Today it’s the #Yew - a tree I’ve been intrigued by ever since we first came across this big old yew tree next to #Wilmington church here in #Sussex. It’s over 1,500 years old and pretty amazing! 1/x
Greetings, myth lovers! Join @AimeeMaroux for today's theme: Pumpkins. Which myths feature pumpkins, gourds or squashes? Tell us a the myth & tag #MythologyMonday with your #pumpkin lore. See you #Monday! 🎃
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
Aphrodite Anadyomene (Aphrodite rising from the sea) standing in her sea shell.
🏛️ Terracotta figurine, made in Amisos (Pontus), late 1st century BCE - early 1st century CE, found in Kertch (ancient Panticapaeum). Today in the Musée du Louvre, Paris
In the olden days, when bread was baked at home, bad luck would seep into the bread when one cursed while baking.
And if the loaf would be placed over the table's edge, sickness would soon enter the house.
A loaf placed upside down would sway, because the poor souls would try to turn it, & if the head of the house cut the bread crookedly, then he had just lied...
#Ebooks are available from the Blaft website, from Smashwords, or from the muchtoolarge retailers. Can we interest you in a #Tamil supernatural #thriller in English #translation? #Mythology from the state of #Mizoram on India's border with Myanmar? Bonkers slipstream short fiction from Kuzhali Manickavel? An encyclopedia of #ghosts and #cryptids?
I was listening to my own music last night, which is not unusual, I listen to my own music quite a bit. I like it. But as I listened to it last night, I began to view it for the first time as a body of work. I’m not sure what it was before that moment, but as I played through the almost-hour long collection of my original songs, I was struck with the feeling that this is… a thing, a representation of something, I’m not sure what. I’m usually good with words, but I’m finding it difficult to describe the shift I felt. I know I must continue to add to this body of work, and that the work must stay true to itself. Music for the sake of music, and tunes that I personally enjoy listening to over and over again. I’m not sure if it was because I’d just binged on Ween, or maybe had too much sugar, but it was like an epiphany, and The Dgar Project has taken a new seat in my own consciousness. I am a songwriter, and this year, I’m writing songs.
Here’s the link if you’d like to open up the #Dgar for yourself and see what’s inside.
Wrote a blog post for Myths and Legends Day on the A to Z main blog. It's about how to find good books on legends and mythology 😊 And what to look for in a good source.
Nua-#CelticSoulJourney: #Ceridwen lived on an island in the middle of Lake Bala (Llyn Tegid) in north #Wales with her mate, Tegid Voel (“the bald”), and their two children, the beautiful Creirwy (“light”) and the ugliest little boy in the world, Afagddu (“dark”). To compensate for his unfortunate appearance, Ceridwen planned to make her son a great seer, and to this end this fearsome goddess (sometimes called a witch or sorceress) brewed a powerful secret mixture of herbs. Into her cauldron she piled the herbs to simmer for a year and a day—a magical length of time appropriate to such a concoction. The brew had to be stirred regularly, and Ceridwen was not always on hand to keep the brew mixed. So she set a little boy named #Gwion to stir the cauldron, warning him that he must on no account taste it. Three tiny drops splattered from the cooking pot onto Gwion’s thumb, which he popped in his mouth to ease the burn. Immediately, all the wisdom and inspiration Ceridwen had intended for Afagddu was Gwion’s.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
In #Scotland Carlin, a name for the #Cailleach as a harvest divinity, was the name given to the spirit of #Samhain, the end of the harvest. The sheaf representing her was exhibited in the home to discourage #otherworldly visitors.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
RT @mageachain @placenamesni The last sheaf of the harvest was known as the cailleach, the granny, the churn... and in north Antrim and parts of Scotland as the carlin(g) (kerling)
This coin was minted circa 206 CE, during the reign of Caracalla. The obverse depicts the laureate head of Caracalla facing right. The reverse type features #Mars, naked save for cloak hanging from his shoulder, holding a branch and spear.
#Finnéces was eager to gain all the knowledge that the Salmon of Wisdom had from eating hazelnuts. For seven years the #druid had been waiting for just the right moment to gain the wisdom that the salmon held within itself. When the time was right, Finnéces/Finegas caught the fish, who came to his line as though by prearrangement.
The old druid set the fish to cook, leaving the boy #Fionn mac Cumhaill to watch it and warning him not to touch it or taste it. But the salmon sizzled and spattered onto Fionn’s thumb, which he stuck into his mouth to ease the pain. Immediately wisdom flooded him—the very wisdom that Finnéces had been hoping to attain.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
#LegendaryWednesday: On the #IsleofMan the goddess of winter is called Caillagh ny Groamagh (“gloomy old woman”).
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
Photo: Cronk yn Irree Lhaa is traditionally her usual home.
#Celtic#Mythology: At Mac #Dathó feast #Cet of the #Connacht men withdrew his claim to the hero's portion of the meat saying, If my brother, #Anlúan, was here, you would not be getting the #curadmir, for he is the better warrior.#Conall Cernach from #Ulster replied, `But he is here!” and pulled Anlúan’s head from his belt and threw it at Cet so hard, he was splattered with his brother’s blood.
Credit @aliisaac_
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is work.
Four deities spring to my mind when I think of work: #Demeter, #Hermes, #Hephaistos, and #Athena. #AncientGreece was an agricultural society with 80% of the population being involved in this line of work. In Greek mythology, it was Demeter who invented agriculture but according to Diodorus Siculus she burnt all the grain when her daughter #Persephone vanished out of grief and anger.
Last year, in giving the young ones a volume of English Fairy Tales, my difficulty was one of collection. This time, in offering them specimens of the rich folk-fancy of the Celts of these islands, my trouble has rather been one of selection. Ireland began to collect her folk-tales almost as early as any country in Europe, and...
„Probably because fine weather was so important during harvest time, the #Cailleach was seen as a weather spirit, sometimes called the old gloomy woman or envisioned as a crane with sticks in her beak which forecast storms.“
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic#Mythology and #folklore
RT @GodysseyPodcast
The Cailleach is the embodiment of winter itself, an old woman and witch who flies like a storm over Ireland and Scotland and wields a powerful hammer that can break trees during a cold snap. A trickster and almost certainly a goddess, she can bless too. #FairyTaleTuesday
Picked up the Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec for vacation next week. I loved her first book The Witch's Heart, it's a retelling of the Norse story of Ragnarok told from the perspective of Angrboda, who is a hermit witch living in the woods. Loki and Thor make appearances. I haven't read any summaries of this book because I know it will be fabulous and I want to be surprised, but I expect it's also based on Norse mythology. @bookstodon#Bookstodon#Fantasy#Mythology
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: What is called in other lands the will-o’-the-wisp, a light seen over bogs at night, was said in #Ireland to be a lantern carried by a dead gambler called Tine Ghealáin. Jack-o-Lantern was doomed to wander forever because, although his soul was too stained to enter heaven, he had won his way out of hell by beating the devil at cards. His name was applied to the hollowed-out turnips (in the New World, pumpkins) used at #Samhain, when the veils between the worlds were thin. Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`
Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales - Joseph Jacobs - Project Gutenberg (free) (www.gutenberg.org)
Last year, in giving the young ones a volume of English Fairy Tales, my difficulty was one of collection. This time, in offering them specimens of the rich folk-fancy of the Celts of these islands, my trouble has rather been one of selection. Ireland began to collect her folk-tales almost as early as any country in Europe, and...