Numina · Book VIII
Celtic Mythology
Nearly everything survives at one remove. The Gauls left almost nothing of their own; what we have of them is Caesar, who had reasons to describe them a particular way, and archaeology. Irish and Welsh myth was written down between the eighth and fourteenth centuries by monastic scribes who were preserving a tradition they did not share, and who fitted its gods into biblical history as early inhabitants rather than divinities.
Read past that and the material is extraordinary. The Lebor Gabála Érenn gives Ireland six successive peoples, of whom the Tuatha Dé Danann — Lugh, the Dagda, Brigid, the Morrígan — are the gods in all but name. The Táin Bó Cúailnge turns on a cattle raid and a seventeen-year-old who cannot be stopped. The Welsh Mabinogi is stranger and quieter, and its logic is closer to dream.
The Otherworld is never far off, and it is not the land of the dead. It is adjacent, reachable, and dangerous chiefly because time runs differently there.
Contents
- VIII.1Written by monksA pagan tradition preserved by people who did not share it.—
- VIII.2The Tuatha Dé DanannGods demoted to an early race of settlers, and still recognisable.—
- VIII.3The TáinA cattle raid, a boy who cannot be stopped, and a queen who started it.—
- VIII.4The MabinogiQuieter, stranger, and closer to the logic of dreams.—
- VIII.5The OtherworldNot the land of the dead: adjacent, enterable, and wrong about time.—
The chapters are laid out; nothing is written into them yet. They stand so that what is missing is obvious rather than invisible.