The presence of special tales, myths and legends is inherent in any people. But Ireland can truly be called a magical land of fairy tales, legends and myths. The fabulous creatures that inhabit the Emerald Island coexist beautifully not only in fairy tales, but also in the everyday life of the Irish, as elements of superstitious folklore. In the article you will learn about the most famous fairy tales, legends and myths of mysterious Ireland.
Fairytale World of Ireland
No wonder Ireland is called the Emerald Isle. All year round the green cover of this country retains its freshness. Incredible rolling plains, bizarre hills and dense forests - all this keeps a lot of secrets.
Since ancient times, the people of Ireland prefer spoken language to writing. Undoubtedly, written documents exist. But the basic knowledge that the inhabitants passed on to each other for centuries was oral. Tales, myths, legends - this is the oral folklore that contained all the mystical beliefs of the Irish.
Characters of fairy tales and legends
Despite the fact that there are a lot of characters in ancient fairy tales, there are several main characters that you will find in most texts.
- Perhaps the most famous Irish character in numerous tales and legends is the leprechaun. In another way it is also called leprihown. Leprechaun is somewhat similar to a Russian brownie. A man of middle age, small stature, with a beard. This character is distinguished by special cunning and ingenuity, but at the same time he is a rather greedy creature. The kid is engaged in shoe work, wears a green suit and hat, and is an alcohol addict. You can read about it, for example, in the Irish fairy tale "Field of daisies."
- Cluricons are relatives of leprechauns, they love wine very much and wear red hats. They are frequent characters in Irish mythology.
- Who, if not elves, occupies a central role in almost all the legends of Ireland. Elves, as guardians of the Irish forests, are the central characters in the mythical epic of Ireland. This people is friendly, they are more noble than leprechauns, and they are smaller in size. Elves also know how to fly. Read about them in the work "Glass shoe elf."
- Mermaids, shipyards, vampires, banshees, groghs - there are many fairy-tale heroes of fantastic Ireland.
Folk tales
Irish folk tales differ from the tales of other countries in that a happy ending in them is quite rare. Most often, at the end of each, you will find moralizing, the conclusion that everyone who reads should make. After reading, there is something to think about, there is no description of the end, everything is clear. For children, this is of paramount importance, as they themselves come up with the finale, while analyzing the whole story. Basically, these are short Irish tales for children with an instructive end. Most of them are played by demons, witches, sorcerers, and mythical creatures - leprechauns, elves, and mermaids.
The most famous folk Irish fairy tales are White Trout, Spellbound Pudding, Cap History, Leprechaun the Little Deceiver, Piper and Pak and others.
Irish Epic
Mythology is based on Celtic traditions. Knowledge of the Irish epic is found from some manuscripts that have survived to this day. One such source is the Book of the Brown Cow, dating from the 12th century.
Irish sagas are written mainly in prose, but there is also a poetic style. The writing style is crisp and clear. And the main theme is the theme of heroic love. At the same time, everything is described brightly, colorfully, fantastically and very fabulously.
Irish storytellers of ancient legends
Due to the fact that writing was used only for sacred knowledge and rituals, all sagas were passed from mouth to mouth. There were people specially trained for this - bards and affiliates.
Bards worked on a poetic depiction of ancient legends. At the same time, they composed music and sang well-known legends. In addition to fairy tales, bards often chanted historical figures and sang about the events of history. They were teachers who knew a lot and could teach this to the younger generation.
Fields performed the function of priests. They were some prophets with high knowledge of the genealogy of the main genera. The epic traditions of Ireland in the form of narratives told a lot in their songs. Later, these stories developed into sagas.
After the felids disappeared, Christian monks began recording Irish sagas around the 8th century. Now you can notice the Christian orientation of almost all the tales, legends and myths of Ireland.
The most famous and interesting sagas: “The Expulsion of Usneh's Sons” (the story is similar to “Tristan and Isolde”), “The Tale of the MacDato Boar”.
Myths of Ancient Ireland
The mythology of Ireland is closely related to the thinking of the ancient Irish. Belief in the afterlife, parallel worlds, rebirth ... The center and beginning of the mythology of Ireland is the first person Fintan Mack Bora. He is the progenitor of ancient people (like Christian Noah, for example).
And the real ancestors of the Irish people are the sons of the Spanish Mile. They were the first to arrive in Ireland and won the battle with the locals who worshiped the goddess Dan. For their victory, they enjoyed the magic and support of the goddesses Eriu, Banba and Fodla. But there is a sacred world of the island with the goddess Danu, which goes underground.
Sid is a magical hill, which is a parallel world in which the gods and goddesses live, the underworld in which all magical creatures live. In another way, this place is called Apple Island - this is a magical country, which is located in Ireland, but no one has ever found it.
The legends, myths and folk tales of Ireland are a real storehouse of knowledge. In addition to instructive motives, you can get in touch with the history of the ancient people, try to understand their structure of mythological thinking - what they believed, what they thought, what the ancient Irish people lived. Irish tales and legends - this is something that you can interest not only the child, but also yourself.