Author: C. I. Paton
Publisher: The University Press, Glasgow
Published: 1939
Series: Folk-Lore Society London Monographs (Volume 110)
Pages:147 including Addenda and index, with pictures.
Review: Continue reading…
The Story of the Isle of Man
Author: Arthur William Moore
Publisher: General Books LLC (Scanned)
Published: 2012, originally 1902
ISBN: 9781154154152937
Pages: 31
Review: Continue reading…
The Celts: The Construction of a Myth
Author: Malcolm Chapman
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Published: 1992
ISBN: 0-333-52088-2
Pages: 342, including 2 Appendices, Notes, Bibliography and an Index.
Synopsis: The Celts are commonly considered to be one of the great peoples of Europe, with continuous racial, cultural and linguistic genealogy from the Iron Age to the modern-day “Celtic fringe”. This book shows, in contrast, that the Celts, as they have been known and understood over two thousand years, are simply the “other” of the dominant cultural and political traditions of Europe. It is this continuous “otherness” which lends them apparent continuity and substance. Modern social anthropology, Celtic studies, literary and historical evidence, and the author’s own fieldwork in Brittany and Scotland, are brought together in demonstration of this.
Review: Continue reading…
Aislinge Óenguso: Oengus’s Dream
My newest translation project, the text of the “Aislinge Oenguso”. This was a fun and interesting text to do, but a bit time consuming. I did make a few changes in the English, choosing to take a looser approach to the literal translations in order to preserve the flow of the story, and keeping all verbs in the past tense. You may also note that in the text the goddess Boínn is referred to with the definitive article as “the Boínn”; this reflects the Irish material where she, like the Dagda, is given the definitive “the” before her name. This convention seems to have been lost in English but is clearly present in the original Irish of the story.
A God Who Makes Fire – The Bardic Mysticism of Amergin
**This review was first published in Volume II Issue I of Air n-Aithesc
Full Title: A God Who Makes Fire: The Bardic Mysticism of Amergin Author: Christopher Scott Thompson
Copyright: 2013
ISBN: 978-1-304-45726-4
Pages: 202
Synopsis:
An in-depth examination of the famous “Cauldron of Poesy” text describing the mystical practices of the poet-seers of medieval Ireland and the legendary bard Amergin. Includes a new translation of the text, a line-by-line analysis of the original Old Irish, a new interpretation of the Cauldron system unlike any in current use and exercises for practicing the Cauldron system as a method of spiritual cultivation.
Review:
Anti-Racism Magic
Blessings Darlings!
I assume that everyone reading has heard of the attack earlier this week on the people – black people – at the Emmanuel AME church in South Carolina. I’m going to provide a simple magic aimed at reducing racism.
Morrigan’s Call Retreat 2015
I have just returned from the second annual Morrigan’s Call Retreat and once again find myself sitting here trying to put into words an experience that is really impossible to describe. Last year the Retreat was new and smaller, fewer people, a wild and otherworldly location, and the energy of the entire weekend was a challenge to step up and answer Her call. This year was very different: more people, a new location that had more of civilization to it, and an energy that was not about hearing Her call as much as about reclaiming ourselves and our own power in this world.
Preconceived Notions and Being a Goth Pagan
I’ve been thinking lately about stereotypes and the way that preconceived notions and expectations shape our larger pagan community. Pervasive buggers, you know, stereotypes creep in where we least expect them. Just when we think we’re in a safe place, a place free of preconceived judgments, bam! we run headfirst into one. We all experience this, I think, some of us to greater degrees than others, depending on who we are and what we identify as.
Defrosting The Freezer
Blessings Darlings!
Being the busy little home maker I am, I’m defrosting the freezer as I type this. We have an OLD upright freezer, 14.7 cubic feet, not at all frost-free. We got it in January 1979, so it predates our 1980 marriage and LONG predates our 1987 Spawn. Every now and then (really, more NOW), it needs to be defrosted.
Continue reading…
Another look at Fedelm in Different Recensions
For fun and to show the difference that can occur between translations I wanted to expand on yesterday’s blog and offer the description of Fedelm from two recensions of the the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the first from the Book of the Dun Cow and the second from the Book of Leinster. You’ll see some similarities and also some significant differences between the two: