The Otherworld in Druidic
mythology is . . . well, not this world. It is where the dead
go. Everybody goes. It is refreshingly different from
Heaven, Nirvana or the Elysian Fields of other mythologies.
Although we ordinary folk cannot know what is going on in the
Otherworld, the folks there take a keen interest in the affairs of this
world. Our mythic heroes, heroines and other fairy folk are free to come and go
from the Otherworld, and live there when not here. It is the place
of things that were, will be, or just that fancy fares. In the
Otherworld you will find Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth, and Mag Mal,
the Pleasant Plain. In some myths is underground, in mounds, and
in others it is over the seas, far to the West. Brigid has her apple
orchard and magical bees there. Mostly the Otherworld is hidden by mists from
we mortals. To get
there sail with Manannan mac Lir, son of the Sea.
In a way, books and cyberspace are a wee bit of a peek into
the Otherworld, so here are some that may be of interest.
Cuchulain of Muirthemne, the Story of the Men of the Red Branch of
Ulster, by Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory
The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, by William Butler Yeats
Celtic Twilight, by William Butler Yeats
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, Edited by William Butler
Yeats
Irish Fairy Legends, T. Crofton Croker
Legends, Charms and Superstitions of Ireland, Lady Wilde
Irish Myth and Legends, by Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory
The Ancient Irish Goddess of War, by W. M. Hennessey
The Masks of God, by Joseph Campbell
The Hero With a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
Leabhar
na Nuachongbhálaor the Book of Leinster -- This 12th
Century AD manuscript is mostly at Trinity College, Dublin. It
has 187 extant leaves, with 45 believed lost. It is an anthology
of Irish tradition - prose, verse, and genealogy - the compilation of
which spanned the second half of the twelfth century. It takes its
name from an ecclesiastical foundation in Co. Laois, that of Oughaval,
near Stradbally. Of the number of scribes who worked on it only one is
known by name: Aed mac meic Crimthaind. It contains many texts,
including Lebor Gabála Érenn or the Book of Invasions, the most
complete version of Táin Bó Cuailnge or the Cattle Raid of Cooley, and before
its separation from the main volume, the Martyrology of Tallaght.
An online edition is available at
http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/leinster.html
Leabhar Buidhe Lecain or Yellow Book of Lecan -- This vellum
manuscript is written in Middle Irish. It is from the end of the
14th Century AD, and is now Trinity College, Dublin. It consists of
17 manuscripts bound together by Edward Lhuyd about AD 1700.
The actual manuscript can be viewed at
http://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index.html
Liber Ardmachanus or the Book of Armage -- This Christian
manuscript is from the 9th Century AD. It is some of the oldest
examples of Old Irish. It is now at Trinity College, Dublin.
There are 221 vellum folios. It also contains accounts of the
life of Saint Patrick, who claimed that some of the Faerie Folk, the Tuatha De Danānn,
had come to him in a dream, in essence, giving Ireland to
Christianity.
These are among the best known of a vast the heritage. You
can learn much more online at the
Celtic Literature Collective.
Irish Script on Screen, the Dublin Institute for Advanced
Study, has a massive library of photographs of manuscript pages
available for study at
http://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index.html
