authority on Celtic mythology, and her book Celtic Myths is a terrific 'in' to the subject.
posted by HandfulOfDust at 12:00 PM on June 24, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by HandfulOfDust at 12:00 PM on June 24, 2017 [3 favorites]
Scanned versions of Celtic Fairy Tales (1892) and More Celtic Fairy Tales (1894), both selected and edited by Joseph Jacobs.
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:06 PM on June 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:06 PM on June 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
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posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 8:22 AM on June 24, 2017 [2 favorites]