Celtic Paganism 04/10/01 Notes

Celtic Paganism

Black Irish > Celtic Paganism > Notes > 04/10/01

Aed Abrat /t/ /avrad/

Oengus
Fand = Manannán
Lí Ban = Labraid

Eithne
Emer
Mag Mell
- Plain of Delights

The Wasting sickness of Cú Chulaind

Starts with a look back at Ireland's past to the heroic age
assembly -- 3 days before Samhain and 3 days after
- not at Emain Macha but Mag Morthemna -- CC land
- reason -- give each warrior the chance to boast valor and exhibit triumphs
  - triumphs often accomplished in guarding borders -- defense of borders
- exhibiting tongues of slain warriors
  - cf. brain balls
- some threw in cattle tongues as well
  - skeptical redacter
    - cow's tongues a lot bigger
  - spoke with swords on thighs which turned against any who swore falsely
- raids
  - drive off cows
  - carry off women
  - legal tender ties
- 2nd Battle of Moyturra
  - ¶162 -- sword of Tethra, told what done by it
- sword worship
  - TDD -- 4 treasures, spear / sword
- delayed
  - Conall and Fergus nottyet arrived
- amuse themselves in the meantime
- flock of brids settle on lake
p. 156, curious CC reaction
- cause of 3rd blemish
  - Conall -- crooked neck
  - Cúscraid -- stammar
  - Cú C -- blind in one eye
birds -- for all but for wife
p. 157 -- 2 OW birds
- cause host to sleep
- missed for 1st time
Goes to sleep
- 2 women approach, smile, and beat him with a horsewhip and then leave
Fergus perceives it's a vision
- cf. post divination -- mantic sleep while others watch
CC awakens
- can't speak for a year
vision whipping has real effects
end of year
- Conall in picture now
- Lugaid Réoderg
While gathered t.g.
- Oengus turns up
  - invites CC to come to his land (OW)
  - if comes, favors of Fand, Manannán's (sea god) estranged wife
Conchub. advises CC to go back to same stone
- Lí Ban (color white) wife of Labraid /b/ /th/ Lúathlám ar Cladeb (swift hand on a sword)
if CC fights vs. L's enemies, will get Lí Ban
- CC sends char. instead
Mag Mell
- chieftly inhabited by women
- Do not leave Lóeg except under a woman's protection
Continued emphases on women occup. this spot
Left-out protion
p. 162 -- back up a bit
p. 163 -- poem to strengthen CC.
p. 164 -- bottom poem
- important to meaning of story
- description of ideal Ireland under ideal kingship
- human counterpoint to Loeg's OW description
- OW is source of rightful kingship
  - model for all that's good
p. 166 -- CC won't go on a woman's invitation so sends Lóeg instead
p. 167-170 -- CC healed by recitation of glories of OW
- came to mound, on mound sm. Lab.
p. 168 -- 3 special trees
- gentle flock of birds
- transf. of women
- a well
So CC goes off to Mag Mell, aids M., and then sleeps with Fand and returns to own land, instr. for FAnd to join him.
- other women consp. to kill Fand
p. 174 -- in e. Ireland, multiple wives
- but here Emer jealous
MML comes to save Fand
- no memory betgween them
druids charm CC -- drink of forgetfulness
bird motif familiar
- vision/action in liminal zone
  - called to assembly but assembly not begun
    - liminal time
      - samhain -- in between part of year
- Why women come in friendship and horsewhip?
  - horse important with whip?
  - treating CC like horse
  - injuring so can promise to heal him for favor
Handout
- p. 162 is where is occurs
- ritual of divination to see rightful king
  - all of Ireland except Ulstermen
- bull feast -->Lugaid Réoderg (red stripe)
  - conceived by 3 brotehrs raping their sister
  - triple conception motif -- 2 stripes divide body to 3rds
- §25, 26 -- tecosca -- teachings / precepts
  - well-known genre -- speculum principus (prince's mirror)
  - how to be an ideal king
  - originally thought as interpolation irrelevant to story, but now thought relevant.
- §28 -- Ó C. analysis
  - story is a tryptic
    - Ireland's historic past, p. 156, desr. by Emer (arise p. 164-5)
      - idealized human domain
    - OW as described by Loeg
      - p. 167-170
    - Conditions necessary for a golden age in human world
      - prov. kings meeting to elec. king vs. force
      - bull feast/prophesy
        OW helps select hero
      - CC instr. to king after has knowle. of OW
      - OW as source of rightous kingship
      - WW ensure golden age of peace and plenty in Ireland.
- OW -- mist / snow
  - obscure / distort
  - ordin -- human perception distorted
- CC between wives
- Why Lugaid need CC help?
- symbioltic relationship between OW and HW.
- true in later folklore of Ireland
  - OW Queen needs human midwife
- Labraid and CC as shadows of eachother
  - Labraid = he speaks
    - articulation of ideals that make ideal world in human realm
- Lí Ban
  - beauty
  - splendor of form
  - color white

Exile -- p. 257

long history
- 8th c. - earliest redaction
continued to be retold t.o. Irish literature
- Yeats
- Singe
one of 3 sorrows of storytelling
Is it only a sad story or something more in the tale?
Ulsterman assembled
- Fedilmid's wife present, etc.
  - wife pregnant, as goes to bed, child screams and is heard in court
  - men's reaction
    - jump up ready for battle
  - Senchae
    - p. 258
  - roaring roar
    - durdurtur
  - druid -- Cathub
    - prophesy
      - trouble
  - after born
    - another reg. prophesy
  - prophesies of druids will come true
  - Ulstermen
    - Slay here!
  - Conchubar
    - claims as own
One day, p. 260 -- fate sign
- Noísiu just like that
  - has 2 brothers, inseparatble, function as one
- music considered magical
  - happy
  - sad
  - forget
  - magical singing, 1/3rd more milk
- like triple deities in iconography
p. 260 -- cattle talk
- bull of the province = king
2 ears of shame and mockery -- p. 261
- 1 way poets got people to comply was to grab their ears and rub between fingertips until red
- e. 10th c allusion to this
  - briatran smertruch
D. putting N. under constraints that he can't get out of.
p. 261 -- won't be disgraced by turning her down
- conflict of interest -- Conchuber/D.
leave E. Macha, eventually go to Albu
- hide D. but found out
p. 262, can come back
- guarantors -- Fergus, Dubthach, C's son Cormac
  - if renig, guarantors lose honor/standing in society
Fergus derailed by invitations to feasts and banquets
- had geis -- could not refuse hospitality in certain circumstances
So N. and 2 brothers were killed by Conchuber's machinations
Fergus informed
- C's son killed
- sets fire to E.M.
- goes into exile -- dishonored
  - raid and destroy for next 16 years
Year after N's death
- D's lament
finale
- what hate most? You and Éogan
- idea -- alt. Conch. & Éogan, 1 year each for rest of life
- p. 267 -- eye of a ewe between 2 rams
Máire Herbert
- sovereignty myth
- betrayed by love or heroic ethos?
- submit to lover or influence her own destiny?
- separates verse from prose
- story mediated through ethos of Christianity
- verse is post-Christian
  - kind of verse -- quatrains of exact syllable count
    - end rhyme
  - inherited Irish verse not of this sort
- beginning around 6-7th centuries
  - new kind of verse < Latin hymn meters
    - this is type in text
- similarly with highly styleized rhythmic prose passages
- in poetry find Christian view of women
  - cf. Adam and Eve view
- in poem
  - p. 258
    - C. prophesy -- because of you this will happen
  - p. 264
    - N's grave now been made -- D. accepting responsibility for things happening
  - Christian mediation of events of original story
- What was the original story about?
  - exemp. on kingship
  - right to spare, wrong to keep for self, isolate, unsocialize
- Is N. doing the right thing? Negl. obl. of loyalty to Conch.
  - heifer where no bulls, suggest no bull of province, sov. still has choice
  - goddesses' choice, not king keeping
  - Conch. choosing her
  - shee chooses younger person
- p. 18-19 in article
  - complementarity between nature and culture
    - neither dominates other
    - also between sexes
    - -->balance in society for good kingship / sovereignty
- tale
  - myth of sov. -- sov. goddess
  - idea mediated by church by adding verse voices
    - med. patriarchal Christian view
- p. 261 -- last time N. speaks in this story