Ten thousand saints : a study in Irish & European origins / Hubert Butler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Butler, Hubert.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christian saints--Ireland--Biography.

Christian saints.

Ireland.

Ireland--Church history--To 1172.

Church history.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxx, 335 pages : maps ; 22 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Dublin : Lilliput Press, 2011.

Summary:

When it was first published in 1972, Hubert Butler's pioneering masterwork was received with scepticism by his contemporaries. He used linguistics to trace the origins of myths and saints back to pre-Celtic Ireland and Europe, and showed how these stories and names - ancestors of half-forgotten tribes - became absorbed by Christian mythology. The early Irish wove their stories, as did the Greeks, the Hebrews and all early peoples, from the migration of tribes and by wordplay with their time-battered, unstable names.

Ten Thousand Saints raises fascinating problems that take us beyond the frontiers of recorded history to the remote movements of European peoples, to the clash of tribes and tongues. As modern DNA sampling and genome-mapping, seen in the regional patterning of today's Irish surnames, reinforce Butler's findings, his methods and thesis are now gaining scholarly recognition.

This new edition, amplified and updated, demonstrates ingeniously coded histories - via place names, legends, hero-figures, faints and ancestors - that relate to the 'wanderings and minglings of all the great tribes of Europe', extending back to Neolithic times. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1

1 Saints and Scholars 3

Saints 3

Scholars 6

2 Why did St Locheni Menn Stammer? 13

3 Puncraft, an Ancient Art and an Explanation of the Glossary 19

My Glossary 22

4 How Ancestors and Saints Were Made 25

In South Leinster 28

Some Ancestor Saints 30

How Saints Were Made 32

5 Who was Lug? 35

6 The First Invaders of Ireland 39

Macalister and the Idols 41

O'Rahilly and the Gods 42

7 Les Hommes Elégants de la Forêt: Tribal Implications of Gaulish Proper Names 46

Country Methods 49

8 Where Did the Irish Come From? 52

The Bebryces 53

Iberians and Ligurians 54

The Veneti 55

The Thracians 56

The Getae 56

The Briges 57

The Thyni 58

The Mygdones 58

Other Peoples 59

9 Tribal Maps 61

Amalgamated Tribes 62

Irish Analogies 66

Mug Ruith and his Iberian Relations 69

Part 2

10 Tribal Charts and Tables of Name Variants 73

The Goban Saints and the Cruithne 73

Kenneth Jackson and St Mo Chuda 75

St Cronan and St Mo Chua 75

Terminations 76

11 St Brigit and the Breac Folk 77

The Brig Folk in Scotland 79

The Breac Folk in Decies 81

12 St Patrick: His Family and Household 84

St Patrick's Missionary Journeys 88

St Lupita, St Patrick's Sister 91

St Ere, St Patricks Embroideress 93

The Etc Folk and the Thracians 96

Restitutus, St Patrick's Brother-in-Law 98

St Martin, St Patrick's Uncle 100

13 Saints of the Vascones 108

St Mescan, St Patrick's Brewer, and St Bescna, his Chaplain 108

St Escon and the Fish 110

Continental Relations: Ulysses and Aesculapius 111

14 Some Saints of the Cunesioi 114

St Finncu and the Dogs 114

St Canice and the Head Folk 116

St Conchind and the Dog Heads 119

15 Saints of the Veneti 122

St Fintan Munnu and Others 124

Their Relations with Other Saints 126

The Board-Faced Saints and the Birds 130

St Aenboin and the Units 131

Aine the Sun Goddess 132

St Enda 133

The Gwynn Saints 135

16 The Carpic Saints 137

St Corba and the Chariots 137

A The chariot folk 137

B St corba and ST Cobran 139

c Continental Saints 140

St Fuinche Garb and the Rough Folk 140

St Gabhran and the Goats 149

St Seighin Gabal and the Forks 150

St Crebriu and the Branches 151

St Gregory and the Greeks 152

St MacCreiche and the Plunder 155

St Corcaria and the Purple Folk 157

St Cruithnechan and the Wheat 159

St Mac da Cerda and the Craftsmen 161

St Cairbre Crom and the Crooked Folk 162

St Gnavan and the Bones 163

St Cearc and the Hens 165

St Goban and the Smiths 166

A Greek Epilogue 171

17 The Sons of Mil 175

St Maelcu and the Bald Folk 175

The Bald Folk 175

Leitrim and Longford 176

Sligo and Mayo 178

Wicklow 180

Wexford 180

Westmeath 181

18 The Tigurini 182

St Kentigern and the Princes 183

St Luchtigern and the Mice 186

St Foirtchern 187

The Saintly Sons of Vortigern 189

Some Miscellaneous Tigern Saints 191

St Tigernach of Clones 192

19 Saints of the Daii 195

Da Saints 199

Who was St Da Goban? 200

20 St Brendan 202

21 St Ailbe and the Apples 204

Apples 207

22 St Sciath and the Shields 208

23 St Tartinna and the Heifers 215

The Tartessii 215

In County Louth 216

In Meath and Wicklow 216

The Dartraige 217

Other Traces 217

24 St Fursa and the Frisians 218

St Fursa's Irish Family 218

Irish Stories of Fursa 220

Fursa's Companions 222

Fursa and his Companions in Ireland and Gaul 224

St Meldan 225

St Faelan 226

St Goban 226

St Algisus 227

Fursa in East Anglia 227

St Fursa in Gaul 228

Could the Frisians Have Reached Ireland? 229

25 The Cicones 231

26 The Colours of the Winds 233

27 The Saints Leave Ireland A Poem 240.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-287) and index.

Originally published in 1972.

ISBN:

9781843511489

1843511487

OCLC:

759493128