Senior ThesisThe Celts
IrishKlb
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Name: Caleb
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Birthday: 8/22/1986
Gender: Male


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Member Since: 11/27/2004

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Sunday, November 28, 2004

The "Cattle Raids" are another interesting part of Irish litterature. There is very little mention of fairies but the one of the three war gods does appear in the first. These stories seem to be the celtic soap's. There are interlocking relationships with conflicting desires. Cattle were very important in Celtic culture. The hero of the second of the stories gets into an argument with the war god about an upcoming battle. They exchange threats and such but one line interests me the most. The hero shouts at the war god, "Thou shallt have no power over me!" I don't know if this is something that the celts dealt with in life? Did they feel threatened by the gods and spirits that surrounded them. The other fairy tales portray the hero as fearless to the fairies and such but in poems, the feeling of fear or mystery is always associated with the spirits. So accordingly, a celtic hero would be one who is confident and stands up to the god proclaiming that he will overcome her.


In this Celtic tale, Fedelma the enchanter's daughter. It seems as though work is the determining factor for a love relationship. It is very unclear as to why they love each other but that they do love each other is quite plain. This theme seems to be repeated often in more modern stories, such as Jamie Reel and the Young Maiden. He works for some such years to provide for her so the fairies don't get her. Another theme in this story as well as  a lot of others is that of deception. The main character or the fairies will use deception or shrewdness everywhere. Maybe that's something they valued in a person. That and generosity.   


Saturday, November 27, 2004

The first thing I have to remember when studying the celts is that a lot of their original works have been changed over the years by the church to make the stories appear to have some thread of biblical truth.

In Connla and the Fairy Maiden, they mention the word judgment day and another word, I forget. Those were not in the original but were added probably after St. Patrick came to Ireland. The fairy maiden comes to Connla and pleads with him to come to a place where there is neither death nor (sin) or sorrow. Sorrow will be important later because in other stories, sorrow is always the response of the victim to a tragedy. I have seldom seen the victim react with rage. Perhaps this will change as I read further. Anyways, as the king sees his son talking with this invisible women, he calls a druid to cast her away with his spells. I have to read further but I believe that druids and such the means by which the celts fought against their fear of the fairies. "We dare'nt go a hunting, for fear of little men". The druid casts her away but she returns later and succeeds in bringing Connla away from his father. Just from this story, the maiden tells of a wonderfull place where there is nether sorrow nor death. She is a fairy and perhaps fairy's embody the celtic longing for immorality and seemingly inherent pension for sorrow. That's what I think I can learn. A maiden fairy and bids a young handsom man to come with her to a place where he will neither experience death nor sorrow. What celtic man would not be entertained by this? The druid trys to overcome her but it doesn't work. Another thing that is interesting is how the son is not afraid when he sees her coming to him. Maybe she is one of the good faires, as is talked about in FFTI. I'm going to return to this story after reading more and see if it makes more sense.