#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `Perhaps it is not such a strange thing with Ireland being an island that the power of the ocean was the most respected, and the spiral patterns that can be found on many dolmens, burial ground and monoliths may represent the waves of the sea.`
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/manannan-mac-lir

Birthdays in China are sometimes celebrated with 'longevity noodles', long noodles that symbolise long life. Tradition says they shouldn't be broken before the person celebrating their birthday eats them. The earliest written record of Chinese noodles is from a Han Dynasty book dated 25-220 AD. However, an earthenware bowl from around 4,000 years ago discovered by archaeologists may have once held a noodle-type food. #FolkloreThursday #folklore #history #food #archaeology #mythology

#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `The sea way to Tír na nÓg was called the honey road, the path made by the sun through Moy Mell, the Plain of Honey. This was the third realm over which Manannán claimed dominion, and he told Bran the Voyager that neither the plain nor its denizens could be seen unless his magical mist was lifted.`
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/manannan-mac-lir

#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `#Conchobar, who had not yet become King of Ulster, but was an ambitious young man seeking to gain a kingdom, consulted the famous oracle at Clogher as to how he might best attain his end. The oracle advised him to proceed to the Isle of Man and get Culann to make sword, spear, and shield for him. Conchobar did so, and prevailed on Culann to begin his task;
… while awaiting the completion of his weapons, Conchobar sauntered one morning along the shore, and in the course of his walk met with a mermaid fast asleep on the beach. He promptly bound the syren, but she, on waking and perceiving what had happened, besought him to liberate her; and to induce him to yield to her petition, she informed him that she was Teeval, the Princess of the Ocean; and promised that if he caused Culann to form her representation on the shield surrounded with this inscription, 'Teeval, Princess·of the Ocean,' it would possess such extraordinary powers that when ever he was about engaging his enemy in battle, and looked upon her figure on the shield, read the legend, and invoked her name, his enemies would diminish in strength, while he and his people would acquire a proportionate increase in theirs. Conchobar had the shield made according to the advice of Teeval, and, on his return to Ireland, such extraordinary success attended his arms, that he won the kingdom of Ulster. Culann accepted Conchobar's offer, referred to above, and settled on the plain of Murthemne, which was fabled to have been formerly situated beneath the sea.`
Source: Myths Connected With The Legendary History of The Isle of Man from Folklore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore

One of my very favourite #folklore books. Published in 1780 by a #Monmouthshire minister and stuffed with a plethora of weird phantoms and #fairylore. Jones retells how his father saw the #fairies and repeats many first-hand encounters with the likes of Death Omens and Black Dogs. #FolkloreThursday

#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `#Manannan Mac Lir, a celebrated merchant, was in the Isle of Man. He was the best pilot that was in the west of Europe. He used to know, by studying the heavens, the period which would be the fine weather and the bad weather, and when each of these two times would change. Inde Scoti et Brittones eum deum vocaverunt maris, et inde filium maris esse dixerunt, i.e., Maclir-, 'son of sea.' Et de nomine Manannan the Isle of Man dictus est.`
Source: Myths Connected With The Legendary History of The Isle of Man from Folklore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore

#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `A name which echoes through many ancient Irish myths and legends is that of the spirit of the oceans, Manannán mac Lir. Was he a Gaelic god and father of gods, a powerful king of old, first among the Tuatha De Danann, a title for a cult of secretive mystics or a Lord of the #Otherworld? Perhaps all of these and more, or none.`
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/manannan-mac-lir

🍄🛡️🍄'Elfin Knight' - by Brian Froud. #FairyTaleTuesday #WyrdWednesday #FolkloreThursday #FolkyFriday #FolkloreSunday