Failté!

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Séamus Draoigall
Illustrator • Crafter • Designer • Gaelic Researcher
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Articles
Articles about my research into Irish history, mythology, heritage and more
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Imagery
Gallery of my Ancient & Celtic Ireland – inspired art
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Artifacts
One-of-a-kind, customized magical and wearable items
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Design
Portfolio of logos and designs for Ireland-related projects
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Tír na Trí
A web-comic-strip for the Éirey-Fairy
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There exists a bizarre in-tale in the 9th century version of "The Battle of Moytura" which, as Mark Williams puts it, "is also perhaps the most disconcerting episode in the entire medieval Irish corpus, for it encompasses force feeding, female-on-male fisticuffs, defecation, and the outdoor copulation of titanic beings (twice)". The path of true Kingship never did run smooth. I may need to get a +18 content warning if I keep at this carryon. There are bridges we didn't know we'd have to cross until we have to cross them. And there are old granny feet we didn't know we had to rub until we had to rub them ☉ ‿ ⚆ As per Fiach's suggestion, Fergal's journey to obtain the blessing of the Sovereignty of Erin brings him face to face with An Cailleach, a divine archetype who probably is the only pre-Gaelic divinity we have evidence for. She does not appear in any of the medieval mythological writings as a character (the association of King Niall's Hag of Sovereignty and An Cailleach is completely my own), but her prolific presence in place-names, toponymic associations and heavy folklore hints to the very real possibility that An Cailleach is indeed a very real, very old and most of all indigenous to the ancient traditions of this island, before the incoming of both the Gaels and the Celtic Christians. Fun fact: Though Irish mythology set in the late Iron Age (like the Ulster and Finn cycles) describes powerful longswords, Irish archaeology tends to unearth short ones. As JP Mallory has demonstrated, the longest Irish sword found has a total length of 66.7 cms. For comparison, that's shorter than the shortest Viking sword found in Ireland (dismissed as a toy sword by some), which is still 10cms longer.