#LegendaryWednesday: `Ogma invented Ogham writing to warn #Lugh that his wife Buí was in danger, carving three beith marks to indicate that, unless this woman was protected by the birch, she would be carried away to the síd beneath the mound seven times.` #Celtic
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/the-death-of-lugh

#Wyrdnesday: `The young woman was the Kingship of Ireland, and she had a band of gold on her head, and a silver vessel with hoops of gold beside her, and it full of red ale, and a golden bowl on its edge, and a golden cup at its mouth. She said then to #Lugh, the master of the house: "Who am I to serve drink to?" "Serve it to Conn of the Hundred Battles," he said, "for he will gain a hundred battles before he dies." And the young woman left the vessel with Conn, and the cup and the bowl, and she gave him along with that the rib of an ox and of a hog; twenty-four feet was the length of the ox-rib.` #Celtic
Source: Gods and Fighting Men by Lady Gregory - Project Gutenberg eBook

#FairyTaleTuesday: As compensation for the murder of his father, #Lugh demanded as price of honour (éric) from the sons of Tuireann `the two wonderful horses of Dobar, King of Siogair. The sea was the same as land to them, and there were no faster horses than themselves.` #Celtic
Gods and Fighting Men by Lady Gregory - Project Gutenberg eBook

#FolkloreThursday: Among the talismans #Lugh demanded from Tuireann's three sons as
punishment for the murder of his father #Cian were three apples (according to the tale, from the Hesperides Garden in the East of the World). `Only these apples will satisfy me, as they are the best and most beautiful in the world. This is what they are made of: Their colour is that of polished gold, and the head of a one-month-old child is no larger than any one of these apples. When you dine on them, they taste like honey, and bleeding wounds and the most malignant diseases disappear. The apples do not diminish when eaten, even if one eats from them for a long time and constantly. Whoever succeeds in taking one of these apples has accomplished his greatest feat, since he will never lose it again.` #Celtic
Source: Guyonvarc'h/Le Roux `Die #Druiden`

#FolkloreThursday: `In the plain of Bray, lay the Gardens of the Sun-god #Lugh. So sunny and so fair and fertile was that plain, with waving meadow-grass and buttercups, and the sweet may-blossom girdling the fields. Close all about the fort the gardens lay, with apple-trees shedding their pink and white upon the playing fields of brilliant green.` #Celtic
Source: Cuchulain, The Hound of Ulster, by Eleanor Hull

#BookologyThursday: As compensation for the murder of his father, #Lugh demanded what appeared to be a very small price of honour (éric). He was even prepared to reduce it if it was too high.
"It is not too much," said Brian, "or a hundred times of it would not be too much. And we think it likely," he said, "because of its smallness that you have some treachery towards us behind it."
Only after the three murderers had also sworn to keep to the agreed price of honour did Lugh reveal to them the high compensation they had accepted for the murder: the three apples from the Garden in the East of the World; the pig skin of Tuis, King of Greece; the deadly spear Luin belonging to the King of Persia: the chariot and the two wonderful horses of Dobar, King of Siogair; the seven pigs of Easal, King of the Golden Pillars; the whelp Fail-Inis belonging to the King of Ioruaidh, the Cold Country; one of the cooking-spits of the women of Inis Cenn-fhinne, the Island of Caer of the Fair Hair; and three shouts given on the Hill of Miochaoin in the north of Lochlann;
„Miochaoin and his sons are under bonds not to allow any shouts to be given on that hill; and it was with them my father got his learning, and if I would forgive you his death, they would not forgive you. And if you get through all your other voyages before you reach to them, it is my opinion they themselves will avenge him on you. And that is the fine I have asked of you," said Lugh. #Celtic
Source: Gods and Fighting Men by Lady Gregory - Project Gutenberg eBook
https://hear-me.social/@NeuKelte/113878156366154195

#LegendaryWednesday: `#Lugh was the undisputed hero of the second battle of Magh Tuireadh, killing his own grandfather—Fomorian leader, Balor of the Evil Eye—with a special slingshot projectile called the Tathlum, made by mixing the blood of toads, bears, and vipers with sea-sand and letting it harden.` #Celtic
Source: https://irishmyths.com/2021/02/07/celtic-mythology-weapons/#slingshot

#FolkloreSunday: `There is a strange story of #Lugh chanting a spell over his army just before the Second Battle of Moytura commences; apparently, he went ‘around the men of Ireland on one foot and with one eye closed’, and he probably did it sun(ir. deiseal)-wise.` #Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack

#NationalStorytellingWeek #FolkloreThursday: `Despite Balor’s dread sorcerous might, one of his seers prophecised his doom – his lovely daughter Ethniu would have a son, and that son would some day slay him!
Eager as he was to avert that fate, he chained up his daughter on the highest point of the island, a place called Túr Mór in Old Irish, meaning The High Tower, which was made of crystal. After she got married and became pregnant he left strict orders that the child was to be cast from the top into the jagged rocks and hungry waters of the icy Atlantic far below the instant it was born.
But instead of one, there were three born, so he bound them up in a cloth and pinned it closed with a thorn, throwing them into the sea. Loch Deilg, Lake Thorn, on the east end of Tory island is named after this infamous act. But one survived, saved by Birog the Druidess, and his name was #Lugh of fable and legend.` #Celtic
Source: emeraldisle.ie

#MythologyMonday: After the mortal combat with Ferdia weariness and great weakness fell upon #CúChulainn. All his body was riddled with wounds, and his strength was utterly gone from him. While #Lugh kept watch and did battle with the host of Ulster, the Hound of Ulster took his rest in deep peace, `and for three days and nights he stirred not once, but slept a dreamless, torpid sleep. And fairy-folk brought magic herbs to put into his wounds, to soothe and heal him while he slept, and all the while #Lugh sat at his right hand, guarding his rest, save when some feat of slaughter was to do upon the men of Erin.` #Celtic
Source: Cuchulain, The Hound of Ulster, by Eleanor Hull

#BookologyThursday: `Shapeshifting was also used as a means of escape from danger, although it has to be said, tragically, it wasn’t always successful. Cian, #Lugh’s father, turns himself into a pig in order to merge with a herd grazing nearby and so escape from his enemies, the three sons of Tuirrean, with whom he had a feud.
Unfortunately, they realised what had happened, and two of them transformed into hounds and hunted him down. The third son pierced him with a spear, whereupon Cian resumed his human shape, but his enemies showed no mercy; rather than give him an honourable end, they stoned him to death.` #Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack

#MythologyMonday: `According to the myths, the bride/Goddess offered the king a drink. Its quite likely that he then consummated his marriage with his Queen, the Goddess, and the land, thus indicating that the ceremony was, in part, a fertility rite.
In the Baile in Scail, also called ‘the Phantom’s Ecstatic Vision’, Conn of the Hundred Battles and his companions wander into a blanket of fog and find themselves in the #Otherworld, where they are greeted by #Lugh. They are taken to his hall, where a beautiful woman named Flaith, meaning (‘Sovereignty’) serves Conn with a drink in a golden cup. He is thus made high king of Ireland.` #Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
https://twitter.com/druidtombraider/status/1412357409457180672?t=LnRndW4WUgrXl7gu8BaGbg&s=09

#FairyTaleTuesday @fairytaleflash: `Prior to the Second Battle of Moytura, #Lugh, God of Lightning, swore by the sun and the moon and the stars, among other things:
„Before the people of the Sídhe, Before Ogma I swear! Before the sky and the land and the sea, I swear! Before the Sun and the Moon and the stars, I swear! Oh warrior band, my host of battle, My troops here, the greatest of hosts like the sea, Mighty waves of golden, powerful, boiling fires, and battle lust Are created in each of you! May you seek out your foe upon the field, Embracing death in a frenzy of battle!“ #Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack

#BookologyThursday: `In one version about #CúChulainn's origins, #Deichtine disappears from #EmainMacha, until the nobles of #Ulster are led by a flock of magical birds to a house, where they are welcomed by #Lugh.
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#FolkloreSunday: `On #Beltane #Lugh appeared dressed in a purple fringed cloak, a gold embroidered petticoat and shoes of white bronze to the great king of #Ireland, #Cormac. The son of Conn received from the great, shining, gray-haired warrior from the #Celtic #Otherworld a silver apple branch with three golden apples from #Emain's tree, whose branches are of the most beautiful silver and its blossoms are glass eyelashes. „It was the highest pleasure and boon at the same time to hear the music emanating from the branch, as it put to sleep the severely injured, the sick, and those in childbed when the branch was shaken a little“.`
Source: Guyonvarc'h/Le Roux `Die #Druiden`

I have written about using a ferro rod to start fires in the past. But I never really explained a few things. As a prepper, sure I could buy a lifetime’s worth of Bics and always be able to light a fire. But years ago I learned how to use a ferro rod and steel to light a fire and here is why. About 10 years ago I made a pledge, as an offering to Lugh, to use only a ferro rod and steel (my bush knife) to start the bonfires for a whole year.

At first I was clumsy and it took a while to get that flame going. As time went on, I learned what the best tinder was (fine dry swamp grass and curls of fatwood kept in a pouch), the best technique (hold the rod to the surface and make a slow solid shower of sparks down onto the tinder) and got so that I could get that fire lit with one swipe on the rod (have the whole little fire pyramid ready with tiny kindling and a space to stuff the lit tinder under). It was the learning, conquering a challenge, and making a life saving thing without the disposable use of fossil fuel. From a practical point of view, it makes sense to always have alternatives as well.

Bic lighters are absolutely shitty when they get wet. It takes a lot of energy to dry them out and get them to light (running the wheel on your jeans for 5 or 10 minutes) which might be perilous if you were in a situation where getting that fire going was important. Bics can be lost, run out of fuel, etc. so having an extra method of making fire is common sense.

But that is the least of it. Learning how to do something that is outside your current skill set is the whole point. Doing the preparation ahead of time by creating a fire pouch with everything you need in it and keeping it with you and dry at all times. You are training your brain to think ahead, use methodical procedures and develop small motor skills.

After I started using the knife and ferro rod, I realized I wanted a sheath to keep them together so early in my learning to do leather work, I made this sheath that keeps them together. The cotton pouch can hang on my belt under my coat to keep tinder in as well, but I usually just keep it in the camp kit. The best way to prepare for future difficulty is to learn to use your gear now.

#BookologyThursday: `After a particularly arduous combat #CúChulainn is visited by another supernatural figure, #Lugh, who reveals himself to be CúChulainn's father. Lugh puts his son to sleep for three days while he works his healing arts on him.` #Celtic
Source: Táin Bó Cúailnge - Wikipedia

#ThickTrunkTuesday @uisneachfire: `In mythology, Fintan the Ancient White One was said to be the first person to arrive in Ireland after the Great Flood. He planted the Branching Ash Tree of #Uisneach, also known as the Tree of Enchantment. This tree was sacred to #Lugh, and the druids often made their wands from ash, as it was associated with rebirth, divination, protection, wisdom and spiritual knowledge.` #Celtic #TreeTuesday #TreeOfTheDay
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack