Celtic Stories (something to talk about)

[Sally Caves <scaves@frontiernet.net>]

Celtic stories usually have a whole lot of Celtic characters in them.  If
they are Celtic Arthurian, they feature a lot of the Arthurian characters.
If they are native, they feature the deeds of the euhemerized gods.
If they are invented Celtic, like Padaic's Kernu, then they have King
Mark and Guimier in them.  They come in all sizes, shapes, and styles.

Favorite motifs:  the switch in identity between Kings.  The Calumniated
Wife.  Animals turning into humans and vice-versa.  Searches for
impossible things and lists of deeds to do that the hero declares "not
difficult."  Descriptions of battles, especially prodigious feats of
superhuman prowess, such as slaughtering five hundred men with the right
hand, and six hundred with the left.  Strong women goddesses, like Medb
and the Morrigan.  Gessa, the plural of geis, a prohibition put on a hero
for something as seemingly arbitrary as walking widdershins around a
fortress.  Eating something that gives one vision: usually special
salmons, or things cooked in a cauldron by a witch.  Poetic utterances,
usually only three lines long, that encapsulate portions of the narrative.
In Welsh they're called _englynion_.  I forget what they're called in
Irish.  In Kernu, you can make up your own term.  They are usually
intensely ornate (featuring a lot of internal and final rhyme,
alliteration, and consonance).  

That's just for starters.
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Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net


			Mr. Book: "Shut it down!"
                        _Dark City_

			 Christof: "Cue the sun!"
                        _The Truman Show_

Tehwo mehuen; celil tesa nwetis dolifya."
"Summer is here; in the city much commotion."
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