h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Who'd be interested in doing an entry (or a few entries) on Irish mythology? Cuchulainn, the Morrigan, that sort of thing?

Or maybe some stuff about Welsh mythology. There are already loads of entries on King Arthur, but maybe more could be devoted to Merlin (distinctively Welsh character, I believe) and that big book that I can't spell (sorry).

Is anyone interested?

I'm not interested just this minute, but I could probably contribute something in a few days.

Sure - I must confess I'm not interested just this minute either; but I'll do something on someone maybe sometime around next week (vague, I know). Is there a particular aspect of Irish mythology you might want to address?

mmm, interest provoked...

I'll try doing the Táin Bo Culaigne in a while.

Irish mythology can be divided into:

The Red Hand Knights (Cúchulainn, the Táin, Ferdia and so on).
The Fíanna, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, Aonghus, Diarmuid & Gráinne etc.
Other, including the Children of Lír.

I always found the Cúchulainn stories the best.

Angus MacOg; the Celtic God of laughter; the dark "princess" Deirdre, Brigid and all those?
What do you want and when do you want it? Seems we'd need Tristan and Isolde in here wouldn't we?
On an aside, anyone know any Irish spells? Anyone interested in doing an entry on Magic?

What about the Tuatha De Danaan (I just know I'm spelling that wrong, sorry). Which cycle do they fall into?

My Irish mythology book, which I've just investigated, informs me that Deirdre's story is part of the Ulster Cycle (the Cuchulainn bit).

Isn't Tristan and Isolde part of the Arthurian legend? That's what I've always read, and it's what my other mythology book tells me. But wait - there's a bit called 'Tristan in Ireland' here. So there is an Irish version, but it's very, very different than the one found in Le Morte d'Arthur. I don't really know where it fits into the whole scheme of things, though. It appears to be just an isolated legend.

Well King Arthur is based on celtic legends of 'Bowels of Plenty', and Lancelot can be directly associated with the celtic god Lúg who would have filled all his rolls in Scotish and Irish legends.

We also probably shouldn't forget that Cúchulainn is also a Scottish hero.

The Tutha De Danaan can be a number of things, somw say that they that they were bronze age people that had already settled in Ireland before the celts, they are also the Celtic Gods which were dirven under ground when the celts came (Possibly another reference to the Bronze Age people), and are also became the Fairies when christianity arrived. Infact Leprechaun is a slurr of Lúg's clann or Lúg's family.

I believe Leprachaun comes from Leath Brogain, half a boot, that is, a cobbler.

I always thought Arthur was exclusively Welsh. Well, I guess he's got versions in every Celtic country.

So this is the way I see it. We have:

Tuatha de Danaan
Ulster Cycle
Tain Bo Culaigne
Fionn Mac Cumhaill and related stories
Other stuff that doesn't seem to fit elsewhere, such as Children of Lir and Tristan and Isolde

Are there any other bits that I'm forgetting?

Okay, after quite a bit of research, I'm starting the Ulster Cycle entry, including the events of the Tain Bo Culaigne (with appropriate accent marks), the childhood of Cuchulainn, Deirdre of the Sorrows, and the legend of Bricriu the Trickster, one of my absolute favourites.

I'll post a link here when I'm finished.

If you set your Locale to English (Ireland) rather than English (UK), then you can type the á é í ó ú by holding down the Ctrl and Alt keys while you type the letter. This is much better than fecking around with numeric codes. I don't think you lose anything by making this change, either.

Actually Gnomon, I hate to correct you, but that works in English (UK) too. áéíóú.

Great!

I always thought the story of how Cuchulainn had to kill his friend Ferdia was one of the saddest. That was used again in Gladiator, wasn't it?

áéíóú This is so exciting! áéíóú

Is there any way to do backwards accents?

On my keyboard, there's a key beside the 1 key with three symbols on it. If you press this key first and then the vowel, it'll do a backwards accent on the vowel. But you won't need that for Irish.

Ah, but see, now I can type 'très bien' correctly!

*adds 'English (Ireland)' to the ever-growing list of keyboard settings on her 'language bar'*

I think I may actually do an entry on the Fianna and Fíonn MacCumhail, probably this weekend at some stage... hopefully.