Celtic Languages 101: Welsh for Halloween

Yes, I'm Irish, but I can't help but be fascinated by Welsh, the Celtic language so unpronounceable to English tongues. All the best Welsh words and phrases come into play this time of year, when Irish Celts and neo-Pagans everywhere get ready to celebrate Samhain.

The Welsh expression for Halloween is Nos Calan Gaeaf. Nos Calan Gaeaf is one of the Teir Nas Ysbrydion, Three Spirit Nights. The other two are the traditional Celtic holidays of Beltane (May 1) and Midsummer Night (June 21). These are the times when the veil between the seen and unseen worlds is at its thinnest, when spirits are most likely to break through.

Calum Hutchinson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

One of those spirits, in Welsh folklore, is the hwch du gwta. She is a spectral black sow, a bad omen similar to the Grim in English folklore (famously appropriated by J. K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).

If you want to avoid visitors from the spirit realm, it's best to leave some bwyd cennad y meirw outside your door. Bwyd cennad y meirw is food for the dead.

Without a tasty bribe, you might get a visit from the Welsh equivalent of Ireland's sidhe, the fairies. The Welsh call them tylwethtag.

Five Things I Love About The Sin Eater’s Prince by Keta Diablo

Sin eater: One gifted with magic, able to absorb the sins of a dying person so that person’s soul is free to go unencumbered to heaven. In Keta Diablo’s paranormal erotic romance The Sin Eater’s Prince, the sin eater is Owen Rhys, a pariah in his small village in Wales. Since his father died, Owen’s only friend is Carys, the physician’s assistant. Owen harbors a secret longing for Carys’s employer, the unbelievable beautiful healer Andras Maddock. Andras has his own magical secret: he’s a long tooth, a vampire. Their undeniable attraction puts Owen in grave danger.

There is much to love in this lush novel from Ravenous Romance; here are my five favorites.

1. The hypnotic cover. From under a gray hood, the vampire stares at us. His eyes are icy blue, his hair and long eyelashes black, his gaze both beautiful and terrifying. This is Dagan, a nasty--but gorgeous--vamp who threatens to put a serious damper on Owen and Andras’s relationship. The cover perfectly captures what Owen feels: attraction and revulsion at once toward this terrible being.

2. The Welsh language and lore. The native, Celtic language of Wales is notoriously difficult (and un-phonetic) for English speakers. They spell Wales “Cymru,” for crying out loud! Keta Diablo’s story is laced with strange Welsh folklore, history, and myth, as well as those lovely Celtic words. Lest the reader be unable to keep up, though, there is a glossary of Welsh terms, from Annwyn to Uffern.

3. The vampire’s prayer. Dagan offers an eerily beautiful but chilling prayer to his Dark Lord, the devil. For readers who like their vamps scary and dangerous, the vampire’s prayer delivers just the right touch of evil. An excerpt:

“Whatever flows through your body, flows through mine. I am in your likeness, he who feeds on the warm, red elixir of life. I am the dreaded vampire, a blessed composition of your energy, lust and desire. My day is the mortal’s night, my sustenance their blood. When earth has witnessed its last day, I shall rise again and serve you for all eternity. “

4. The kisses. In this very sensual novel, Owen and Andras crave one another’s touch. No parts of their heavenly bodies go unexplored as they make love desperately, ecstatically. Each encounter begins when Andras looks into Owen’s beautiful green eyes…and then they kiss. Keta Diable is skilled in the art of taut sexual tension, turning up the heat until it boils over with every steamy kiss in passages like this:

“Owen’s touch on his arm, the taste of his lips melding with his, sent a jolt of unbearable pleasure rushing through him. The sin eater’s fingers wound their way into the hair at the back of his neck and Owen drew him deeper into the kiss. Andras parted his lips with his tongue, evoking a breathless moan and a defenseless surrender of his body against Owen’s. “


5. Carys. Even a boy-meets-boy romance can use a female character to root for; in The Sin Eater’s Prince, that woman is Carys. Loyal, determined, and clear-headed (despite her tendency to believe in Welsh superstitions), she is a true friend to both Owen and Andras. Carys is less damsel in distress and more Celtic warrior woman.

Lovers of paranormal erotic fiction will find The Sin Eater’s Prince irresistible for these, and many other, reasons. It contains a well-crafted world of British Isles magic, wonder, and romance.

Mabon Greetings

Blessed be! The Wheel of the Year turns to Mabon, the autumnal equinox, also known as harvest tide or the “witches' Thanksgiving.” Its ancient antecedent was the second of the three Celtic harvest festivals, in between Lughnasa (August 1st, also known by the Christianized name Lammas) and Samhain (the harvest of winter meat, when the grazing animals were brought down from the hills for the winter, October 31). 

Mabon is a period of equal day and night, exactly in between Midsummer Night and the Winter Solstice. What exactly is Mabon as a Neopagan/Wiccan celebration? In modern practice, it's largely a harvest festival for enjoying autumn-gathered foods. It's also a solemn time for reflection on mortality; the goddess in her dark/death-bringer aspect may be recalled at this time. 

In agricultural symbolism, Mabon represents the death of the Green Man* – the crops now die so that human beings can store up food for winter. This is sometimes symbolized by the “sacrifice” or burning of a straw man, the Harvest Lord. The last sheaf of grain to be harvested is sometimes dressed up to become the Harvest Queen. The Harvest Queen is not burned, because she represents fertility and the hope for a good harvest again the following year.

I haven't read this one - the Henry Treece that I've read was 'Red Queen.' 

Because the power of the sun appears to be declining as we now head toward the Winter Solstice, Mabon can be a time to mark the passage of loved ones (as well as a time of mourning for the Green Man and/or the sun god). If you happen to pass a grave during Mabon, you're supposed to acknowledge the person who died and make your respects.

Various ancient Celtic legends have to do with Mabon. One has to do with a Welsh god named Mabon who is born from the womb of Mother Earth – the Earth is quite literally his mother, Modron – springing forth full of knowledge and strength he gained from his mother. (The goddess Modron comes down to us in Arthurian legend as Morgan.)

Another legend has to do with the Irish gods Lugh and Tanist. The twin brothers have opposite functions – Lugh is the god of light, and Tanist is the god of darkness. At Mabon, Tanist defeats Lugh, sits on his throne and steals Lugh's lover, the goddess Tailltiu. Nine months later – at the Summer Solstice – Tailltu gives birth to...well, Tanist. He dies and is reborn every year, and the legend of the dueling brothers relates to the legend of the holly and oak kings. 

However, it's a bit difficult to get really good sources for either of these legends, so take them each with a grain of salt. For example, if we turn to Encyclopedia Mythica:

- An article on Mabon is included, mentioning that Mabon is the son of "mother goddess" and lived in Annwn, which the encyclopedia names as the Welsh underworld but does not link with the mother-goddess's womb

- An article on Modron, without reference to her as Mother Earth, calling her only "a Welsh goddess" and a prototype of the Arthurian Morgan. 

- An article on Lugh, which doesn't mention him being a god of the sun or of light (although his fertility magic is related to the ripening of the crops, which was celebrated with a 30-day summer festival which was the antecedent of modern Lughnasa) and names his consort as Rosmerta (the Gaulish goddess of "fire, warmth, and abundance;" J.K. Rowling named the Three Broomsticks barmaid after her, perhaps for Madam Rosmerta's ability to dispense an abundance of butterbeers). 

- No article on Tanist. Wikipedia says that "tanaiste" (with an accent on the first a) is an Irish Gaelic word meaning second-in-command, heir, or first deputy of the clan chief or king. Ireland still uses the word to indicate the deputy prime minister. The Wikipedia entry also says that James Frazer, in The Golden Bough, used the word to designate a "substitute for the sacred king." To say that the god Lugh has a tanaiste or tanist may simply be a way of saying that he had a highly-honored "deputy" who was sacrificed in his place. 

However, in the holly king-oak king tradition, when Lugh's reign was over, Lugh would be sacrificed to make room for Tanist. Then Tanist's reign would end, and Tanist would be sacrificed to make room for Lugh in a never-ending cycle. 

- An article on Tailltu (spelled there with only one L) that names her not as Lugh's consort, but as his nurse. 

However, it's certainly possible that Tailltu and Rosmerta are different aspects of the same goddess, and it's certainly not unknown for a fertility/agricultural god to have a mother who, in another aspect or phase, is also his lover - it's an agricultural metaphor for the relationship between the earth (mother) and seed-bearing crop (son). 

Another myth that accounts for the declining daylight at this time of year is the myth of Persephone's descent into the Underworld, which is sometimes observed at Mabon. The grain-goddess Demeter is in mourning when her daughter Persephone goes into the Underworld, and her mourning is another aspect that gives Mabon a somewhat sad, solemn character in contrast to the joy we usually associated with harvest/thanksgiving celebrations.

Here is a review of the book Persephone (Daughters of Zeus), a book written by Kaitlin Bevis. The review is written by Abbey at Finding My Forever. 

Two more Persephone books that I read and reviewed over the past year:

Miss Underworld by Rachel Kechagias

Cora: The Unwilling Queen by Amy Hutchinson

Read more at The White Goddess, Earth Witchery, Love of the Goddess, and Mystickal Realms.



*In other versions of the legend, the death of Green Man, or the Holly King/Holly Knight (Sir Gawain's Green Knight) is associated with the Winter Solstice and the Lord of Misrule or Fool who was sacrificed after his moment of glory at the solstice festival. In his place, the Oak King would rule until he was deposed by the Holly King at Midsummer, i.e. the summer solstice. In this case, it would be easy to associate dark Tanist with the Holly King and bright Lugh with the Oak King, but then Mabon would only be the halfway point in Tanist's rule. Perhaps rather than his death, Mabon commemorates the Holly King's/Green Man's/Tanist's waning power.



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Red, White and Blue Monday ~ Memorial Day Pin-Ups

Happy Memorial Day! We celebrate it happily, because it's a federal holiday and some people get the day off from work, but actually, we're remembering the ones who died in defense of the country. It's a solemn occasion.

We have no war dead in my family. As I may have blogged once or several times before, my grandfather, at the age of 17, was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. He was wounded, and then, with the small amount of medical training he had as a pharmacist's assistant, he helped attend the wounded. After World War II, he stayed in the Navy, and also served in the Korean War. He passed away in 1994, in between my junior and senior years of high school - which is to say, when I was at the age he was when he survived Pearl Harbor.

Now let's go a little retro. I kinda already used this idea for Veteran's Day 2011, but that was before I had the aid of Pinterest.



Boys can be pin-ups, too. Oh god, the abs.

I'm loving these fishnets. (It's really too bad that the "pin-it" button covers up the young lady's face. Sorry about that.)

The fourth one, Jo-Ann, makes me laugh, because no woman sits like that, except while doing yoga.

Forgive a chick for being in crazy Catholic schoolgirl lust, but here Jim Caviezel is wearing Navy camo. I'm not entirely sure why - he did some Navy SEAL training or something.



...and of course he also played my fictional Memorial Day army boyfriend, Private Bob Witt from James Jones' novel. All I really want is to be the nurse who stitches up the gash on Witt's cheek when he gets drunk and cuts his face on a rock. Maybe while he's sleeping off his drunk, the hospital unit needs the bed for a more severe case, and I have to wake him up and send him back to his unit. Outside the door, I examine his face one more time, checking my stitches. I tell him not to shave for a few days and ask him if he's in any pain. He answers with a rather lewd suggestion, something like, "My face don't hurt, but I got this other ache you could take care of..."

Sidebar: In the movie, when Witt tells First Lieutenant Welsh, "I'm twice the man you are," I think he means to tell Welsh that he refuses to be humiliated by Welsh's punishment of busting him down to the disciplinary unit. However, I am imagining an alternative interpretation of this statement; see also In Which the Term "13-Inch" Is Thrown About Shamelessly.

I tell him I'm not that kind of girl, but eventually, after we've seen each other around a few times and know each other a little better, his rough-hewn Kentucky charm starts to wear me down. If I'm in a HEA type of mood, maybe we're even reunited when we get back to the U.S. (In the movie, Witt sacrifices himself, but at the end of the book version, Witt is alive.) Maybe, even though my character is from the Bronx or Boston or some such, she moves to Kentucky to be with him and they live on a farm and have babies.

As a literary exercise, it would be interesting to revisit a Jones novel from a female character's perspective. I think the only female character in The Thin Red Line is Bell's wife, Marty, and she's back in the States. All we know of her comes from Bell's memory and her Dear John letter.

But if I had to choose a back-up fictional army boyfriend, it would definitely be Logan Thibault.

The Vampire Diaries ~ The Return: Shadow Souls

I read the previous book in this series, The Return: Nightfall, in September 2011. Shadow Souls is the sixth book in L.J. Smith's series, and it picks up with Stefan stuck in prison in the Dark Dimension.

Elena Gilbert, once the shallow, self-centered, stereotypical popular blonde teen, has now become a vampire, died as a vampire and come back from the dead, becoming a selfless and noble creature worthy of the true-hearted Stefan in the process. She's determined to save Stefan, even if it means sacrificing her own life. She intends to enter the Dark Dimension with Damon as her guide and Matt to support her. However, Matt gets turned around and ends up back in Fells Church, while Meredith and Bonnie decide to go with Elena. In the Dark Dimension, the three women must pretend to be Damon's slaves, since free humans are not allowed in the land of demons. L.J. Smith locates the entrance to the Dark Dimension in Sedona, Arizona.

In Nightfall, the female kitsune Misao gave Elena clues to the whereabouts of the two halves of the fox key, needed to release Stefan from his prison. When Elena saves the life of a slave woman, the woman turns out to be a key ally who gives Elena the access she needs to find the first half of the key. To find the second half, Elena must infiltrate the home of a dangerous goddess, Bloddeuwedd.

Bloddeuwedd is a figure from Welsh mythology. The goddess was created out of nine kinds of flowers to be the wife of the hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes (meaning Fair-Haired One with Skillful Hands), whose mother, the goddess Arianrhod (meaning Silver Wheel), had cursed him never to marry an earthly woman. Two magicians then created the unearthly Bloddeuwedd, whose name means "Flower Face."

Bloddeuwedd, the myth goes, did not take kindly to being given away to Lleu. What woman would? While he was away, she spotted a man named Goronwy heading a hunting party, and the two fell in love. She tricked Lleu into revealing the one, very unlikely way he could ever be killed, and then Goronwy attempted to kill him. In some versions, Lleu's life is spared when the magicians turn him into an eagle. For betraying her husband, Bloddeuwedd was transformed into an owl, which the Welsh considered to be the enemy of all the other birds.

(Read more about Bloddeuwedd at Thalia Took's goddess website.)

L.J. Smith's version of the goddess is beautiful, aloof, full of hatred and vengeful. Her immediate reaction to meeting Elena and Damon is to try to kill them. Will Damon and Elena live long enough to rescue Stefan? What evil tricks will the nasty kitsune pull this time? And what the hell is happening to Damon at the end?!

The books I have not yet read are:

The Return: Midnight
The Hunters: Phantom
The Hunters: Moonsong
The Hunters: Destiny Rising (release date: October 2012)

However, the Hunters trilogy was not written by Smith. These books have her name on them, but were ghostwritten. There are also six volumes of Stefan's Diaries, based on the TV show rather than the book series, none of which were written by Smith:

Origins
Bloodlust
The Craving
The Ripper
The Asylum
The Compelled

So, do I read on past Midnight? The Vampire Diaries without Smith is a bit like Harry Potter without J.K. Rowling, isn't it? Or do TVD fans have good things to say about the ghostwritten books?

While I'm reading 'Whistle,' I'm going to be a little bit obsessed with Adrien Brody, ok?

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As featured in Poetic Monthly #56: My interview with Christian Bale!

I (never) sat down for an (imaginary) interview with (a fictional) Christian Bale, the star of films inspired by great literature such as Little Women, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and American Psycho.

Erin O.: It’s an honor to meet you. First question: will you pull me around in a sled like a pony, as you did for Kirsten Dunst in Little Women?

Bale: That’s fucking unprofessional, man. Are you professional?

Erin O.: Of course. I’ve been a staff writer for Poetic Monthly for over a year, and I’ve interviewed several authors on these pages.

Bale: Give me a fucking answer!

Erin O.: I just did. My answer was yes.

Bale: Oh, did you? I’m sorry. What was the question again?

Erin O.: (Deftly switches questions.) You recently applied for American citizenship. Your parents are English, and you were born in Wales. Do you feel any kind of special connection to the Welsh people?

Bale: Naturally, Wales holds a great fascination for me. I’m especially fond of Dylan Thomas, the greatest Welsh poet. I can only read the English-language literature of Wales, though. That Celtic language they speak is beyond me.

Erin O.: It’s beyond the comprehension of any English speaker. They spell “Wales” as “Cymru,” for crying out loud! Moving on…do you ever find yourself singing “King of New York” from Newsies?

Bale: That was so long ago, I forgot all the words. I do remember all my Shakespearean dialogue from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, though. When Calista Flockheart got married, I recited all my lines for her at the wedding. It took so long she had to skip throwing the bouquet!

Erin O.: That’s actually sweet, in a weirdly egotistical way. Speaking of wedding cake, your weight fluctuates drastically. You were almost plump in The Prestige, but skeletal in The Machinist. What gives?

Bale: (Smiles.) It all depends on what the role requires. Plus, the head caterer on the set of The Prestige had a crush on Hugh Jackman. She kept making him Vegemite pies. They were delicious! Why don’t you have Vegemite here in America?

Erin O.: I’ll check with our food writer, Stephen Lapan, and get back to you on that. So, you’re saying you ate Hugh’s pies?

Bale: I think he told me I could. His Australian accent is hard to understand. I always talk in my growly Batman voice so people can understand me.

Erin O.: I do like the growly Batman voice. May I end this interview with a joke?

Bale: Please.

Erin O.: How does Batman keep his hair so smooth and shiny?

Bale: Oh, I know this one! He uses Conditioner Gordon!

Thank you, Christian Bale, for stealing my punchline. Post script: I asked Martin White, the editor of Poetic Monthly, if we could make this a scratch-and-sniff article that smells like Vegemite pies, but he nixed the idea. I haven't figured out how to make a scratch-and-sniff blog post.

WIP Wednesday/Winter Solstice Wednesday, Week 3

Authors, would you like to share approximately 100-200 words about a current work in progress on a future WIP Wednesday? If so, please e-mail the details to erinoriordan AT sbcglobal DOT net.

Erin O'Riordan: My current works in progress? I just finished editing another Hurricane book by Joe Cacciotti, and I'm collaborating with Rushmore Judd on a short story called "The Witch."

Winter Solstice Wednesday: According to GoddessGift.com, Rhiannon was the Celtic goddess of the moon and inspiration and Queen of the Fairies. She married the mortal king of Wales, who first spotted her as she rode a fine white horse. Falsely accused of killing their infant son, she was punished by being forced to wear a horse collar. When travelers came to the kingdom, she would tell them of her crime and offer to carry them on her back to the castle. Her son, raised by a farm couple, was later restored to the throne, and Rhiannon regained her place in royal society.

Some legends link Rhiannon with Vivienne, the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian legend. She is closely linked with horses, and sometimes associated with the Gaulish-Roman goddess Epona, the Great Mare (a name the Romans also bestowed on the grain-goddess Demeter). Epona was especially beloved among the Roman cavalry.

Rhiannon's part on the Winter Solstice was to ride through the Welsh people's dreams, giving them visions and bringing them inspiration for the coming year. The Irish version of Rhiannon's name is Mare, pronounced MAH-ray, which is said to be the source of the word "nightmare."

Although associated with a white horse, Rhiannon inspired the Welsh custom of Mari Lwyd, or Gray Mare. A mare's skull, sometimes made of wood or cardboard, is mounted on a pole and draped with a white sheet. It may be finely decorated, with colorful ribbons for reins, glass eyes and even snapping jaws. The mare is carried through the streets by a colorfully-dressed party singing traditional songs, sometimes mixed with Christmas carols. Sometimes, a rhyme contest would take place between the members of the Mari party and those inside the houses they visited. The party hoped to be rewarded for their entertainments with cakes and perhaps ale. It was a form of wassailing.

Of course, "Rhiannon" is also a Fleetwood Mac song written by Stevie Nicks. She also inspired the English nursery rhyme:

Ride a cockhorse to Banbury Cross
to see a fine lady upon a white horse,
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
she shall have music wherever she goes.

The goddess Rhiannon shares her name with author Rhiannon Mills, who has written the paranormal romances Immortal Ties and Immortal Embrace. Her beautiful, sex-positive blog is Rhiannon's Paranormally Romantic Bits and Pieces.

More Unfortunate Happenings of Past Octobers

Read last year's post here.

October 2, 2019: Guitarist Kim Shattuck, who played for groups including Pixies, the Muffs, and the Pandoras, dies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at the age of 56.

October 4, 1970: Her road manager finds 27-year-old singer Janis Joplin dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. She has apparently died of a heroin overdose.

October 5, 2001: Robert Stevens, a photographer for the tabloid newspaper Sun in Boca Raton, Florida, dies of pulmonary anthrax. His death is the first in a series of anthrax terror attacks that killed Stevens and four other people and sickened 17 others. 

Microbiologist Bruce Ivins is the lead suspect in the FBI investigation into the anthrax attacks. He dies by suicide before he can be arrested and charged.

October 9, 1816: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley's half sister, Fanny Imlay, dies by suicide via an overdose of laudanum.

October 10, 1963: 47-year-old French cabaret singer Édith Piaf dies of liver failure from liver cancer and cirrhosis after years of alcohol and drug addiction. 

October 10, 1984: One employee and three customers are killed when a fire breaks out at Ole's Home Center in South Pasadena, California. The youngest victim is two years old. The fire is determined to be arson by investigators who include John Leonard Orr. In 1992, Orr will be convicted of this and several other arson fires in the Los Angeles area. 

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October 19, 1977: A small fire breaks out aboard the charter plane used by members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd. No one is hurt, but the fire makes Cassie Gaines hesitant to board the plane the next day.

October 20, 1977: Cassie Gaines, her brother Steve Gaines, Ronnie Van Zant, road manager Dean Kilpatrick, and pilots William Gray and Walter McCreary die when Lynyrd Skynyrd’s chartered plane runs out of fuel and crashes in the woods outside Gillsburg, Mississippi. Drummer Artimus Pyle, guitarist Gary Rossington, and keyboardist Billy Powell all survive with serious injuries.

October 20, 1990: Stunt performer Brian Jewell, portraying a hanged man at a New Jersey “haunted hayride” attraction, accidentally hangs himself in earnest.

October 21, 1966: “[On this date] a massive coal-tip slid down a mountainside and engulfed the Welsh mining village of Aberfan, killing 144 persons, mostly school children. In response to an appeal the following week in a national newspaper, an English psychiatrist, J. Barker, obtained a large number of reports from respondents who felt they may have received paranormal information concerning this tragedy. After all claims were carefully checked out, thirty-five cases remained which Dr. Barker considered worthy of confidence. In twenty-four cases, the respondents had related the information to someone else before the landslide occurred. Dreams figures in twenty-five of these accounts. In one, the dreamer saw, spelled out in large, brilliant letters, the word ABERFAN, In another, a telephone operator from Brighton talked helplessly to a child, who walked toward her, followed by a billowing cloud of black dust or smoke.” - Our Dreaming Mind by Robert L. Van de Castle

October 26, 1952: Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to sing on the radio in the U.S. and the first African-American to win an Academy Award for acting, dies of breast cancer in Los Angeles. She’s 59 years old.

October 26, 1990: 15-year-old William Anthony Odom, setting up a gallows scene for a Halloween tableau in North Carolina, accidentally hangs himself when the rope he’s using tightens on him.

October 26, 2018: A bomb addressed to then-Senator Kamala Harris is intercepted by authorities in Sacramento, California. Cesar Altieri Sayoc, Jr. is later convicted of the terroristic threat.

October 26, 2022: Food writer Julie Powell dies of cardiac arrest at age 49 after battling a COVID-19 infection.

See also: Bummer Halloween

YA Mystery/Paranormal Review: 'Dead Is Just a Dream' by Marlene Perez

This is the eighth book in the Dead Is series overall, and the third one in which the protagonist is Jessica Walsh. When we last saw Jessica in Dead Is a Killer Tune, she and her sister viragos (town-defending women warriors) had to solve the mystery of the bizarre behavior of Battle of the Bands contestants during Jessica's freshman year of high school. Just a Dream opens at the end of summer, with Jessica becoming a sophomore. It ends in early November, at a Day of the Dead celebration. 

This year's strange occurrences include a ghostly, red-eyed white horse stalking the town at night, a creepy clown who comes into town with the circus, an artist whose paintings give people nightmares, and a new art teacher with a marionette obsession. People die and appear to have been scared to death in their dreams - a nod to the Nightmare on Elm Street horror film series that Perez acknowledges by having one of the characters sing a song from the movies. 

A ghostly horse associated with the night and bad dreams, the Mara, rings a bell for me. Looking back over some of my previous blog posts, I realized I'd written about the Mara when I wrote about the Welsh goddess Rhiannon (she of the awesome Stevie Nicks tune). Known as Mare to the Irish, the goddess was said to ride through people's dreams as a white horse, bringing inspiration. Inspiration isn't nightmares, though, so I'm guessing the association with bad dreams comes from Christians saying, "Mare isn't a goddess, she's a demon." 

If you look up Mare in Wikipedia, whoever has written the article says nothing about Celtic legend, defines the folkloric terms as "an evil spirit or goblin in Germanic folklore which rides on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on bad dreams" and cites the 13th-century Ynglinga Saga (a work by Snorri Sturluson, an Icelander who serves as an important source of Norse mythology*) as a source for this Germanic etymology. 

That sleep paralysis and night terrors are caused by evil spirits is not a folk belief that has died out, by the way. You can, for example, go to YouTube and watch videos by Christian evangelists such as Chris White who explain sleep paralysis not in terms of neurological activity in the human brain, but in terms of "the demonic realm." Personally, I went to Roman Catholic schools from kindergarten through bachelor's degree, and although we believed in as many as six impossible things before breakfast, we also used science as the tool for understanding the natural (but not the supernatural) world. I don't quite get the mentality of religious belief that can't co-exist with 21st century medical knowledge - but that's just my worldview.  I have my spiritual and folkloric beliefs, but I open them in a different window than my scientific knowledge. 

The Mara, in Perez's telling, is a shapeshifter, sometimes a scary horse and sometimes a frightened little girl with wild hair. If your childhood included reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz (spookily illustrated by Stephen Gammell when I bought them; newer versions were illustrated by Lemony Snicket collaborator Brett Helquist), then you may remember the story "A New Horse." It's about a magical bridle and a witch who uses it to change people into horses, riding them at breakneck speed all night and returning them, exhausted, in the morning. Schwartz's footnotes say similar tales can be found worldwide, but that this particular version comes from rural Kentucky. 

Look back at the Wikipedia entry for Mare, and you'll see the rural Kentucky folk tale closely mirrors what the Norse peoples believed: 

"The mara was also believed to 'ride' horses, which left them exhausted and covered in sweat by the morning. She could also entangle the hair of the sleeping man or beast, resulting in 'marelocks,' called marflator mare-braids or martovor mare-tangles in Swedish or marefletter and marelokker in Norwegian." 

...which explains why the little girl has such wild, umkempt hair in Dead is Just a Dream. 

The other book that comes to mind when I read about the Mara is The White Witch of Rosehall by Herbert G. de Lisser. I've never been to Jamaica, but apparently if you go there, you'll find numerous copies of this novel, first published in 1929, for sale at all the tourist stops. The real Rose Hall is a plantation in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and the legend that forms the basis for the book regards a haunting by an Anglo-Irish witchcraft and Voudun practitioner named Annie Palmer. In de Lisser's novel, Annie commands the specter of a demonic horse. 

But back to the book at hand. 

In the acknowledgments, author Marlene Perez thanks the Houston Teen Book Con. Apparently someone asked her what she is afraid of, and "This book is the answer." It does have a certain creepiness factor that makes this volume a little more suspenseful than the last one, which offered very few surprises. 

The mysteries here still aren't very tough to crack - this series has always had more of a light, breezy paranormal tone than a hardcore mystery novel tone, after all - but I found myself liking this one a little better than Killer Tune. Maybe it's because the horse, the bizarre paintings, the weird puppets, and the eerie clown are more interesting and original than a Pied Piper retelling. 

As I've come to expect from this series, there's also a romantic wrinkle: Jessica faces a solid month of loneliness when her boyfriend Dominic announces he'll spend December touring with his band. She also faces competition when Dominic's ex-girlfriend Tashya comes to town - and Dominic's mother (also a virago) seems to prefer her to Jessica. 

No spoilers, but the ending is somewhat bittersweet. At this point, I don't know whether or not Perez intends to continue the series. I hope so, because if this ending is the very end, it doesn't seem quite definitive. Also, Jessica is really growing on me. Daisy got five books as the heroine, and I kind of hope Jessica gets the same. 

You can preorder Dead Is Just a Dream now. The official release date will be September 3, 2013. 

Disclosure: I received an advance reading copy of this book through Amazon's Vine Program. I was not compensated for this review in any way other than the free book. The review represents my own honest opinion.  I am an Amazon.com affiliate and if you buy this book or any product after clicking through the above link, I will receive a small commission of a few cents. 

*Much, much more about Norse mythology will go into my upcoming Mabon (autumnal equinox) posts.

La Fhéile Pádraig Shona Daoibh! or Happy St. Patrick's Day

Who is St. Patrick?

This may come as a shock, but St. Patrick wasn’t born in Ireland. He was born in Scotland around the year 387, in a colony of the Roman empire. Both of his parents were Roman citizens. At 14, he was kidnapped by a raiding party, taken to Ireland and forced to work as a shepherd. His masters were Druids, practitioners of the ancient Celtic religion. Christianity had already been introduced to Ireland, but it hadn’t really caught on yet.

Patrick’s captivity lasted until he was about 20, when he escaped and returned to his family. However, he felt a spiritual calling to return to Ireland as a missionary. He died there in about 461, after 40 years of preaching and performing miracles. He’s said to have used the shamrock to teach the idea of the Trinity (the idea of God as being the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all in one).

Pagan lore claims that “Saint Patrick” is a myth, a Christianized reference to another Trinity: the Morrigan, the Irish triple goddess composed of maiden Brigit, mother Babd and death-aspect Macha. (Macha is the bean-sidhe, the woman of the fairy-mound, better known as the banshee.) Patrick was the mythical young warrior who was annually wedded to Brigit, then sacrificed to the Morrigan, only to rise again the following year to have the whole cycle start over. Brigit was Christianized as St. Brigid of Kildare, a nun who founded Ireland’s first convent near the place where the priestesses of Brigid once tended a sacred fire.

(The Morrigan in an image by André Koehne)

St. Patrick’s Day in America

In Ireland, the saint’s day is observed as a religious holiday, with charity shows, parades and church services. In the U.S., community celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day originated in Boston, which boasts a large number of Irish-Americans. It’s New York City, though, that holds the oldest St. Patrick’s Day parade; the tradition began in 1762.

No one knows exactly who poured the first green beer, but Chicago has dyed its river green every year since 1962. They use enough biodegradable, vegetable-based dye to keep the green color visible for one day. Favorite activities on St. Patrick’s Day include cooking Irish foods like colcannon, listening to Irish music, and learning Gaeilge words.

The Irish Language

Gaeilge, Anglicized as “Gaelic,” refers to a group of closely related languages native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man (where the language is called Manx). Other Celtic languages, including Welsh and Cornish, are more distantly related. Some Gaeilge phrases:

La Fhéile Pádraig Shona Daoibh - Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Dia dhuir - God be with you (used as a greeting)
Eireann go braugh - Ireland forever
Go raibh mile maith agat! - Thank you very much!
Slainte! - Cheers! (literally, “Health!”)
Ta cupla focail Gaeilge agam - I know a couple of Irish words

An Irish drink, according to The Simpsons

Carve out a hole in a potato large enough to hold a shot glass. Place shot glass in potato. Pour Bushmill’s whiskey into shot glass. Float potato in pint glass of Guinness stout. Spit in drink and serve.

Some Irish People I Love

1. William Butler Yeats

Yes, his father was English, but his mother was Irish, and he was born in County Dublin.

"He Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven"

"Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

2. Dolores O'Riordan. No relation (that I know of - we could be distant cousins). This Limerick-born rocker chick may have made her fame in '90s fronting The Cranberries, but to this day she's considered one of the 10 richest women in Ireland. You go, girl!

3. Bram Stoker

What vampire lover doesn't appreciate the first real master of the vampire novel? I've read Abraham Stoker's best-known novel, originally published in 1897, twice. He was born in Clontarf (a district of northern Dublin).

4. Gabriel Byrne

Ellen Barkin's baby daddy is one of the Irish dudes I'd most like to see lewd. All I have to say to impress you is "He played Keaton in The Usual Suspects," but he's done so much more than that. His two most Celtic-inspired films are Into the West and Excalibur. He studied archaeology before becoming an actor and speaks Spanish fluently. Byrne was born in Dublin.



5. Liam Neeson

Also appearing in Excalibur, Neeson is from Ballymena, Northern Ireland (like my Irish ancestors, who came from Derry). All I have to say to impress you is "He played the title role in Schindler's List." Well, he played Oskar Schindler, not the list, but you get the idea. He's done so many great things, from the voice of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia films to that fight with Christian Bale in Batman Begins to his guest appearance as a Catholic priest on The Simpsons.

I always imagine Neeson and Byrne as having something of a friendly rivalry because Byrne, as Lord Byron, kissed Neeson's wife Natasha Richardson (as Mary Shelley) in Gothic.

Resources:

“Celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.” The Holiday Spot. http://www.theholidayspot.com/patrick/celebration.htm

“Irish Phrases.” Ireland Information. http://www.ireland-information.com/irishphrases.htm

“St. Patrick.” Catholic Online. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=89

“The Gaelic Language.” Gateway to Scotland. http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/gaelic.html

Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.

Portions of this post originally appeared at theholidaydiva.blogspot.com, a blog that apparently no longer exists.

Romantic Heroes and the Hotties Who Inspired Them

Today I'm sorta co-blogging with Hunk du Jour, a yummy gay men's photo blog (rated PG; plenty of shirtlessness, no nudity). I provide the romantic/erotic stories, and the HdJ links provide the photos!

Mutari, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Story: "Experimental." Experimental Subject #73, with his Welsh accent and toffee-colored hair, is blinding Tori with science.
The Hottie: Christian Bale

The Story: "Invisible Touch." Invisible man Jason sneaks into the apartment of his super-powered nemesis Fate, only to find himself unexpectedly attracted to her.
The Hottie: Milo Ventimiglia

The Story: "The Hope." At his niece's bat mitzvah, Mark fell hopelessly for the new temple cantor, Ilan. On their first official date, Mark is just hopeless.
The Hottie Who Inspired Ilan: Adam Levine

The Story: "Innocent." In an alternate world where arranged marriages are the norm, college soccer star Zachary meets his bride-to-be, Analiese, for the first time. She's not as innocent as she seems.
The Hottie: Zachary Quinto

The Story: "Homecoming." Patrice is married to Evan. They've agreed she's allowed to have one affair (Evan already had his). Patrice chooses Evan's army vet brother Marcus.
The Hottie: Keanu Reeves

The Story: "Redneck Woman." Stuck in Atlanta on a rainy night, Yankee Vanessa picks up Agatha and her husband Preston.
The Hottie: Adrian Pasdar (and his super-cute wife, Natalie Maines!)

Yes, I was a big Heroes fan. Why do you ask?

Author's Note: Sadly, Hunk du Jour is defunct and links have been removed.

Pagan Imagery in "If I Die Young"

“If I Die Young” was recently a #1 hit for The Band Perry. The ballad tells the story of a young woman whose life has been cut short. She asks to be put to rest in a river at dawn. Whether consciously or not, when singer Kimberly Perry wrote the lyrics, she incorporated many images that have been associated with burial customs since ancient times. Many of them have a Pagan significance.



“If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses”

The ancient Romans held the rose to be a symbol of Venus; its petals reminded them of a woman’s genitals. Venus the Rose-Goddess was Christianized as Saint Rosalia (pictured below), the patron saint of Palermo. Like many European Pagans who associated the goddess of love with death, the Romans also considered roses a symbol of death. This association was not considered negative; rather, death was seen as a return to the goddess, the source of life. Being taken back by the goddess could lead to rebirth.

Anthony van Dyck, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In North Africa, rosewater was used for purification. Roses could protect against evil and because of this were commonly placed in the graves of women. When Christianity arose in the Roman Empire, roses and their thorns became symbols of the blood and suffering of Jesus.

In modern flower color lore, red roses symbolize love and respect, white roses symbolize reverence and humility, and light pink roses are the roses of sympathy.

“Sink me in the river at dawn”

In Greek mythology, there were five rivers of the Underworld, each of which the dead crossed. The first was Acheron, the river of woe. The last was Styx, which comes from the Greek word for “hateful” and represents the horror of death. However, the river could also be seen as a positive symbol for washing away sadness. In Hinduism, the Ganges river is sacred. The river itself is a goddess, said to flow from heaven and wash away sins. It has long been a tradition to place the cremated remains of the dead in the Ganges.

“Lord make me a rainbow, I’ll shine down on my mother”

The rainbow is a bridge between earth and afterlife in many mythologies. In Norse mythology, the rainbow bridge is called Bifrost and is imagined as “trembling.” Many peoples conceptualized the bridge to heaven as razor-thin, admitting only the good souls. The “pot of gold” at its end is a folkloric descendant of the cauldron where the mother-goddess (Macha in Irish mythology) kept the souls of the dead.

“And I’ll be wearing white when I come into your kingdom”

White is a symbol of purity, the reason why “virgin” brides wear white wedding dresses. The Welsh once buried children with white roses to symbolize purity. In rural Virginia, the custom was to bury children in white clothes; adults were dressed in black.

“So put on your best, boys, and I’ll wear my pearls”

Another symbol for the entrance to heaven (“the pearly gates”). Pearls were also sacred to Aphrodite, ancient Greece’s equivalent of the Roman love goddess Venus. Pearls have also been used to represent purity and virginity. They represent the moon because they look like little moons. The phases of the moon, as it seems to “die” and reappear, are a symbol of life, death and rebirth. An archaic practice was to wear pearls only at night; the sun was thought to damage them, while the moon would energize them.

“The ballad of a dove”

This is likely a reference to the gospel song “Wings of a Dove" written by Bob Ferguson and popularized by Ferlin Husky in 1960. In the Christian Bible, the dove represents the Holy Spirit. To the ancient Greeks, the dove was a symbol of Aphrodite, particularly in her role as the collector of souls at death.

Resources

Danielle. (n.d.) “Pearls…Symbolism and Meaning.” http://serapii-kisu.net/essence/symbolism/pearls.php

Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. “Charon and the River Styx.” http://www.deathreference.com/Ce-Da/Charon-and-the-River-Styx.html

Rose Magazine. (n.d.) “Rose Folklore.“ http://www.rosemagazine.com/articles07/rose_color_folklore/

Scott, Dawn. (n.d.) “Old Time Burial Customs.” http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vaschs2/burial_customs.htm

Walker, Barbara J. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.

Tye, Timothy. (n.d.) “Along the Banks of the Ganges River.” http://www.asiaexplorers.com/india/ganges_river.htm

Who Is Lugh, and What's Logi Got to Do With It?

I created a slight neoPagan controversy when I posted a link to "The Loki in Lughnasa," a post I wrote in 2012, on Tumblr. That post relied heavily on Barbara J. Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, a source I have learned is highly questionable. Since August 1st, I learned that:

- The Celtic god Lugh (sometimes spelled without the "h") is not a fire god.

- The association between the Norse god Loki and the Norse fire giant Logi is an error.

- No solid evidence links Loki in Norse mythology to Lugh in Celtic mythology.

So, who is Lugh? What is he the Celtic god of? Who is Logi? And who confused Logi with Loki? We'll look at each of these questions in turn.

Lugh

In my very first Lughnasadh post, written in 2010 when I was still fairly new to blogging, I wrote:

"The Irish consider it the feast of the god Lugh, who consecrated it in honor of his foster-mother's death. Lugh's foster-mother Tailtiu, "The Great One of the Earth," represents the land of Ireland itself. Thus, her death is symbolic of the harvest: the crops sacrifice themselves so human beings and animals can live. Tailtiu's death was celebrated with feasting, Olympic-style games, bonfires and handfasting ceremonies. Where corn is harvested, the goddess is often visually represented by making corn dolls."

Contemporary corn doll depicting Lugh. Creative Commons image by MountainAsh333

Unfortunately, I didn't happen to note the source of that information. I did better in 2013's Mabon post, when I referred to Lugh's article at Encyclopedia Mythica. It says:

"Lugh is the Celtic lord of every skill. He was patron of Lugodunum (Lyons) in Gaul. He and his nature goddess consort (Rosmerta) were worshipped during the 30 day Lugnasad midsummer feast in Ireland. Fertility magic during this festival ensured ripening of the crops and good harvest. He was called Lamfhada or 'of the long arm' in Gaelic because of his great spear and sling. His animal attributes were the raven and the lynx. Lugh mirrors Hindu Karttikeya, the spiritual warrior, and Roman Mercury, the swift messenger. His exploits are recounted in the Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Cattle-raid of Cooley." - Dave Buchert

So Lugh is a skilled warrior, a swift messenger, and a fertility god. Well, that's minimally informative. Wikipedia is user-generated, and therefore not the most reliable source, but it tells us that:

- Lugh's Welsh counterpart is Lleu Llaw Gyffes. As you may recall from this post, Lleu Llaw Gyffes was the son of the goddess Arianrhod. She cursed him never to marry an earthly woman, so instead he married the unearthly Bloddeuwedd, made from nine different flowers.

- His father, Cian, is of the Tuatha Dé Danann, or "tribe of the goddess Danu." His mother, Ethniu, belongs to the Fomorians, the mythical people who were said to have inhabited Ireland before the Celtic people got there.

- Lugh was given to a foster mother, Queen Tailtiu, to raise, possibly because of a prophecy that his maternal grandfather would be killed by his grandson. Lugh's grandfather Balor was said to have a poisonous eye that killed everyone he looked on it with.

Cú Chulainn by J.C. Leyendecker. Public domain. 

- The king of the Tuatha Dé Danann appointed Lugh to his court because he had so many different skills. The Tuatha Dé Danann are being oppressed by the Fomorians, and Lugh agrees to help the Tuatha Dé Danann regain their freedom.

- In a battle against the Fomorians, Lugh uses a slingshot to shoot out his grandfather Balor's evil eye, causing the Fomorians to lose the battle.

- During the battle, Lugh spares the life of Bres, a former king who agrees to teach the Tuatha Dé Danann the secrets of agriculture. However, Lugh ultimately killed Bres by causing him to drink the poisonous "milk" of 300 wooden cows Lugh had made.

- Later in his life, Lugh instituted the Olympic-style games in memory of his foster mother. August 1 was the conclusion of the games.

- Lugh had several wives, including the daughter of a British king. One of his wives had an affair with Cermait, son of the Irish father-god The Dagda. Lugh killed Cermait, but then Cermait's three sons killed Lugh.

- In some versions, Lugh is the father of the Irish hero Cú Chulainn. When Cú Chulainn is severely wounded in battle, Lugh arrives and heals his wounds.

Mythography says the confusion of Lugh with a deity of the sun may have to do with his nickname, "Shining One." However, the nickname was probably in reference to all his various skills. It also says Lugh ascended to become the leader of Tuatha Dé Danann when the god Nuada was killed in battle.

So that's Lugh - a mythological figure who may have been based on a historical king, but was said to have belonged to the divine tribe of the goddess Danu.

Public domain image by John McColgan.

Logi

Wikipedia says that Logi means "fire" in Old Norse and that the mythological Logi was a fire giant. It says the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturlson describes the eating contest between Logi and Loki. They competed to see who could most quickly eat meat from the bones, and Logi won by consuming meat, bones, and trencher all alike. Not only was Logi a fire giant, he was also the personification of fire itself.

Logi has two brothers, one who rules over the winds and another who rules over the sea. In astronomy, Loge (an alternate spelling) is one of the moons of Saturn.

NorthernPaganism.org adds that Logi was called High-Logi because he was so tall. His wife was named Glow, and they had two daughters named Ashes and Embers. After the death of his wife and daughters, Logi lived alone in a black-rock cave in Muspellheim (the land of fire).

So it seems unlikely Logi has anything at all to do with Lugh. Lugh has an association with blacksmiths, who do use fire, but that has more to do with Lugh's many skills than it does to any elemental connection Lugh might have.

Loki and Sigyn in a painting by Mårten Eskil Winge. Public domain.

The Confusion of Logi With Loki

According to NorseMyth.org,Wagner named a character in the Ring opera cycle Loge and gave him the characteristics of the mythological Loki. Wagner's Loge is a fire sprite.

Wikipedia's Loki article says Jacob Grimm referred to Loki as a "fire god" in 1835. It also says:

"Famously, Loki appears in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Ring of the Nibelung as Loge (a play on Old Norse loge, 'fire'). He is depicted as an ally of the gods (specifically Wotan's assistant rather than Donner's), although he generally dislikes them and thinks of them as greedy, as they refuse to return the Rhine Gold to its rightful owners. In the conclusion of the first opera Das Rheingold he reveals his hope to turn into fire and destroy Valhalla, and in the final opera Götterdämmerung, Valhalla is set alight, destroying the Gods."

Wagner completed Das Rheingold in 1856, post-Grimm. Collin Cleary's essay "Wagner's Place in the Germanic Tradition" clearly points the finger at Grimm as the source of the confusion between Logi and Loki:

"The Grimms often made imaginative links between names and other elements in the sources they utilized, and this seems to have emboldened Wagner to do the same – achieving a kind of fusion of German and Scandinavian elements. Indeed, some of the inferences or connections Wagner has been criticized for actually have their origin with the Grimms. For example, Wagner also includes a character named 'Loge,' who is the equivalent of the Scandinavian Loki. In fact, there is scant evidence that there was a Loki figure in the German mythological world. However, Jacob Grimm postulated 'Locho' or 'Loho' as possible German equivalents. Wagner didn’t particularly like either, and settled on 'Loge.'

"Purists have long railed against Wagner, however, for making his Loge/Loki a god of fire. Again, however, this has its origin in Grimm. In Scandinavian myth there was a fire giant named Logi, and Grimm thought that there might be a connection to Loki. (More recent scholarship doesn’t support this.) We find the origin of Wagner’s Loge in these words of Jacob Grimm: 'Now a striking narrative . . . places Logi by the side of Loki: a being from the giant province beside a kinsman and companion of the gods. This is no mere play upon words, the two really signify the same thing from different points of view, Logi the natural force of fire, and Loki with a shifting of the sound, a shifting of the sense: of the burly giant has been made a sly, seducing villain.'"

The Brother Grimm. Public domain. 

There we have it: Lugh is not Logi, Logi is not Loki, and Loki is definitely not Lugh.

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