Go Deeper
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Index of Blog Posts
  • Readings
  • Shop
    • Chapbooks >
      • Credne's Hand
      • The Fiery Wheel
      • The Fifth Branch
      • Four Essays
      • Land Songs
      • Lugh Lleu
      • Master Jack
      • My ears are keen
      • Mythology
      • Poems for Imbolc
      • Tadg son of Cian
      • A Tale of Manawydan
      • Urien of Rheged
  • Online Classes
  • ManannĂ¡n and Beyond
  • Events

The Dindsenchas Tamed

30/8/2022

8 Comments

 
Picture
Many lovers of Irish mythology know that the Dindsenchas offer a rich seam of lore, but rarely feel that they have the time or the knowledge to work that seam effectively. I believe that I have a remedy in this document, which lists the different sets of dindsenchas translated by Gwynn and Stokes, in a master index, with every entry hyperlinked to the journals where they reside on archive.org. It’s now easy to locate all the entries for Druim Suamaig or Mag Murisce (should you wish to) from this single index. I’ve also included some of the more popular personal names, with a list of the entries in which they occur. You may not be surprised to hear that there are at least nineteen dindsenchas which mention Cú Chulainn, but now you can actually find them, as well as the Mac Óc’s modest sixteen.
Picture
dindsenchas_index_7922.pdf
File Size: 541 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

You are very welcome to download this document. Putting it together was a lot of work (and fun), so a donation is appreciated if you’re able. For this reason, please direct your friends and students to this website, to access their own copies, rather than reproducing or distributing the document yourself.

What are the Dindsenchas?
Essentially meaning “lore of places”, the Dindsenchas take us on a rather random tour of Ireland, stopping to point out what happened in specific places, most of which can still be located in the landscape, today. The stories told are mythological or legendary and because of this, they contain a great deal of mythological information, some of it not found in other texts. On our travels, we learn snippets of information about figures from all four ‘cycles’ of Irish myth: The Mythological, Ulster, Fenian, and Historical; and sometimes entire new stories are revealed to us.

The problem has always been how to find those stories. Like many Irish texts, dindshenchas are scattered through various manuscripts, giving groups of them exotic names like The Bodleian Dinnshenchas, the Rennes Dindsenchas, and The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas, depending on where the manuscript was housed. And that’s just the prose dindsenchas. In the style of many Irish texts, there are also poetic settings of many of the stories, known collectively as The Metrical Dindsenchas.

If you’re lost already, wait until I tell you about the English translations! Between about 1892 and 1924, the redoubtable Whitley Stokes and Edward Gwynn (working separately) edited and translated the prose and metrical dindsenchas, respectively, for our use and benefit. Like many translators working at that time, their work was published, often piecemeal, in Celtic Studies journals like Revue Celtique or Todd Lecture Series, where it has remained largely inaccessible to the general public.

Even if you manage to locate the journals, finding your way around the dindsenchas, themselves, can be a bit hit-or-miss. Most of the titles refer to places names which have changed over the centuries, and which give no clue as to what gems may lie within. Who would guess that the entries for Dumae Selga tell the story of the Mac Óc and his lover, Derbrenn, who care for a herd of talking pigs who were once human; or that the dindsenchas of Berba recount the bizarre tale of Meche, son of the Morrigan, and his three hearts? Only the most dedicated students of early Irish texts have really learned to find their way around the Dindsenchas, and it’s no wonder. Some of them are indexed, and sometimes, the index is even in the same journal as the texts. It’s hardly a recipe for a quick browse.

I hope this document will encourage all lovers of Irish myth to explore the Dindsenchas with confidence. They are a wonderful resource!

    Subscribe to my newsletter  for upcoming classes and events, and links to my latest writing and videos.

Subscribe to Newsletter
8 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    About me

    Kris Hughes - writer, hedge teacher,  pony lover, cartomancer,
    cat whisperer.


    Support my work.
    Buy me a cuppa!

    Picture
    Picture
    LIVESTREAM LINK

    You might like my new facebook group called
    CELTIC MYTHOLOGY

    Archives

    March 2023
    October 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    July 2016
    December 2015
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012


    Categories

    All
    Ancestors
    Animals
    Birds
    Books
    Brigid
    Cailleach
    Depression
    Epona
    Equinox
    Folklore
    Folk Traditions
    Go Deeper Oracle Cards
    Guest Blogs
    Herbs
    Holy Wells
    Horses
    Imbolc
    John Moriarty
    Lugh
    Lughnasadh
    Manannán Mac Lir
    Meditation
    Meditation Cards
    Midsummer
    Moon
    Music
    Mysticism And Visions
    Mythology
    Poetry
    Prayer
    Prayer Cards
    Readings
    Ritual
    Samhuinn
    Shamanism
    Southeast Colorado
    Storytelling
    Trees
    Videos
    Visualisation
    Water


    Blogroll
    Clas Merdin
    From Penverdant
    Gorsedd Arberth

    Stone of Destiny
    The
    White Deer Blog

Proudly powered by Weebly