Book Review: The Thorn Key

 For as long as I can remember I have loved poetry. From Mother Goose and schoolyard rhymes to Emily Dickenson and Dylan Thomas, there is just something about the flow and rhythm of poetry that speaks to me. It allows more expression that prose. It speaks in imagery and emotion. And given my similar love of folklore and fairy tales when I saw that Jeana Jorgensen had written a book of poetry inspired by fairy tales, how could I resist?

The Thorn Key by Jeana Jorgensen is a captivating collection of poems that speak as much to our thoroughly modern world as to the distant imagined world of fairy tales. The words weave together monsters and maidens with cars and college loans - and it works, brilliantly, somehow making the fairy tale more relatable and the modern world more magical. It is a book that speaks in metaphor and allegory and blunt directness, keeping the reader captivated and just slightly off balance.

The book's 40 poems are divided into 4 sections by broad themes: Door of Red and White Roses, Door of Swan and Raven Feathers, Door of Gold and Silver Crowns, and Door of Bone and Ice Needles. I also appreciated that the author included an appendix of tale types; a tale type is something used in fairy tale studies to group together stories with similar themes and plots under different names. In this case Jorgensen listed the tale types she used by number and name and with each one listed the poems that fit into it. I liked this because it allowed for some cross referencing to tales I wasn't as familiar with and also helped show the pattern of poems that were connected by theme. I also really liked the afterword, where the author provided context for the poems, some great detail on the way that fairy tale studies intersect modern interpretations of stories, and her own motivation for writing these poems. 

My favourite poem was The Ogre's Heart, which resonated strongly to me of some of my own experiences, putting into beautiful words the cost of strength. I also particularly liked You Can't Just Leave Your Car Keys These Days which made me laugh aloud. But I can't think of any poem I skipped or shrugged away - they are all evocative, they each speak to a little piece of modern experience dressed in silk and sealskin or blood and iron. And perhaps they convey more truth written the way they are than they would in prose, bridging the fantastic and the mundane. 

If you like fairy tales or poetry, or both, or if you are just in the mood for some catharsis then I definitely recommend this book. 

What We Know About Manannán mac Lir in Irish Myth

 What we know about Manannán mac Lir from Irish myth (a partial list):

- He initially appears as a king of Emhain Abhlac (an Otherworldly island) across various stories in the Mythic cycle

- He is incorporated as one of the Tuatha De Danann by the 11th century (the Fenian cycle of myths)

- The Cóir Anmann calls him a god of the sea

- He helps the Tuatha De Danann to go into the sidhe and teaches them how to live there and to pass invisibly to mortals (Lebor Gabala Erenn)

- He assigned the TDD their new homes in the sidhe (Altram Dá Tige Medar)

- He ruled as co-king of the TDD with Bodb Dearg (Altram Dá Tige Medar)

- His father is given as Elloth in the Lebor Gabala Erenn but later as Lir; it is likely that 'mac Lir' was originally an epithet related to his skill on the ocean

- His wife in the Ulster Cycle is Fand, and he appears in Serglige Conchulainn after Fand falls in love with Cu Chulainn to use magic so that the two will forget each other, in order to end the rivalry between Fand and Cu Chulainn's wife Emer.

- His wife according to folklore in Cork is the Cailleach

- Or his wife might be Áine, but alternately she might be his daughter

- other children include Niamh, Cliodhna (maybe), Curcog, and a son named Ilbreac

- Lugh is his foster-son, and in the Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann several of Manannán's possessions are held by Lugh, including both his horse and his curragh.

- He travels to the human world in order to father Mongan, a figure in the Cycle of Kings

- One of his greatest and most well known treasures is the crane bag, which was made from the skin of Aoife who had been turned into a crane by a romantic rival. This bag held an assortment of magical treasures that belonged to Manannán (Dunaire Finn)

What We Know About Flidais From Irish Mythology

 Things we know about Flidais from Irish mythology:

- her epithet is Foltchaoin "soft haired"

- she has 4 daughters according to the Lebor Gabala Erenn: Arden, Dinand, Bé Chuille, and Bé Teite

- Fand is also her daughter according to the Metrical Dindshenchas

- her son is Nia Segamain according to the Banshenchus which also says her husband's name was Adammair

- same source says that she gave her son power to milk deer as if they were cows:

"Flidaise Foltcháin, that is, Flidais the queen, one of the Tuath Dé Danann, 'tis she was wife of Adammair son of Fer Cuirp; and from her Buar Flidaise ('Flidais's cattle') is said,

Nia Ségamain, that is, ség 'deer' is a máin 'his treasure'; for during his time cows and does were milked in the same way every day, so to him beyond the other monarchs great was the treasure of these things. And it is that Flidais (above-named) who was mother of Nia Ségamain son of Adammair; and in Nia Ségamain's reign those cattle were milked, that is, double cattle, cows and does, were milked in the time of Nia Ségamain, and it was his mother that gave him that fairy power."

- she possesses a magical cow which can feed 300 men in a single milking or an entire army in a week (Táin Bó Cúailgne and Táin Bó Flidais)

- according to the Banshenchus: "Though slender she destroyed young men. She decreed hard close fighting."

- in the Táin Bó Flidais she was the lover of Fergus mac Roich, who otherwise needed 7 women to satisfy him

Image is a statue of Flidais made by Via Hedera circa 2013 (?)

What We Know About Brighid From Mythology

 This is the first in a new series I'm going to be doing sharing information on various deities from Irish mythology, focused on what the mythology itself tells us. This won't include modern beliefs or folklore, but hopefully will help people understand the foundational material we are working with. 

Things we know about the Irish goddess Brighid from mythology:

- her father is the Dagda (LGE & SC)

- she had a son named Ruadán via the half-Fomorian king Bres (CMT)

- she *may* have had three other sons, Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, with Tuireann (Grey references this as marginalia on a text; see Gray's CMT notes)

- alternately she may have had three [other] sons with Bres: Brian, Luchar, and Uar (IidT)

- she possessed a variety of animals described as 'kings' of their respective species including a ram, boar, and oxen; these animals would cry out when violations occured in Ireland (LGE)

- she invented a whistle to alert at night (CMT)

- she was the first person to caoin/keen in Ireland after her son Ruadán was killed (CMT)

- she was strongly associated with poetry and poets (CMT notes, SC, LGE, IidT)

- she may have been understood as a group of three sisters: a poet, smith, and healer (SC)

Sources:

CMT - Cath Maige Tuired

LGE - Lebor Gabala Erenn

SC - Sanas Cormaic (folk etymologies, so take with a grain of salt. Throw out his claim that her name was 'fiery arrow' completely)

IidT - Imcallam in da Thurad