Unreal Irish Folklore

RE-RELEASE: Giants and Causeways

A re-release of the second ever episode of Unreal, while I recover from illness. A new episode will come soon once my voice is back at full strength!

 

Giants sculpted our landscape. They are strong, and fierce, and can be terrifying if you’re unprepared. But anyone can defeat a giant – if you are clever enough to trick them…

 

READ THE PODCAST SCRIPT

 

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

The Story of Fionn and the Giant

• The Giant’s Causeway, Dublin Penny Journal
• A Legend of Knockmany, by William Carleton (and the original article)
• Joe Moore’s Story of Finn Macooilly and the Buggane, Manx Fairytales by Sophia Morrison
• Versions from the School’s Folklore Collection at Duchas.ie: 1, 2, 3, 4

 

The very rude Scottish poem featuring the giant-sized descendants of Fionn

 

Other Tales Mentioned

• The fall of the Viking chieftain Turgesius
• Maoil a Chliobain
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• Jack the Giant-killer
• Stingy Jack

 

MUSIC

All by Slainte from The Free Music Archive

• Theme Song – “The Butterfly”
• The Lark in the Morning / The Atholl Highlanders
• The Banshee / The Gravel Walks / The Old Copperplate

The Cry of the Banshee

The Banshee is one of Ireland’s most famous folkloric figures. A supernatural woman with a cry that foretells of death and devastation to those who hear it, stories about banshees have been terrifying listeners for hundreds of years. But has she always been this way?

 

Read the Podcast Script

 

Sources and Further Reading

• A Folklore Survey of County Clare by Thomas Johnson Westropp
• The Triumphs of Turlough translated by Standish Hayes O'Grady
• The Hostel of Da Choca translated by Whitley Stokes
• Annals of Loch Cé
• The Memoirs of Lady Ann Fanshawe
• Personal Sketches of His Own Times by Sir Jonah Barrington
• Keening Tradition
• "The Irish Funeral Cry" in The Dublin Penny Journal 
• O'Brien's Irish-English Dictionary

 

Music

• The Butterfly – Sláinte
• Return Home - Moorland Songs
• The White Birch - Moorland Songs
• Mountain Solitude - Moorland Songs

Mid Season Break

Hi everyone, Ruth here, and apologies for the slightly sporadic uploads to Unreal this season – I’ve just been having quite a busy time outside of podcasting. I’m actually going to take mid-season break and come back in two weeks with a special Halloween episode, and finish out the second half of the season then, hopefully with more regular uploads for those last few episodes. I hope that sounds ok, and wishing you a folklore-filled few weeks in the meantime. Go n-éirí an bóthar leat.

The Madness of Sweeney

What happens when a king goes mad? When he leaves his home, his wife and lands, and goes wandering in the woods and the wild? Such a strange frenzy came on Sweeney, an Irish king long ago. The life he came to live was a harsh and a wild one – but, as the story shows, still one where breathtaking beauty could be found . . . 

Read the Podcast Script

Sources And Further Reading

• Buile Suibhne. (The frenzy of Suibhne) by O'Keeffe, J. G
• The King's Mirror
• Myrddin Wylt
• Wild Man

 

Music

• The Butterfly – Sláinte
• The Elfin Knight - Traditional
• I'm Missing Ennis - Philip Ayers
• Everything We Built - Christian Andersen
• It All Went Away So Quickly - Christian Andersen

Deirdre of the Sorrows

There once was born a cursed girl. She was beautiful, and strong-willed, and would do anything for the man she loved. But in her name, evil came to Ireland, bringing war and fighting that left hundreds dead in its wake. Her name was Deirdre, and stories told about her live on, as one of Ireland’s most sorrowful legends.

 

Read the Podcast Script

• Sonder Magazine
• Let's Talk About the Arts episode (my story is at about 28:30)

 

Sources and further Reading

Story Sources

• The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu by Vernam Hull
• Deirdre, or, The Exile of the Sons of Usnech
• Deirdre, in The Three Sorrows of Storytelling by Douglas Hyde
• The Trí Truaighe na Scéalaigheachta by Eugene O'Curry

 

Background reading

• Kingship Made Real? Power and the Public World in Longes Mac nUislenn by Elva Johnston
• Satire in Medieval Ireland
• Leabharcham
• Milesians
• How Ronan Slew His Son
• Cano meic Gartnáin
• Diarmuid & Gráinne

 

Music

• The Butterfly  by Sláinte
• Our Green Lands by Bonn Fields
• Calling on the Hill by Moorland Songs
• Red as a Rose by Rune Dale
• Turnpikes by Rune Dale
• Farewell to Ennerdale Water by Moorland Songs

 

The Quest of the Sons of Tuireann

For every death, a price must be paid. Life is precious, and blood is costly, and when you take the life of a man, you do not know how high the penalty will be. This is a story about three brothers, and a life they took, the price they paid, and the devastation that followed them to their deaths.

Read the podcast script

Sources and Further Reading

Story Sources

• The Fate of the Children of Tuireann from The Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language
• "The Quest of the Sons of Turenn" by T. W. Rolleston
• "The Fate of the Children of Tuireann" from The Three Sorrows of Storytelling by Douglas Hyde

Background reading

• "The Grail and the English Sir Perceval" (V) by Arthur C. L. Brown
• "Fines under Brehon Law" by Laurence Ginnell
• Éraic / eric

 

Music

• The Butterfly - Sláinte
• Lúnassa - Aislinn
• The Road to Lisdoonvarna & Scollay's - Pinnipied
• The Burning of the Piper's Hut - Pinnipied
• Shady Grove - Shake That Little Foot

The Ship from the Sky

As strange as it is imagine, there are infinite worlds out there in the universe, far beyond our sight. But, if the stories are to be believed, a group of early Irish people came closer than most to contact with the world above our world, and the strange people who inhabited it.

 

Read the Podcast Script

 

Sources and Further Reading

• “Aerial Ships and Underwater Monasteries: The Evolution of a Monastic Marvel” - John Carey
• “Voyagers in the Vault of Heaven: The Phenomenon of Ships in the Sky in Medieval Ireland and Beyond” - Michael McCaughan
• “Lightnings VIII” – Seamus Heaney
• Curiosities of Indo-European tradition and folk-lore – Walter Keating Kelly
• On Hail and Thunder - Agobard of Lyons
• “From flying boats to secret Soviet weapons to alien visitors – a brief cultural history of UFOs” – theconversation.com
• “Sometimes a flying boat is just a flying boat: Not everything has to be a UFO” – esoterx.com
• Tailtenn Games
• “On the Identification of the Ancient Cemetery at Loughcrew, Co. Meath” - Eugene Alfred Conwell
• The Aonac Tailteann and the Tailteann Games – T. H. Nally

 

Music

• The Butterfly - Sláinte
• Periwinkle Waters – Christian Andersen
• Free Form – Amaranth Cove
• Sea of Space – Yi Nantiro

Stories of the Snow

There is something magical about snow, but it’s also deceptive, and deadly – the perfect ingredient for dark tales on a cold winter’s night . . .

Read the Podcast Script

Sources

Weather Lore

• Customs, Beliefs and Superstitions of the Different Festivals – Dúchas.ie
• Weather-Lore – Dúchas.ie
• Plucking Geese in Heaven – Dúchas.ie
• Signs of Snow – Dúchas.ie

Derbforgaill

• The Deaths of Lugaid and Derbforgaill – Carl Marstrander
• Cuchulainn’s Ríastrad: The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature – Eleanor Hull

Saints

• St Molasius (Silva Gaedelica, S. H. O’Grady)
• St Comghan (Mac Dá Cherda and Cummaine Foda - J. G. O'Keeffe)
• St Patrick (The Tripartite Life of St Patrick – Whitley Stokes)

Deirdre

• The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu – Vernam Hull

Sín and Muirchertach

• The Death of Muirchertach Mac Erca – Whitley Stokes

International Stories of the Snow

• Snow Drop – The Brothers Grimm
• The Snow Queen – Hans Christian Andersen
• Snegurochka

Music

• Dreams of the Brave – Trabant 33
• Sea of Clouds – Kai Engel
• Arctica – Kai Engel
• Kesh Jig, Leitrim Fancy – Sláinte
• Somewhere Else – Kai Engel
• Gander in the Pratie Hole, Morrison's Jig, Drowsy Maggie – Sláinte
• As Rainbows Fall – Deskant
• Surreal Forest – Meydän
• In the Bleak Midwinter – Maya Solovey

 

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Granuaile - The Pirate Queen

 

Granuaile, Ireland’s Pirate Queen , was ahead of her time but remains with us in legend. Escaping the constraints of femininity, Gráinne risked everything she had to live life she wanted, and rule the seas.

 

 

 

Read the Podcast Script

Sources and Further Reading

 

• Granuaile: Ireland's Pirate Queen by Anne Chambers
• "Eighteen articles of interrogatory to be answered by Grany ne Malley" (Granuaile in her own words!)
• Anthologica Hibernica: 1, 2
• Folktales from Dúchas.ie
• Granuaile folk songs from Dúchas.ie

 

Music

• The Butterfly - Sláinte
• Shady Grove - Shake That Little Foot
• The Banshee, Gravel Walks, The Old Copperplate - Sláinte
• Celtic Blessing - Bonnie Grace
• Pretty Little Dog - Shake That Little Foot
• Jig of Slurs, Dublin, Reel, The Merry Blacksmith, The Mountain Road - Sláinte

 

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My guest episode on the Candlelit Tales podcast

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Oisín's Adventures in the Land of Youth

The story of Oisín’s journey to Tír na nÓg with Niamh of the Golden Hair has become one of Ireland’s best-loved legends. But the history of how it came to be told may still surprise you . . .

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Sources and Further Reading

• Lay of Oisín on the Land of Youth by Michael Comyn
• Sgéalta ó Ṫír Ċonaill by Énrí Ó Muirgheasa (translation at end)
• Sgéal ar Oisín agus na Fiantaibh (translation at end)
• The Colloquy with the Ancients translated by Standish H O'Grady
• Leabhar na Feinne, by J. F. Campbell
• Celtic Mythology by J. A. MacCulloch
• Urashima Tarō
• King Herla

 

Music

• The Butterfly by Sláinte
• Back to the Shires - Christian Andersen
• Lovely Maria - Aislinn
• For a Lifetime - Yi Nantiro
• The Road Map - Jo Wandrini
• The Burning of the Piper's Hut - Pinniped

 

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