#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
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: Prince O'Donall was a brave fellow, and powerful, but given to risk and heedless thrills in his hunting and leaping and running and swimming, all the better to impress his friends. In his pursuit of ever greater excitement, he walked down paths that few have tread, and even fewer had come back from! Strange trysts he held in moonlit groves and books that were old when the hills were young he read, and from them he learned the old Druid ways of turning himself into any shape or form he desired. This was a great gift, but the one who taught it to him warned him sternly – beware should a woman screech while he was in any body but his own, or the dark old night from which he drew his strange faculties would claim him as his own! Eventually, the prince‘s wife, tired of hearing about his wonders, demanded to see them. He warned her to remain silent during his transformations. First, he became a stag, parading around with candles on his horns. Next, he transformed into a large fish, swimming in a beforehand for him built pool on the roof of the castle. The castle creaked and spun, causing his wife to scream in fear. At her scream, he leapt into a lake, disappearing forever. https://twitter.com/NeuKelte/status/1780301631478702305
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/a-promise
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: One of the highest figures among the ancestors the Gaels reverenced was Elatha, Ealadha or #Elathan, a prince of the Fomorians and the father of Bres of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He was most associated with the moon since he visited Eriú by night in a silver boat. https://x.com/SumitTr1/status/1183584983425830912
Source: Under an Irish Moon (emeraldisle.ie)
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: „#Manannan's home was on a wonderful island far out in the western sea, but sailors, passing to and fro in their ships, were unaware that this island existed, for Manannan cast an enchanted mist over it which rendered it invisible.“
Source: Heroes of the Dawn by Violet Russel
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: When the word given by #Fionn mac Cumhaill had been set aside by Donn and Dubhan, the hound of the three wonder-working princes of Norway rose, and suddenly assuming its gigantic size breathed hard in the direction of the brothers. Each breath was like a strong rushing wind; with one breath their shields were blown from their shoulders into the rampart of fire, with another their weapons were wrenched from their hands and destroyed also. Then the three princes attacked Donn and Dubhan, who having no arms to defend themselves with, were killed. "Breathe on them, hound, and make them as though they had never lived," said the men.The hound blew a fiery breath on the bodies of Donn and Dubhan, and immediately they were burned into little heaps of ashes, which were blown hither and thither by the wind.
Source: Heroes of the Dawn by Violet Russel
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: Prince Ruadh Mac Righduinn got stuck in the middle of the Irish sea. He peered over the side of his coracle but could find no obstruction, so he leapt overboard and swam below to see what could be seen.
To his surprise he discovered none of rock, reef or rope, but instead nine beautiful women waving at him alluringly from where they sat in three coral currachs, the most beautiful of the Merrow race! With a kiss he was granted the gift of breathing the deep waters as though they were fresh mountain air, and he dove to their kingdom for nine nights, to the consternation of his men above.
Many wonders did he see, touch and taste in the garden of the women far below the ocean, rich and abounding with delights, and he spent one night with each of the women.`
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/the-naming-of-inbher-oillbine
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: Although one of the mermaids was got with child due to his attentions, Prince Ruadh Mac Righduinn was allowed to depart from their land far below the ocean if he promised to stay with them on the way back. He spent seven years with his foster brother in Scotland, but he returned to Ireland by a different route, for he had no wish to spend his life beneath the sea with the Merrow race. Furious, the nine women of the ocean went looking for him, bringing with them his son, who had been born while he was elsewhere. They swam up the river to the very walls of his Dún near to the mouth of the river Delvin, but his warriors would not grant them access. In rage and despair the mother of the child slew the boy, her own son, with a seashell knife and threw his head on the shore to haunt Ruadh's memory forever more. Everyone who saw this was appalled and spoke as if with one mouth, saying “is oilb bine!,” which means, it is an awful crime! And so came to be the ancient name Inbher Oillbine for the river Delvin.
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/the-naming-of-inbher-oillbine