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    Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs
    Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs
    Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs
    Ebook52 pages39 minutes

    Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs

    By Hourly History

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The gifted W.B. Yeats wrote of his own people "...even a newspaperman, if you entice him into a cemetery at midnight, will believe in phantoms, for everyone is a visionary if you scratch him deep enough. But the Celt, unlike any other, is a visionary without scratching." This introduction to Celtic Mythology will serve the novice well – for it is a complicated history with the earliest written records destroyed by the marauding Vikings. 

    Inside you will read about...
    ✓ The Arrival of the Tuatha dé Danann
    ✓ Hibernia
    ✓ The Main Gods of the Celtic Pantheon
    ✓ Celtic Life and Rituals
    ✓ Sources of Celtic Mythology
    ✓ The Effect of Christianity and Beliefs and Superstitions

    The oral tradition harks back to 4000BCE and is a compilation of myths and cultures of many different peoples including the Indo-Iranians, Slavs, Greeks, Germans, Austrians and finally, the Gauls, who washed up on the shores of the Emerald Isle. Whatever aspect of this rich, mystical and lavishly embellished heritage you would like to investigate further you will find the author has supplied a marker to guide you on your way.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHourly History
    Release dateSep 8, 2016
    ISBN9781536584608
    Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs
    Author

    Hourly History

    At Hourly History, we focus on publishing history books that are concise, straightforward and take no longer than one hour to read. Receive our new eBooks for free every Friday.

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    Reviews for Celtic Mythology

    4.5/5

    14 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Very interesting, scholar and historical voew on celtic mythology, it is a very good book to start
    • 1/5
      No bibliography on a mythology book full of myths that mix gods from different Celtic nations as though they belonged to the same pantheon.

    Book preview

    Celtic Mythology - Hourly History

    Introduction

    Invocation to the Dagda

    Hail Eochaid Ollathair, Father of All!

    Hail Ruad Ro-fhessa, Lord of Perfect Knowledge!

    Lord of the Oak Tree,

    Phallus of the summer saplings,

    Rough as tree bark is your wisdom,

    Yet deep as sunken roots.

    You who can call the seasons with your harp,

    You are called upon by the common people

    For your gift of fair weather.

    You whose club is so great

    That nine men are required to carry it

    And even then it plows a great ditch;

    Whose terrible end slays hundreds at a blow

    And whose other end can restore them to life;

    You stake your life on the fertility of the land

    That others may survive the cold winters.

    You who build great fortresses,

    You know what it is to be the sole protection

    Of those you love, and to go forth

    In battle to save their lives.

    —By Cianaodh Óg from Our Pantheon’s Way

    The land we call Ireland today boasts an ancient monument that is older than both the Sphinx and Stonehenge and served both as a place of worship as well as a royal burial chamber. Called Newgrange, this ancient building is located in County Neath, on the River Boyne. Newgrange is what archaeologists used to call a passage tomb. It is large; 85 meters in diameter and 13.5 meters high, covering nearly an acre. Newgrange is a sophisticated and intricately designed and decorated structure, and archaeologists are confident that it doubled as a place of ritual worship. At the Winter Solstice, the sun penetrates to the central inner chamber, which remains lit for about 17 minutes each year.

    Newgrange was probably constructed by the first peoples who lived in Ireland. The earliest peoples are called the Partholonians, and they seem to have been wiped out by some dreadful disease, perhaps a plague, or destroyed by the tribe led by Nemed, said to be descended from the biblical Noah. The great Nemedian druid Mide is said to have been the first to light a fire in Ireland, at Uisnech. The traveling agrarians who washed up on those shores included Indo-Iranians, Scythians, Germanic and Slavic peoples, Grecians, Europeans, Central and South Asian traders, adventurers and warriors. In time, they also came from Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland, and the Balkans. Mostly, though, they were ferocious Gauls from France, Belgium, and the lowlands, with a generous sprinkling of Spanish wanderers.

    The Fir Bolg, from Spain and Greece, originally served as slaves to the Nemedians, but soon gained ascendency over their masters; they divided Ireland into five parts and settled down to rule. They were then challenged by the people of the goddess Dana, who arrived from the north-west. These were known as Tuatha dé Danann, and they were to become the greatest aristocracy of Ireland. They fought the Fir Bolg at the First Battle of Moytura where their king, Nuada, lost a hand. After a four-day battle, the Tuatha dé Danann left the battlefield, and the Fir Bolg retained Connaught.

    At about this time, there arose from the Tuatha dé Danann the powerful Irish god Eochaid Ollathair, who ruled in Ireland. He was the All-Father, God of Magic, God of Time, Protector of Crops, or the Dagda. He is one of the legendary figures said to be buried

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