Irish Folklore

Take a journey through the magickal folk traditions of Scotland. Barbara Meiklejohn-Free, a Scottish hereditary witch, shares her own spiritual awakening into the craft and shows you how to integrate these practices into your own life. Discover the secrets of divination, scrying, faery magick, and communication with ancestors. Explore herb and plant lore and specific rituals to address what you most desire. Filled with inspiring anecdotes, craft history, and step-by-step instructions, this book will help you begin a new chapter of spiritual discovery.

The True Origins of Christmas and Halloween is two books in one, an epic journey into the dark, enchanted roots of the year's most magical and mysterious winter festivals. From the shadowed rites of ancient Samhain to the blazing Yule fires of midwinter, travel through time and myth: from ancient Britain and Ireland to the Roman Empire, medieval Europe, and colonial America. Uncover a world of forgotten customs and fearsome folklore, where Gods and monsters walked among mortals. Before trick-or-treating and pumpkin lanterns, there was guising (dressing up) as horned animals and ghosts, and ...

When a strange wind stirs off the coast of Ballycroy and the old foxhole reopens, twelve-year-old Bridgie Ned and her gang find themselves pulled into a mystery older than their village—and deeper than the sea. A forgotten monastery. A vanished island. A warrior princess on the run. And monks who’ve stepped out of another century. As shadows rise and rune-marks appear on doorways, Bridgie must piece together a truth that stretches across time. But the answers may lie in the hands of a figure feared in every old tale: Old Sheelie, a druid woman with ties to a dark Viking queen—and a ...

"The Other Crowd", "The Good People", "The Wee Folk", and "Them" are a few of the names given to the fairies by the people of Ireland. Honored for their gifts and feared for their wrath, the fairies remind us to respect the world we live in and the forces we cannot see. In these tales of fairy forts, fairy trees, ancient histories, and modern true-life encounters with the Other Crowd, Eddie Lenihan opens our eyes to this invisible world with the passion and bluntness of a seanchai, a true Irish storyteller.

ANCESTORS. Maire Kennedy has never felt comfortable in her own skin; she feels the tug of the past, of distant ancestors whose blood runs through her veins, drawing her from the the New World back to the Old. Ireland is her goal, and she has the DNA results to prove her worthy place in the land of her distant forebears. One of her aims is to explore a particular prehistoric cairn, glowering on the the hilltop above a remote village, since the DNA company she used has told her she has a match to a burial archaeologists found within...but when she arrives on the hilltop, it all begins to go ...

In Ireland, the link between place and myth is strong, and there is no more enlightening way to understand the rich tapestry of Irish mythology, and its relationship to our true history, than by reading the landscape. Earthing the Myths is an engaging and exhaustive county-by-county guide to the vast number of fascinating places in Ireland connected to myth, folklore and early history. Covering the period 800 BC to AD 650, this book spans the Late Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the early Christian period, and explores the ways in which the land evolved, and with it our catalogue of myths and ...

Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.

For centuries the Túatha Dé Danann lived in peace on an island where time flowed more slowly and the seasons were gentle - until that peace was shattered by the arrival of invaders. The Gaels, the Children of Milesios, came looking for easy riches and conquest, following the story of an island to the west where their every desire could be granted. They had not anticipated that it would already be home to others, and against the advice of their druids, they began to exterminate the Túatha Dé Danann.

Jean McConville's abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.

An illuminating exploration of Ireland's ancient dark goddess - the beloved "phantom queen" of the Celtic world - with practices for modern-day devotees. The Morrigan is one of Pagan Ireland's most famous - and notorious - goddesses. Her name translated as "phantom queen" or "great queen," the Morrigan is famous for being a goddess of war, witchcraft and death, protection and retribution. This book also explores her patronage of motherhood, healing, shapeshifting, and the land.

Ten-year-old Doe is losing her hearing—and her only comfort is Magpie, her loyal service dog. All seems idyllic on her home, Runninghorse Ranch. Till it isn't. Cattle Mutilations, Lights and random Aurora Borealis in the sky above the misty mountain have the whole family on edge. When Magpie vanishes into the mountains, Doe follows—defying warnings passed down by generations of native elders, and the warnings of ancient stories etched in petroglyphs on the nearby sea cliffs. She doesn’t return. As her family unravels, the tales come to life, resurrecting secrets—revealing that some ...

Beware the Mountain’s magic. It will seduce you...and steal your soul. Life is good for Orla, now the Mountain’s witch. Slainaitheor is banished into the earth and her family is healthy, safe and happy. She’s nearly forgotten Simon, the seductive male witch who fathered her young daughter. Then Orla meets Fiona, a troubled girl who’s felt she’s never fit in. There’s something familiar about Fiona; though red-haired, she has the look of the Mountain families. Orla takes her in, and soon cherishes her as her own. Still though, the familiarity to someone in the past niggles. If ...

Four ghost stories from England’s historic shires present a heady brew of the Gothic, folk horror, historical fiction and satire. The Ghost of Scarside Beck A newly-wed Cumbrian vicar and his wife experience a night like none they could ever have foreseen. He may have answered his calling, but who, or what, is calling her? At Fall of Night A ghostly excursion into the Victorian Gothic; a tale of obsession, terror, and vengeance. Welcome to Wiltshire in the autumn of 1843. Monsieur Benoit Lavarnier, toast of the Parisian art world and a man of cultured accomplishments, finds himself ...

Stories of growing up in an Irish village told with a "blend of history, tradition and humour". Siobhán Lincoln records the social history of Ardmore village, tales of school days, dances, fishing, work, language and tradition. This book will be of interest to anyone who wants a picture of life in rural Ireland from the late 19th century to the dawning of the Millennium. From the forword by Fergal Keane: "The past slips away from us quietly. We are too consumed with the drama of the present to notice the departure of old ways and traditions. In an age of economic growth without parallel in...

In The Mist-Filled Path, Frank MacEowen shows how embracing the indigenous wisdom of Scotland and Ireland can lead to healing and transcendence. Using his own travels and teachings along with Celtic stories and myths, he explores ancient traditions, ecopsychology, the ancient mother, altars and hearths, "Oran Mor" (the Great Song), contemplation, and mysticism. The book tells how to draw on ancestral roots to find a personal spirituality that also works for the greater good.

Discover the Spirit of Ireland through an Epic Exploration of Irish History and Myths.

We think of fairies as little winged people with magic wands, but Irish fairies were flesh-and-blood extraterrestrials who towered over humans. We knew them as angels, demons, phantoms, mermaids, fairies, gods and not-gods, and the Gentry. Giant, chalk-white humanoids with piercing blue eyes, and flaming red or golden-yellow hair cascading in curls over their shoulders, that’s the true appearance of the ancient fairies of Ireland who came down from the cosmos thousands of years ago.

Three key stories from the mists of Irish legends retold by Benedict Flynn. It is a mysterious world that this selection of stories from the treasure house of Irish myths describes. Here, the line between the fantastical and the real is blurred: mortals and immortals lead entwined lives.

Ancient, rich, and strange, this collection of eerie tales from across Britain and Ireland have influenced our culture and the folklore that followed.

Samhain, the Celtic New Year, the Night of the Day of the Dead, when the Walls between the Worlds grow thin, and the barrows open to release the ancient dead and the faerie people... Four haunting stories from prehistoric Ireland, based on original myths but told anew with a nod to actual archaeological finds and folk memory. Crom Cruach, the Bowed One of the Mound, asks for his tribute of corn, milk and children...till St Patrick comes. But are the Old Ways really dead and gone? Aillen the Burner, one of the beautiful yet amoral Tuatha de Dannan, arrives each Samhain to burn down the ...