#BookologyThursday: `P.W. Joyce tells how the tenth century poet Erard Mac Cossi threw a stone at a #swan which fell to earth and transformed into a woman. She claimed to have been stolen by demons as she lay on her deathbed, and that they also travelled in the shape of swans. Clearly, the word ‘demons’ refers to the magical folk, who came to be regarded with fear and suspicion in Christian times.` #Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
https://twitter.com/cox_passaris/status/1298247049641709568?t=iiovHyIIRUXCG-185VK8JQ&s=09

#BookologyThursday: After Queen Medb had been prophesied that she would return from the Táin Bó Cúalnge, her charioteer spoke: "Wait, then, let me wheel the chariot by the right, that thus the power of a good omen may arise that we return again." #Celtic
Source: The Project Gutenberg eBook of TÁIN BÓ CÚALNGE, by Joseph Dunn.

#BookologyThursday: `The host of the four provinces of Erin tarried in Cruachan, the hostel of Connacht, because their poets and druids would not let them depart from thence till the end of a fortnight while awaiting good omen.` #Celtic
Source: The Project Gutenberg eBook of TÁIN BÓ CÚALNGE, by Joseph Dunn.

#BookologyThursday: `A heavy snow fell on the army of the four provinces of Erin that night, while they did not dare to penetrate deeper into the province of Ulster because of the warnings of #CúChulainn. `So great it was that it reached to the shoulders of the men and to the flanks of the horses and to the poles of the chariots, so that all the provinces of Erin were one level plane from the snow. But no huts nor bothies nor tents did they set up that night, nor did they prepare food nor drink, nor made they a meal nor repast. None of the men of Erin wot whether friend or foe was next him until the bright hour of sunrise on the morrow.
Certain it is that the men of Erin experienced not a night of encampment or of station that held more discomfort or hardship for them than that night with the snow at Cul Sibrille.` #Celtic
Source: The Project Gutenberg eBook of TÁIN BÓ CÚALNGE, by Joseph Dunn.

#BookologyThursday: `How did #CúChulainn get the army of the four provinces of Erin to wait for him while he was on a tryst? With an #Ogham script on the plug of a twig-ring set round the pillar-stone on Ard ('the Height') of Cuillenn.
Fergus made known to the men of Erin what was the meaning of the Ogham writing: 'Let no one go past here till a man be found to throw a withy like unto this, using only one hand and made of a single branch, and I except my master Fergus.' #Celtic
Source: The Project Gutenberg eBook of TÁIN BÓ CÚALNGE, by Joseph Dunn.

#BookologyThursday: `What did #CúChulainn do when he saw the enormous host of the four provinces of Erin? He sent his father Sualtaim Sidech ('of the Fairy Mound') with warnings to the men of Ulster. Then CúChulainn „strode into the wood, and there, with a single blow, he lopped the prime sapling of an oak, root and top, and with only one foot and one hand and one eye he exerted himself; and he made a twig-ring thereof and set an ogam script on the plug of the ring, and set the ring round the narrow part of the pillar-stone on Ard ('the Height') of Cuillenn. He forced the ring till it reached the thick of the pillar-stone. Thereafter CúChulainn went his way to his tryst with the maid of Fedlimid Nocruthach ('of the Nine Forms')“.` #Celtic
Source: The Project Gutenberg eBook of TÁIN BÓ CÚALNGE, by Joseph Dunn.

#BookologyThursday: `The earliest legends of the Gaels say it was #Manannán, spirit of the oceans, who led the surviving Tuatha to safety after they lost their war with the Milesians and vigorous race of men, protecting them and cloaking them in the mist of invisibility, the féth fíada, hiding their homes and strong places, their halls and mounds in a supernatural fog.`
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/manannan-mac-lir

#BookologyThursday: `The bright-feathered companions of #Clídna eased the pain of the sick with their songs. Their crimson eggs bestowed the power of shape-shifting on those who ate them.`
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`

#BookologyThursday: `During the Táin Bó Cúailnge #CúChulainn `is both helped and hindered by supernatural figures from the Tuatha Dé Danann. Before one combat the #Morrígan, the goddess of war, visits him in the form of a beautiful young woman and offers him her love, but CúChulainn spurns her.` #Celtic
Source: Táin Bó Cúailnge - Wikipedia

"Take me with you. I might be useful. I know the way into Haggard's country.... No wanderer was ever the worse for a wizard's company, even a unicorn.... Take me with you, for laughs, for luck, for the unknown. Take me with you."
- Peter S. Beagle, "The Last Unicorn"

#BookologyThursday: `After a particularly arduous combat #CúChulainn is visited by another supernatural figure, #Lugh, who reveals himself to be CúChulainn's father. Lugh puts his son to sleep for three days while he works his healing arts on him.` #Celtic
Source: Táin Bó Cúailnge - Wikipedia

#BookologyThursday: `#Birdmen led #Conaire Mór to #Tara where he became the rightful king. The example of this outstanding king once again shows how rule was interconnected by the supernatural world.` #Celtic
https://twitter.com/RCPEHeritage/status/1350001042231066628?t=wGkn6IMgkV_ZOkZEGwg5mQ&s=09

#BookologyThursday: `In the Tain Bó Cuailnge (the Cattle Raid of Cooley), Fedelm tells Queen Medb that she has been in Alba learning the art of the Filidect. Medb asks if she has learned Imbas Forosnai, and when she is told yes, she asks Fedelm if she will look into her future to see how she will prosper. Fedelm’s imbas promptly brings her illumination, and she chants her prophecy in the form of a poem.` #Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
https://twitter.com/MitologiaCelta/status/1422860098901266433