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'Leather hood' makes much more sense than 'skin cowl'. And yes, from other Scottish tales my impression is giolla and gilly would be much the same. Breá léirsteanach i gcónaí, g o raibh céad míle maith agat!
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Hi Otuathail, In a Scottish variant of the tale I'm examining the protagonist is called: Gille nan Cochall Chraicinn which to me looks like Gilly of the Skin Cowl. Would that be correct or am I taking it too literally? Tony
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Thanks Otuathail, good to hear from you and hope you're keeping well. I suspect the motif did exist but the Red Stream element has disappeared over time. The equivalent encounter and conflict in Irish mythology appears to be encapsulated in the myth: The Enchanted Cave of Keshcorran , in which the Fianna are bound and Goll mac Morna must rescue
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Hi Dale, I take your point. On the other hand an earlier post I put up was about 'whistling eels'. When I visited the University College Dublin archive of folklore to find out about them, I was told they'd never heard of such a thing. After posting on this forum, a user gave me a dozen links to texts. I listen to a bit of Irish, particularly
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Currently looking at a motif in Irish fairy tales/mythology of the City of the Red Stream or the Hag of the Red Stream etc. In Irish it appears in Douglas Hyde's translation of Eaċtra cloinne riġ na n-Ioruaiḋe and in Scottish in tales of the Cailleach na tsrutha ruaidh. It is not a common motif and I was wondering if, off the top of their head,
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Thanks Dale, you're probably right but I've got some excellent answers to questions before.
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In the Fenian cycle Aillén mac Midgna burns Tara to the ground every Samhain yet everyone apparently lives to decry the calamity until Fionn saves the day. I’m trying to get to the bottom of what this myth might signify. We know for instance that farmers set fire to the fields in autumn to burn off stubble and that herder’s burn gorse
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Too late! I've thanked you already using your nom de plume, Otuathail, in the opening background note in: Famine and the Fairy Tale II (this is a first draft but it will not change too much) All your contributions were very helpful.
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As always I think you're right, the 'us' is no doubt soft and not hard. What I'm working on is part 2 in a discussion of the fairy tales in the aftermath of famines, or similar disasters. Famine and the Fairy Tale I was part 1. All of your comments have been very helpful and I would like to acknowledge this in the introductory note at
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Jeremiah Curtin in his Hero Tales of Ireland in his tale: Cud, Cad and Micad: Three Sons of the King of Urhu includes a clan of villains/tyrants/ogres called Awus. In one sense it is odd they have a name usually villains are generic fathach , gruagach or Fomoire . The closest phonetic equivalent I can find is athúll (potato apple) the poisonous