In early Ireland, there were many names for what scholars have dubbed the ‘Otherworld’: the Plain of Delights, the Land of Youth, the Land of Promise, and more. Many of the myths and legends from this period involve an encounter between a hero and a woman from this Otherworld, with sufficient frequency to form a distinct theme within the literature. This book examines the particularities and consequences of these otherworldly encounters, attending in particular to the question of gender and the social dynamics at work. Five stories purportedly from the lost book Cín Dromma Snechta receive detailed analysis, alongside material from other sources, in order to reconstruct the mindset of the early Irish who told these stories about the Otherworld and their views about women in general.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Part I Introduction
- 1 Women in Early Ireland
- Status of Women
- Anomalous Women
- Magical Women
- Conclusion
- 2 The ‘Otherworld’ of Early Ireland
- Immanence and Sacred Space
- Sacred Time
- The Role of Peace
- The ‘Feminine’ Otherworld
- Conclusion
- Part II The Texts
- 3 Echtrae Chonnlai and Immram Brain
- Introduction
- Uncommonly Strange: The Uses of Ingnad
- Otherworld Descriptions
- Prophecies
- Otherworld Tokens
- Immram Brain and Immram Curaig Máele Dúin
- The Shamanism Question
- Conclusion
- 4 Serglige Con Culainn
- Introduction
- Otherworld Descriptions
- Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, but Whips and Chains Excite Me
- Otherworld Women and Bird Transformations
- The Shamanism Question Re-visited
- Lí Ban
- Fand and Emer
- Conclusion
- 5 The Eponymous Goddesses of Lebor Gabála Érenn
- Introduction
- The Unfallen Race
- Ériu’s Prophecy
- Druids and Perception: What you see is not always what you get
- Conclusion
- 6 Echtrae Nerai
- Introduction
- Otherworld Tokens
- Ambue
- The Morrígain
- Conclusion
- 7 A Fair Shake: Otherworld Men as Intermediaries
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
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