Pic: Smithsonian.

“The harp that once through Tara’s halls The soul of music shed Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls As if that soul were fled.” The words of 19th-century Irish poet Thomas Moore still ring true, and the only music you’re likely to hear around Tara nowadays is the clang of construction equipment reports the Smithsonian. Several hundred acres of gentle green fields, marked by some lumps and bumps, cover this patch of County Meath in northeast Ireland. A nice place to lie down and watch the clouds scud by, perhaps, but is it any more remarkable than the rest of Ireland’s lovely landscape?

Cinnte, to use an Irish expression of certitude. The archaeologically rich complex on and around the Hill of Tara is seen by many as the spiritual and historic heart of Ireland. It was the venue for rituals, battles and burials dating back to 4000 B.C. More than 100 kings were crowned at Tara, and St. Patrick is said to have stopped there to seek royal permission before spreading his message of Christianity. Continue Reading »

Pic: Novopress

As reported earlier in our first post on the exciting finds from Brittany, French experts have called the four axes, which Adam MacHale spotted in the sea off Petit Rohu beach and donated to France, an exceptional archaeological discovery. The Telegraph reports that the discovery was made by a British tourist who received a £20,000 reward.

Mr MacHale, 38, from Malvern, Worcestershire handed them in to authorities, and the neolithic pieces are now on display at the Carnac Museum of Prehistory in southern Brittany.

Curator Emmanuelle Vigier said:

Their attitude was that of good citizens.

They could be rewarded for not keeping the objects or selling them to a private collector with a prize worth £23,800 (€30,000)

Read the full article on the Telegraph site.

Originally posted 2008-10-10 09:09:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: Southern Daily Echo

Four Stone Age axes, dating from a time when people had stopped hunting woolly mammoths and sabretoothed tigers and turned to farming, are giving clues to the origins of settled human life in the county of Hampshire reports the Southern Daily Echo. It’s a mystery that could shed light on life in Hampshire 6,000 years ago.

They were found at Hill Head and Titchfield, near Fareham, and at Beaulieu, in the New Forest, and Bartonon- Sea.

The tools, which are now in Winchester City Council’s collection, have been analysed and found to originate in the north Italian Alps from around 4,000BC. They had been carried for many miles before they were lost in Hampshire. But no-one knows why or how they got here.

Helen Rees, Winchester’s curator of archaeology, said their origins were a mystery.

There was probably a movement of people and the axes were brought in by settlers or they may have been traded.

The research is part of Project JADE, a three-year, one-million-euro programme, which is funded by the French Government.

[Source]

One of our listeners Vincent F. Pintado contacted us recently to let us know about The Gallaic Rivival Movement, and the “Atebivota Dictionary” project.  Vincent is the founder of this movement and project. He spent nearly thirty years living in Spain deciphering Celtiberian inscriptions for the Old Celtic Dictionary and The Atebivota Dictionary Project, and now lives in Arizona U.S.A

In his own words Vincent tells us about his project

Gallaic  Revival  Movement

The Gallaic Revival Movement is sponsored by the Liga Celtiga Galaica (the Galician Celtic League) in Galicia, Spain. The “Atebivota Dictionary” project is based on the reconstruction of the Q-Celtic Gallaic-Goidelic language once spoken by the ancient Gallaeci in Galicia, Spain circa 600-100 A.D. Continue Reading »

Pic: BBC Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness

The observant Welsh Ramblings blog has spotted a stupendous goof over at the BBC as they decide that two of the Six Celtic Nations are merely ‘Regions’ of the UK.The story goes on to indicate that Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness are to meet the prime minister in London later to discuss the economy.

Gordon Brown was to put the case for greater efficiencies to the two men. The meeting was also attended by their Scottish and Welsh counterparts.

Mr McGuinness described the discussions as a “work in progress”.

The Treasury is seeking £5bn in cuts across the regions, which Northern Ireland Finance Minister Nigel Dodds has pledged to resist.

[Welsh Ramblings]

[BBC]

Episode 23, The Gift of the Gods, is another short tale from the Irish Mythological Cycle. The mighty Bodb Dearg, Son of the Dagda, meets three of the Sons of Men, Milesians, sitting on the green outside the Brugh na Boinne, home of Angus Og. He invites them in and the Kings of the Tuatha De Danaan have to make an important decision about the two races: the Sons of the Gael and the Tuatha.

We talk about the new features on the website and invite our listeners to leave us some voice feedback using the new Voicemail feature. The clever thing about the Voicemail on our website is that it will give you a phone number in your countryto call rather than paying for an international number. Alternatively, you can always use a microphone and record directly into your computer or use it to upload an audio file. We also talk about the new automatic podcast that reads out our news stories.

The Episode is available for subscribers on the feed, or you can download it or listen to it from our Episodes page. You can find the Shownotes for this episode in the Shownotes section.

If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

Pic: Diamond.

Miss Diamond, the Guest Blogger who blogged about the Wee Folk in yesterday’s post has a small addendum to it and some additional information that she would like to share with us.While I was doing research for Diamond’s post on the Wee Folk today, I came across a folktale on how a woman had hidden some of her children from God, then spent the rest of her life looking for them in vain. They had become the hidden people, the first fairies. This is similar to the Scandinavian tale of the Huldra, in which a mother had washed only half her children when God came to her cottage. Ashamed of the dirty ones, she hid them. God decreed that those she had hidden from him would be hidden from mankind as well, and they became the first Huldrer.

A huldra is described as a stunningly beautiful, sometimes naked woman with long hair; though from behind she is hollow like an old tree trunk, and has an animal’s tail. In Norway, she has a cow’s tail, and in Sweden she may have that of a cow or a fox. Further in the north of Sweden, the tail can be entirely omitted in favor of her hollow or bark-covered back.

In Norway, the huldra has often been described as a typical dairymaid, wearing the clothes of a regular farm girl, although somewhat more dazzling than most girls.

Any, I’ve now gotten way of track. But I found the equating of children to fairies rather interesting.

[Source]

There has been an important development in terms of Celtic language television broadcasting with the launch of the new Gaelic TV station BBC Alba. The video above from YouTube is a reworking of Runrig’s “Alba”, first tune on the opening night on Scotland’s new TV channel, BBC Alba.

The new channel is initially available on Sky satellite TV channel 168 and also on Freesat. The station will also become available on the digital terrestrial service Freeview. However the Freeview launch will not take place until 2010 at the earliest which is disappointing.

The Head of BBC Alba, Margaret Mary Murray, has said the channel was not just for Gaelic speakers.

Pic: Diamond’s Lair

We are very proud again to feature another super guest blogger. This time our favourite Cat friend, Miss Diamond Emerald-Eyes has been researching the fey and we are very privileged to be able to share her work with you. Over to her. A fairy is a type of mythological being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural. The word “fairy” derives from the fae of medieval Western European (Old French) folklore and romance, one famous example being Morgan le Fay. “Fae-ery” was therefore everything that appertains to the “fae”, and so the land of “faes”, all the “faes”. Finally the word replaced its original and one could speak of “a faery or fairy”, though the word “fey” is still used as an adjective.

Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term “fairy” offers many definitions. Sometimes the term describes any magical creature, including goblins or gnomes: at other times, the term only describes a specific type of more ethereal creature.

The origins of the belief in fairies are unclear and perhaps the reasoning is that many different cultures have many different stories. Some consider them a form of Angel, perhaps a demoted angel that was caught in between heaven and hell when Lucifer lead the revolt against God. Others hold that they were not good enough for heaven, but not evil enough for hell. Continue Reading »

Pic: Capitol Hill.

The link between Bodmin’s ancient wassailing tradition and the town council has been re-forged after hundreds of years reports This Is Cornwall. Councillors have agreed to display the wassail bowl at Shire House, along with a history of the custom that dates back to the early 17th century.

On the 12th day of Christmas, wassailers visit homes, pubs and shops, and offer ale from the bowl, and collect donations to charity.

This particular form of wassailing is unique to Bodmin. Present town clerk Paul O’Callaghan is keen to follow in the footsteps of one of his predecessors, Nicholas Srey, and engage in the event. Continue Reading »