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Connla's Well
A source of inspiration and knowledge in early Irish mythology, some what comparable to the well of Mimir in Norse tradition. The location of the well changes from text to text, and the identity of ...
divine land
Phrase used in English translations of Irish and Welsh stories whose reference cannot be made specific without knowing the preceding Celtic text. By implication the ‘divine land’ is a pleasant, even ...
Echtrae Conli
Irish title of one of the most ancient (8th cent.?) of all Irish narratives, known in English as The Adventures of Connla, which survives in the Book of the Dun Cow [Lebor na hUidre] and the Yellow ...
Eilean na hÒige
Scottish Gaelic name for Tír na nÓg. In modern usage it may also refer to the island of Eriskay.
Eriskay
Small island, 3 1.5 miles, in the Outer Hebrides, between South Uist and Barra, known for the ‘Eriskay Love Lilt’, one of the most admired of all Scottish Gaelic songs. Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser ...
Glenasmole
[Ir. gleann na smól, valley of the thrushes].Valley at the headwaters of the River Dodder in south Co. Dublin extending into Co. Wicklow, especially rich in Fenian associations. Oisín first fell to ...
King Herla
Traditional early British king whose story is told in the Latin text De Nugis Curialum by Walter Map (c.1140–c.1209). One day, while rising, King Herla meets a dwarfish king with goat's hooves who ...
Lough Gur
Small lake 2.5 miles NNE of Bruff, Co. Limerick, widely known in Irish tradition for the wealth of neolithic remains to be found near its shores and under its waters. The light limestone soil of the ...
Mag Mell
[Ir. mell, pleasant, delightful, e.g. pleasant plain].Often-cited Irish otherworldly realm frequently visited by mortal heroes. Bran in the 8th-century Imram Brain [The Voyage of Bran] passes through ...
Niam
1 Sometime wife of Conall Cernach, his other consort being Lendabair. She is better remembered, however, for nursing Cúchulainn, during which time she becomes his mistress. She tries to stop ...
Oisin
A legendary Gaelic warrior and bard, known also as Ossian (see Macpherson and Fingal). In The Wanderings of Oisin (1889), a narrative poem by Yeats, the bard tells Saint Patrick the story of his love ...
Oscar
1 Osgar, Oscur, Osca [Ir., deer-lover (?); cf. os, fawn]. A leading warrior of Fenian narrative, ‘the Galahad of the Cycle’, the son of Oisín and the grandson of Fionn mac Cumhaill. As he does not ...
Otherworld
Religions are often understood to be concerned with realms beyond everyday life. “Spiritual,” “heavenly” or “supernatural” realities are sometimes considered central to definitions and experiences of ...
Roca Barraidh
[cf. ScG roc, anything that tangles a fishing-hook; tops of seaweed that appear above the water].Name current on the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides for an enchanted island on the dim western ...
Tír na mBeo
[OIr. béo, living, quick].The Land of the Living, a place of everlasting life, one of several distant lands settled by the semi-divine Tuatha Dé Danann after their defeat by the mortal Milesians; in ...
Tir-nan-Og Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2 ed.)
a land of perpetual youth, the Irish equivalent of Elysium; the name means literally in Irish, ‘land of the young’....
Tír na nÓg Quick reference
A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology
[Ir. óg, youth, i.e. Land of Youths].
Land of Youth, or the Ever-Young, in early Irish tradition. The most
Tuatha Dé Danann
In Irish mythology, the members of an ancient race said to have inhabited Ireland before the historical Irish. Formerly believed to have been a real people, they are credited with the possession of ...
