Ireland's Immortals —— A History of the Gods of Irish Myth

----- 爱尔兰的不朽：爱尔兰神话历史

ISBN: 9780691157313 出版年：2016 页码：608 Williams, Mark Princeton University Press

Ireland's immortals tells the story of one of the world's great mythologies. The first account of the gods of irish myth to take in the whole sweep of irish literature in both the nation's languages, the book describes how ireland's pagan divinities were transformed into literary characters in the medieval christian era--and how they were recast again during the celtic revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A lively narrative of supernatural beings and their fascinating and sometimes bizarre stories, mark williams's comprehensive history traces how these gods--known as the tuatha de danann--have shifted shape across the centuries, from iron age cult to medieval saga to today's young-adult fiction. We meet the heroic lug; the morrigan, crow goddess of battle; the fire goddess brigit, who moonlights as a christian saint; the mist-cloaked sea god manannan mac lir; and the ageless fairies who inspired j.R.R. Tolkien's immortal elves. Medieval clerics speculated that the irish divinities might be devils, angels, or enchanters. W. B.