PLEASE support me on Ko-fi! (or take a class). With the political and economic uncertainty at the moment, my teaching income has dropped. Please support me on Ko-fi at: ko-fi.com/krishughes Thanks! ONLINE CLASSES: Intro to Celtic Mythology starts 4th January tinyurl.com/ICM25 Rashiecoats starts 15th January tinyurl.com/rashie25 You can always find out about upcoming classes at: tinyurl.com/GDclasses
I recently attended a talk on the local bay to me in Cornwall - it was entitled "Drowned Landscapes". It was really interesting and one thing that really struck me was that it is theorised that within one or two generations in the neolithic the sea levels rose approximately 25 metres. This would have a huge impact on communities. Environmentally and socially. I can't see how it wouldn't have entered the collective folk memory through stories. Across the sea in Ireland, an island much like here, these experiences would have echoed down the ages. Aboriginal tribes' oral tradition of a great flood that flooded the land bridge between Australia and New Guinea have been dated beyond 5300BCE.
Hi Kris, I answered yesterdays question a bit late so I hope I'm still in the running, but either way I'm excited to be a part of the conversation! On the metaphorical level, I think floods are symbols of inevitablitlity. No matter how hard we try they can't be contained and they can overwhelm things in their entirety. Maybe the people who originally told this story were opposed to the people Bran comes from, and they tell the story of their downfall as something that was inevitable. On the literal level, I believe the prevalence of floods in Celtic and other myths from around the world is related to deep collective memory of when the oceans rose at the end of the last ice age. Humans always live near coastlines and when the glaciers began to retreat 20,000 years ago or so, their water flowed into the oceans which would have drowned coastal regions. Loch Foyle was probably one of those places where there was low-lying land that was inundated as the seas rose.
From what I've read about comparative Indo-European mythology, many stories seem to associate waters below with chaos/potential. Lot's of Sky gods defeating ocean monsters or locking the old gods down in the depths. It may be that various lineages of storytellers continued to utilize that cosmological motif. While water is necessary for life, like any element, we are acutely aware of where and how much we want at any given moment. I'd also imagine these concepts served in the greater mythos of some Celtic peoples as we see a lot of ritual and lore behind figures like cupbearers and watchmen meant to keep the waters confined. Often an individual is scapegoated for hubris (Boand) or sloth (Seithenyn) which leads to devastation. Natural disasters are thus connected to human or divine actions... an effective means to discourage your listeners from behaving badly.
The flood stories reflect a deep cultural and spiritual relationship with the natural world and its cycles of destruction and renewal. Often these tales symbolize transformation, and the balance between chaos and order.
I think the motif of inundated land in Ireland is the result of multiple factors. First and foremost, flood myths feature in most cultures and there’s an especially prevalent one in. I think all Indo European derived cultures. The second reason I think that it’s a prevalent theme in Ireland is that Ireland seems to have retained a strong connection between the divine and wellsprings, so any flood could be the result of a spirit or god being offended or angry. The final reason is that sea levels have been rising since the last Ice Age. I could be wrong, but I think sea levels have risen one and a half meters in the past 2000 years which doesn’t seem like much unless you live on an island where 1 m sea level rise means the ocean breaches a natural dam and a lake is formed.
PLEASE support me on Ko-fi! (or take a class). With the political and economic uncertainty at the moment, my teaching income has dropped. Please support me on Ko-fi at: ko-fi.com/krishughes Thanks!
ONLINE CLASSES: Intro to Celtic Mythology starts 4th January tinyurl.com/ICM25
Rashiecoats starts 15th January tinyurl.com/rashie25
You can always find out about upcoming classes at: tinyurl.com/GDclasses
I recently attended a talk on the local bay to me in Cornwall - it was entitled "Drowned Landscapes". It was really interesting and one thing that really struck me was that it is theorised that within one or two generations in the neolithic the sea levels rose approximately 25 metres. This would have a huge impact on communities. Environmentally and socially. I can't see how it wouldn't have entered the collective folk memory through stories. Across the sea in Ireland, an island much like here, these experiences would have echoed down the ages. Aboriginal tribes' oral tradition of a great flood that flooded the land bridge between Australia and New Guinea have been dated beyond 5300BCE.
Hi Kris, I answered yesterdays question a bit late so I hope I'm still in the running, but either way I'm excited to be a part of the conversation!
On the metaphorical level, I think floods are symbols of inevitablitlity. No matter how hard we try they can't be contained and they can overwhelm things in their entirety. Maybe the people who originally told this story were opposed to the people Bran comes from, and they tell the story of their downfall as something that was inevitable.
On the literal level, I believe the prevalence of floods in Celtic and other myths from around the world is related to deep collective memory of when the oceans rose at the end of the last ice age. Humans always live near coastlines and when the glaciers began to retreat 20,000 years ago or so, their water flowed into the oceans which would have drowned coastal regions. Loch Foyle was probably one of those places where there was low-lying land that was inundated as the seas rose.
From what I've read about comparative Indo-European mythology, many stories seem to associate waters below with chaos/potential. Lot's of Sky gods defeating ocean monsters or locking the old gods down in the depths. It may be that various lineages of storytellers continued to utilize that cosmological motif. While water is necessary for life, like any element, we are acutely aware of where and how much we want at any given moment.
I'd also imagine these concepts served in the greater mythos of some Celtic peoples as we see a lot of ritual and lore behind figures like cupbearers and watchmen meant to keep the waters confined. Often an individual is scapegoated for hubris (Boand) or sloth (Seithenyn) which leads to devastation. Natural disasters are thus connected to human or divine actions... an effective means to discourage your listeners from behaving badly.
The flood stories reflect a deep cultural and spiritual relationship with the natural world and its cycles of destruction and renewal. Often these tales symbolize transformation, and the balance between chaos and order.
I think the motif of inundated land in Ireland is the result of multiple factors. First and foremost, flood myths feature in most cultures and there’s an especially prevalent one in. I think all Indo European derived cultures. The second reason I think that it’s a prevalent theme in Ireland is that Ireland seems to have retained a strong connection between the divine and wellsprings, so any flood could be the result of a spirit or god being offended or angry. The final reason is that sea levels have been rising since the last Ice Age. I could be wrong, but I think sea levels have risen one and a half meters in the past 2000 years which doesn’t seem like much unless you live on an island where 1 m sea level rise means the ocean breaches a natural dam and a lake is formed.