#FairyTaleTuesday: The sons of Conall, son of Eochaid, were turned into badgers by the goddess Grian after they attacked her fort on the mountain of Knockgraney.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
#FairyTaleTuesday: Like the seal, the badger was sometimes seen as a shape-shifting person; the #Irish hero #Tadg found their meat revolting, unconsciously aware that they were really his cousins.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
Japanese folklore speaks of the senbiki ōkami,a pack of wolves that travelers climb trees to avoid: except these are no ordinary wolves. They climb onto each other's backs, almost reaching the top, always missing by just one wolf. #FairyTaleTuesday
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: #Tara was once reigned by a Wolf King. According to legend, #Cormac mac Art was the High King of Ireland at the same time as #Fionn mac Cumhaill was the leader of the #Fianna, c. the third century AD. He ruled from Tara for forty years, and during his reign, all of #Ireland flourished.
Source: Ali Isaac https://twitter.com/lethemain/status/593090313603915776
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: When the amorous advances of the Morrigan were spurned by #Cuchulainn, she shifted into a red-eared heifer and tried to knock him over whilst he was engaged in combat with another warrior; then she turned into an eel, wrapping herself around his legs, before finally becoming a grey wolf which lunged for his sword arm. Unperturbed, Cuchulainn managed to keep his enemy at bay whilst, of course, he defeated her every attack; he broke the cow’s leg, trampled the eel underfoot, and poked out the wolf’s eye, and went on to kill his opponent shortly after.
Source: Ali Isaac
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: The Goddess of Winter, Beira (also known as The Cailleach), could be seen riding through the sky on the back of a great wolf in the winter (corresponding to the old Gaelic name for the month of January leading into February, meaning ‘wolf month’).
Source: Angus and Bride - Folklore Scotland
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: „Poor Bridget Cleary is often cited as the last witch burned in Ireland, but this is not true. She was murdered by her deranged husband in 1895, who claimed that when she became ill, she had been abducted by fairies, and a changeling left in her place. So he set her alight and burned her to death.“
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: Denounced as a witch, Dame Alice Kyteler fled the country. Her maid, Petronella de Meath, was tortured until she confessed and implicated her absent mistress, Dame Alice. She was then publicly flogged and carted around the city streets as an example to the city folk. Finally, on the 3rd of November 1324, poor Petronella was burned at the stake, sadly she wasn’t the last.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: In European folklore, a need-fire (Scottish Gaelic: tein'-éigin) is a fire kindled by friction, which is lit in a ritual and used as protective magic against murrain (infectious diseases affecting cattle), plague and witchcraft. It was a tradition in parts of northern, western and eastern Europe until the 19th century, among Germanic, Gaelic and Slavic peoples. A need-fire would usually be lit when there was an epidemic such as an outbreak of plague or cattle disease. In some regions, a need-fire was lit yearly to prevent such disasters. In the Scottish Highlands they were lit each year at #Beltane.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-fire
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: The first woman in Ireland to be officially denounced as a witch was Dame Alice Kyteler in the thirteenth century. All her four husbands died one after the other relatively shortly after the wedding. Alice was by then an extremely wealthy woman in her own right and ran a very popular inn. By all accounts, she was quite a character, and did not at all fit into the social norms for women at that time. With hindsight, it’s perhaps not surprising that she was singled out for retribution. Alice’s inn is still going strong to this very day… it’s now known by the name of Kyteler’s Inn, and is reputed to be frequented by Alice’s ghost. To get the full Alice Kyteler story, you can download a FREE copy of A contemporary narrative of the proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler : prosecuted for sorcery in 1324, by Richard de Ledrede, bishop of Ossory.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
There are no shortage of eerie tales about Virginia’s Old House Woods. Some claim to have seen ghostly pirates searching for their buried treasure there while others have encountered a group of skeleton knights wearing suits of armor roaming the forest. #FairyTaleTuesday
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: After their victory over the Tuatha de Danann, the land was divided between Eber and Eremon. Eremon took the north, and the younger brother, Eber took the south. They ruled their respective areas peaceably for a year, but Eber was not satisfied; he wanted it all. The two brothers fought a battle, and Eremon won, becoming High King over all of #Ireland.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: #Mannanán Mac Lir's children were Aed, fire, Fionguala, white swan, and Fiachra and Conn, the twins. The myth stresses how Lir, the god of the sea, rose at dawn to play with his children and retired at night to his home in Emain Ablach, the Land of Promise.
Source: Helen Benigni/Barbara Carter/Eadhmonn Ua Cuinn „The Myth of the Year“
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: Lugaidh was an interesting character. He was said to have been born of a night of incest between Clothra and her three brothers, Breas, Nar, and Lothola, and was described as ‘beautiful to behold, and stronger in bodily strength in infancy than was usual for a child of his age’. It was said that Clothra feared her family’s line would be wiped out in battle, so she seduced all of her brothers in the hope of producing an heir. When her son was born, he was divided in three by red wavy lines, and each third of him resembled that portion of one of his three fathers.
Clothra need not have worried. Far from being punished for their incestuous behaviour, one hundred and seven of their descendants went on to rule as Kings.
Source: Ali Isaac from H A G <aliisaac@substack.com>
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: The Clan Déisi were led by four brothers, Brecc, Óengus ‘of the dread Spear‘, Eochaid and Forad. Forad’s daughter, Forach, was raped and kidnapped by Cellach, the wayward son of Cormac mac Airt. When he refused to give the poor woman up, Óengus attacked Tara with a group of fifty men. Óengus succeeded in killing Cellach with his ‘dread spear’, but in the process one of the chains hit Cormac in the face, wounding his eye. Thus disfigured, Cormac was forced to relinquish his position as High King to his son, Cairpre Lifechair, as according to law, a King must be whole and unblemished to be fit to rule.
Source: the Spear of Lugh by Ali Isaac