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The Mythological
Cycle
The Fenian
Cycle This is considered to
be much older than the tales of the Ulster Cycle, as the main occupation
is that of hunting. The Fenian, or Fianna, are a legendary band of heroes
who defended Ireland and Scotland and kept law and order,l Their leader
was the mythical Fionn mac Cumhaill, the truest, wisest and kindest of the
Fianna. The Ulster Cycle This cycle
compromises a large body of heroic tales in Irish literature, based on the
Ulaidh, an ancient people from whom the provinces of Ulster got its name.
The central, and structurally the basic, story in the cycle in Táid Bó
Cúainge (The cattle raid of Cooley). Other names in the
stories of this cycle are characters like Cúchulainn, Conchobhar, Fergus,
Caoilte and Deirdre. Cúchulainn is Ulster’s greatest hero. His father was
said to Scathach. His greatest deeds are told in the
Táin. A leprechaun is an
ugly little man with pointed ears, like the hobbits, and it is about two
to three feet tall. Leprechauns hate having any contact with humans or
fairies. He lives with nobody and spend all of his energy into his passion
of shoemaking as he is well know as a fairy
shoemaker. They usually wear green coloured coats, green trousers, studded leather apron and a green wide brimmed hat. They thing humans are
stupid and foolish creatures. The name leprechaun comes from the old Irish
word luchorpan which mean “little body”. All leprechauns have a hidden pot
of gold. If you are lucky enough to catch a leprechaun he has to reveal
you the location of his gold. To be able to escape. No one has captured
one yet. Rainbow may reveal where pots of gold are hidden, so leprechauns
often spend all day moving from one place to another to allude the
tell-tale end of the rainbow. Leprechauns are
often found in Irish
folklore. The leprechaun
'family' appears split into two distinct groups - leprechaun and
cluricaun. Cluricauns may
steal or borrow almost anything, creating mayhem in houses during the
hours of darkness, raiding wine cellars and larders. They will also
harness sheep, goats, dogs and even domestic fowl and ride them throughout
the country at night.
Cluricauns are
actually leprechauns’ close cousins. With the exception for a pink tinge
about the nose and their different colors of dress they perfectly resemble
leprechauns in all their other characteristics. They tend to be lazy and
don't like to work like their cousins and they never wear an apron or
carry a hammer. They have large silver buckles on their shoes, beautiful
gold laces, caps and pale blue stockings, they tend to wear garish
colors. They like a good
strong drink or two. To entertain
themselves they will hit the delph, overturn furniture and hide items in
the houses they break into, harness sheep and goats, jump from bogs and
race them over the fields through the night, then from the safety of a
dense hedge they will watch in entertainment as the humans try to repair
the damage they have done. Leprechauns try to
repudiate them and demand that they are none of their own but some suspect
they are really drink filled leprechauns on a spree, who when not drunk in
the morning try to deny this double nature. Irish fairies fall
into two main groups: sociable and solitary. Perhaps the best known of the
solitary fairies are the leprechauns. Leprechauns have the distinction of
being the most solitary of the solitaries, avoiding contact with humans,
other fairies, and even other leprechauns. Although the
leprechaun has been described as Ireland's national fairy, this name was
originally only used in the north Leinster area. Variants include
lurachmain, lurican, lurgadhan. The ancient origins of what we know today
as the leprechaun was a Euro-Cletic god named Lugh (pronouced "Luck").
Lugh was as important a god to the ancient Euro-Celtic religion as Jesus
is to our own Christianity. Lugh was the great Sun God of the Irish and
Eauro-Celts, patron of Arts and Crafts, leader of the Tuatha dé Danaan.
Many Europena cities were named for Lugh such as London, Léon, Loudan,
Lyons and others. These two-foot tall,
unfriendly, gruff men (there are no female leprechauns) prefer to pass
their time making shoes for other fairies. They usually wear a green coat,
a green hat, and a shoemaker's apron.
Most of the Celtic
monarchs had one of those "magician-priests" like advisor. Some
druids lived in the Court, where they had special rooms where they kept
their equipment from divination, its twigs of control, the sickle that
they used to cut the plants with which the medicines elaborated. They had
some special right, like not paying to taxes or
obligation. The druids had
shrine, they were to meet for share
knowledge. To be a druid wasn’t
easy. The initiation was very large, it could last 20 years of
preparation and learning. The druids are
divided into five categories:
You can aften
hear a banshee but you can never see her. She is a woman with black udone
hair, her eyes is red and always cries, she wears a green
dress and a grey layer. She emits a horrible scream, it is a mixture of a
how, the child’s scream abandoned and the woman’s groan giving
birth. When a member of the
beloved race is dying, she paces the dark hills about his house. She
sharply contrasts against the night's blackness, her white figure emerges
with silver-grey hair streaming to the ground and a grey-white cloak of a
cobweb texture clinging to her tall thin body. Her face is pale, her eyes
red with centuries of crying.
Everyone
was quite sure she would become very beautiful. Though her stepmother was
a wicked woman, she too was very beautiful, and the magic mirror told her
this every day, whenever she asked it. "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is
the loveliest lady in Ireland?" The
reply was always; "You are, your Majesty," until the dreadful day when she
heard it say, "Clover Green is the loveliest in Ireland." The
stepmother was furious and, wild with jealousy, began plotting to get rid
of her rival. Calling one of her trusty servants, she bribed him with a
rich reward to take Clover Green into the forest, far away from the
Castle. Then, unseen, he was to put her to death. The greedy servant,
attracted to the reward, agreed to do this deed, and he led the innocent
little girl away. However, when they came to the fatal spot, the man's
courage failed him and, leaving Clover Green sitting beside a tree, he
mumbled an excuse and ran off. Clover
Green was all alone in the forest. Night came, but the servant did not
return. Clover Green, alone in the dark forest, began to cry bitterly. She
thought she could feel terrible eyes spying on her, and she heard strange
sounds and rustling that made her heart thump. At last, overcome by
tiredness, she fell asleep curled under a tree. Clover Green slept
fitfully, wakening from time to time with a start and staring into the
darkness round her. Several times, she thought she felt something, or
somebody touch her as she slept. At last, dawn woke the forest to the song
of the birds, and Clover Green too, awoke. A
whole world was stirring to life and the little girl was glad to see how
silly her fears had been. However, the thick trees were like a wall round
her, and as she tried to find out where she was, she came upon a path. She
walked along it, hopefully. On she walked till she came to a clearing.
There stood a strange cottage, with a tiny door, tiny windows and a tiny
chimney pot. Everything about the cottage was much tinier than it ought to
be. There were also several rainbows all around the cottage. Clover Green
pushed the door open. "I wonder who lives here?" she said to herself,
peeping round the kitchen. "What
tiny plates! And spoons! There must be seven of them, the table's laid for
seven people." Upstairs
was a bedroom with seven neat little beds. Going back to the kitchen,
Clover Green had an idea. "I'll make them something to eat. When they come
home, they'll be glad to find a meal ready." Towards
dusk, seven tiny leprechauns marched homewards singing. But when they
opened the door, to their surprise they found a bowl of hot steaming soup
on the table, and the whole house was perfectly clean. Upstairs was Clover
Green, fast asleep on one of the beds. The chief leprechaun prodded her
gently. "Who are you?" he asked. Clover
Green told them her sad story, and tears sprang to the leprechauns' eyes.
Then one of them said, as he noisily blew his nose: "Stay here with
us!" "Hooray!
Hooray!" they cheered, dancing joyfully round the little girl.
The
leprechauns said to Clover Green: "You can live here and tend to the house
while we're down the mine. Don't worry about your stepmother leaving you
in the forest. We love you and we'll take care of you!" Clover
Green gratefully accepted their hospitality, and next morning the
leprechauns set off for work. But they warned Clover Green not to open the
door to strangers. Meanwhile, the servant had returned to the castle, with
the heart of a roe deer. He gave it to the cruel stepmother, telling her
it belonged to Clover Green, so that he could claim the reward. Highly
pleased, the stepmother turned again to the magic mirror. But her hopes
were dashed, for the mirror replied: "The loveliest in Ireland is still
Clover Green, who lives in the seven leprechauns' cottage, down in the
forest." The
stepmother was beside herself with rage. "She must die! She must die!" she
screamed. Disguising
herself as an old peasant woman, she put a poisoned apple with the others
in her basket. Then, taking the quickest way into the forest, she crossed
the swamp at the edge of the trees. She reached the bank unseen, just as
Clover Green stood waving goodbye to the seven leprechauns on their way to
the gold mine. Clover White was in the kitchen when she heard the sound at
the door: KNOCK! KNOCK! "Who's
there?" she called suspiciously, remembering the leprechauns advice.
"I'm
an old peasant woman selling apples," came the reply. "I
don't need any apples, thank you," she replied. "But
they are beautiful apples and ever so juicy!" said the velvety voice from
outside the door. "I'm
not supposed to open the door to anyone," said the little girl, who was
reluctant to disobey her friends. "And
quite right too! Good girl! If you promised not to open up to strangers,
then of course you can't buy. You are a good girl indeed!" Then
the old woman went on. "And as a reward for being good, I'm going to make
you a gift of one of my apples!" Without
a further thought, Clover Green opened the door just a tiny crack, to take
the apple. "There! Now isn't that a nice apple?" Clover
Green bit into the fruit, and as she did, fell to the ground in a faint:
the effect of the terrible poison left her lifeless instantaneously. Now
chuckling evilly, the wicked stepmother hurried off. But as she ran back
across the swamp, she tripped and fell into the quicksand. No one heard
her cries for help, and she disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, the
leprechauns came out of the gold mine to find the sky had grown dark and
stormy. Loud thunder echoed through the valleys and streaks of lightning
ripped the sky. Worried about Clover Green they ran as quickly as they
could down the mountain to the cottage. There they found Clover Green,
lying still and lifeless, the poisoned apple by her side. They did their
best to bring her around, but it was no use. They wept and wept for a long
time. Then they laid her on a bed of Irish rose petals, carried her into
the forest and put her in a crystal coffin. Each day they laid a flower
there. Then one evening, they discovered a strange young man admiring
Clover Green's lovely face through the glass. After listening to the
story, the Prince made a suggestion. "If you allow me to take her to the
Castle, I'll call in famous doctors to waken her from this peculiar sleep.
She's so lovely . . . I'd love to kiss her. . . !" He
did, and as though by magic, the Prince's kiss broke the spell. To
everyone's astonishment, Clover Green opened her eyes. She had amazingly
come back to life! Now in love, the Prince asked Clover Green to marry
him, and the leprechauns reluctantly had to say good bye to Clover Green.
From that day on, Clover Green lived happily in a great castle. But from
time to time, she was drawn back to visit the little cottage down in the
forest. 1-
What is a banshee? 2-
What did a banshee do? 3-
How was a banshee’s face? 4-
What did a banshee wear? 5-
How was a banshee’s scream? 6-
What is a druid? 7-
Where did druids live? 8-
What was their shrine? 9-
How long did the learning process take? 10-
What are the druids categories? |
Clover green and the seven
Leprechauns