In our story, the Dagda is helped out of trouble by his son, Óengus Mac Ind Óc, and this in turn helps depose Bres and restore prosperity to Ireland after the defeat of the Fomoire. However, in Tocmairc Étaíne, “The Wooing of Étaín”, we see the Dagda getting his son out of scrapes. From the moment…
Category: Articles
Supporting articles, texts and translations and related materials for each episode
The Dagda, Ogmios and the Jolly Green Giant
Who is Ogma and what is he doing in the saga of Moytura? For a start, he is recorded as the Dagda’s brother, and his main role seems to be “The Strong man”. When Lugh arrives at Tara, the gate-keeper gives him that title rather than that of warrior. He proves it later by throwing…
The Poems on Ailech
from The Metrical Dindshenchas, Vol IV, edited by Edward Gwynn Translated by E. Gwynn & Isolde Carmody The translations are based on Gwynn’s, with some amendations and modernisation of the English idioms. Short notes are included in the translated text within square brackets. I only include the sections of the poems that contain our story…
Names of the Dagda
from Cath Maige Tuired, edited by Elizabeth Gray translation by Isolde Carmody When the Dagda encounters Indech’s daughter, she demands that he carry her on his back. He replies that it is geis (“taboo”) for him to carry anyone on his back who does not call him by name. She asks his name, and he…
The Leather Cauldron
When Isolde and I were preparing to record the episode focussing on the Dagda and his Moytura stories, we knew that the podcast would be published in Christmas week. Perhaps this coloured our thinking a little, but when you have a fat jolly man who gloriously indulges in overeating and drinking, who is related to…
The Dagda’s Track
The Oak of two meadows The rightness of Four Angles Come Summer, Come Winter Mouths of harps and bags and pipes And didn’t that harp fly? Like a spring storm that scatters the blossom of apples. Like an Autumn wind that whips the waves into flowers of foam. Oh, yes, that harp flew, its melodies…
Lug and Balor Meet
from Cath Maige Tuired, edited by Elizabeth Gray Translation by Isolde Carmody Here is the next piece of roscad poetry attributed to Lug in our text. It is the traditional climax of the battle, where Lug finally confronts his grandfather, Balor, which had been prophesied as the moment of Balor’s death. This section has not…
Lug Taunts the Enemy
from Cath Maige Tuired, edited by Elizabeth Gray Translation by Isolde Carmody Introductory Note This is the first of a number of passages in Cath Maige Tuired which is in the form of roscad. Roscada are non-syllabic (non-metrical) poems, characterised by connective alliteration between lines and a condensed, syntactically obscure and archaic use of language. …
Lug Comes to Tara
from Cath Maige Tuired, edited by Elizabeth Gray This is our first encounter with Lug in our text. The main part concerns Lug’s listing of his crafts, with the door-keeper’s counter-listing of the craftspeople already in Tara. It is beautifully formulaic, and an opportunity for the storyteller to list many of the dramatis personae of…
Lunacy at Lughnasagh – Our Lughnasagh Celebrations
The Lughnasagh games The Lughnasagh (or Lughasad / Lúnasa / Lughnasadh…) games, inaugurated by Lugh in honour of his foster mother, may be of as old a lineage as the Olympic games. Twenty one years ago, I thought it might be a good idea to create our own modern version of the games on my own…