Mythic Ireland
By (Author) Michael Dames
Thames & Hudson Ltd
Thames & Hudson Ltd
1st April 1996
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
European history
Ancient history
291.1309415
Paperback
272
Width 159mm, Height 240mm
The age of the myth lives on in Ireland - in folk tales and literature, in place-names and language, in ceremonies and monuments. This work explores Ireland's four provinces to discover the places at the root of Irish myth and legend. Focal mythic sites such as St Patrick's Purgatory in Ulster, Loster Gur in Munster and Dublin in Leinster, are described in detail. Finally Ireland is surveyed from a fifth province "Mide" where the entire island is seen to be held in a web of pre-historic sites aligned with solar-lunar events. Ireland's sacred locations take on contemporary relevance as the book shows that the underlying concerns of myth - conservation and recurrence - are increasingly present concerns.