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Connla's Well
The '' Dindsenchas'' of Irish mythology give the physical origins, and etymological source of several bodies of water - in these myth poems the sources of rivers and lakes is sometimes given as being from magical wells. Connla's Well is one of a number of wells in the Irish " Celtic Otherworld". It is also termed "The Well of Wisdom", or "The Well of Knowledge", and is the mythical source of the River Shannon. The epithet ''Connla's Well'' is known from the '' Dindsenchas''. Another well is described in the dindsenchas about Boann, in the text as ("Secret Well") mythologically given as the origin of the River Boyne. This well has also been referred to as Nechtan's Well, or the Well of Segais. Some writers conflate both Nechtan's and Connla's well, making it the source of both Shannon and Boyne. Loch Garman's mythological origin is also given in the dindsenchas - in some translations or interpretations of the text the source of the water is given as the Well of Coelrind, though ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dindsenchas
''Dindsenchas'' or ''Dindshenchas'' (modern spellings: ''Dinnseanchas'' or ''Dinnsheanchas'' or ''Dınnṡeanċas''), meaning "lore of places" (the modern Irish word ''dinnseanchas'' means "topography"), is a class of onomastic text in early Irish literature, recounting the origins of place-names and traditions concerning events and characters associated with the places in question. Since many of the legends being related also concern the acts of mythic and legendary figures, the ''dindsenchas'' has been an important source for the study of Irish mythology. Works The literary corpus of the ''dindsenchas'' comprises about 176 poems plus a number of prose commentaries and independent prose tales (the so-called "prose ''dindsenchas''" is often distinguished from the "verse", "poetic" or "metrical ''dindsenchas''"). As a compilation the ''dindsenchas'' has survived in two different recensions. The first recension is found in the ''Book of Leinster'', a manuscript of the 12th century, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Slaney
The River Slaney () is a large river in the southeast of Ireland. It rises on Lugnaquilla Mountain in the western Wicklow Mountains and flows west and then south through counties Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford for 117.5 km (73 mi), before entering St George's Channel in the Irish Sea at Wexford town. The estuary of the Slaney is wide and shallow and is known as Wexford Harbour. The catchment area of the River Slaney is 1,762 km2. The long term average flow rate of the River Slaney is 37.4m3/s Towns that the Slaney runs through include Stratford-on-Slaney, Baltinglass, Tullow, Bunclody, Enniscorthy and Wexford. The river is crossed by 32 road bridges and one railway bridge. Wildlife Varied and plentiful wildlife can be found in the environs of the river. In Wicklow, herds of deer can be seen, as well as swans, dippers, wild ducks, herons and kingfishers. At dusk, bats, owls and otters may be seen, while the mudflats of the estuary are favoured by black-headed gul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Well Of Wyrd
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn up by a pump, or using containers, such as buckets or large water bags that are raised mechanically or by hand. Water can also be injected back into the aquifer through the well. Wells were first constructed at least eight thousand years ago and historically vary in construction from a simple scoop in the sediment of a dry watercourse to the qanats of Iran, and the stepwells and sakiehs of India. Placing a lining in the well shaft helps create stability, and linings of wood or wickerwork date back at least as far as the Iron Age. Wells have traditionally been sunk by hand digging, as is still the case in rural areas of the developing world. These wells are inexpensive and low-tech as they use mostly manual labour, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish literary establishment who helped to found the Abbey Theatre. In his later years he served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. A Protestant of Anglo-Irish descent, Yeats was born in Sandymount and was educated in Dublin and London and spent childhood holidays in County Sligo. He studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, lasting roughly from his student days at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George William Russell
George William Russell (10 April 1867 – 17 July 1935), who wrote with the pseudonym Æ (often written AE or A.E.), was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a writer on mysticism, and a central figure in the group of devotees of theosophy which met in Dublin for many years. Early life Russell was born in Lurgan, County Armagh (not in Portadown as has sometimes been misreported), in Ireland, the second son of Thomas Russell and Mary Armstrong. His father, the son of a small farmer, became an employee of Thomas Bell and Co., a prosperous firm of linen drapers. The family relocated to Dublin, where his father had a new offer of employment, when George was eleven years old. The death of his beloved sister Mary, aged 18, was a blow from which it took him a long time to recover. He was educated at Rathmines School and the Metropolitan School of Art, where he began a lifelong, if sometimes contentious, friendship with W. B. Yeats.Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irish Poetry
Irish poetry is poetry written by poets from Ireland. It is mainly written in Irish language, Irish and English, though some is in Scottish Gaelic literature, Scottish Gaelic and some in Hiberno-Latin. The complex interplay between the two main traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English and Scottish Gaelic literature, Scottish Gaelic, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to categorise. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century, while the first known poems in English from Ireland date to the 14th century. Although there has always been some cross-fertilization between the two language traditions, an English-language poetry that had absorbed themes and models from Irish did not finally emerge until the 19th century. This culminated in the work of the poets of the Irish Literary Revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. Towards the last quarter of the 20th century, modern Irish poetry tended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samain
Samhain ( , , , ; gv, Sauin ) is a Gaelic festival on 1 NovemberÓ hÓgáin, Dáithí. ''Myth Legend and Romance: An Encyclopaedia of the Irish Folk Tradition''. Prentice Hall Press, 1991. p. 402. Quote: "The basic Irish division of the year was into two parts, the summer half beginning at Bealtaine (May 1st) and the winter half at Samhain (November 1st) ... The festivals properly began at sunset on the day before the actual date, evincing the Celtic tendency to regard the night as preceding the day". marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or "darker half" of the year. Celebrations begin on the evening of 31 October, since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals along with Imbolc, Beltaine and Lughnasa. Historically it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, Galicia and the Isle of Man (where it is spelled Sauin). A simil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Temair
The Hill of Tara ( ga, Teamhair or ) is a hill and ancient ceremonial and burial site near Skryne in County Meath, Ireland. Tradition identifies the hill as the inauguration place and seat of the High Kings of Ireland; it also appears in Irish mythology. Tara consists of numerous monuments and earthworks—dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age—including a passage tomb (the "Mound of the Hostages"), burial mounds, round enclosures, a standing stone (believed to be the ''Lia Fáil'' or "Stone of Destiny"), and a ceremonial avenue. There is also a church and graveyard on the hill. Tara forms part of a larger ancient landscape and Tara itself is a protected national monument under the care of the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Irish Government. Name The name ''Tara'' is an anglicization of the Irish name or ('hill of Tara'). It is also known as ('Tara of the kings'), and formerly also ('the grey ridge'). The Old Irish form is . It is believed this comes fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dindsenchas
''Dindsenchas'' or ''Dindshenchas'' (modern spellings: ''Dinnseanchas'' or ''Dinnsheanchas'' or ''Dınnṡeanċas''), meaning "lore of places" (the modern Irish word ''dinnseanchas'' means "topography"), is a class of onomastic text in early Irish literature, recounting the origins of place-names and traditions concerning events and characters associated with the places in question. Since many of the legends being related also concern the acts of mythic and legendary figures, the ''dindsenchas'' has been an important source for the study of Irish mythology. Works The literary corpus of the ''dindsenchas'' comprises about 176 poems plus a number of prose commentaries and independent prose tales (the so-called "prose ''dindsenchas''" is often distinguished from the "verse", "poetic" or "metrical ''dindsenchas''"). As a compilation the ''dindsenchas'' has survived in two different recensions. The first recension is found in the ''Book of Leinster'', a manuscript of the 12th century, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James MacKillop (author)
James MacKillop (born May 31, 1939, Pontiac, Michigan) is an American professor and scholar of Celtic and Irish studies and an arts journalist A child of Gaelic-speaking Highland emigrants, he is also a near relative of St Mary MacKillop of Australia (1842-1909). Early life and education MacKillop was raised in Southeast Michigan and attended the University of Detroit High School and Wayne State University (BA, MA in English). At Wayne he wrote for the Daily Collegian and captained the university team on the GE College Bowl television program. He received a Ph.D. from Syracuse University and was a visiting fellow in Celtic Languages at Harvard University. He has lived in Upstate New York since the late sixties. Career MacKillop taught for more than forty years at various universities. Appointments include Michigan Technological University, Onondaga Community College, State University of New York College at Cortland and the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labraid Luathlám Ar Claideb
Labraid Luathlám ar Claideb ('Labraid swift sword-hand') is a figure in Irish mythology, appearing in the medieval Ulster Cycle story ''Serglige Con Culainn''. Here he is the ruler of Mag Mell. He is husband to Lí Ban, who woos Cú Chulainn for Lí Ban's sister Fand Fand ("tear", "teardrop of beauty") or Fann ("weak, helpless person'") is an otherworldly woman in Irish mythology. The two forms of her name are not phonetic variants, but two different words of different meaning and the history of her name is .... According to his wife, Labraid was the best of all the warriors in the world. Labraid's Home The following poem is recited by Lí Ban in reference to Labraid's home in Mag Mell: Labra's home's a pure lake, whither Troops of women come and go; Easy paths shall lead thee thither, Where thou shalt swift Labra know. Hundreds his skilled arm repelleth; Wise be they his deeds who speak: Look where rosy beauty dwelleth; Like to that think Labra's cheek. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nechtan (mythology)
Nechtan is a figure in Irish mythology who is associated with a spring marking the source of the River Boyne, known as Nechtan's Well or the Well of Wisdom. He was the husband of Boann, eponymous goddess of the Boyne. Nechtan is believed to be another name for Nuada. Etymology According to Georges Dumézil the name ''Nechtan'' is perhaps cognate with that of the Romano-British god Nodens or the Roman god called Neptunus and the Persian and Vedic gods sharing the name Apam Napat. The name could ultimately be derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ''*nepot-'' "descendant, sister's son", or, alternatively, from ''nebh-'' "damp, wet". Another etymology suggests that ''Nechtan'' is derived from Old-Irish ''necht'' "clean, pure and white", with a root ''-neg'' "to wash", from IE ''neigu̯-'' "to wash" As such, the name would be closely related mythological beings, who were dwelling near wells and springs: English neck (from Anglosaxon ''nicor''), Swedish ''Näck'', German ''Nixe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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