Story Archaeology

William Robinson: Tallanbanna with cloud front. 1988

So many of the old Irish stories tell of an Otherworld that lies so close to our own. If you want to discover what the stories have to  say about getting there, what you might find when you arrive,  and when, or if, you might return, then join Chris in this audio-article exploration.

Apologies for the quality of recording in Isolde's opening message. When we have fully implemented the new recording set-up,  allowing effective recording while Isolde is lying  down,  it will be much improved.

Links to podcast episodes referenced in this audio-article.

Cormac' s  Adventures in the Otherworld

The Instructions of King Cormac

The Adventures of Nera: The Cow and the Time Machine

Another take on Echtrae Nerai: Corpse Carrying for Beginners

The voyage of Brain Mac Febul

The story of Mongán and  his wife:

The pursuit of the Gilla Decair

Tocmarc Étaíne 1 - A Fly On The Wall, 

Tocmarc Étaíne 2 - The Reborn Identity

Tocmarc Étaíne 3 - A Game of Fidchell

The article on Underworlds

 If you want to find out about more about Leprechauns! A Crock of Old Cobblers

And for source material on the Irish Otherworld:  Space, Time and the Otherworld: by Professor John Carey. Source: Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Vol. 7 (1987), pp. 1-2Published by: Department of Celtic Languages & Literatures, Harvard University 

And that picture of Niamh and Oisín in my bathroom?

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Story Archaeology is run on a voluntary not-for-profit basis. If you can afford a donation towards our running costs, we would be very grateful. The “Donate” button is on the right-hand-side of each page, or e-mail us for other ways to support our work.

Check our Reading List for further reading and resources.

by The Story Archaeologists

Music: “Tam Lin” by Gian Castello

The briugu, Mac Dá Thó, is the proud owner of the marvelous hound, Ailbe. He also possesses a notorious pig. Now he finds himself faced with contending regional kings and their retinues of elite warriors, demanding the hound for themselves. Will serving up his gourmet pig at a grand feast save his bacon?

Join the Story Archaeologists as they share the boasting and bragging from the best of the warriors of Ulster, and Connaught, and beyond.

Read the text for yourself!

Scéala Muicce Mac Dá Thó: read the text for yourself. Edited and translated into English by Nora Kershaw Chadwick

Satirical Narrative in Early Irish Literature by Ailís Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh

Bricriu's Feast

Series 3.04-Fled-Bricrenn 1 - The-Feasting-Hall

Series 3.05: Fled Bricrenn 2 - The Road to Crúachán

Series 3.06: Fled Bricrenn 3 - Your Head or Mine?

Series 3.07: Fled Bricrenn 4 - A Head to Head Discussion

The magnificent warrior women Scathach and Aife both play a major role in Cú Chulainn's future life and exploits but they are not the only women who actively engage with out young hero..

Join the Story Archaeologists as they attempt to come to terms with the number of  dalliances and romantic interludes encountered   by the young man on his ventures to Scathach's mysterious northern island in his quest to win his canny bride, Emer.

Read the text for yourself!

This episode discusses only the second half of this text. The first half was addressed in the previous episode, 6.05 : 'The Wooing of Emer."

Tochmarc Emire la CoinculaindThe Wooing of Emer : translated by Kuno Meyer, based on LU and Stowe MS 992 (D. iv. 2)].Verba Scathaige: (Translation by P.L. Henry)We also referred to  Series 3.03 The Well and the Cheese, with reference to the violent death of Derbforgaille and Medb

Cú Chulainn meets his match

In this episode we get to meet the marvelous Emer, the woman who bests  the young Cú Chulainn, at least, in terms of her sharp witted and far-sighted eloquence.

Join the Story Archaeologists as we try to decode how Emer manages her young and unpredictable suitor and deals with her uncompromising father.

Read the text for yourself!

This episode discusses only the first part of this long text. The second half, where our hero goes to be trained in Alba, will form the basis of the next episode.

Tochmarc Emire la CoinculaindThe Wooing of Emer : translated by Kuno Meyer, based on LU and Stowe MS 992 (D. iv. 2)].

Harder, Faster, Stronger, Better!

In this episode, we get to examine some remarkable exploits of one of the central figures in the Tain tradition: Cú Chulainn.  We explore stories told by some of the characters who know the hero, remembering him as a child.

Join the Story Archaeologists as we try to decide if  the young Cú Chulainn can be considered a 'child prodigy'  or merely a 'precocious brat'.

Read the texts for yourself!

Here are links to the texts and translations that we used for the childhood deeds of Cú Chulainn:

"The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulainn." Ancient Irish Tales. ed. and trans. Tom Cross and Harris Slover. NY: Barnes and Noble, 1996. reprint

The Boyhood of Cú Chulainn, from Táin Bó Cuailgne Recension 1; pp 135-148 [translation]: ed. and trans. Cecile O'Rahilly

The sections we refer to are under the following titles:

The Eulogy of Cú Chulainn

The Boyhood Deeds

The Death of the Boys

The Fight between Eógan mac Durthacht and Conchobar [aka Cú Chulainn and the Battlefield Phantoms]

The fate of the twenty-seven men and the reason why none dared to wound the Ulstermen when they were in their debility.

The killing of the Smith's Hound by Cú Chulainn and the reason why he is called Cú Chulainn

The Death of Nechta Scéne's Three Sons

In this episode, we continue our exploration of the troublesome conceptions and births that stand behind much of the material of the Táin tradition. This time, we examine the births of the doomed Deirdre, the fated Cú Chulainn and re-re-visit the importance of Macha's story.

Join the Story Archaeologists as we attempt to disentangle webs of prophecy and poor decision-making, and try to understand what all these little worms are about!

Read the texts for yourself!

Here are links to the texts and translations that we used for the birth of Deirdre:

from the Book of Leinster (LL)

Longes mac n-Uislenn - edited by Vernam Hull

The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu - translated by Vernam Hull

late version translated by Douglas Hyde

Deirdre

Here are the texts on Macha:

Noinden Ulad; The Story of Macha

More Stories of Macha - Revisited

 

An original translation of Compert Con Chulainn, the Conception of Cú Chulainn, will be uploaded in the coming days

 

Need some revision?

You may find it helpful to revisit our episodes on Macha:

Series 1 - Mythical Women; Episode 2 - The Story of Macha

Series 5 - Revisiting Mythical Women; Episode 2 - Revisiting Macha

Don’t forget to subscribe to get the latest posts! Related Articles will be posted in the days to come…

Story Archaeology is run on a voluntary not-for-profit basis. If you can afford a donation towards our running costs, we would be very grateful. The “Donate” button is on the right-hand-side of each page, or e-mail us for other ways to support our work.

Check our Reading List for further reading and resources.

by The Story Archaeologists

Music: “Tam Lin” by Gian Castello

The richly interwoven stories that make up the Táin tradition contain a wide diversity of characters. There is much to explore. Even their back stories have back stories!

In this episode, we explore the back stories of two such characters: the well-known Ulster king, Conchobar Mac Nessa, and the lesser-known Ulster hero, Conall Cernach.

Join the Story Archaeologists in the first of two episodes that uncover the significance of a few portentous conceptions and births.

 

Read the texts for yourself!

 

Scéla Conchobar, "The Tidings of Conchobar", from the Book of Leinster.

edited by R. I. Best and Osborn Bergin

translation by Whitley Stokes

 

 

Compert Conchobair, "The Conception of Conchobar", from Rawlinson B512 (incorrectly referred to in the episode as from the Yellow Book of Lecan)

edited by Vernam Hull

translation on the Celtic Literature Collective

 

 

Compert Conchobair, "The Conception of Conchobar", from Stowe 992

translation by Kuno Meyer

 

 

"The Conception of Conall Cernach", from Cóir Anmann, "The Fitness of Names"

Cóir Anmann, edited by Whitley Stokes

"The Conception of Conall Cernach", translated by Patrick Brown

 

 

Links to other books referenced in the episode

"Even Cuneiform writing could not be managed left handed": "The Ark before Noah" by Irving Finkel (highly recommended)

 

"The journey across the Alps in Táin Bó Fraoich": “Worlds of Arthur.”  by Guy Halsall

 

 

Need some revision?

You may find it helpful to revisit our episodes on Fled Bricrenn, Bricriu's Feast:

Fled Bricrenn 1: The Feasting Hall

Fled Bricrenn 2: The Road to Crúachán

Fled Bricrenn 3: Your Head or Mine?

Fled Bricrenn 4: A Head to Head Discussion

Don’t forget to subscribe to get the latest posts! Related Articles will be posted in the days to come…

Story Archaeology is run on a voluntary not-for-profit basis. If you can afford a donation towards our running costs, we would be very grateful. The “Donate” button is on the right-hand-side of each page, or e-mail us for other ways to support our work.

Check our Reading List for further reading and resources.

by The Story Archaeologists

Music: “Tam Lin” by Gian Castello

The Midwinter festival has been a time of over indulgence and conspicuous consumption for millenia! This year, we dig in to the Middle Irish story, Aisling MacConglinne, "The Vision of MacConglinne", a delicious debauch of extreme gastronomy.!

Join the Story Archaeologists in a feast of fantastical food, with a generous side order of sumptuous satire.

Read the full translated text here!

 

Don’t forget to subscribe to get the latest posts! Related Articles will be posted in the days to come…

Story Archaeology is run on a voluntary not-for-profit basis. If you can afford a donation towards our running costs, we would be very grateful. The “Donate” button is on the right-hand-side of each page, or e-mail us for other ways to support our work.

Check our Reading List for further reading and resources.

by The Story Archaeologists

Music: “Tam Lin” by Gian Castello

Welcome to Series 6, "Circling the Tain". In this series, we will delve into the fascinating web of stories making up the Tain tradition, with the Tain Bó Cúailnge, "The Cattle Raid of Cooley", at its core.

We begin this exploration with the story of two talented swineherds and their shape-shifting,poetic quarrel. Join the Story Archaeologists as they begin to uncover just how much this entertaining story acts as a trailer for the complex of stories that make up the Tain tradition as a whole.

Related episodes

Without too big of a Spoiler Alert, we get excited again about Mongán in this episode! Here are the links to the podcast episodes on Mongán:

Rowing Around Immrama 09: Mongan and His Missus

Rowing Around Imramma 10: Mongán and the poets

Rowing Around Imramma 11: The Mongan Mysteries

Throughout this series, "Circling the Táin", we refer to the Ulster Cycle WordPress site by Patrick Brown. His site is a superb resource for this strand of old Irish literature. Peruse at your leisure

The Ulster Cycle: Heroic Legends from Ireland - Patrick Brown

Don’t forget to subscribe to get the latest posts! Related Articles will be posted in the days to come…

Story Archaeology is run on a voluntary not-for-profit basis. If you can afford a donation towards our running costs, we would be very grateful. The “Donate” button is on the right-hand-side of each page, or e-mail us for other ways to support our work.

Check our Reading List for further reading and resources.

by The Story Archaeologists

Music: “Tam Lin” by Gian Castello

Úa na gCait

The Morrigan,  is a multi textured mythological figure, She may take  the role of war correspondent, and diplomat and record keeper. She can be sensual, uncompromising and occasionally even downright scary but then, above all, she is the perfect exemplar of the poet's skill.

Come an explore her fascinating complexity with the story archaeologists as they follow her track through the epic stories of the  Táin bó Cuailnge and the Battle of Moytura. Links for this episode

There is relevant material throughout the second series on Moytura, but three are especially connected with The Morrigan. See series 2, episode 4: 'On the Dagda's Track ,  series 2 episode 6: The Morrigan's View (part 1) and series 2,episode 6 The Morrigan's View (part 2)

We also mentioned her appearance to  Cú Chulainn in Series 3.episode : The Cow and the Time Machine.

There are also many , articles, texts and translations, connected to each of these  topics, on the website.