Ireland's immortals : a history of the gods of Irish myth / Mark Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, M. A. (Mark Andrew), 1980- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mythology, Celtic--Ireland.

Mythology, Celtic.

Religion.

History.

Ireland.

Ireland--Religion--History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxx, 578 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2016]

Summary:

Ireland's Immortals tells the story of one of the world's great mythologies. The first account of the gods of Irish myth to take in the whole sweep of Irish literature in both the nation's languages, the book describes how Ireland's pagan divinities were transformed into literary characters in the medieval Christian era--and how they were recast again during the Celtic Revival of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A lively narrative of supernatural beings and their fascinating and sometimes bizarre stories, Mark Williams's comprehensive history traces how these gods - known as the Tuatha De Danann - have shifted shape across the centuries, from Iron Age cult to medieval saga to today's young-adult fiction. We meet the heroic Lug; the Morrigan, crow goddess of battle; the fire goddess Brigit, who moonlights as a Christian saint; the mist-cloaked sea god Manannan mac Lir; and the ageless fairies who inspired J.R.R. Tolkien's immortal elves. Medieval clerics speculated that the Irish divinities might be devils, angels, or enchanters. W. B. Yeats invoked them to reimagine the national condition, while his friend George Russell beheld them in visions and understood them to be local versions of Hindu deities. The book also tells how the Scots repackaged Ireland's divine beings as the gods of the Gael on both sides of the sea--and how Irish mythology continues to influence popular culture far beyond Ireland.

Contents:

Hidden beginnings: from cult to conversion

Earthly gods: pagan deities, Christian meanings

Divine culture: exemplary gods and the mythological cycle

New mythologies: pseudohistory and the lore of poets

Vulnerability and grace: the Finn cycle

Damaged gods: the late Middle Ages

The imagination of the country: towards a national Pantheon

Danaan mysteries: occult nationalism and the divine forms

Highland divinities: the Celtic revival in Scotland

Coherence and canon: the fairy faith and the east

Gods of the gap: a world mythology

Artgods.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 517-555) and index.

ISBN:

9780691157313

0691157316

OCLC:

951724639