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Our new season of Patron Deities begins, with a look at the intro of the "Celtic" mythology section and some readings related to the first deity in the chapter, the Dagda!

Bonus reading:  https://naturallyorla.com/2019/08/24/do-american-writers-think-irish-is-public-domain-elvish/

I feel like this blog post takes some shortcuts (weird to see Ian Watson lumped in with "American" writers, for instance), but it's a good point that fantasy tends to view Ireland as a mythical place full of faerie glens rather than, like, a country where people live. 

Comments

Steve

Even Wikipedia calls An Dagda a druid. It's only when you click through to Druid, and the Irish and Welsh records that you find this was written by Christian monks. And of course Irish word draoi, doesn't mean the kind of fantasy druid, but a sorcerer, wizard or diviner. This website is a godsend in saying Irish words: https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/draoi

monsterman

Also, I am well aware that my all-Irish concept falls down at literally the next entry in the section. Serves me right.

monsterman

Fantasy 'druids' are sort of ... what Romantics imagined the religious specialists of a pre-Christian religion "must have" been like.