Daragh Smyth Books

Focusing on the life of Cu Chulainn, an iconic Iron Age hero, this book explores his significance in the context of Ulster's history and customs. As a demi-god and a central figure in European heroism, Cu Chulainn's story is woven from ancient writings that blend history, myth, and biography. Daragh Smyth's translations from Old Irish provide a scholarly perspective, detailing Cu Chulainn's journey from birth to his martial initiation, romances, and life in Iron Age Ulster across eight chapters based on medieval manuscripts.

This guide, structured alphabetically with a helpful cross-reference system, allows the reader to delve into the ornate world of Irish mythology and its four cycles of the Mythological Cycle, the Ulster Cycle, the Fenian or Ossianic Cycle, and the Historical Cycle or Cycle of Kings. The characters associated with each of these cycles are vividly brought to life - heroes such as C���ºchulainn, Ois���­n, Cormac mac Airt, Conchobar mac Nessa, Finn and the Fianna.

In Ireland, the link between place and myth is strong, and there is no more enlightening way to understand the rich tapestry of Irish mythology, and its relationship to our true history, than by reading the landscape. Earthing the Myths is an engaging and exhaustive county-by-county guide to the vast number of fascinating places in Ireland connected to myth, folklore and early history.Covering the period 800 BC to AD 650, this book spans the Late Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the early Christian period, and explores the ways in which the land evolved, and with it our catalogue of myths and legends. Smyth chronicles sites the length and breadth of the country, where druids, fairies, goddesses, warriors and kings all left their mark, in tales both real and imagined.With over one thousand locations recorded, from Rathlin Island to the Beara Peninsula, Earthing the Myths breathes life into places throughout Ireland that find their origins in our pre-Christian and pre-Gaelic past, and shows that they still possess unique wisdom and vibrant energy.