Awesome Book Find: Ireland; A Sacred Journey-Michael Dames
Mar 25, 2016 10:27:41 GMT -6
ritt and Fearghus like this
Post by xerxez on Mar 25, 2016 10:27:41 GMT -6
Hi guys. I don't know if this is a proper submission since the book in question is nonfiction and did not inspire OD&D, but this book certainly is firing up all sorts of campaign and adventure ideas for me,
as well as enriching my spirit and opening my understanding towards the Irish myth cycles.
It was originally published in the nineties under the title, "Mythic Ireland."
One of my D&D buddies, a very good DM, gave me the book as a gift and at first glance I thought, "Hmm, another coffee table book about Ireland, I can guess the contents." Glad to be mistaken!
The author has combined his own research with the contributions of previous folklorists, archaeology, astronomy, Irish literature, and stunning photographs, maps, and illustrations on every page. Irish
myths, gods and goddesses, the fairies, sacred animals, hero tales, neolithic tombs and folk traditions are explored in depth, and not in the dry recitation of old tales you find in so many works that try to
do what this book does, but in a way where the author connects the consciousness of those past people to the Irish today. He weaves a very unified whole that gives one, forgive the drama, the spirit of the
land and its past and present, its people then and now. It is almost completely concerned with the Irish sacred world, and there is nothing dry about this text at all, even though the depth of historical
research that went into it is obvious and amazing.
There are so many anecdotes drawn from even modern times that show the place myth held here for so long. It documents how rural Irish folk maintained sincere and unapologetic belief in the faeries right up
until the invention of the television in the forties. There are stories from the nineteenth century of Irish men telling their friends of seeing a vision of Aine, the sun goddess and then dying a few days
later as legends decreed that they must. Tales of Aine seen bathing in a sacred lake, combing her hair with a golden comb and how men who looked upon her died unless they were especially bold and managed
to win her favor.
On a more substantial level, the book documents how Irish sacred sites are constructed to align with solar events related to the old celtic holy days, and the planning that went into these locations was
nothing short of amazing.
I am getting so much more from it than game material (I'm about half way through) but it is literally loosing a stream of ideas for some fun games set in prehistoric Ireland.
I have read dozens of books like this, looking unsuccessfully for what I finally find in this book, which is not simply an re-telling old Irish legends, but the understanding of them, the explanation of
their symbols, where they come from, what they mean and how they are relative today not only to Ireland but to the world, which shares so many of them in common. I come to understand how the very land itself
and the people's relationship to it, their immediate perception of its phenomena, uniquely informs every myth. For example, the old Irish word for winter is related to marriage and indeed winter was the
season for marriage because of the torrential rains and flooding that inundated the land and the houses themselves were held to be the reproductive secretions of the goddess, her amniotic fluids, and thus
closely related to fertility and harvest. There is a very sizable section of text devoted wholly to Crom, who was actually a diminished version of a stronger, previous pre-Norman god. Crom was an obsidian
skinned harvest god who was bent under the weight of a giant sheaf of grain and whose favour was essential to crops...if this is where Robert E Howard mined Conan's god, it's a strange origin for a Cimmerian
mountain deity! Lots here about the fairy mounds, the banshee, and the Irish Otherworld, which, unlike in most cultures, was not a dreary dark underworld at all but a place of light, knowledge, happiness and
joy, though not without its perils as mortals discovered whenever they found its doors.
I will conclude with a funny anecdote from the book that is said to have occurred in 1902 when an English folklorist was searching out Neolithic tombs. He rode upon a homestead where he was greeted by a
group of fair young women and asked them where he might find the tomb and upon discovering their knowledge of the place he asked if one might accompany him to find the place. They started laughing and
blushing amongst themselves until the oldest among them said she would take him there. However, she did not speak anything but Irish and his understanding and patience being limited where Irish speech was
concerned, he became angry and somewhat rude and said never mind. Riding a few miles he came upon a farm where a middle aged woman spoke better English and knew also where the grave was. Upon recounting his
experience back down the road, she laughed and explained to him that the ancient custom, still upheld, was that any lass who accompanied a man to this site, once there, was obliged to grant him anything he
asked of her....
If you have any interest in the Irish mythology, you will cherish this book.
as well as enriching my spirit and opening my understanding towards the Irish myth cycles.
It was originally published in the nineties under the title, "Mythic Ireland."
One of my D&D buddies, a very good DM, gave me the book as a gift and at first glance I thought, "Hmm, another coffee table book about Ireland, I can guess the contents." Glad to be mistaken!
The author has combined his own research with the contributions of previous folklorists, archaeology, astronomy, Irish literature, and stunning photographs, maps, and illustrations on every page. Irish
myths, gods and goddesses, the fairies, sacred animals, hero tales, neolithic tombs and folk traditions are explored in depth, and not in the dry recitation of old tales you find in so many works that try to
do what this book does, but in a way where the author connects the consciousness of those past people to the Irish today. He weaves a very unified whole that gives one, forgive the drama, the spirit of the
land and its past and present, its people then and now. It is almost completely concerned with the Irish sacred world, and there is nothing dry about this text at all, even though the depth of historical
research that went into it is obvious and amazing.
There are so many anecdotes drawn from even modern times that show the place myth held here for so long. It documents how rural Irish folk maintained sincere and unapologetic belief in the faeries right up
until the invention of the television in the forties. There are stories from the nineteenth century of Irish men telling their friends of seeing a vision of Aine, the sun goddess and then dying a few days
later as legends decreed that they must. Tales of Aine seen bathing in a sacred lake, combing her hair with a golden comb and how men who looked upon her died unless they were especially bold and managed
to win her favor.
On a more substantial level, the book documents how Irish sacred sites are constructed to align with solar events related to the old celtic holy days, and the planning that went into these locations was
nothing short of amazing.
I am getting so much more from it than game material (I'm about half way through) but it is literally loosing a stream of ideas for some fun games set in prehistoric Ireland.
I have read dozens of books like this, looking unsuccessfully for what I finally find in this book, which is not simply an re-telling old Irish legends, but the understanding of them, the explanation of
their symbols, where they come from, what they mean and how they are relative today not only to Ireland but to the world, which shares so many of them in common. I come to understand how the very land itself
and the people's relationship to it, their immediate perception of its phenomena, uniquely informs every myth. For example, the old Irish word for winter is related to marriage and indeed winter was the
season for marriage because of the torrential rains and flooding that inundated the land and the houses themselves were held to be the reproductive secretions of the goddess, her amniotic fluids, and thus
closely related to fertility and harvest. There is a very sizable section of text devoted wholly to Crom, who was actually a diminished version of a stronger, previous pre-Norman god. Crom was an obsidian
skinned harvest god who was bent under the weight of a giant sheaf of grain and whose favour was essential to crops...if this is where Robert E Howard mined Conan's god, it's a strange origin for a Cimmerian
mountain deity! Lots here about the fairy mounds, the banshee, and the Irish Otherworld, which, unlike in most cultures, was not a dreary dark underworld at all but a place of light, knowledge, happiness and
joy, though not without its perils as mortals discovered whenever they found its doors.
I will conclude with a funny anecdote from the book that is said to have occurred in 1902 when an English folklorist was searching out Neolithic tombs. He rode upon a homestead where he was greeted by a
group of fair young women and asked them where he might find the tomb and upon discovering their knowledge of the place he asked if one might accompany him to find the place. They started laughing and
blushing amongst themselves until the oldest among them said she would take him there. However, she did not speak anything but Irish and his understanding and patience being limited where Irish speech was
concerned, he became angry and somewhat rude and said never mind. Riding a few miles he came upon a farm where a middle aged woman spoke better English and knew also where the grave was. Upon recounting his
experience back down the road, she laughed and explained to him that the ancient custom, still upheld, was that any lass who accompanied a man to this site, once there, was obliged to grant him anything he
asked of her....
If you have any interest in the Irish mythology, you will cherish this book.
