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Article of Improvement: The Mythological Cycle Sources: 1. D, Arbois de Jubainville H. The Irish Mythological Cycle and Celtic Mythology. Kessinger. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.39000005797217;view=1up;seq=25 The main source of mythology comes from The Book of Invasions, or Lebor Bagala Erenn. It is an abridged compilation of both prose and poetry on the origins of Ireland and the extraordinary deities. The original was more expansive, but perished in what is to be assumed viking raids or being claimed during war time. A supplemental text is attributed to a chronicler that goes by the name Keating who published his book in the 17th century. He had access to materials that have yet been published. Nennius and Eochaid Ua Flainn, chroniclers who lived during the 10th century, recorded mythological Irish history by way of poetry. Though, they're contributions are short and semi-vague, they contain a lot of precious information on Ireland's spiritual beliefs of the time. The Tuatha De Danann can be linked to the same origins as the Gods in Greek mythology. Hesoid calls the Greek Gods the Golden Race, but similar atrributes are seen in Celtic Gods.

2.Price, Bill. Celtic Myths. Pocket Essentials, 2008. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sfsu/reader.action?docID=1121199 In Irish mythology, Ireland was subject to 6 invasions. The first 5 were from otherworldy beings, and the last was from Milesians.

3. MacCullough, J. A. The Religion of the Ancient Celts. T & T Clark, 1911. The Tautha De Danaan Were known to come from the heavens, but that may be from scribes not knowing how to execute their origin. So the scribes borrowed from past religions like the Greek, Roman and Eastern myth to create an origin story. The Gauls were thought to come from underneath the Earth. This information had been passed down from druids from Dispater, the Goddess of the underworld. Earth was thought to be a women at the time, so this was thought to be a metaphorical birth, not ascending from hell. The Earth, moon and sun were thought to be created by druids, much like how Brahmans boasted the same cosmogony story(Senchus Mor=text for this sentence). Much like preceding myth, the Gauls believed the trees and mountains held up the sky. 4. Willis, Roy G. World Mythology: the Illustrated Guide. Oxford Press. 2006

5. Heaney, Marie. Over Nine Waves. Faber and Faber. 1994 These stories stayed in the oral tradition because the Irish had not been invaded at the time like surrounding countries. In conjunction, the druidic schools wanted to maintain the stories in verbal form. This kept the stories in circulation to the culture and public. When Christain scribes came to Ireland, they wrote down the stories in Latin. Unfortunately, in succeeding centuries many of the texts were lost or destroyed during viking raids. The remaining texts were rerecorded in manuscripts in the 11th and 12th century. Though previous manuscripts were are dated to 3-4 centuries earlier in the Irish language. The Tuatha De Denann are semi divine beings that came to Ireland by ships and inhabited the country before the native Irish. They came to Ireland to take the land from the Fir Bolgs that have already been residing in the north of Ireland at the time. The Tuatha were immediately precieved as gods for their superior skills: various arts of druidry, magic, prophecy and history. Their leader was named Nuada. He led them to war against the Fir Bolgs around the west shore of Ireland, where the Tuatha had arrived by ship. Many of the Tuatha died in this war, but thousands of Fir Bolgs died. Including their leader, Eochai Mac Erc. They come from another world, but reside in Ireland until they were pushed out by war with a semi-demonic race called the Fomorians. Their king is known in the mythology as Balor. The Fomorians resided on the outskirts of Ireland. When the Tuatha were defeated in battle against the Milesians, they were forced to live underground in the Sidhes. The Sidhes were chambers under Ireland's surface. Though away from the mortal world, they still would come to surface on special days like Hallowe'en and May Day.

Model Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Mac_Da_Th%C3%B3%27s_Pig