Celtic Folklore Research Articles

"Dragon-Ridden" Days: Yeats, Apocalypse, and the Anthropocene

Dragons, being imaginary creatures, escape the umbra of extinction shadowing multiple species on earth today. We can trace their lineage from Homer (at least in the European tradition) to the personal mount of of Daenerys Targaryen, Drogon, in Game of Thrones; or, from Beowulf to J. R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Because they are textual creatures, dragons display a re-silience and capacity to mutate that makes them eloquent ontological signifiers in mythic narratives, as motifs of epistemological uncertainty in folklore and cultural memory, and as embodiments of extra-human/pre-modern intrusions in the workings of history. Whereas Chinese dragons are often beneficial to the human species, European variants (including those found in Celtic folklore) are not. Dragons spell death and destruction; they demand human sacrifices, as in the legend of St. George. Their appearance suggests power and menace of extraordinary dimensions, as in Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwock. (The Jabber-wock was first illustrated by John Tenniel in 1871 as a dragon, and the tradition continues well into the present day, in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, for example.) Dragons collude with destructive forces; their power to annihilate everything that stands for “human” is unwittingly referred to in Kanye West’s words above.2 I suggest in this essay that the image of the dragon offers us a portal into the highly ornate symbolic structures of W. B. Yeats’s historiography and his vision of the apocalyptic.

ВПЛИВ КЕЛЬТСЬКОЇ МІФОЛОГІЇ НА КАЗКИ ЄВРОПИ

Today, the influence of Celtic folklore on the ethnic processes and cultural heritage of the peoples of the world is a generally accepted fact. However, Celtic folklore as a component of ethnology – the study of ethnicities and the diversity of cultures of the world – appears before us in a veiled and sometimes distorted form of reinterpretation of folklorists who tried to adapt the original texts and fit them to the tastes of contemporary readers. Accordingly, this exploration is dedicated to revealing the authentic features of Celtic fairy tales which laid the foundation for entire European tradition of fairy tales reading. After all, the Celtic peoples had long inhabited the territory of Europe. Their way of life, traditions and beliefs influenced the formation of the culture of the European continent. We believe that the Celtic literary heritage and mythology were reinterpreted in the early Middle Ages and adapted in the tales of European nations. In our opinion, such an important topic as the influence of Celtic mythology on the folklore of the peoples of Europe should be studied appropriately at a high level by scholars all over the world. The Celts lived throughout Europe and were able to influence the folklore of all countries in the region. Analyzing the Celtic legends, you can see how they are adapted to the folklore of the peoples of the world. The Celts were among the first ones in the world who provided symbols and objects of the world around with sacred meanings, and gave sacred and metaphorical meanings to figures and numbers. The Celtic peoples had a huge number of gods and a unique worldview. One can see the strong influence of Christian beliefs in fairy tales, though they could not displace the pagan roots. The sacred symbolism of water, superstition, the motif of transformation as a result of resistance to the gods – all these motifs appear in both fairy tales and beliefs of the Celts. The folk tales of the world reflect the ways the Celts looked at the world around them, and following them you can learn the depth of Celtic traditions. Although these tales have been adapted and influenced by future generations, they still have their original roots, which reflect for us the lifestyle, housekeeping traditions and worldview of the Celtic peoples

Category of opposition in Celtic folk-tales

A folk-tale narrative with its unique composition and deep-laid semantics is an important phenomenon of modern life. It supplements a rational worldview and preserves its priorities, despite the changes that take place in the technical, informational, communicational and other areas of human activity. The folk-tale model of the world is a binary entity characterized by interconnected oppositions. For this reason the structure of the folk-tale and its holistic perception is largely determined by the category of opposition. The article describes a model for representing the category of opposition in Celtic folklore. The author identifies general and specific types of oppositions and describes the language means expressing them. The proposed methodology for the analysis of the language means makes it possible to go beyond the traditional structural description. It gives an insight into a linguistic opposition as a contextually conditioned or a potential phenomenon. Moreover, the oppositional method can be extrapolated to the study of texts which belong to other genres of literature. Such research contributes to the understanding of British ethnic mentality. Establishing what is seen as the opposite in the texts of traditional folk culture helps to identify cultural meanings in language units.

MORGAN LLYWELYN’İN KELT KİMLİĞİ VE THE ELEMENTALS ROMANINDA KELT FOLKLORU

Morgan Llywelyn, aka Shannon Lewis, who is an exemplary writer of historical fantasy, historical fiction and historical non-fiction started her writing career thanks to her mother’s encouragement after a disappointing experience and became a prolific writer. She deals with Celtic history, culture, myth and folklore through her novels. Her works reflect her national pride and love of her Celtic roots that reach back to Llywelyn the Great. She discovered her nation’s ancient roots through strenuous efforts of historical research and wrote them down blending fact and fiction through processing archeological and historical evidences with her vivid imagination. In addition to her novels, she has short stories and non-fiction works. Llywelyn’s stories are set in different time frames and they are historically accurate in terms of main events and characters. The aim of this study is first to give biographical information of Morgan Llywelyn along with the manifestations of her Celtic identity. Moreover, the representations of Celtic folklore in her environmental fantasy, The Elementals (1993) shall be explained.

Witches and Wizards in Lithuanian Mythological Tales and their Equivalents in Russian and English

[full article and abstract in Lithuanian; abstract in English]
 This article aims to find cultural equivalents for a group of Lithuanian mythological creatures, namely, magical people, including wizards, witches, sorcerers, etc. in English and Russian languages. Therefore, first, different sources of folkloric translation and its specific issues were consulted, which created the possibility for discussion of some cultural aspects as well as links between Lithuanian, Slavic and Celtic folklore. Second, a comparative analysis of the named mythological creatures in Lithuanian, Russian and English languages and cultures was carried out. The results of the analysis have shown which names of these creatures might be considered exact cultural equivalents and which of them are only partial analogs. Such information is useful not only when choosing a domestication strategy, but for a foreignization strategy as well because these equivalents can be used both in the translation text itself and in additional extratextual comments.
 The conclusions given at the end of this article and the provided table, where specific translation suggestions are given, may be of practical importance for translators or authors writing about Lithuanian mythology and folklore for English or Russian speaking readers.

ВЛИЯНИЕ ЛИТЕРАТУРНОЙ ТРАДИЦИИ МОНАСТЫРСКОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ НА КЕЛЬТСКИЙ СТИХ

The article deals with the heritage of the Celtic culture in the medieval literature and its subsequent traditions in the European and Russian poetry of the XVIII-XIX centuries. As a result of the conducted research, it has been ascertained that the Celtic folklore tradition is not fully authentic. In most cases, it was influenced by literary processing; the metaphorical figurativeness of the works is the principle of generating sense for lexical units, which change their meaning to the point of abolition depending on a specific text. Shakespeare’s works and the Russian poetry of the XVIII-XIX centuries inherited the tradition of the Celtic verse.

“Mad” Elves and “Elusive Beauty”: Some Celtic Strands of Tolkien's Mythology [1

Contrary to Tolkien's refutation of “Celtic things” as a source for his own mythology, this article attempts to show how his work has been inspired by Celtic folklore and myth. The article is not just a source study. It concentrates on one main example from Tolkien's early literary writings that betrays a Celtic influence. At the same time it discusses Tolkien's complex attitude towards “things Celtic” within the context of his strong sense of English identity. Finally, it seeks to explain Tolkien's derogatory comments on Celtic material as a result of popular ideas of “Celticity.”

Jung, Evans-Wentz and various other gurus.

How did Jung become deeply concerned with Asian religions and particularly with the Tibetan Buddhism of a Welshman from Trenton, New Jersey? Could that man be considered one of Jung's gurus? This essay begins six years after Jung, at twenty, was admitted to the medical school of Basel University and became a member of the Zofingiaverein, a student society. The next year he gave the first of a series of lectures on the interpretation of Christ as the model of the 'god-man', like the Apostle Paul, Confucius, Zoroaster and the Buddha, who was 'drummed into the Hindu boy'. (Jung's Zofingia Lectures were discovered only after his death, in 1961, and were published in English in 1983). The present essay discusses Jung's early Buddhist interest as displayed in The Psychology of the Unconscious (finally, in a revision, entitled Symbols of Transformation), in Psychological Types and later in his foreword of the Wilhelm translation of the I Ching. Jung was influenced by the gurus Richard Wilhelm and his son Hellmut, the scholar J. W. Hauer (with whom he later broke off relations because of Hauer's Nazi politics), the indologist Heinrich Zimmer, and the Zen master D. T. Suzuki. Walter Yeeling Wentz was born in Trenton in 1878 and brought up in his family's theosophist faith. The Wentzes moved to San Diego in 1900, and Walter added his mother's Celtic surname, Evans, to the German Wentz. He was educated at Stanford University and travelled in Europe, studying Celtic folklore, and widely in the Near East, Tibet, India, and Oxford--studying religions everywhere and editing Tibetan books. He lived his last decades in San Diego and conducted a correspondence with Jung, while living in a cheap hotel, or in an ashram.

Ancient Bards, Welsh Gipsies, and Celtic Folklore in the Cauldron of Regeneration

Ancient Bards, Welsh Gipsies, and Folklore in Cauldron of Regeneration.1 On August 22, 1861 antiquarian Edward Woolley visited Aberystwyth, attended a Welsh harp concert, and shortly afterwards wrote a glowing account of this event, describing it as the only legitimate performance we now have of style in which must have played... (quoted in E.E. Roberts 1981:46).2 examination of time period in which Woolley wrote sheds light on what he might have meant by ancient bards. understanding of context shows how he could so easily but mistakenly juxtapose two widely separated periods (the time of ancient bards and his own Victorian Britain of 1860s) and reveals that performers, far from embodying links to bardic past through heredity or reconstructing styles through careful research, were relative newcomers to tradition, and in fact, early participants in folklore revival. By 1861, revival of eisteddfod, originally a convention of bards, was well underway in Wales (Morgan 1983).3 The Twilight would soon descend, created by antiquarian, aesthetic, nationalistic and anti-industrial interests (cf. Yeats 1902). Celtic culture would be rediscovered and all regions would see a limited but enthusiastic revival of music, dance, language, and costume, and development of new literary genres for Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Breton and Cornish languages. While these Celtic-speaking peoples had been colonized or subjugated by their dominant neighbor (England or France) and were subject of much social critique and caricature, aspects of their culture did appeal, at least to a select few, and generated a sophisticated literary movement. Although Irish may have been parodied by Victorians as apes (Curtis 1971), Irish folklore provided inspiration that eventually led to a Nobel Prize for one of its refashioners, William Butler Yeats (18651939). Wales on other hand had long been maligned, being described in such terms as a Country in World's back-side, where every Man is born a Gentleman, and a Genealogist (Sir John Vanbrugh, in Aesop, ca. 1697, quoted in Morgan 1983: 45). Following several centuries of similar English parody and satire, Welsh traditional culture was now threatened by more pragmatic issues such as industrialization, religious condemnation, assimilation to English culture, and language loss, although revivalists secured a safe niche for a re-created Welsh culture in eisteddfod.4 The 1789 eisteddfod is generally considered first of new eisteddfodau, although lesser events, known as almanack eisteddfodau, had been held in taverns for about a century prior to revival. The earliest documentation is from 1176, far later than period of pre-Roman antiquity evoked by neo-druidic artists and writers such as Edward Williams (Iolo Morgannwg, 1747-1826), William Blake (17571827).5 and S. R. Meyrick and C.H. Smith, whose 1815 illustration of An Archdruid in His judicial Habit provided basis for revival bardic costume and accessories though it actually combined (Iron Age) and pre-Celtic (Bronze Age) imagery in an anachronistic collage (Piggott 1968: 226).6 For his part, Williams contributed to romantic illusion through publications such as seemingly historic Myvyrian Archaiology [sic], which appeared between 1801 and 1807 and was later shown to contain much work of Williams's own composition. In 1819 Williams enlarged eisteddfod format by adding ceremony of Gorsedd [Chairing] of Bards of Island of Britain. At same time as heritage was regaining cultural status, albeit in a remodeled and sometimes newly created format, Gipsies in Britain were subject of scathing social critique. While a small group of mid-century idealists glamorized Gipsy life, majority opinion of it was negative, as shown by extensive legal restrictions and by reform movements intent on homogenizing and cleaning up Gipsy society (Crabb 1832). …

Wilde's use of Irish Celtic elements in The picture of Dorian Gray

Contents: This book includes an introduction, the heritage of Irish Celtic folklore from his parents, folklore motifs and themes, the oral tradition, satire, and a new reading of the three garden scenes in chapter one.

La traversée prodigieuse dans le folklore et l'hagiographie celtiques : de la merveille au miracle

Prodigious crossings of seas and rivers by saints are quite commonplace in Celtic folklore and hagiography. Typological analysis reveals three variants of this motif: the saint walks the waves ; the saint leaps over a waterway ; the saint uses a fragile vessel or even a miraculous one (a leaf or even a stone), The present study aims at showing the diversity of the corpus and at throwing light on these variants through the use of explanatory hypotheses, themselves quite diverse (ordeals, foundation legends, a posteriori justifications of pre-christian rites, epic receptions of saints, as well as Christian références of universal significance).

Celtic Folklore and Christianity: Studies in Memory of William W. Heist

Celtic Folklore and Christianity: Studies in Memory of William W. Heist

Celtic Folklore and Christianity: Studies in Memory of William W. Heist

Celtic Folklore and Christianity: Studies in Memory of William W. Heist

Celtic Folklore and Christianity

Celtic Folklore and Christianity

Book Reviews

GUIDE D'ÉTUDE DIRECTE DES COMPORTEMENTS CULTURELS. By M. MAGET. Paris, 1953. Pp. xxxv, 260 ; 16 plates and drawings Reviewed by E. Ettlinger. TOBIAS TOMAMICHEL, Bosco GURIN, DAS WALSERDORF IM TESSIN. Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Volkskunde (G. Krebs Verlagsbuchhandlung). Basle, 1953. Pp. 155, illustrated. Reviewed by E. Ettlinger. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CELTIC FOLKLORE, Stornoway and Oban, October 5th–13th, 1953. Reviewed by E. Ettlinger. MY GYPSY DAYS : RECOLLECTIONS OF A ROMANI RAWNIE. By DORA E. YATES. Pp. 192, 9 plates. 8vo. London, Phoenix House, 1953. Price 16s. Reviewed by E. O. Winstedt. WORD FOR WORD. AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF BEER. Vol. X I in the Whitbread Library. 1953. 5s. Reviewed by Leslie F. Newman. RADNORSHIRE. By W. H. HAWSE. E. J. Thurston, Hereford. Price l6s. 6d. Reviewed by Lilian H. Hayward. CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF SEX AND MARRIAGE. An Inquiry Relating to all Races and Nations from Antiquity to the Present Day. By GEORGE RYLEY SCOTT, F.Ph.S. (Eng.) F.Z.S., F.R.A.I., Torchstream Books, London, 1953. Reviewed by B. Z. S.

X. The Dolerite Boss of Sithan-t-Sluain

Introduction, Sithan-t-Sluain is the name given to a conspicuous eminence (500 ft.) above the general plateau level (1000 ft.) of that portion of the Highlands south of Loch Fyne, Argyllshire, Scotland. The name itself, associated as it is with many local traditions, proved an interesting little holiday study. “Sithan” translated from the Gaelic means “Fairy Hill” or “Green Hill,” while an annotated copy of Scott’s “The Lady of the Lake” gives “Sithan” as “Men of Peace” whence it was thought that the hill obtained its name because certain monks used it as a place of refuge when their monasteries were raided. It is more probable, however, that this hill was a landmark indicating the direction in which the Men of Peace resided. Some Gaelic dictionaries give “Sith” as meaning peace, spiritual, fairies, or green hill, while “Sluain” or “Sluaigh” means people. Tradition has it that this hill was so named out of regard for those gentle folk about whom all manner of strange tales are to be found in Celtic Folklore. Modern inability to appreciate the Gaelic sentiment has had the effect of stigmatising this 1500 ft. hill as the Fairy Knowe, a name I find convenient for use in this paper. General Description. The Fairy Knowe (Sithan-t-Sluain) is situated on the south side of Loch Fyne about two miles east of Newton Bay, directly south of the croft known as Stuckreach. The summit (1428 ft.) of the hill (plate ii) may be seen from almost any point in Upper This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx

PROF. RHYS has done well to republish, in these two handsome volumes, the collections of Celtic Folk-lore contributed by him to the pages of Y Cymmrodor and the Transactions of the Folk-lore Society. For not only are they thus rendered accessible to a larger number of readers, but he has enriched them with considerable additions, and a valuable commentary. Had he seen his way to recast the original articles, with a view to a more complete classification of their contents, it would have avoided some repetition, and would have set the relations of the various tales in a clearer light. But we must be grateful for the work in its present form. To recast the articles would have been a troublesome process, and perhaps no classification would have been entirely satisfactory. Moreover, we should certainly have missed in any such rearrangement much of the genial charm of the collections as they first came from his pen, derived from the personal narrative of the collector. To a large number of his readers this would have been a sacrifice they might not be willing to make, even for the sake of theoretical order. When, however, the severely virtuous student, who, intent only on what he is to learn, would have preferred to make this or any other sacrifice, has calmed, his ruffled feelings and settled down to his task of learning, he will speedily realise how important a contribution to anthropology, and in particular to Celtic archaeology, he has before him. Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx. By John Rhys of the University of Edinburgh, Professor of Celtic, Principal of Jesus College, Oxford. 2 vols., paged consecutively. Pp. xlviii + 718. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901.) Price 21s.