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From: ba...@immr.tu-clausthal.de (Stephan Baitz)
Newsgroups: alt.mythology
Subject: Re: Irish Mythology.....Help!!
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 95 15:33:16 GMT
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Robert Stuart <a...@solo.pipex.com> wrote:

..

>This is an area where my knowledge is thin, but most of the references I've
>read point to a consistency in the 'high' myths - Cuchullian (sp??),

Cu Chullain, meaning _Cullan's hound_ (Chullain is the genitive of Cullan).
When he was a child he killed the dog of the smith Cullan and then
promised to replace it by himself, hence the name
(if I remember it right, please correct me otherwise).

>the Sorrows, which is lacking in the folk tales including Finn
>McCool*, and other popular heros.
>
>This has much, I believe, to do with the way the histories were
>recorded - either by monks transcribing bardic tales, or by local
>story tellers keeping the folk memory alive.  As I understand it, the
>bards kept their stories consistent as a matter of honour.  Where
>versions were felt to differ, each would be told, and the best would
>be agreed, and in future only this one version would be told.
>
>*Finn McCool - I know, there is an accepted Gallic spelling - I just
>don't know it.  These stories migrated to Scotland with the Scots.

The Irish Gaelic spelling is Fionn Mac Cumhail
(it is pronounced roughly like Finn McCool.)

hope I could be of help,

Stephan Baitz