Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Celtic Woman Between Myth and Reality > Final! :D > Flashcards

Final! :D Flashcards

1
Q

Irish battle furies (triple Celtic goddess of war and death)

A
  • the Morrigan
  • Badbh
  • Macha
  • pick over the bodies of the dead on the battlefield
  • often appeared to mortals in a mutilated guise
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

the 9 Witches of Gloucester

A
  • Peredur

- Fedelm in The Tain… predicting Medh’s defeat “I see it crimson, I see it red.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

The Grail

A
  • Chretien de Troyes’ Perceval, Peredur in the Mabinogion, Von Eschenbach Parzival
  • Mysterious voyages to the other world
  • Initiation into kingship and sovereignty
  • Fertility ritual
  • Land becomes a wasteland and infertile, if the king’s genitals have been wounded
  • Typically the wound always in the thigh, a euphemism for the genitals
  • Procession of the grail
  • 3 Elements
  • The grail or chalice is the feminine element the Platter held by a woman, made of silver
  • The Bleeding spear the male element is the weapon that wounded the Fisher king and symbolizes the dying kingdom he embodies
  • the two unite to restore the waste/infertile land
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Ireland

A
  • perceived as a woman
  • fertile, wasted by her masters, Staunch, fickle, lover, mother
  • always mysterious
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Guinevere as Sovereignty Goddess

A
  • her import lies in her repeated abductions which is directly related to sovereignty
  • abducting Guinevere, or any queen, represents a threat to Arthur’s right to rule the kingdom
  • whoever possessed Guinevere possessed the right to rule
  • she is the sovereignty of the land
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Morgan

A
  • Arthur’s half sister
  • tied with the Irish war triplicity goddess Morrigan, especially Macha
  • The Brythonic goddess Modron, Welsh deity connected to Morgan in Triadic and oral tradition
  • good nature but difficult to appease
  • considered a ‘virgin’ because she refuses to submit to masculine authority
  • represents female rebellion against male authority
  • was sometimes able to shape-shift into a bird
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Vivianne

A
  • The lady of the lake
  • bring excalibur
  • Arthur’s friend, similar traits to Morgan
  • Merlin falls in love with Vivianne
  • would not return his love unless he revealed his magic to her
  • a magnificent orchard called the ‘Haunt of the Merriment, a microcosm of the world
    allows her to extend her influence over the whole world
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Keening

A
  • a mournful-sounding wail usually performed by women
  • originated with praise poetry
  • began until keeners were sure the spirit had left the body
  • origination of Keening is often associated with the Dagda’s daughter, Brigit, who’s son was killed
  • fear (1) offending the spirit (2) trapping the spirit on earth
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Banshee

A
  • fairy woman who forewarns/portends someone’s death
  • a solitary creature
  • seen only in the darkest part f the night
  • if seen, will melt into the night air
  • same category as a fairy or leprechauns
  • Seen in one of the three main guises: as a lovely young maiden, a matronly mother figure, an old hag
  • Wears a grey hooded cloak or winding sheet, the grave robe of dead, or all in translucent white, with long flowing white hair
  • The death coach will leave the Otherworld on the command of the banshee
  • a woman of the fairy mound
  • a solitary creature who walk and laments alone
  • never joins any other mortal or otherworldly social group
  • she combs her long white tresses with a silver comb as she laments
  • see a comb on the ground in Ireland it should never be picked up, it may be a banshee luring
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Sheelanagig

A
  • grotesque naked females, spread their legs and expose their genitals usually with an exaggerated vulva
  • in Ireland the grotesques became sexy sheelas
  • reminders of womanly evil
  • used at ecclesiasctical sites
  • perhaps God’s use of evil to combat evil
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Death and the Underworld / Otherworldly

A
  • evidence of the Otherworldly feast which is found in Heroic Tales
  • a god presiding over the communal Otherworld banquet, acts as a host to the opposing companies of Ulster and Connaught
  • large pig is provided there ensues the usual squabble over the Champion portion
  • Pork figured largely in such feast, pork joints are often found in Iron Age Celtic sepulchral contexts
  • Chthonic meals found in Iron Age graves gives evidence of Otherworldly feast
  • wine and a hearth were provided for the dead cheif and a guest
  • Urnfield Culture and inhumation burials
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Aitheda

A
  • elopements
  • female seduction of men
  • generally ends tragically
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Tochmarca

A
  • courtship
  • willing abduction
  • usually ends in marriage
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Tristan & Iseult

A
  • Fisher King theme, Tristan wounded in the hip
  • Philtre (love potion) makes the two fall in love
  • Orchard theme of virgin as rebellious woman
  • The lovers flee to the forest, theme of virgin as rebellious woman
  • the lovers flee to the forest, theme of virgin as rebellious woman
  • Tristan helps Dwarf and gets a wound in his kidneys (fisher king motif again)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Diarmaid & Grainne

A
  • Grainne puts a geis on Diarmaid of danger and destruction unless he takes her out of the castle
  • Forbidden love means the couple are banished from civil society and forced to wander as punishment
  • Double entendre here on wandering
  • Grotto or cave provides sanctuary, considered the heart of the castle analogous
  • the forest becomes impenetrable it is referred to as a ‘virgin’ forest and is a universal image of femininity.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Fated women of destruction

A
  • Iseult, Grainne, Blodeuwedd

- the medieval orchard or forest that the submerged Princes awaits her lover

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Blodeuwedd

A
  • manufactured from flowers
  • outside of the maternal womb, denied her sexuality and create
  • the father had triumphed over the mother
  • making a manufactured object of a woman which he can possess and use for his own ends
  • she has no choice in her creation or life
  • her refusal to accept her situation
  • rebellion only completed if she kills her husband
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Dahud

A
  • Breton legend of ker-ys is wild, wilful, participates in revelries, drinking, and entertaining men
  • Condemned by st. Guenole abbott of Landevennec
  • drowned by the waves she lets into ker-ys
  • guenole feels compassion for her and turns her into a mermaid
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Ceridwen of the Cauldron

A
  • lives at the bottom of Llyn Tegid
  • Cauldron blesses her servant instead of her son
  • She pursues the servant both of whom shape-shift until
  • She gives to the glorious Taliesin
  • is gifted with the magical power of poetry
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Peig Sayers

A
  • late 19th to mid-20th century
  • Spent most of her life on the great blasket island off the coast of CountyKerry
  • wrote two books in Irish “Peig” and “An Old Woman’s Reflections
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Witchcraft

A
  • the periphery of pagan Celtic religion
  • allowed them magical control over people and events
  • Decapitated with their heads places beside their legs, the removal of the lower jaw implies an attempt to prevent speech, ability to cast spells
  • Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester and Dorset
22
Q

The Irish Witch

A
  • inherently evil
  • the 6 Children of Cailitin, created by Queen Medb
  • to bring the death of Cu Chulainn
23
Q

Larzac Inscription

A
  • Curses condemning wrongdoers and invoking the punitive support of the gods
  • frequently inscribed on sheets of lead or pewter
  • deposited in temples or springs
  • Lead symbolizing infernal and negative supernatural forces
  • broken in 2 and covered he remains of a woman
  • written in Gaulish
  • 2 groups of women endowed with magic
  • attempting to harm the other by magic
  • the second group called upon wise women or seers to neutralize the evil charm
  • part of their defense against the evil spell
24
Q

Tuatha de Danann

A
  • sang spells over a well

- into which the dead were cast to that they might climb out alive again

25
Q

Brig

A
  • mythological forerunner of st. brigit
  • one of the 3 spell-casting daughters of the great god, the Dagda
  • One was a seer, one a healer, and one a smith
26
Q

The Saints’ Vitae

A
  • the mischief intended by women magic makers and called upon the help of god to defeat the magic of women.
  • forbade belief in vampire or witches
  • denouncing the magic of women
  • murder, adultery, heresy, magic considered a serious sin
  • the punishment of which was banishment from ordinary social relations
27
Q

The Cain Adomnain

A
  • legal tract fulminated against anyone found practicing “bed magic”
28
Q

“Bed Magic”

A
  • any love spell preventing proper sexual relations, love charms
  • even experimenting with the effect of charmed morsels on a dog
29
Q

The story of Cainech

A
  • used druidism, magic craft and diabolic science in an attempt to hex to death the son of the king of Leinster
30
Q

Malleus Maleficarum

A
  • Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Krammer

- The witch hunter’s Bible

31
Q

Wicca

A
  • Modern religion with an initiatory period of study and reflection
  • inform interested parties and help to dispel misconceptions
  • over 18
  • ask for initiation as Wicca does not seek out converts
  • interval between seeking and receiving initiation is a year and a day
  • emphasizes the divine element in the female principle
  • study includes divination, incantation, dedication, and purification towards harmony with Nature, spiritual transformation and self-knowledge
  • believe in the all-powerful Earth Goddess as well as in other Nature deities such as Cernunos, the Horned God
  • Open to both women and men
  • 8 seasonal festivals called Sabbats
32
Q

8 Seasonal Sabbats

A
  • The Wheel of the Year
  • endlessly rotating wheel
    1. Samhain
    2. Yule
    3. Imbolc
    4. Spring Equinox
    5. Beltane
    6. Midsummer
    7. Lughnasadh
    8. Autumn Equinox
33
Q

Modern Day Druidism

A
  • belief in the links between the present and remote past
  • all life is sacred and worthy of protection
  • both religion and a philosophy
  • Many Druids are Pagans
  • Seeks a deeper understanding of Nature
  • Celebrate 8 seasonal ceremonies situated at the 8 compass points
34
Q

Druid Organizations

A
  • Gorsedd Bards of Caer Abiri
  • The British Druid Order
  • The Insular Order of Druids
  • The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids
  • The Ancient Druid Order
  • A Druid Fellowship
35
Q

The Celtic Wolf

A
  • complex and Otherworldly creature
  • always had varied personalities
  • shape-shifting wolf could be seen as evil
36
Q

Scots Witch

A
  • Belief in the supernatural and spell casting was part of everyday life
  • witches sold their soul their soul to the devil
  • held witches’ sabbaths, a kind of anti- Christian service
  • in Scotland between 1550-1700 was the witch hunt
  • put on trial for witchcraft and various forms of diabolism
37
Q

Great Scot Witch Hunts

A
  • 1590-1591
  • 1597
  • 1628-1633
  • 1649
  • 1661-1662
38
Q

Witch Pricker

A
  • employed
  • named after the way they pricked the body of someone accused of witchcraft
  • if the person didn’t bleed, it was evidence to convict them
  • compiled a case for the local courts
39
Q

Imbas Forosnai

A
  • The gift of clairvoyance
  • possessed by the poets and Druids, in Early Ireland
  • Imbas - means inspiration or knowledge
  • Forosnai - means that which illuminates
  • the practitioner engages in sensory deprivation techniques to enter a trance and receive answers or prophecy
40
Q

The Evil Eye

A
  • a form of charm or sorcery used for both good and bad

- Alan the Dogs - seen by children as having the Evil Eye

41
Q

Avalon

A
  • Also called the Fortunate Isle
  • Vegetation grows without cultivation
  • Harvests are rich and the forest thick with apples
  • Ruled by 9 sisters
  • the most beautiful and powerful being Morgan
  • no criminals, no snow, no rain, no extreme heat, no death, illness or old age
  • a paradise like the Garden of Eden, Tir na Mban (Island of Women)
42
Q

The Film we saw

A
  • the Comb of the Banshee in her first appearance

- Darby’s O’Gill’s use of the work Pooka with respect to the horse, Cleopatra

43
Q

Pooka

A
  • a spirit that usually appears in animals form
  • malevolent or benevolent
  • malevolent form it often appears as a horse that endangers and threatens mortals
  • benevolent form it is helpful and kind as with the Scottish brownies
  • derives from the Welsh pwca
44
Q

Gaul Afterlife

A
  • funerals are splendid and costly
  • putting all the man was fond of put on the pyre, including even animals
  • sometimes even slaves and dependants that were their masters favourites
  • attention paid to a good send off
  • human souls still controlled their bodies in another world after death
  • special attention was paid to a ‘good send-off’
  • believed souls were immortal and controlled their bodies in another world after death
  • lived a second life when the soul passed to another body
45
Q

The Irish Otherworld

A
  • happy free for care, disease, old age and ugliness
  • dominated by abundance, magic, music and birdsong
  • Unpleasant elements are introduced when mortals visit
  • not always Elysian
  • a somber place presided over by the god Donn
  • reflecting a dark aspect to the afterlife
  • the festival of Samhain
  • it is the somber images that dominate
  • the spirits of the dead move freely among the living and the barriers between the natural and supernatural world are removed
46
Q

Urnfield Burial

A
  • The urnfield culture, was a burial rite of cremation in flat cemeteries or urnfields
47
Q

Hallstatt Culture Burial

A
  • superseded by that of inhumation burial
  • the period of Roman influence, the afterlife was amirroring earthly life
  • evidence of elaborate, aristocratic graves
  • earthly status was recognized and continued on into eternity
  • Aristocratic Celtic graves were typically enclosed in a plank-lined chamber with various grave goods
48
Q

The Hohmichele Barrow

A

2 wooden chambers, one female burial with a wagon, the other a male burial with wagon and harness, laid on a bull-hide with a woman beside him
- buried with his quiver 2 bows and 50 iron tipped arrows

49
Q

Czech Republic Burial

A
  • mostly female people were buried with heads, hands and feets missing the quartered carcasses of 2 horses
  • inside a cauldron was a human skull
  • another skull formed a drinking cup
  • offering to infernal powers
50
Q

La Tene Burial

A
  • characterized by two-wheeled vehicle burials

- this form of burial is found later in Britian with Arras Culture

51
Q

Arras Culture

A
  • not largely military or warriors
  • both women and men found
  • Lady’s Barrow
    • contained a skeleton with pig bones, dismantled chariot whip and mirror behind her head
  • Wetwang Slack
    • possessions of a man and woman respectively with two chariots

Celtic Woman Between Myth and Reality (4 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions