Irish mythology in popular culture

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Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Elements of Irish mythology have appeared many times in popular culture.

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Banshee

  • The name of the world's longest inverted roller coaster located at King's Island amusement park located in Mason, Ohio.
  • The 1959 Disney movie Darby O'Gill and the Little People contains a scene where the title character encounters a pernicious banshee. (See note at end of this section, for information about banshee behaviour in American popular culture and how it differs from banshee behaviour in traditional Irish folklore.)
  • The Real Ghostbusters episode "Banshee Bake a Cherry Pie?" depicts a banshee masquerading as an Irish pop singer and aiming to use its voice to take over the world.
  • The Halo video game series incorporates an airborne vehicle called "Banshee" named for its engine's screaming noise.
  • The Silver Banshee is a character in Superman comics and other media.
  • A boggart takes the form of a banshee to scare Seamus Finnegan in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
  • "Banshee" was the code name of an Irish superhero and member of the X-Men with superhuman sonic abilities. The codename is carried on by his daughter, formerly known by her superheroic codename of Siryn, who possesses similar superhuman abilities.
  • The 2011 horror movie Scream of the Banshee is about an archaeology professor who unearths a dangerous artifact, unwittingly releasing a monstrous banshee that kills with the power of its bone-splitting scream.
  • The 1990s animated television series Gargoyles episode "The Hound of Ulster" is about Irish folklore and features a banshee as the main antagonist. The Irish-ethnicity characters for that particular episode, set in modern Ireland turn out to be characters from old Irish folklore, reborn in the present time. The episode's main character, Rory, who turns out to be Cu Chulainn, has a childhood friend Molly who turns out to be the Banshee. In a later episode, the Banshee is dragged back to Avalon by the Weird Sisters, where Oberon removes her voice as punishment for ignoring his summons.
  • The 1999 animated television series Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends premise was that aliens had been living among humans for ages, and were the origins of many of the creatures humans know from myth, folklore and legends, including a clan of banshees as the main antagonist.
  • The 2012 video game Mass Effect 3, "Banshees" are Asari, mainly Ardat-Yakshi, Husks with wails and sharp claws that are used as shock troops by the Reapers.
  • In the American television series Charmed, the banshee are a rare breed of demons with distinctive white hair and a high-pitched scream – audible only to dogs and their intended victim – that can burst glass and blood vessels, killing a mortal, or turn a witch predisposed to emotional pain into a banshee. A banshee appears in the episode "Look Who's Barking" in season 3 of Charmed.
  • Banshees appear in the popular MMORPG RuneScape, as a monster attributed to the Slayer skill.
  • In Teen Wolf episode 3x09 The Girl Who Knew Too Much, it is revealed that Lydia is a banshee. She screams when anyone in the town is murdered, but normally by a supernatural cause. She uses her powers to sense leads on murders. Meredith, a resident of an insane asylum is also a banshee and her powers seem to work best through using phones. (Voices that aren't real talk to her and indirectly give clues on how to solve murders or find bodies.
  • In the Mortal Kombat franchise of games, character Sindel shares many similarities with banshee's, including her loud, wailing voice and long, flowing hair.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee is designed based on the Irish banshee, hence the name.
  • in the video game series Fable (video game) series a banshee is an enemy encountered occasionally in the swampy areas of the game and arenas.
  • In Warcraft 3, banshees are a producible unit of Undead faction. They have the ability to possess units and gain their control.
  • In the TV movie, Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo a Banshee is one of the main villains the gang along with Vilma's sister must face. It appears in a scene where they must travel to an island and gain a staff of a magical person but are stopped by the banshee which turns out to be a beautiful female creature but turns into a skull-like beast which chases them to the boat and disappears. It appears again to Shaggy and Scooby but is relieved to be a projection.
  • A banshee is mentioned two times in episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants. it first was mentioned in the episode, "Grandpappy The Pirate", where Grandpa Redbeard mistook Pearl as a Banshee. In the episode, "Not Normal", SpongeBob disturbs Squidward form his mid-morning nap by running up and down and laughing around his house. When Squidward confronts him he replies, "By running around and screaming like a Banshee", and SpongeBob replies, "No Squidward a banshee screams like this...", and gives a death-defying scream before Squidward cuts him off.
  • In the Supernatural season 11 episode Into the Mystic, a Banshee is the main enemy. In 1985 the Banshee had targeted an Irish family, killing the father and deafening the baby daughter before the mother sacrificed herself to banish it and save her daughter. Thirty years later in the present, the baby, Eileen has grown up and is hunting the Banshee for revenge. With the help of protagonists Sam and Dean Winchester as well as retirement home resident Mildred Baker, Eileen is able to trap and kill the Banshee with a gold knife and avenge her parents deaths.

Note: "Banshee" (in Gaelic bean sidhe) originally meant "woman of the fairies". The banshees in old Irish folklore were often presented as grieving women who were keening (weeping/mourning) for the dead. This appears in the Darby O'Gill and the Little People DVD extra I Captured the King of the Leprechauns (originally a Walt Disney Presents or Wonderful World of Disney episode, telling viewers about the making of, and some of the folklore which inspired parts of, the movie Darby O'Gill and the Little People), in which the banshee is "keening for the young O'Brien" and is in no way a pernicious or threatening character, but merely seen as a dark or sad omen because she appears before people die. She does not cause deaths, she mourns for the dead (or, eerily, the soon-to-be-dead). The banshee in American popular culture (possibly starting with Darby O'Gill and the Little People, in which some characteristics of later American pop culture banshee behaviour can be seen) is typically a threatening and/or menacing figure who causes death and/or destruction (thereby taking on characteristics belonging traditionally more to the Morrigan than to the banshees).

Hy-Brasil

  • The characters of the movie Erik the Viking visit the island, spelled Hy-Brasil in the film's literature, during their quest to find Valhalla and end Ragnarok.

It appears in the novel The Stones Are Hatching by Geraldine McCaughrean as the home of malevolent Fairies which plan to invade England and steal the women and girls for brides. The protagonist is led there by his companion's uncle Mordo, who has seen the island before, and thinks the fairies will grant him a wish.

  • Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy of fantasy novels is set in the mythical Elder Isles, situated southwest of Cornwall and west of Brittany, consisting of a large island called Hybras, "the Hy-Brasil of ancient Irish legend," surrounded by numerous smaller islands of various sizes.
  • Hy-Brasil is the title of the 2002 novel by Scottish writer Margaret Elphinstone. She creates an island-nation somewhere between Newfoundland and Ireland as a thought-experiment.
  • Hy Brasil is featured in the Promethea comic series by Alan Moore.
  • In the novel Engelbrecht Again! by Rhys Hughes the main characters meet a mermaid on the island of Brasil while on their way to the country of Brazil.
  • In the Saga of Pliocene Exile, a series of science-fiction novels by Julian May, "High Vrazel" is the seat of the Firvulag, an alien race based on the Fir Bolg of Irish mythology.
  • In the Artemis Fowl series, Hybras is an island, situated off the coast of Ireland, on which demons live.
  • In the .hack//G.U. series of video games, Hy-Brazil is an island that only the champions of the arena fights are allowed to visit.
  • In the alternate history of Poul Anderson's "Delenda Est", in which Carthago destroyed Rome and later world culture was based on a mixture of Semitic and Celtic elements, "Huy Braseal" is one of the main world powers in the equivalent of the 20th century.

Caladbolg

Bricriu

Crom Cruach

Placenames

Fiction

  • Kenneth C. Flint wrote a novel called Cromm about modern human sacrifice in Cavan, published by Doubleday in 1990.
  • The Meredith Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton features a character, Rhys, who was once the death deity Cromm Cruach.
  • The radio program Hall of Fantasy had an episode named "The Idol of Cromm Cruac", about a hidden Crom Cruac cult in the 20th century United States. The program identified the god as "Keltic" but not specifically as Irish.
  • Conan the Cimmerian's patron deity is named Crom, though whether this reference is derived from the gaelic deity is uncertain.
  • Michael Moorcock wrote a second trilogy of novels, Bull and the Spear, Oak and the Ram and Sword and the Stallion about Prince Corum where he travels to a Celtic themed realm, of his world's far future, where Corum has become Cremm Croich (Cremm/Corum of the Silver Hand), The Lord of the Mound.
  • In the fantasy novel The Hunter's Moon by O.R. Melling Crom Cruac, the Great Worm, is the main peril which the main characters must face and defeat.
  • In Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole, Crom Cruach is the main antagonist, with the ability to infect beings with a mad need to sacrifice whoever they love most.

Poetry

Comics

  • Crom Cruach appears as a monstrous "time worm" feeding on human misery in Pat Mills' fantasy series Sláine.

Television

  • In the Robin of Sherwood episode "Cromm Cruac", the name applies to a phantom village created by Gulnar. The village appears periodically and is populated by evil spirits due to its residents having practised human sacrifice (of their children) in the past.
  • The Gargoyles TV series episode "The Hound of Ulster" has the Banshee taking the form of a gigantic centipede-like "death-worm" by the name of Cromm-Cruach to do battle with Goliath, Elisa Maza, Goliath's daughter Angela and their gargoyle beast Bronx.

Film

Game

  • In the Nexon game Mabinogi, the boss for the 3rd generation storyline is Cromm Cruaich, re-imagined as a dragon.
  • In the prequel Vindictus, Cromm Cruaich makes another appearance this time as the final boss of the games second season, this time represented as a Humanoid Demon God.

Cú Chulainn

Animation

  • In the second season of the Disney animated TV series Gargoyles, during the "Avalon World Tour" story arc's episode titled The Hound of Ulster, Goliath and his daughter Angela, their human friend Elisa Maza, and Goliath's gargoyle beast Bronx encounter a young Irishman named Rory Dugan, who turns out to be the reincarnation of Cu Chulainn, voiced by Scott Cleverdon. For a time Bronx accompanies the reincarnated Cu Chulainn as the titular "hound" of the legend, with the Banshee as Cu Chulainn's antagonist. The Banshee, one of Oberon's children in the Gargoyles episodes, also takes the form of a gigantic, centipede-like "death-worm" under the name of Crom(m)-Cruach to battle Cu Chulainn and the Gargoyles in the episode's climax. Rory defeats the Banshee using the Spear of Light, a magical weapon that restores his memories, and gives Ireland back it's greatest hero. (Note: Cu Chulainn himself was actually known as "the Hound of Ulster": he slew Culann's guard dog and then offered his own services as "watchdog" in compensation, thereby becoming known as "Cu Chulainn", which means "Culann's hound"; he then defended Ulster and became known as "the Hound of Ulster". The Gargoyles episode title probably refers doubly to Bronx acting as Cu Chulainn's temporary "hound" and to Cu Chulainn himself.)
  • The King's Wake, a short animated film by John McCloskey, features Cu Chulainn and King Connor Mac Neasa.[1]
  • In Fate/Stay Night, Cú Chulainn is summoned into the Lancer class, and his spear, Gáe Bolg, has the ability to unfailingly pierce the heart of its target.
    • Cú Chulainn returns as Lancer in the comedy series Carnival Phantasm, though he is portrayed as having extremely bad luck, frequently being mistaken for a dog, and dying in every episode.
Comics

Music

  • Scottish composer Ronald Center wrote a symphony called The Coming of Cuchulain, first performed by the Scottish Orchestra, conducted by Warwick Braithwaite, in 1944.
  • The tale of Cú Chulainn's wasting sickness provides the title of the Pogues's song "The Sickbed of Cuchulainn" from their album Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash.
  • Jeff Danna's opening theme for the 1999 film Boondock Saints is named "The Blood of Cuchulainn".
  • French hip hop group Manau has a song about Cú Chulainn called "Le Chien du Forgeron" ("The Smith's Hound").
  • The first track on the album The Eternal Knot, written by Karl Jenkins for his Adiemus project, is called "Cú Chullain".
  • The second verse of the Thin Lizzy song "Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend" from the 1979 album Black Rose: A Rock Legend begins with the phrase "Pray tell me the story of young Cuchulainn, how his eyes were dark, his expression sullen, and how he'd fight and always won, and how they cried when he was fallen".
  • The eighth track on the album Wild Frontier by Gary Moore, titled "Thunder Rising", speaks of the legend of Cú Chullain.
  • Irish rock band Horslips' 1973 second album was titled The Táin, featuring Cú Chulainn's exploits, originally conceived as music for a stage adaptation of the poem.
  • Cuchulainn is mentioned in or the subject of a few songs by the Celtic metal band Cruachan, including "Cuchulainn (The Hound of Culan)", "Cattle Raid of Cooley" and "The Brown Bull of Cooley".
  • The songs "Seven Fingers" and "When They Come to Murder Me" from the Black Francis mini-album Svn Fngrs are about Cú Chulainn.
  • There is a song from the show Riverdance named "Caoineadh Cú Chulainn", meaning "The Lament of Cú Chulainn". It is played by Davy Spillane on the uilleann pipes.
  • The German metal band Suidakra released an album called Crógacht, based on the story of Cúchulainn and Conlaoch.
  • The symphonic metal band Therion released a song called "Cú Chulainn" on their 2010 album, Sitra Ahra.
  • The first track of My Name Will Live On, an album by Italian epic doom metal band Doomsword is named "The Death of Ferdia", and tells the story of the duel fought between Cú Chulainn and his foster brother.

Novels

  • In Henry H. Neff's series The Tapestry, Max MacDaniels is believed to be Cúchulainn reborn. He is later discovered to be a half brother.

Sport

Scouting

Games

  • The character is the protagonist in the adventure games Tir Na Nog and Dun Darach.
  • In Final Fantasy XII, an esper is named Cúchulainn, and in Final Fantasy Tactics he is the first Lucavi demon players must defeat. Additionally, several Final Fantasy games contain a weapon named for Cú Chulainn's spear, the Gáe Bulg.
  • Cúchulainn appears in several Megami Tensei games as a recruitable demon capable of being summoned by player characters to fight other enemies. Also, in Persona 3, it is possible to fuse him with a Nihil weapon to obtain his spear. He also appears as his Setanta form, usually a weaker demon than Cu Chulainn.
  • He appears as Lancer, one of the Servants in the Holy Grail War in the Fate/stay night visual novel. He also appears in the anime, video games, movie, and manga based on the visual novel.
  • In the adventure game Omikron: The Nomad Soul, a hero which the player eventually controls is named Kushulai'n.
  • Cúchulainn is due to star in an educational computer game called In Cúchulainn's Footsteps. In the game, Cúchulainn must escape from the Druids' Island. To do this Cúchulainn must find five magic symbols and bring them to a stone gate at the sacred mound. The game includes among other things, a voice cameo by GAA commentator Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh.

Diarmuid Ua Duibhne

  • Diarmuid appears as the character Zero Lancer in the Fate/Unlimited Codes game for the PS2 and PSP; his depiction there is derived from his appearance in the Fate/Zero light novel series from the same franchise, and also features prominently in the anime adaptation of Fate/Zero.

Fand

Fionn mac Cumhaill

  • Finn MacCool appears in the novel The Drawing of the Dark by author Tim Powers. In the novel he is buried in Vienna, Austria with a cistern of beer directly above his grave. His essence gives the oldest of the beer supernatural powers.
  • Mary Tannen has written two children's novels where Finn features as a major character, The Wizard Children of Finn (1982) and The Lost Legend of Finn (1983).
  • He is also featured as a character in filmmaker Matthew Barney's film Cremaster 3 (2002).
  • Fionn mac Cumhaill was featured as a protagonist and ally in the first published adventure for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, The Dark Druid. The adventure features Fionn and his battle with the druid Fer Doirich in the modern age and posits that the witches Willow and Tara are the reincarnations of his foster mothers Bodhmall and Liath respectively.[8]
  • The song "The Giant" by the Canadian singer-songwriter Stan Rogers features Fionn mac Cumhaill as 'the giant' Fingal.
  • Dropkick Murphys play a song titled "The Legend of Finn Maccumhail".
  • "The Youth of Finn MacCool" is a song featured on Doomsword's Resound the Horn which retells of the story of how Finn spared the deer that turned out to be Sadbh. On the same album, the song "Onward into Battle" is dedicated to Finn and the Fianna.
  • Finn McCool's is the name of the restaurant in Westhampton Beach, New York that was the subject of 14 November 2007, episode of the American reality television series Kitchen Nightmares.
  • Fionn briefly appears in episode 9 of the anime adaptation of Fate/Zero, in a scene that briefly recounts the story of Fionn's encounters with Diarmuid Ua Duibhne.
  • The roleplaying game Werewolf: the Apocalypse has the Fianna as one of the major tribes of werewolf society, first organised by Fionn and holding close ties to the fae.

Fomoiri

Games

  • Within the video game Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, there are enemies known as "Formors", though their appearance evokes classical depictions of demons.
  • The MMORPG Final Fantasy XI has undead enemies known as "Formors" that look like the game's playable races but are engulfed in shadow with glowing eyes.
  • Fomorians are detailed in the Monster Manual for the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, where they are the fey perversions of the titans and the rulers of the Feydark, the Feywild's Underdark.
  • Two creatures in the trading card game Magic: The Gathering are of a race of giants called the Fomori. These appear as goat-horned anthropomorphs of tremendous size. So far, only Ruhan of the Fomori[9] and the Fomori Nomad[10] have been seen.
  • Within the MMORPGs Mabinogi and Vindictus, which contain several other references to Irish and general Celtic mythology, the various antagonist races are collectively known as the "Fomors".
  • Fomorians appear as enemies in the video game Nethergate (1999).
  • In the role-playing game Shadowrun, these are presented as a specifically Irish variation of the more common Troll race.
  • In the original World of Darkness game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Fomori are a type of corrupted human, servants of the Wyrm.

Literature

  • In "Even Hand", another short story in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, Johnny Marcone deals with a fomor named Mag
  • In her science fiction book Elphame's Choice, P.C. Cast describes the Fomorians and Cú Chulainn.
  • Mark Chadbourn's fantasy series The Age of Misrule shows a contemporary world where the Fomor return to attempt to conquer both the Earth and the Otherworld of the Tuatha De Danann. They are presented as being malformed and grotesque Lovecraftian creatures.
  • In Chapter 19 of James Rollins' sixth Sigma Force novel, The Doomsday Key (2009), Father Rye and historian Wallace Boyd tell the group seeking the Doomsday Key that Bardsey Island was home to Fomorian royalty and that Merlin was a famousDruid priest, buried on sacred Bardsey Island with other prominent Druids.
  • Bec's clan encounters Fomoiri attacks in Darren Shan's book Bec.

Geis

  • In the Discworld novel Sourcery, the great hero "Nijel the Destroyer" claims to have a geis, which Rincewind mistakes for a type of bird. In A Hat Full of Sky, Rob Anybody is put under a geis by his wife Jeannie, the kelda, to protect Tiffany Aching from the Hiver.
  • In the novel Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson, every military recruit is put under a geis which prevents panic and assures loyalty. It can be broken only if the individual gives free consent, and is removed when the person returns to civilian life.
  • In The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross, members of an occult branch of British intelligence can cast geasa.
  • In Geis of the Gargoyle by Piers Anthony, Gary Gargoyle, being a gargoyle, has a geis on him since Xanth began, and it is a magical compulsion to protect the purity of the Swan Knee River. However, the pollution from Mundania (the 'real world') has gotten out of hand, and it is up to Gary to place his geis on the philter to keep all of Xanth's water clean.
  • Some role-playing games mention geasa as "spells" or "powers", though these "geasa" are often only loosely inspired by the historical concept. For instance, in Dungeons and Dragons there are two such "spells": "lesser geas", which forces the victim to obey a command issued by the caster, and "geas/quest", which is much the same but with more severe penalties.[11] In the game Runequest, initiates of certain cults take on geases that are closer to the historical concept.
    • In the video game Wild ARMS 2 the character Brad is forced to wear a collar called a "Geas" (or "Geass") that will explode, causing his death, if he does not follow the orders of those who placed the collar on him. In this sense, the character Lynn in the film Saw III can be considered to be under the effect of a Geis/Geas, as the collar she wears will explode, ending her life, if she does not fulfill the condition of saving John's life.
    • In the science fantasy role-playing game Shadowrun, a geas is a self-adopted restriction on magical abilities that allows them to retain full potency some of the time (for example, when intoxicated or at night) by making them completely unavailable whenever conditions are not met.
  • In the anime series Code Geass the main character, Lelouch, obtains an ability called Geass that allows him to make anyone who gazes into his left eye obey any single order unquestioningly, though it cannot work on the same person twice.
    • Several other characters receive different powers by the same source of Lelouch (immortal beings named Code, once Geass-holder themselves). True to the original source, the Geass is a gift from the Code, specific to the individual and bound by rules.
  • In a 1964 short fantasy story "A Case of Identity" by Randall Garrett, one of the characters, a homicidal psychopath by nature, is mentally restrained by a spell called geas, "which forces him to limit his activities to those which are not dangerous to his fellow man".
  • In the Halo franchise, the Forerunner Lifeworkers have the ability to impose genetic commands on the target species (which can lay dormant or stay active for thousands of years. Using this, the Forerunner known as the Librarian imposed a broad geas on mankind (which resulted in the Spartan program, the creation of AI's, and the ability to operate Forerunner technology).

Lugh

  • Kenneth C. Flint retells this story in his Sidhe series.
  • Birth father of Max McDaniels in The Tapestry series by Henry H. Neff.
  • In the 2004 console game The Bard's Tale, Lugh is one of the three guardians.
  • In Diane Duane's A Wizard Abroad and later books, Lugh is considered one of the Powers That Be, also known as the One's Champion, and is incarnated within an Irish Wizard (after spending some time as a macaw named Machu Picchu with a penchant for prophecy).
  • In the Nexon MMORPG Mabinogi, Lugh is the name of one of the two "true Paladins" (the other being you, if you choose to play as a human), and he is also the Dark Lord Morgant, one of the highest-in-command in the Fomor Army led by Cichol, another antagonist.
  • In the prequel Vindictus, Lugh makes another appearance this time as the final boss of the games third season, this time represented as a Warrior of Light.
  • In the role-playing video game Devil Survivor 2, the character Io Nitta has to use the essence of Lugh to activate a powerful entity called the Dragon Stream. He can later be fused in the Cathedral of Shadows.
  • Lugh is mentioned frequently in the 1990s Saban TV series Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, although only in the sense that he is a divinity who some characters worship.
  • In the game Fire Emblem: Binding Blade, an attainable character is named Lugh, along with his twin brother, whose name is sometimes translated as Lleu.

Lughnasadh

  • The 1990 play by Brian Friel titled Dancing at Lughnasa takes place in early August and describes one family's bitter harvest. It has also been made into a 1998 film.
  • A traditional Irish folk music group, Lúnasa, is named after the festival.
  • The Dutch band Omnia have a song titled "Lughnasadh" on their album Pagan Folk.
  • Áine Minogue, an Irish Celtic folk music artist, has a song titled "Rosemary Faire (Song of Lughnasadh)" on her album Between Worlds.

Manannán mac Lir

  • The traditional of offering bundles of reeds on the Isle of Man is still practised as an opening ceremony of Tynwald.[12]
  • There is a museum in the town of Peel on the Isle of Man named the House of Manannan[13] as well as an annual celebration of the arts The Manannan Festival.
  • The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company vessel, which entered service in May 2009 on the Liverpool/Douglas sailings, is named Manannan.[14]
  • Okells Brewery on the Isle of Man produces a wheat beer dedicated to and named after Manannan Mac Lir.[15]
  • The figure is also referred to in songs by metal bands. The closing track on Gaelic doom band Mael Mórdha's album Gealtacht Mael Mordha is called "Minions of Manannan", telling of his revenge on the fleeing Vikings from the battle of Cluain Tarb. Track 4 on black metal band Absu's album Tara is called "Mannanan".
  • Manannan features as the last guardian boss in the 2004 console game The Bard's Tale.
  • In Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series, the character of Barinthus used to be the sea god Manannán mac Lir before fairie began to lose its power and he was reduced to a shadow of his former self.
  • Texas Experimental black metal band Absu has a song called "Manannán" on their 2001 album, Tara.
  • The Tides of Manaunaun, composed in 1917, is a famous contemporary short piano piece written by American composer Henry Cowell.
  • Mánannán mac Lir was included in TSR, Inc.'s Deities and Demigods book as a god player characters can worship.
  • In the game King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human, Manannan is the name of the wicked wizard.
  • The character appears in Song of the Sea as the son of Macha, and is referred to simply as Mac Lir. In the story he is a great giant who was accompanied by two dogs, but a tragedy befell him that caused him to cry an ocean. Unable to bear her son's sorrow, Macha took away her son's feelings, causing him to turn to stone and become an island. In the climax of the film his spirit is set free by the song of the selkie, and he joins the other Faerie creatures in departing across the sea.

Medb

The Morrígan

  • One of the gods in The Wicked + The Divine, a comic series by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, is The Morrigan
  • The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea
  • The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner, in which the Morrígan appears as the leader of the Morthbrood.
  • A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. The Morrigan, in her triple form, plays a major role in this macabre comic novel.
  • Black Aria, a classical album by Glenn Danzig, features a song titled "The Morrigu".
  • The Morrigan features briefly amongst other deities in Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods as three women comprising one collective goddess of war. Only Macha is named directly.
  • Celtic Metal band Primordial have a song called 'Sons of the Morrigan'
  • In the video game series Darkstalkers, a character named Morrigan is a playable character (although she is a succubus).
  • In the video game Mabinogi, Morrigan (though spelled Morrighan) appears as a goddess who turned into stone. She also has an important role in the hack and slash prequel, Vindictus.
  • The Morrigan is featured in "Split the Atom", an episode of the BBC radio series Weird Tales.
  • The Morrigan is a character who appears in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott.
  • The Morrigan is the leader of the Dark Fae in the TV show Lost Girl, though the name is a title passed down between leaders and not the character's actual name.
  • The Morrigan, depicted as three sisters, appear in Sanctuary, as part of Fata Morgana.
  • The pagan folk band Omnia has a song called "Morrigan, Crone of War".
  • The Morrigan (without the definite article) appeared as a Goa'uld System Lord in Stargate SG-1 episode "Summit", season 5, and was mentioned several times thereafter.
  • Morrígan (as Morrigu) appears in David Gemmell's Rigante series, in the books Sword in the Storm and Midnight Falcon.
  • The Morrigan is a character who appears in The Iron Druid Chronicles, written by Kevin Hearne.
  • In the Italian comic book Zagor, Morrigan helps the titular hero to defeat Donn the Dark One, his wife Macha, and her sister Nemain.
  • In the Marvel Comics book X-Factor, Theresa Cassidy, an Irish mutant formerly known as "Banshee" and "Siryn", becomes The Morrigan after killing the previous Morrigan.
  • A character called Morrigan appears in several episodes of Hercules: the Legendary Journeys. She is portrayed as a demigoddess, the daughter of Badb and a mortal. She is initially in a relationship with Kernunnos and with him is the mother of Bridget, but later turns on him and becomes Hercules's lover and ally against Dahak and Queen Mab.
  • Heather Dale sings a song called "The Morrigan" on her album Fairytales.
  • A playable female character with the same name features in the Dragon Age video game series.
  • The Morrigan is the name of the ship in the video game Assassin's Creed: Rogue; piloted by the game's Templar antihero, Shay Cormac. Wolf designs are heavily featured on the ship including the sails and figurehead.
  • The Morrigan is a character in the Arthurian opera that is the topic of 1636: The Devil's Opera, a 1632 series sf book.
  • Celtic folk-rock band Emerald Rose mentions the Morrigan as one of the historic incarnations of goddesshood in the song "Freya, Shakti" on their 2000 album Bending Tradition.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire one of the noble Houses from the Stormlands, House Morrigen of Crow's Nest, has as its sigil a crow.
  • Morrigan appears in Nora Roberts Valley of Silence Trilogy as a protector who brings the warriors that fight the vampires in the final battle.
  • Morrigan is the name of the demonic female antagonist in the novel Relics, by Shaun Hutson.
  • Morrigan, the Prince of Ravens, is a male form of this legend and holds the role of overarching villain in Cecilia Dart-Thornton's "Bitterbynde" Trilogy (2001)

Oisín

Fionn mac Cumhaill's son, Oisín, is referenced by the grandfather in the film Into the West as he tells his grandsons the story of Oisín's journey to Tir na nOg from the point of view of the Travellers or "Gypsies" of Ireland. The grandfather gives a mysterious white horse the name "Tir na nOg" in homage to the story, and the boys proceed to have an extended adventure travelling from Dublin to the west coast of Ireland.

Salmon of Knowledge

Samhain

  • In the film Trick 'r Treat, Samhain, "The Spirit of Halloween" takes the form of a trick-or-treater in orange footie pajamas and a burlap sack mask. At the film's climax, Sam is unmasked and his demonic, pumpkin-like face is revealed. Sam is considered the "horror hero" of the story, and punishes those who break the rules of Halloween.
  • On two separate episodes of The Real Ghostbusters, Samhain is the living incarnation of Halloween. In this incarnation, Samhain is a spindly figure with a brown robe and a jack-o-lantern for a head, and he seeks to abolish daylight and make Halloween forever.
  • In "It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester", episode 67 of the US television series Supernatural, Samhain is presented as 'the origin of Halloween'. He is a demon who inspired the Celtic rituals that eventually became Halloween customs. As stated by character Sam Winchester: "Masks were put on to hide from him, sweets left on doorsteps to appease him, faces carved into pumpkins to worship him" but was exorcised centuries ago. Samhain is raised from hell by two powerful witches, and once risen, summons ghosts, zombies and ghouls to kill everyone around. He is later exorcised psychically by Sam Winchester and sent back to Hell after all efforts to kill him failed. He was shown to be an incredibly powerful demon.
  • Samhain, Glenn Danzig's gothic metal/punk rock band, was named after the festival.
  • In the film Halloween II, the killer Michael Myers writes Samhain on a school chalk board in blood.
  • In Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Trilogy, a modern and realistic interpretation of Arthurian Britain, the Samhain is commemorated as the most important celebration by the Celtic pagan characters, and is mentioned by the protagonist, Derfel Cadarn, as the day when the spirits of the dead roam among the living and when the Druidic magic, represented by Merlin and Nimue weakens.
  • In the film Halloween III a business tycoon wishes to return Halloween to its sacrificial roots of Samhain.
  • Samhain is a "day" in the MMO game, Mabinogi.
  • In the beginning of an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Dr. Weird proclaims 'Samhain forever!' before the opening theme.
  • The PlayStation 3 video game Folklore, the night of Samhain is major plot point that sets off the events of the title and the entrance to the Netherworld.
  • Swedish black metal band Marduk have a song called A Samhain Fire as a bonus track on their 2001 release, La Grande Danse Macabre
  • The animated TV series Ugly Americans has a holiday called Samhain.
  • In the comic book series Hack/Slash the Samhain is an agent of the Black Lamp Society, a cult worshiping slashers.
  • The American Gothic Rock Band We Are The Fallen has a song titled Samhain, as a bonus track on their debut disk Tear the World Down Deluxe Edition
  • In the Fever Series by "Karen Marie Moning", Samhain is the night when rituals are performed to keep the Fae Walls from breaching, unleashing evil fae into the world.
  • True Blood, in the final episode of season 4, references Samhain multiple times – though even Wiccan characters mispronounce it as "samma-hane".

Scáthach

  • Appears in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott.
  • Appears in The Second Siege, book 2 of the Tapestry Series by Henry H. Neff.
  • The origin story for Red Sonja, "The Day of the Sword", first appeared in Kull and the Barbarians, issue 3, by Roy Thomas, Doug Moench, and Howard Chaykin, and was later redrawn by Dick Giordano and Terry Austin for The Savage Sword of Conan, issue 78. In this story, Red Sonja lived with her family in a humble house in the Western Hyrkanian steppes (this seems to be in modern Ukraine/Russia though historical Hyrcania was on the borders of modern Iran/Turkmenistan).[citation needed] When she had just turned 17 years old, a group of mercenaries killed her family and burned down their house. Sonja survived but was brutally raped by the leader of the group, leaving her in shame. Answering her cry for revenge, the red goddess Scáthach appeared to her, and instilled in her incredible skill in the handling of swords and other weapons on the condition that she would never lie with a man unless he defeated her in fair combat.
  • Scathach appears in the Megami Tensei series of RPGs as a recurring demon of the Megami race, and in the Persona subseries as a persona of the Priestess Arcana
  • Appears in game Mabinogi as a witch who makes nearby normal monsters into big ones.
  • She also appears in a Mobile Game Fate/Grand Order as a servant of the Lancer Class, with Gae Bolg as her Noble Phantasm

Selkie

Literature

  • John Allison's webcomic Bad Machinery includes a storyline prominently featuring two selkie girls.[16]
  • One of the main supporting characters in Jane Johnson's Eidolon trilogy is a young girl selkie called She Who Swims the Silver Path of The Moon (Silver for short) who becomes close with the main hero, Ben Arnold, when he rescues her from the evil Doddman's pet shop.
  • In the fifth book of The Last Apprentice series, the protagonist is forced to separate a beautiful selkie from her ageing husband. In the series, selkies age very slowly, and are considered bad luck or are taught to be prostitutes by the women.
  • The Folk Keeper, a "young readers" novel by Franny Billingsley also uses this myth powerfully.
  • At least one tale about selkies is included in Scottish Folk Tales by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
  • Terri Farley, known for her books about horses that are written for children, broke from that style in 2005 to write Seven Tears into the Sea, a modern and slightly different selkie tale for teenagers. It is a teen romance novel following the story of a young girl who returns to her hometown in search of a selkie she encountered seven years earlier.
  • In science-fiction the Petaybee Series by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough employs the selkie myth in a futuristic setting.
  • In the first book of the Guardians of the Flame fantasy novel series by Joel Rosenberg, "The Sleeping Dragon", selkies are shown to be enslaved by the authorities of Pandathaway and forced to propel her military guardships through the heavily trapped harbor bay.
  • A. E. van Vogt's novel The Silkie imagines a race of creatures who can change between aquatic, human, and space-traveling forms.
  • Selkies also appear as one of many varieties of "changed" human in Ken MacLeod's Engines of Light trilogy.
  • In the third in the Council Wars series by John Ringo, Against the Tide, selkies are used with tongue-in-cheek humour, referring to the real-life US Navy SEALs in a fantasy setting. In the book, selkies performed commando-style beach infiltrations highly reminiscent of how SEALs are often portrayed in popular media.
  • Mercedes Lackey's novel The Serpent's Shadow features a group of selkies in a cameo as benign water fey creatures. Her eighth book in the Elemental Masters series, Home From the Sea, features a Selkie clan prominently, but are referred to by the old Scots name of Selch.
  • British fantasy author Susan Cooper has written both a picture book and a novel featuring selkies. The picture book, Selkie Girl, recounts a traditional selkie legend from Ireland. The novel, Seaward, features characters who turn out to be selkies.
  • In the first Meredith Gentry novel, A Kiss of Shadows, by Laurell K. Hamilton, a selkie named Roane Finn is the lover of Merry Gentry, who is a part human part fey princess who is hiding in Los Angeles in self-imposed exile from the Unseelie Kingdom due to political plots against her. Merry and Roane are both paranormal detectives working for the Grey Detective Agency. Roane had been trapped in human form when a fisherman had found his seal skin and burned it. When the latent magic in Merry is awakened, it first manifests itself by miraculously regenerating Roane's shape shifting ability. He immediately returns to his life in the sea for which he had been pining.
  • George Mackay Brown's novel Beside the Ocean of Time also involves a young man falling love with a Selkie, and the hiding of her sealskin to keep her from returning to the sea.
  • In 1998, American author Christina Dodd published a romance novel titled A Well Favored Gentleman about Ian Fairchild. His character made his first appearance in the first book of the Well Pleasured series, A Well Pleasured Lady (1997). Ian is the son of a selkie and has powers due to that legacy.
  • In Anne Bishop's Tir Alainne trilogy selkies are a member of the Fae race who must help witches avoid the mass murdering black inquisitors to stay alive.
  • Juliet Marillier wrote several trilogies, mixing folklore with history. In Child of the Prophecy (2001) Darragh is turned into a selkie by the Fae, while Watcher in Foxmask (2003) is a descendant of a selkie mother and a human father.
  • Mollie Hunter's novel, A Stranger Came Ashore, has a character who turns out to be the Great Selkie, lord of all the other selkies.
  • Robert Holdstock's novel Merlin's Wood, contains a fantasy short story, The Silvering, in which the human protagonist is transformed into a selkie.
  • The Torchwood comic Captain Jack and the Selkie features a Selkie.
  • In 1982 David Bischoff and Charles Sheffield wrote the novel The Selkie, a modern science-fiction treatment of the selkie legend involving a male selkie and the wife of a scientist.
  • In the last of the five short stories in the anthology Love Is Hell titled "Love Struck" by Melissa Marr a teenage girl walking along a beach accidentally steps upon a pelt of a selchie. The selchie falls in love the girl but at first she doesn't return his love. The girl must ultimately make the decision to free the selchie because if his increasing longing for the sea or to keep close the selkie she now loves.
  • The Catherynne M. Valente book The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden includes a story of a female satyr who acquires a male selkie's skin, and then acquires the selkie as a lover.
  • The Star Trek: Titan novels include a Selkie character, Aili Lavena, who was a former lover of Captain William Riker.
  • Selkies, and their home-world of Pacifica, are key in the 2009 novel Star Trek The Next Generation: Losing the Peace
  • Sea Change, by Aimee Friedman is about a girl who comes to Selkie Island during the summer after a drama-filled year. She meets Leo, who is a selkie.
  • In the 2009 novel Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler, the main character, Jane True, is the adult child of a selkie and a human man.
  • In Patricia McKillip's 2000 novel The Tower at Stony Wood, a character is revealed to be of selkie origin when she regains her former shape by donning the seal suit she has made.
  • Selkies, Roane, and other similar creatures play varying roles in Seanan McGuire's October Daye novels.
  • In the book series The Companions Quartet by Julia Golding, Selkies feature in the first book, as part of the search for the Universal. They are one of the creatures in the Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures.

In Kiersten White's Supernaturally and Endlessly entries in her Paranormalcy trilogy, there are selkies named Kari and Donna who eat food at a diner and drive a car in their human forms.

Song

  • There is a traditional ballad from Orkney called The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry that has become popular and been covered by a range of musicians including Joan Baez and Trees. See the list of adaptations.
  • The Progressive Metalcore band Between the Buried and Me released their Alaska album in 2005 with a song called "Selkies: The Endless Obsession."
  • The album Honeycomb by former Pixies front-man Frank Black includes a tune called "Selkie Bride", which alludes to the Selkie legend.
  • The poet Jane Yolen wrote a poem titled "The Ballad of the White Seal Maid", that is a sad story of a fisherman and his selkie wife. This poem was set to music by the folk musician Lui Collins, and recorded by her and also by Mike Agranoff.
  • The song "Sælkvinden" (the seal-woman) by Danish singer Lars Lilholt is a sad story about a young fisherman and a selkie.
  • In December 1991, the British folk artist Talis Kimberley wrote "Still Catch the Tide," a song written from the perspective of the selkie's lover, upon returning to find the selkie (which is of indeterminate gender) packing their things to return to the sea. The song has been covered by several other folk artists, including Rika Körte & Kerstin 'Katy' Dröge (on FilkCONtinental Definitely), Minstrel (on Boy in a Room), and Seanan McGuire (on Stars Fall Home). Talis's own recording of the song appears on her album Talis (Almost Live at Dracon).
  • The US folk artist Gordon Bok wrote "Peter Kagan and the Wind" a cantefable (in which spoken narrative is blended with sudden song-phrasings) about the fisherman Cagan who married a selkie, and how his selkie wife saved him from a terrible storm, even though this meant she could never return to her human body and hence her happy home. This interpretation was also often performed live by The Clancy Brothers and (the late) Tommy Makem.
  • Singer Méav Ní Mhaolchatha (an original soloist of the group Celtic Woman), opens her solo album Silver Sea with the song "You Brought Me Up", a Selkie woman captured then abandoned on land.
  • The Irish-American musical group, Solas, have a song called "The Grey Selchie" on their The Words That Remain CD.
  • US singer Alexander James Adams sings "First Rising Tide", about a selkie man, on his 2008 CD "A Familiar Promise".
  • Singer/songwriter S. J. Tucker created a song "Seafaring Satyr" based on Catherynne M. Valente's story about a female satyr and a male selkie.
  • On Heather Dale's album Gawain and the Green Knight, there is a song called "The Maiden and The Selkie", about a selkie lord who wishes to marry a fisherman's daughter.
  • The 2014 album Unrepentant Geraldines by singer/songwriter Tori Amos includes a critically acclaimed song titled "Selkie" as one of its standout tracks.

Games

  • Selkie are monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. They resemble seals with human-like hands and facial features, who have the ability to transform into humans.
  • The Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series features Selkies as a playable race. They usually have blue-green hair and are depicted as tribal, seagoing brigands. One Selkie character states, "We Selkies came from the sea, and to the sea we must one day return."
  • In the collectable card game Magic: The Gathering there are three cards in the Eventide set of the Shadowmoor block with the name selkie in them. They are classified as a merfolk, are all green/blue hybrid-mana creatures, and pictured as half seal, half human. The quote for the card Wistful Selkie says, "Selkies call to a sea they never swam, in a tongue they never spoke, with a song they never learned." The other two cards are Selkie Hedge-mage and Cold-Eyed Selkie.
  • The game Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic writers may have derived their race of aquatic peoples, the Selkath, from the Selkie legends.

Film

  • The 1994 John Sayles movie, The Secret of Roan Inish, tells the story of a family descended from selkies. It is based on the novel The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry by Rosalie K. Fry.
  • In 2000, the Australian film titled Selkie, starring Shimon Moore of the Australian rock band, Sick Puppies, depicted a young teenage male moving to a coastal town with his family and after he starts growing webbing between his fingers, having dreams of the water in the bathtub and becoming a seal after diving into the sea to save a friend, he learns that he is a Selkie. The majority of the film depicts him coming to terms with his identity and even attempting to give up his Selkie powers at which point he accepts them. The film was shot at Port Noarlunga Jetty.
  • 2010, Colin Farrell plays fisherman "Syracuse" in the movie Ondine (the name of the main character played by Alicja Bachleda, meaning "from the sea"); Ondine is believed to be a Selkie and the film explores Selkie mythology.
  • Tomm Moore, director of The Secret of Kells, created the animated movie Song of the Sea. The film features a young girl named Saoirse who discovers she is a selkie, and along with her human brother Ben, must recover her seal coat and find her voice, to save herself and all the Faerie folk of Ireland.

Television

  • In an episode of Catscratch, the banshee that was haunting the Highland Quid Clan was in fact a selkie (called a "seal woman" in the show) under a curse. Gordon freed the selkie by vocalising in high tones and pitches.Ch
  • In an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in which the movie being riffed on was The Space ildren, Mike comments, "There's a Selkie caught in the oil slick."
  • "Fae Gone Wild", an episode of Canadian drama Lost Girl, features numerous Selkie as characters.

Táin Bó Cúailnge

Novelisations

Music inspired by the Táin

Tír na nÓg

Comics

  • Tír na nÓg was the setting for most of the earlier tales of the long running Sláine series, in the UK's sci-fi and fantasy comic 2000ad

Movies

  • Tir na nÓg is the name given to a mysterious white horse in the film Into the West, which stars Gabriel Byrne as a "Traveller" who has left the road for Dublin following the death of his wife. His boys are told the story of Oisín and his journey to Tír na nÓg by their grandfather, who gives the name to the horse that followed him from the west coast to Dublin, and leads the boys back again.

Music

  • "Tír Na Nog" is the title and subject of a song by Van Morrison, found on No Guru, No Method, No Teacher.
  • Alcest's first full-length album 'Souvenirs d'un autre monde' closes with a track called "Tir Nan Og"
  • Tír na nÓg is the subject of the song "Pearl" by Sounds from the Ground from the album Kin.
  • Tír Na nÓg is the title of a song on Celtic Woman's album Destiny.

Novels

Roleplaying games

  • In the game Shadowrun, Ireland is renamed Tír na nÓg. Babies born in Tír na nÓg have an unusually high chance of being elves, and it boasts one of the highest elven populations of any nation in the world. While Tír na nÓg is nominally a democracy, it is essentially ruled by a group of powerful elven aristocratic families.

Science

  • The pluripotent stem cell protein Nanog is named after Tir Na Nog

Television

  • The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog was a 1998 live-action series modelled after Japanese sentai shows such as the *Power Rangers. The premise involved a team of adolescent heroes from the land of Kells enlisting the aid of the fey folk of Tir na nÓg in their quest to obtain Mystic Armour (each suit affiliated with either Fire, Air, Earth, Water, or Forest, thus enabling a henshin/transformation sequence), tame the fire dragon Pyre, and vanquish the evil queen and her dark fairy ally.
  • In Winx Club, Tír na nÓg appears as a location that debut in the 4 season, where is portrayed as the kingdom of the earth fairies.

Video games

  • Tír na nÓg is the capital city of the realm of Hibernia based on ancient Celtic mythology in the 2001 MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot.
  • The first part of the MMORPG Mabinogi revolves around locating Tír na nÓg to save the Goddess Morrighan. It is later revealed that you were in Tír na nÓg from the beginning.

Usnech

Finnish progressive metal group Amorphis featured Usnech on their first album The Karelian Isthmus in a song titled "Exile of the Sons of Uisliu".

References

  1. ↑ The King's Wake at the Internet Movie Database.
  2. ↑ Cuchulain at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
  3. ↑ Dunloy Cuchullains page at Ulster GAA Council website
  4. ↑ Cúchulainn Hurling club, Armagh GAA website
  5. ↑ Cúchulainn Gaels of Omeath, Louth GAA website
  6. ↑ Cúchulainn G.A.A branded sportswear website
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ "The Dark Druid" by Brannan, Timothy S., Games Unplugged (July 2002), p. 25
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Dungeons&Dragons 3.5: Geas / Quest, d20srd.org
  12. ↑ Isle of Man – Tynwald 1998 – Photo Gallery – Photograph #1
  13. ↑ House of Manannan
  14. ↑ New Steam Packet vessel to be named Manannan
  15. ↑ Okells | Brewery
  16. ↑ The Case of the Fire Inside! (Bad Machinery)
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