Celtic Studies class for Wednesday

[godinakilt.livejournal.com]

Camulus is still suprisingy bouncy. Even the glass eyes of the moose head seems to be twinkling merrily at the students. "Welcome back, my students. If you would review the previous lessons, we can begin. Today's lesson will pick up with a brief history of the six waves of invasion of Ireland."


All information regarding the previous inhabitants of Ireland is contained in the Lebor Gabala Erenn - literally, the Book of Invasions of Ireland. The first to arrive were the people of Cessair. Cessair was a descendant of Noah, and was warned of the Great Flood before it occured, so she fled to Ireland with some of her people. However, many of their ships were wrecked, leaving eventually only three men and fifty women. The three men were named Bith, Ladra, and Fionntan. However, Bith and Ladra soon died - it is said that Ladra died "of an excess of women". Fionntan, probably not wishing to suffer the same fate, fled, eventually turning into a succession of animals, including a salmon, a hawk, and an eagle. He lived to be 5500 years old and advised succeeding waves of invasion as to the history of the land. Eventually, as a salmon, he was eaten by Finn MacCumhall.

After Cessair and her people, the land lay wasted for several hundred years, before the arrival of Partholon and his people. Partholon was a Greek prince who had fled his homeland after killing his mother and father in an unsuccessful grab at his father's crown. Although Partholon himself died, his people flourished and propered in Ireland for a further five centuries, until they were all wiped out by a plague in the space of a week. The only survivor was Tuán mac Cairill, Partholon's nephew. Like Fionntan, he lived for several hundred years in various animal forms, and also advised succeeding invaders.

The third invasion was by Nemed and his people. And only a very few of his people, as on their way they encountered various difficulties, meaning only about thirty people, including Nemed and his wife, Macha, arrived in one piece, about thirty years after the plague. they quickly grew to several thousand people - throwing them into conflict with a race of monsters who lived on the island, the Formorians. After three monumental battles, Nemed defeated the Formorians. However, he died of the plague after a long kingship and the Formorians returned, pushing the Nemedians into virtual slavery by heavy taxation. The Nemedians revolted but were crushed, and only thirty warriors escaped from Ireland alive.

One of these warriors went to Greece and founded the next wave of invaders, the Fir Bolg. The name 'Fir Bolg' is generally translated as 'Men of the Bag', for a number of reasons. One is that they carried small bags of Ireland's soil with them. Another is that they used bags to move dirt and rocks. They moved dirt and rocks because they were also practically slaves, this time in Greece. The Fir Bolg pushed the Formorians back to the small Isle of . They also divided Ireland into five provinces, which will be the focus of the next lesson.

The almost-final wave of invasion (sometimes referred to as the final wave) came some thirty years after the Fir Bolg, by another set of descendants of the Nemedians. These were the Tuatha de Danaan, the people of the goddess Danu. They would become the fairyfolk, the sidhe of legend. They were an almost invincible, magical race of demi-gods.

The final invasion was by the Sons of Mil, also known as the Milesians, or the Gaels. These were people from Spain who arrived when the Tuatha de Danaan had mostly passed into legend. They have become the modern Irish.

And here endeth the lesson.

[[OOC: *is tired from all the typing* C'mon guys, interaction! Roleplay!]]

Comments

[12parseckessel.livejournal.com]

Nothing else to do nights, and it's good practice. This isn't my first written language.

But we're only dealing with what, maybe 20,000 years, tops, so how much legend can build up around the history?




[[ooc: mun is Irish, a storyteller and overly enamoured of Julian May. you do the math.]]

[godinakilt.livejournal.com]

You underestimate the speed of exaggeration. The Celts didn't have any kind of written histories or fables until well into the dominance of Christianity. If you'll remember, that's why in order to examine the ancient Celts we needed to look at what the Classical authors said about them. Each of these stories would have been told by a storyteller, who would have exaggerated certain parts and ommitted others. References to Noah and the Great Flood would have been added following the introduction of Christianity, which would have been even more recently, only a thousand to five hundred years before they were formalised in manuscripts.

[[Colour me scared. I'm just trying to avoid studying for Celtic Lit.]]

[12parseckessel.livejournal.com]

Don't most cultures have a Flood Myth? I mean, we even have them back home--The Goddess, goaded to rage by her brother Herlivion, God of Unbelievers, over the imperfections of her children, decided to wipe things clean and start over. We have it because our civilizations started on riverbanks and seashores. Especially seashores in the Northern Archipelagos.


Do the Celts have a flood myth, or did they borrow the ones from the Christians? Is that the death cult whose temple is in town?

[godinakilt.livejournal.com]

There is a flood myth in almost every culture. Actually, I find the one that the scientists of this time and place have created very interesting. A collapsing canopy of water vapour. Intriguing possibilities for terraforming. In this case, however, it is impossible to know whether the Celts had a flood myth of their own which was then adapted to the Judeo-Christian prejudices of those who recorded the legends of the Celts, or if the addition of Noah and his descendants werre completely added by those monks. However, because their relation to Noah seems spurious, I would say that the former were more likely.

My people were not in the habit of telling stories to be that were not in praise of my magnificence. *he manages to say this deadpan, without a trace of irony, sarcasm, or pride*

[12parseckessel.livejournal.com]

Are they up to terraforming tech?

*is really confused now*

So, about these Danu. You say they're myth, but that myth is history "told through many mouths" as we say. So are we dealing with actual psi users who--I don't know--invaded the planet and interbred?

[godinakilt.livejournal.com]

*snorts* The Tau'ri? Terraforming? They can barely landscape.

The Danaan (Danu was the goddess) and their abilities - well, that's the trick of it, isn't it? You don't believe in faeries, do you, Solo? You're trying to explain it in terms of things that you can see and touch. Users of this 'psi', invasions, interbreeding. What can I tell you except that it is magic?

[12parseckessel.livejournal.com]

After taking Jareth's class, not sure exactly what I believe anymore. I've seen people a handspan high, with wings, and heard 'em called fairies. One of them tried to take a bite out of my boot.

I'm coming at this the only way I know. Every time I turn around this rimworld has something new and backward weird to show me. And the stories are just confusing me more.

We tell stories to understand who we are and where we came from, right? And even when they aren't accurate, the stories are true. So why tell such crazy ones of people living for millenia?

[godinakilt.livejournal.com]

Because these stories aren't necessarily about ourselves, or our people. They're about what our people believed, how they thought. Stories are the reality of the mind, not the body. So the stories are true to our thoughts, if not the reality of our being.

And living for millenia isn't difficult. *smirks* I can show you how. I am the god Camulus, not his descendent, his avatar, his reincarnation, or here through some accident of the spacetime continuum. I and my brethren ruled this planet when they were but savages playing in the dust.

[12parseckessel.livejournal.com]

*stioll looking puzzled*

I think I understand.


I figure living forever is simple enough. All you've gotta do is not die that particular day.

[godinakilt.livejournal.com]

*laughs* An excellent attitude to possess. I once heard kingship described as a game. If you're still alive at the end of the day, you win. And every day is a brand new game.

[[I'm off to bed. We can pick this up in the morning, if you so desire.]]

[12parseckessel.livejournal.com]

[[ooc: np. I thought this was a good place to leave it. Any further and you're getting my knowledge, not what Han has managed to acquire in 2 weeks of obsessive studying while grounded.]]