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Irish mythology in popular culture

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Elements of Irish mythology have appeared many times in popular culture.

Badb

Banshee

  • The 1959 Disney movie Darby O'Gill and the Little People contains a scene where the title character encounters a pernicious banshee. (See note at end of this section, for information about banshee behavior in American popular culture and how it differs from banshee behavior in traditional Irish folklore.)
  • The Real Ghostbusters episode "Banshee Bake a Cherry Pie?" depicts a banshee masquerading as an Irish pop singer and aiming to use its voice to take over the world.
  • The Halo video game series incorporates an airborne vehicle called "Banshee" named for its engine's screaming noise.
  • The Silver Banshee is a character in Superman comics and other media.
  • A Boggart imitates a Banshee in order to scare Seamus Finnegan in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  • Banshee (comics) was the code name of an Irish superhero and member of the X-Men with superhuman sonic abilities who is now deceased. The codename is currently carried on by his daughter, formerly known by her superheroic codename of Siryn, who possesses extremely similar superhuman abilities.
  • The 2010 horror movie Scream of the Banshee is about an archeology professor who unearths a dangerous artifact, unwittingly releasing a monstrous banshee that kills with the power of its bone-splitting scream.
  • The 1990s animated television series Gargoyles episode "The Hound of Ulster" is about Irish folklore and features a banshee as the main antagonist. (Characters in modern Ireland turn out to be characters from old Irish folklore, reborn in the present time. The episode's main character, Rory, who turns out to be Cu Chulainn, has a childhood friend Molly who turns out to be the Banshee.)
  • The 1999 animated television series Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends premise was that aliens had been living among humans for ages, and were the origins of many of the creatures humans know from myth, folklore and legends, including a clan of banshees as the main antagonist.

The videogame series Mortal Kombat has Banshee character. Sindel has sonic screams like a banshee has.

  • There is a series of books called Soul Screamers by Rachel Vincent. It is about a teenager named Kaylee, that finds out that she is a banshee, and that her wail can keep a soul from crossing over. It also has male banshees that can help guide a soul while the female banshee wails.

Note: "Banshee" (in Gaelic bean sidhe) originally meant "woman of the fairies". The banshees in old Irish folklore were often presented as grieving women who were keening (weeping/mourning) for the dead. This appears in the Darby O'Gill and the Little People DVD extra I Captured the King of the Leprechauns (originally a Walt Disney Presents or Wonderful World of Disney episode, telling viewers about the making of, and some of the folklore which inspired parts of, the movie Darby O'Gill and the Little People), in which the banshee is "keening for the young O'Brien" and is in no way a pernicious or threatening character, but merely seen as a dark or sad omen because she appears before people die. She does not cause deaths, she mourns for the dead (or, eerily, the soon-to-be-dead). The banshee in American popular culture (possibly starting with Darby O'Gill and the Little People, in which some characteristics of later American pop culture banshee behavior can be seen) is typically a threatening and/or menacing figure who causes death and/or destruction (thereby taking on characteristics belonging traditionally more to the Morrigan than to the banshees).

Brazil

  • The characters of the movie Erik the Viking visit the island, spelled Hy-Brasil in the film's literature, during their quest to find Valhalla and end Ragnarok.
  • Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy of fantasy novels is set in the mythical Elder Isles, situated southwest of Cornwall and west of Brittany, consisting of a large island called Hybras, "the Hy-Brasil of ancient Irish legend," surrounded by numerous smaller islands of various sizes.
  • Hy-Brasil is the title of the 2002 novel by Scottish writer Margaret Elphinstone. She creates an island-nation somewhere between Newfoundland and Ireland as a thought-experiment.
  • Hy Brasil is featured in the Promethea comic series by Alan Moore.
  • In the novel Engelbrecht Again! by Rhys Hughes the main characters meet a mermaid on the island of Brasil while on their way to the country of Brazil.
  • In the Saga of Pliocene Exile, a series of science-fiction novels by Julian May, "High Vrazel" is the seat of the Firvulag, an alien race based on the Fir Bolg of Irish mythology.
  • In the Artemis Fowl series, Hybras is an island, situated off the coast of Ireland, on which demons live.
  • In the .hack//G.U. series of video games, Hy-Brazil is an island that only the champions of the arena fights are allowed to visit.
  • In the Alternate History of Poul Anderson's "Delenda Est", in which Carthago destroyed Rome and later world culture was based on a mixture of Semitic and Celtic elements, "Huy Braseal" is one of the main world powers in the equivalent of the 20th Century.

Caladbolg

Bricriu

Crom Cruach

Placenames
Fiction
  • Kenneth C. Flint wrote a novel called Cromm about modern human sacrifice in Cavan, published by Doubleday 1990.
  • The Meredith Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton features a character, Rhys, who was once the death deity Cromm Cruach.
  • The radio program Hall of Fantasy had an episode named The Idol of Cromm Cruac, about a hidden Crom Cruac cult in the 20th century United States. The program identified the god as "Keltic" but not specifically as Irish.
  • Conan the Cimmerian's patron deity is named Crom, though whether this reference is derived from the gaelic deity is uncertain.
  • Michael Moorcock wrote a second trilogy of novels, Bull and the Spear, Oak and the Ram and Sword and the Stallion about Prince Corum where he travels to a Celtic themed realm, of his world's far future, where Corum has become Cremm Croich (Cremm/Corum of the Silver Hand), The Lord of the Mound.
  • Crom Cruach appears as a dragonfish-like serpent in the film The Secret of Kells, originally having two eyes compared to the cyclopean appearance it manifested as.
  • In the Nexon game Mabinogi, the boss for the 3rd generation storyline is Cromm Cruaich, re-imagined as a dragon.
Poetry
Comics
  • Crom Cruach appears as a monstrous "time worm" feeding on human misery in Pat Mills' fantasy series Sláine.
  • Crom Crauch is also mentioned as "lord worm" in Grant Morrison's 'The Invisibles'.
  • Crom Cruach, "the bloody, bent one" appeared as a bloated dragon in Matt Wagner's Mage.
Television

In the Robin of Sherwood episode (Season 3): Cromm Cruac - the name applies to a phantom village, created by Gulnar. (Named after the Irish deity Cromm Cruac and seen only in the episode of the same name). The village appears periodically and is populated by evil spirits due to its residents having practiced human sacrifice (of their children) in the past.

The Gargoyles TV series episode "The Hound of Ulster" has the Banshee taking the form of a gigantic centipede-like "death-worm" by the name of Cromm-Cruach to do battle with Goliath, Elisa Maza and Goliath's daughter Angela.

Cú Chulainn

Animation

  • In the Disney animated TV series Gargoyles, during the "Avalon World Tour" story arc's episode entitled "The Hound of Ulster" in the series' second season, during the visit to Ireland of Goliath, his daughter Angela, their human friend Elisa Maza, and Goliath's gargoyle beast Bronx encounter a young Irishman named Rory Dugan, who turns out to be the re-incarnation of Cu Chulainn, and for a time Bronx accompanies the reincarnated Cu Chulainn as the titular "hound" of the legend, with the Banshee as Cu Chulainn's antagonist. The Banshee, one of Oberon's children in the Gargoyles episodes, also takes the form of a gigantic, centipede-like "death-worm" under the name of Crom(m)-Cruach to battle Cu Chulainn and the Gargoyles in the episode's climax. (Note: Cu Chulainn himself was actually known as "the Hound of Ulster"...he slew Culann's guard dog and then offered his own services as "watchdog" in compensation, thereby becoming known as "Cu Chulainn" which means "Culann's hound"...he then defended Ulster and became known as "the Hound of Ulster". The Gargoyles episode title probably refers doubly to Bronx acting as Cu Chulainn's temporary "hound" and to Cu Chulainn himself.)
  • A short animated film by John McCloskey, The King's Wake, features Cu Chulainn and King Connor Mac Neasa.[1]

Comics

  • Cuchulainn, the Irish Wolfhound, has appeared in Marvel Comics' Guardians of the Galaxy.[2]
  • An Táin, Colmán Ó Raghallaigh and Barry Reynolds' Irish language graphic novel adaptation of Táin Bó Cúailnge, was published by Cló Mhaigh Eó of County Mayo in 2006.[3]
  • Patrick Brown's webcomic adaptation of the Táin, The Cattle Raid of Cooley, began serialisation in August 2008.[4]
  • Oghme Comics are in the process of adapting the story of Cúchulainn in graphic novel format, as a series of webcomics,[5] as well as Illustrations of Characters[6] from the Ulster cycle.
  • Chulain appears as a minor antagonist in the Marvel Comics limited series Thor: Blood Oath.

Music

  • Scottish composer Ronald Center wrote a symphony called The Coming of Cuchulain, first performed by the Scottish Orchestra, conducted by Warwick Braithwaite, in 1944.
  • The tale of Cú Chulainn's wasting sickness provides the title of the Pogues's song "The Sickbed of Cuchulainn" from their album Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
  • Jeff Danna's opening theme for the 1999 film Boondock Saints is named "The Blood of Cuchulainn".
  • French hip hop group Manau has a song about Cú Chulainn called Le Chien du Forgeron ("The Smith's Hound").
  • The first track on the album "The Eternal Knot", written by Karl Jenkins for his Adiemus project, is called "Cú Chullain".
  • The second verse of the Thin Lizzy song "Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend" from the 1979 album "Black Rose: A Rock Legend" begins with the phrase "pray tell me the story of young Cuchulainn, how his eyes were dark, his expression sullen, and how he'd fight and always won, and how they cried when he was fallen".
  • The eighth track on the album "Wild Frontier", by Gary Moore, titled "Thunder Rising" speaks of the legend of Cú Chullain.
  • Irish rock band Horslips' 1973 second album was titled "The Táin", featuring Cú Chulainn's exploits, originally conceived as music for a stage adaptation of the poem.
  • Cuchulainn is mentioned in or the subject of a few songs by the Celtic metal band Cruachan including "Cuchulainn (The Hound of Culan)", "Cattle Raid Of Cooley" and "The Brown Bull of Cooley".
  • The songs "Seven Fingers" and "When They Come to Murder Me" from the Black Francis mini-album SVN FNGRS are about Cú Chulainn.
  • There is a song from the show Riverdance named "Caoineadh Cú Chulainn", meaning "The Lament of Cú Chulainn". It is played by Davy Spillane on the uilleann pipes.
  • The German metal band Suidakra released an album called Crógacht, based on the story of Cúchulainn and Conlaoch.
  • The Symphonic metal band Therion released a song called Cú Chulainn on their 2010 album, Sitra Ahra.
  • The first track of "My Name Will Live On", an album by Italian epic Doom Metal band Doomsword is named "The Death of Ferdia", and tells the story of the duel fought between Cú Chulainn and his foster brother.

Novels

  • In Henry H. Neff's series The Tapestry Max MacDaniels is believed to be Cúchulainn reborn. He is later discovered to be a half brother.

A summary of the Cattle Raid of Cooley is told in the first book.

  • In Laurel K Hamilton's "Meredith Gentry" Series it turns out one of the lead characters fey lovers and oldest friend, Rhys, is actually a somewhat fallen and 'depowered' Crom Cruach.

Sport

Scouting

Games

  • The character is the protagonist in the adventure games Tir Na Nog and Dun Darach.
  • In Final Fantasy XII, an esper is named Cúchulainn, and in Final Fantasy Tactics he is the first Lucavi demon you must defeat. Additionally, several Final Fantasy games contain a weapon named for Cú Chulainn's spear, the Gáe Bulg.
  • Cúchulainn appears in several Megami Tensei games as a recruitable demon capable of being summoned by player characters to fight other enemies. Also, in Persona 3, it is possible to fuse him with a Nihil weapon to obtain his spear. He also appears as his Setanta form, usually a weaker demon than Cu Chulainn.
  • He appears as Lancer, one of the Servants in the Holy Grail War in the Fate/stay night visual novel. He also appears in the anime, video games, movie, and manga based on the visual novel.
  • In Omikron: The Nomad Soul, a hero which the player eventually controls is named Kushulai'n.

Diarmuid Ua Duibhne

Games
  • Diarmuid appears as the character Zero Lancer in the Fate/Unlimited Codes game for the PS2 and PSP; his depiction there is derived from his appearance in the Fate/Zero light novel series from the same franchise, and also features prominently in the anime adaptation of Fate/Zero.

Fand

Fionn mac Cumhaill

Fomoiri

  • In her science fiction book Elphame's Choice, P.C. Cast describes the Fomorians and Cú Chulainn.
  • Bec's clan encounters Fomoiri attacks in Darren Shan's book Bec.
  • Mark Chadbourn's fantasy series, The Age of Misrule, shows a contemporary world where the Fomor return to attempt to conquer both the Earth and the Otherworld of the Tuatha De Danann. They are presented as being malformed and grotesque Lovecraftian creatures.
  • In the original World of Darkness game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Fomori are a type of corrupted human, servants of the Wyrm
  • Within the MMORPGs "Mabinogi" and "Vindictus", which contain several other references to Irish and general celtic mythology, the various antagonist races are collectively known as the 'Fomors'
  • The MMORPG Final Fantasy XI has undead enemies known as 'Formors' that look like the game's playable races, but engulfed in shadow with glowing eyes.
  • Within the video-game "Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia" there are enemies known as 'Formors' though they evoke imagery associated with classical depiction of demons in appearance.
  • In Even Hand, a short story of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, Johnny Marcone deals with a fomor named Mag.
    • In another Dresden Files short story, Aftermath, another fomor pops up in Chicago.
  • In the Role-Playing Game Shadowrun, these are presented as a specifically Irish variation of the more common Troll race.

Geis

  • In the Discworld novel Sourcery, the great Hero "Nijel the Destroyer" claims to have a geis, which Rincewind mistakes for a type of bird. In A Hat Full of Sky, Rob Anybody is put under a geis by his wife Jeannie, the kelda, to protect Tiffany Aching from the Hiver.
  • In the novel Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson, every military recruit is put under a geis which prevents panic and assures loyalty. It can be broken only if the individual gives free consent, and is removed when the person returns to civilian life.
  • In The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross, members of an occult branch of British intelligence can cast geasa.
  • In Geis of the Gargoyle by Piers Anthony, Gary Gargoyle, being a gargoyle, has a geis on him since Xanth began, and it is a magical compulsion to protect the purity of the Swan Knee River. However, the pollution from Mundania (the 'real world') has gotten out of hand, and it is up to Gary to place his geis on the philter to keep all of Xanth's water clean.
  • Some role-playing games mention geasa as "spells" or "powers", though these "geasa" are often only loosely inspired by the historical concept. For instance, in Dungeons and Dragons there are two such "spells": "lesser geas", which forces the victim to obey a command issued by the caster, and "geas/quest", which is much the same but with more severe penalties.[15] In the game Runequest initiates of certain cults take on geases that are closer to the historical concept.
    • In Shadowrun, a geas is a self-adopted restriction on magical abilities that allows them to retain full potency some of the time (for example, when intoxicated or at night) by making them completely unavailable whenever conditions are not met.
  • In the anime series Code Geass the main character, Lelouch, obtains an ability called Geass that allows him to make anyone who gazes into his left eye obey any single order unquestioningly, though it cannot work on the same person twice.
  • In a 1964 short fantasy story "A case of Identity" by Randall Garrett, one of the characters, a homicidal psychopath by nature, is mentally restrained by a spell called geas "which forces him to limit his activities to those which are not dangerous to his fellow man".

Lugh

  • Kenneth C. Flint retells this story in his Sidhe series.
  • In the 2004 console game The Bard's Tale, Lugh is one of the three guardians.
  • In Diane Duane's A Wizard Abroad and later stories, Lugh is considered one of the Powers That Be, also known as the One's Champion, and is incarnated within an Irish Wizard (after spending some time as a macaw named Machu Picchu with a penchant for prophecy).
  • In the 2012 novel As Baile: A Story, Lugh is the primary antagonist.
  • In the Nexon MMORPG Mabinogi, Lugh is the name of one of the two "true Paladins" (the other being you, if you choose to play as a human), and he is also the Dark Lord Morgant, one of the highest-in-command in the Fomor Army led by Cichol, another antagonist.
  • In Devil Survivor 2, the character Io Nitta has to use the essence of Lugh to activate a powerful entity called the 'Dragon Stream'. He can later be fused in the Cathedral of Shadows.

Lughnasadh

Manannán mac Lir

  • The traditional of offering bundles of reeds on the Isle of Man is still practised as an opening ceremony of Tynwald.[16]
  • There is a museum in the town of Peel on the Isle of Man named the House of Manannan[17] as well as an annual celebration of the arts The Manannan Festival.
  • The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company vessel, which entered service in May 2009 on the Liverpool/Douglas sailings, is named Manannan.[18]
  • Okells Brewery on the Isle of Man produces a wheat beer dedicated to and named after Manannan Mac Lir.[19]
  • On his Human History CD, Ken Theriot includes a song he wrote from the point of view of Manannan called Son of the Sea.[20]
  • The figure is also referred to in songs by metal bands. The Gaelic doom band Mael Mórdha last album's (Gealtacht Mael Mordha) closing track is called Minions of Manannan, telling of his revenge on the fleeing Vikings from the battle of Cluain Tarb. Track 4 on black metal band Absu's album Tara is called Mannanan.
  • Manannan features as the last guardian boss in the 2004 console game The Bard's Tale.
  • The fictional Star Wars galaxy features an oceanic planet called Manaan, possibly a homage to the Celtic god.[citation needed]
  • In Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series, the character of Barinthus used to be the sea god Manannán mac Lir before fairie began to lose its power and he was reduced to a shadow of his former self.
  • Texas Experimental Black Metal band, Absu, have a song called "Manannán" on their 2001 album, Tara.
  • The Tides of Manaunaun, composed in 1917 is a famous contemporary short piano piece written by American composer Henry Cowell.
  • Mánannán is the name given to a sea scout troop based in Dublin.
  • Mánannán mac Lir was included in TSR, Inc.'s Deities and Demigods book as a god player characters can worship.

Medb

The Morrígan

Oisín

Fionn mac Cumhaill's son, Oisín, is referenced by the grandfather in the film Into the West as he tells his grandsons the story of Oisín's journey to Tir na nOg from the point of view of the Travellers or "Gypsies" of Ireland. The grandfather gives a mysterious white horse the name "Tir na nOg" in homage to the story, and the boys proceed to have an extended adventure traveling from Dublin to the west coast of Ireland.

Salmon of Knowledge

Samhain

  • In the film Trick 'r Treat, Samhain, "The Spirit of Halloween" takes the form of a trick-or-treater in orange footie pajamas and a burlap sack mask. At the film's climax, Sam is unmasked and his demonic, pumpkin-like face is revealed. Sam is considered the "horror hero" of the story, as punishes those who break the rules of Halloween.
  • On two separate episodes of The Real Ghostbusters, Samhain is the living incarnation of Halloween. In this incarnation, Samhain is a spindly figure with a brown robe and a jack-o-lantern for a head, and he seeks to abolish daylight and make Halloween forever.
  • In It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester, episode 67 of the US television series Supernatural, Samhain is presented as 'the origin of Halloween'. He is a demon who inspired the Celtic rituals that eventually became Halloween customs. As stated by character Sam Winchester: "Masks were put on to hide from him, sweets left on doorsteps to appease him, faces carved into pumpkins to worship him." Samhain is raised from hell by two powerful witches, and once risen, summons ghosts, zombies and ghouls to kill everyone around. He is later exorcised by Winchester and sent back to hell.
  • Samhain, Glenn Danzig's gothic metal/punk rock band, was named after the festival.
  • In the film Halloween II, the killer Michael Myers writes Samhain on a school chalk board in blood.
  • Samhain and Oíche Shamhna are very important days in modern Irish folklore as evidence in the Wiki discussion by Gary Chapman of The Lost Tales of Fionn Mac Cumhaill.
  • In Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Trilogy, a modern and realistic interpretation of Arthurian Britain, the Samhain is commemorated as the most important celebration by the Celtic pagan characters, and is mentioned by the protagonist, Derfel Cadarn, as the day when the spirits of the dead roam among the living and when the druidic magic, represented by Merlin and Nimue weakens.
  • In the film Halloween III a business tycoon wishes to return Halloween to its sacrificial roots of Samhain.
  • Samhain is a "day" in the MMO game, Mabinogi.
  • In King's Quest 6, Samhain is the Lord of the Dead.
  • In the beginning of an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Dr. Weird proclaims 'Samhain forever!' before the opening theme.
  • The PlayStation 3 videogame Folklore, the night of Samhain is major plot point that sets off the events of the title and the entrance to the Netherworld.
  • Swedish black metal band Marduk have a song called A Samhain Fire as a bonus track on their 2001 release, La Grande Danse Macabre
  • The animated TV series Ugly Americans has a holiday called Samhain.
  • In the comic book series Hack/Slash the Samhain is an agent of the Black Lamp Society, a cult worshipping slashers. Apparently there's a Samhain for every generation of slashers, but the latest of them, a genetically-enhanced superhuman with enhanced healing abilities, defects with Ava, a similarly enhanced female clone, pledging alliance to Cassandra Hack, slasher-hunter and enemy of the Black Lamp. However, while the past Samhain were villainous in nature, this Samhain is more a byronic antihero, struggling to keep his darker impulses as a slasher under check. Every Samhain carries with himself a pumpkin mask, wearing it during their missions.
  • In the computer game King's Quest VI, Samhain is the name of the Lord of the Dead.
  • The American Gothic Rock Band We Are The Fallen has a song entitled Samhain, as a bonus track on their debut disk Tear the World Down Deluxe Edition
  • In the Fever Series by "Karen Marie Moning", Samhain is the night when rituals are performed to keep the Fae Walls from breaching, unleashing evil fae into the world.
  • True Blood, in the final episode of season 4, references Samhain multiple times - though even Wiccan characters mispronounce it as "samma-hane".
  • In A Year Like None Other by Aspen in the Sunlight, Samhain is celebrated by the Death Eaters, who torture and attempt to kill Harry Potter as a sacrifice.

Scáthach

  • Appears in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott.
  • The origin story for Red Sonja, "The Day of the Sword", first appeared in Kull and the Barbarians, issue 3, by Roy Thomas, Doug Moench, and Howard Chaykin, and was later redrawn by Dick Giordano and Terry Austin for The Savage Sword of Conan, issue 78. In this story, Red Sonja lived with her family in a humble house in the Western Hyrkanian steppes (this seems to be in modern Ukraine/Russia though historical Hyrcania was on the borders of modern Iran/Turkmenistan).[citation needed] When she had just turned 17 years old, a group of mercenaries killed her family and burned down their house. Sonja survived but was brutally raped by the leader of the group, leaving her in shame. Answering her cry for revenge, the red goddess Scáthach appeared to her, and instilled in her incredible skill in the handling of swords and other weapons on the condition that she would never lie with a man unless he defeated her in fair combat.
  • Appears as a character in the video games Persona 3 and Persona 4.

Selkie

Literature
  • In Tessa Stone's online graphic novel series "Hanna is Not a Boy's Name", the character Veser is the son of a selkie and the man who stole her skin.
  • The webcomic simply called "Selkie" is the story of on a young selkie girl adopted by a human. The depiction is quite different from the normal folklore, presenting selkies as a fish-like humanoid species. The story focuses on problems related to the girl's unusual needs, like her carnivorous diet and her problems fitting into normal shoes.
  • One of the main supporting characters in Jane Johnson's Eidolon trilogy is a young girl selkie called She Who Swims the Silver Path of The Moon (Silver for short) who becomes close with the main hero, Ben Arnold, when he rescues her from the evil Doddman's pet shop.
  • In the fifth book of The Last Apprentice series, the protagonist is forced to separate a beautiful selkie from her aging husband. In the series, selkies age very slowly, and are considered bad luck or are taught to be prostitutes by the women.
  • Seal Child is a children's novel by Sylvia Peck which details a modern telling of the selkie myth.
  • The Folk Keeper, a "young readers" novel by Franny Billingsley also uses this myth powerfully.
  • At least one tale about selkies is included in Scottish Folk Tales by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
  • Terry Farley, known for her books about horses that are written for children, broke from that style in 2005 to write Seven Tears into the Sea, a modern and slightly different selkie tale for teenagers. It is a teen romance novel following the story of a young girl who returns to her hometown in search of a selkie she encountered seven years earlier.
  • In science-fiction the Petaybee Series by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough employs the selkie myth in a futuristic setting.
  • A. E. van Vogt's novel The Silkie imagines a race of creatures who can change between aquatic, human, and space-traveling forms.
  • Selkies also appear as one of many varieties of "changed" human in Ken MacLeod's Engines of Light trilogy.
  • In the third in the Council Wars series by John Ringo, Against the Tide, selkies are used with tongue-in-cheek humor, referring to the real-life U.S. Navy SEALs in a fantasy setting. In the book, selkies performed commando-style beach infiltrations highly reminiscent of how SEALs are often portrayed in popular media.
  • The book Water Shaper by Laura Williams McCaffrey is based on some myths about selkies.
  • Mercedes Lackey's novel The Serpent's Shadow features a group of selkies in a cameo as beneign water fey creatures.
  • British fantasy author Susan Cooper has written both a picture book and a novel featuring selkies. The picture book, Selkie Girl, recounts a traditional selkie legend from Ireland. The novel, Seaward, features characters who turn out to be selkies.
  • In the first Meredith Gentry novel, A Kiss of Shadows, by Laurell K. Hamilton, a selkie named Roane Finn is the lover of Merry Gentry, who is a part human part fey princess who is hiding in Los Angeles in self-imposed exile from the Unseelie Kingdom due to political plots against her. Merry and Roane are both paranormal detectives working for the Grey Detective Agency. Roane had been trapped in human form when a fisherman had found his seal skin and burned it. When the latent magic in Merry is awakened, it first manifests itself by miraculously regenerating Roane's shape shifting ability. He immediately returns to his life in the sea for which he had been pining.
  • George Mackay Brown's novel Beside the Ocean of Time also involves a young man falling love with a Selkie, and the hiding of her sealskin to keep her from returning to the sea.
  • In Tom Clancy's 1998 novel Net Force, a female assassin uses the name "The Selkie" as her underground cover name. In the novel, she is of Irish heritage.
  • In 1998, American author Christina Dodd published a romance novel entitled A Well Favored Gentleman about Ian Fairchild. His character made his first appearance in the first book of the Well Pleasured series, A Well Pleasured Lady (1997). Ian is the son of a selkie and has powers due to that legacy.
  • In Anne Bishop's Tir Alainne trilogy selkies are a member of the Fae race who must help witches avoid the mass murdering black inquisitors in order to stay alive.
  • Juliet Marillier wrote several trilogies, mixing folklore with history. In Child of the Prophecy (2001) Darragh is turned into a selkie by the Fae, while Watcher in Foxmask (2003) is a descendant of a selkie mother and a human father.
  • Mollie Hunter's novel, A Stranger Came Ashore, has a character who turns out to be the Great Selkie, lord of all the other selkies.
  • Robert Holdstock's novel Merlin's Wood, contains a fantasy short story, The Silvering, in which the human protagonist is transformed into a selkie.
  • James A. Hetley's books, Dragon's Eye and Dragon's Teeth, have a family of characters with the hereditary ability to transform into seals, who living in the contemporary American society (in the fictional Maine town of Stonefort), hiding well their secret. Unlike the traditional depictions of selkies, in this version the ability is confined to the males of the family.
  • The Torchwood comic Captain Jack and the Selkie features a Selkie.
  • In 1982 David Bischoff and Charles Sheffield wrote the novel The Selkie, a modern treatment of the selkie legend.
  • In 2008, William Meikle's short story, "The First Silkie" appears in the Celtic Myth Podshow's Midsummer Holiday Special.
  • In the last of the five short stories in the anthology Love Is Hell entitled "Love Struck" by Melissa Marr a teenage girl walking along a beach accidentally steps upon a pelt of a selchie. The selchie falls in love the girl but at first she doesn't return his love. The girl must ultimately make the decision to free the selchie because if his increasing longing for the sea or to keep close the selkie she now loves.
  • The Catherynne M. Valente book The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden includes a story of a female satyr who acquires a male selkie's skin, and then acquires the selkie as a lover.
  • The Star Trek: Titan novels include a Selkie character, Aili Lavena, who was a former lover of Captain William Riker.
  • Selkies, and their home-world of Pacifica, are key in the 2009 novel Star Trek The Next Generation: Losing the Peace
  • Uist Skerrie: The Inheritance, by Ellen S. Cartwright involves an island in the Chesapeake Bay where ancestors of the Uist Islands in the Hebrides off Scotland live on in both Selkie and peacekeeper roles as an young doctor receives her birthright in a legacy filled with mystery, romance, and suspense. Selkie legend and modern science coexist with a constant struggle for protection against mainland intrusions and curiosity.
  • Sea Change, by Aimee Friedman is about a girl who comes to Selkie Island during the summer after a drama-filled year. She meets Leo, who is a selkie.
  • In Julia Golding's children's books The Companions Quartet, the selkie is a companion species, and the minor character Arran is a selkie.
  • JJ Beazley's short story "When the Waves Call" has a female selkie coming ashore on the west coast of Ireland at the time of the harvest moon, looking for a human male to help her move back to the land.
  • In the 2009 novel Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler, the main character, Jane True, is the adult child of a selkie and a human man.
  • In Patricia McKillip's 2000 novel The Tower at Stony Wood, a character is revealed to be of selkie origin when she regains her former shape by donning the seal suit she has made.
Song
  • There is a traditional ballad from Orkney called The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry that has become popular and been covered by a range of musicians including Joan Baez and Trees. See the list of adaptations.
  • The Progressive Metalcore band Between the Buried and Me released their Alaska album in 2005 with a song called "Selkies: The Endless Obsession."
  • The album Honeycomb by former Pixies front-man Frank Black includes a tune called "Selkie Bride", which alludes to the Selkie legend.
  • The poet Jane Yolen wrote a poem entitled "The Ballad of the White Seal Maid", that is a sad story of a fisherman and his selkie wife. This poem was set to music by the folk musician Lui Collins, and recorded by her and also by Mike Agranoff
  • The Faroese ballad "Kópakvæði" (the seal-ballad) by Faroese writer Joen Danielsen is based on the story about the Seal-Wife from Kalsoy island. The ballad is in Faroese and consists of 68 verses.
  • The song "Sælkvinden" (the seal-woman) by Danish singer Lars Lilholt is a sad story about a young fisherman and a selkie.
  • In December 1991, the British folk artist Talis Kimberley wrote "Still Catch the Tide," a song written from the perspective of the selkie's lover, upon returning to find the selkie (which is of indeterminate gender) packing their things to return to the sea. The song has been covered by several other folk artists, including Rika Körte & Kerstin 'Katy' Dröge (on FilkCONtinental Definitely), Minstrel (on Boy in a Room), and Seanan McGuire (on Stars Fall Home). Talis's own recording of the song appears on her album Talis (Almost Live at Dracon).
  • The US folk artist Gordon Bok wrote "Peter Kagan and the Wind" a cantefable (in which spoken narrative is blended with sudden song-phrasings) about the fisherman Cagan who married a selkie, and how his selkie wife saved him from a terrible storm, even though this meant she could never return to her human body and hence her happy home. This interpretation was also often performed live by The Clancy Brothers and (the late) Tommy Makem.
  • In May 2007, Californian filk artist Seanan McGuire released the song "In This Sea," a song from the perspective of a selkie's lover letting her willingly go, on the CD Stars Fall Home.
  • Australian folk band Spiral Dance, in their 1999 CD titled Magick, includes a song titled "Song for a Selkie".
  • Singer Mary McLaughlin sings a song entitled "Sealwoman/Yundah" on the "Celtic Voices: Women of Song" CD ~ 1995 Narada Media.
  • Singer Méav Ní Mhaolchatha (an original soloist of the group Celtic Woman), opens her solo album Silver Sea with the song "You Brought Me Up", a Selkie woman captured then abandoned on land.
  • The Irish-American musical group, Solas, have a song called "The Grey Selchie" on their "The Words That Remain" CD.
  • US singer Alexander James Adams sings "First Rising Tide", about a selkie man, on his 2008 CD "A Familiar Promise".
  • Druid folk singer Damh the Bard's first album Herne's Apprentice features a song titled "The Selkie" about these beings.
  • Singer/songwriter S. J. Tucker created a song "Seafaring Satyr" based on Catherynne M. Valente's story about a female satyr and a male selkie.
  • On Heather Dale's album Gawain and the Green Knight, there is a song called "The Maiden and The Selkie", about a selkie lord who wishes to marry a fisherman's daughter.
Games
  • Selkie are monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. They resemble seals with human-like hands and facial features, who have the ability to transform into humans.
  • The first of the "Crystal Chronicles" sub-serie (of the Final Fantasy serie- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles), features Selkies as a race. Unlike mythical Selkies, the ones in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles are simply a humanoid race, with body paint, such as stripes, or arrows on even the youngest children in the game. The Selkies in the game usually have blue-green hair, probably referring to the mythical Selkie's origin in the sea. One reference to them, however, is in their town, there is a selkie who says something along the lines of, "We Selkies came from the sea, and one day we will return there." Also, this same main town of the Selkies, Leuda, is set on an island far out at sea.
  • In the collectable card game Magic: The Gathering there are three cards in the Eventide set of the Shadowmoor block with the name selkie in them. They are classified as a merfolk, are all green/blue hybrid-mana creatures, and pictured as half seal, half human. The quote for the card Wistful Selkie says, "Selkies call to a sea they never swam, in a tongue they never spoke, with a song they never learned." The other two cards are Selkie Hedge-mage and Cold-Eyed Selkie.
  • In the RPG MUD Lensmooor (found at www.Lensmoor.org) the Selkie is featured as a race on the continent Lensmoor. The scaled aquatic race of Xorrto are their racial enemies as whole settlements have been wiped out by them. No longer able to shift in and out of wearing their fur they appear as a cross between both. Their skin locked away beneath their fur for safety forever.
  • The game Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic writers may have derived their race of aquatic peoples, the Selkath, from the Selkie legends.
Film
  • The 1994 John Sayles movie, The Secret of Roan Inish, tells the story of a family descended from selkies. It is based on the novel The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry by Rosalie K. Fry.
  • In 2000, the Australian film titled Selkie, starring Shimon Moore of the Australian rock band, Sick Puppies, depicted a young teenage male moving to a coastal town with his family and after he starts growing webbing between his fingers, having dreams of the water in the bathtub and becoming a seal after diving into the sea to save a friend, he learns that he is a Selkie. The majority of the film depicts him coming to terms with his identity and even attempting to give up his Selkie powers at which point he accepts them. The film was shot at Port Noarlunga Jetty.
  • 2010, Colin Farrell plays fisherman "Syracuse" in the movie Ondine (the name of the main character played by Alicja Bachleda, meaning "from the sea"); Ondine is believed to be a Selkie and the film explores Selkie mythology.
  • Tomm Moore, director of The Secret of Kells, is at work on a new animated movie called Song of the Sea. The trailer features a mother taking her daughter and a selkie pelt and leaping into the sea, where the two turn into seals.
Television
  • In an episode of Catscratch, the banshee that was haunting the Highland Quid Clan was in fact a selkie (called a "seal woman" in the show) under a curse. Gordon freed the selkie by vocalizing in high tones and pitches.
  • Hallmark made a movie in 2001 titled The Seventh Stream ~ A grieving Irishman falls for a stranger with a special gift reminiscent of a Celtic legend. It was a sad movie of a man and a selkie falling in love, but unable to remain together.
  • In an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in which the movie being riffed on was The Space Children, Mike comments, "There's a Selkie caught in the oil slick."
  • "Fae Gone Wild", an episode of Canadian drama Lost Girl, features numerous Selkie as characters.

Táin Bó Cúailnge

Novelisations

Dramatic Adapations

  • The Bull, an adaptation by Fabulous Beast Dance Company 2007.
  • Complete:Bull, a five-part radio play written by Darren Maher, produced by Impact Theatre and WiredFM.[22]
  • The Táin, a musical comedy adaptation by the Cuchulainn plays performed both in 2003 and 2009.

Comics

  • Colmán Ó Raghallaigh and Barry Reynolds' Irish language graphic novel adaptation, An Táin, was published by Cló Mhaigh Eó of. County Mayo in 2006.[3]
  • Patrick Brown's webcomic adaptation, The Cattle Raid of Cooley, began serialisation in August 2008.[4]
  • Oghme Comics' adaptation in French and English languages, Cúchulainn the Hound of Ulster,[23] focuses on the events leading to the Táin, from Setanta's and then Cúchulainn's point of view.

Music inspired by the Táin

Tír na nÓg

Movies

Tir na nÓg is the name given to a mysterious white horse in the film Into the West (film), which stars Gabriel Byrne as a "Traveller" who has left the road for Dublin following the death of his wife. His boys are told the story of Oisín and his journey to Tír na nÓg by their grandfather, who gives the name to the horse that followed him from the west coast to Dublin, and leads the boys back again.

Novels

The story of Oisín and his journey to and from Tír na nÓg are told in the LDS romance novel "The Fifth Generation" by Dale Jay Dennis, as a parable during a news commentary.

Video Games

The first part of the MMORPG Mabinogi revolves around locating Tír na nÓg in order to save the Goddess Morrighan. It is later revealed that you were in Tír na nÓg from the beginning.

Usnech

Finnish progressive metal group Amorphis featured Usnech on their first album "The Karelian Isthmus" on a song "Exile Of The Sons Of Uisliu"

References

  1. ^ The King's Wake at the Internet Movie Database.
  2. ^ Cuchulain at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
  3. ^ a b An Táin on the Cló Mhaigh Eó website
  4. ^ a b The Cattle Raid of Cooley webcomic
  5. ^ in two webcomics : the Epic of Cúchulainn and Cúcuc Little Brute from the Iron Age.
  6. ^ Galleries of Cetlic Heroes, Gods and Places.
  7. ^ Dunloy Cuchullains page at Ulster GAA Council website
  8. ^ Cúchulainn G.A.A Hurling club County Armagh official website
  9. ^ Mullaghbawn Cúchulainn G.A.A club County Armagh official website
  10. ^ Cúchulainn Gaels of Omeath, Co.Louths official website
  11. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donegal_Senior_Hurling_Championship
  12. ^ Cúchulainn G.A.A branded sportswear website
  13. ^ De la Salle Pipe Band 75th Anniversary celebrations
  14. ^ "The Dark Druid" by Brannan, Timothy S., Games Unplugged (July 2002), p. 25
  15. ^ Dungeons&Dragons 3.5: Geas / Quest, d20srd.org
  16. ^ Isle of Man - Tynwald 1998 - Photo Gallery - Photograph #1
  17. ^ House of Manannan
  18. ^ New Steam Packet vessel to be named Manannan
  19. ^ Okells | Brewery
  20. ^ Ken Theriot at Ravenboy Music
  21. ^ http://www.podcasts.ie/featured-writers/featured-prose-writers/steve-dunford/
  22. ^ Darren Maher's page at Impact Theatre, including mp3s of Complete:Bull
  23. ^ the Epic of Cúchulainn and Cúcuc Little Brute from the Iron Age.
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