The afternoon sunshine silvered the water, diamond-points lighting the waves with laughter. The girls all stood in happy chattering groups, finished with their bathing, wrapping themselves in their flower-coloured mantles as they dried their wind-washed hair. Then one of them, perhaps the most beautiful, so it was said, looked up, suddenly still, peering seaward, into…
Author: Chris Thompson
The Brú na Bóinne and Brí Leith
The story of “The Wooing of Étaín” is primarily set in two locations, that of the Brú na Bóinnein County Meath and Bri Leith in County Longford. Both are of great mythological importance, yet the Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange) is, of course, a World Heritage site and Bri Leith (Ardagh Hill) is little known. This…
Fuamnach’s Story
I met them with mild words and open smiles; my husband and this new young wife he had bought with so much gold and even greater labour. I flattered her with gentle compliments, calling her “king’s daughter”, worthy to sit beside me in our home at Brí Leith. And she was beautiful – and young – it…
The Ancestors and the Hollow Hills
In the podcast episode, “The Further Adventures of Nera – The Cow and the Time Machine”, we found ourselves exploring the gateway to the Irish Otherworld. It is not the first timewe have made this journey.. We only have to return to our last story, Fled Bricrenn, “Bricriu’s Feast”, where we encountered another powerful Otherworld…
The Further Adventures of Nera ~ The Cave Between the Worlds
As Nera climbed out of the steep misted cave, into the darkness, he was met by the autumn smoke smells of damp and decay, clustering around him like a guard of arms, wakeful and watching. The cold night air caught at his throat and he shivered. And yet there was another odour, strong, green, fresh,…
The Legend of Knockmany Hill – a late tale of Cú Chulainn
In our explorations of the text of Bricriu’s feast we encountered many passages that demonstrate the story tellers’ art, full of patterning and rich vivid embellishment. The text also contains plenty of evidence for literary collation; versions of the story gathered together for the sake of completeness. Once stories enter the great library of written…
‘If you can keep your head’ – Thoughts on the beheading game.
IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you… I had never considered that I might commence a comparison of the beheading game in Fled Bricrenn and Gawain and the Green Knight with a quote from Rudyard Kipling. It is apt, particularly in terms of the…
The Giant in the Mead Hall
In the flickering firelight of the evening feasting, the shadow of the newcomer filled the whole hall, darkening its comforting warmth. The man himself was a giant; huge, twice the height of any other. But he was no noble hero-warrior; no, not this one. This one wore no garment striped with gold. This one had…
Dressed to the nines! ~ a gallery of finery.
Fled Bricrenn is rich in its descriptions of finery. In its feasting halls, heroes and horse harness, detail is embelished with vivid detail. Our text is, of course largely ninth century CE but the story telling recalls an earlier heroic age of epic deeds. It is possible to identify memories of a mthologised pre-christian world throughout…
The Coming of the Heroes to Crúachán ~ a description
From inside the dún, It sounded like an army approaching in full battle-stance. The whole household of Crúachán stopped still, startled in their strength. “Go see who is coming,” said Medb to her daughter. So Findabair went to the high place of the house and looked out. The sight before her dazzled her vision. Two matched…