1 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:27,160 This is Jonathan Feeshel. Welcome to the Symbolic World. Hello everyone, I 2 00:00:27,199 --> 00:00:31,519 am back here with another episode of Universal History with Richard Rowland. As you 3 00:00:31,559 --> 00:00:35,079 know, we have just wrapped up our Dante class. You know, it 4 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:39,759 was an amazing it was amazing. I just have to say Dante's Inferno class. 5 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:42,840 Like we say Dante Class. That sound like we did the whole thing, 6 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:46,399 which we did. Definitely did not. But yeah, we spent six 7 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:52,320 with six three hour tracks, five five three hour tracks through the Inferno. 8 00:00:52,439 --> 00:00:56,240 It was amazing for me discovering all kinds of things that I had forgotten that 9 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:58,840 I didn't realize was there. It was. It was just great and we're 10 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:04,280 looking forward to also a purgatory and heaven and Paradise. So now today we 11 00:01:04,359 --> 00:01:11,560 are here to talk about Ireland. So people have been asking for a long 12 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:17,200 time when are you going to do the Universal History of Ireland? And to 13 00:01:17,239 --> 00:01:22,760 be totally honest, I've been scared of it and putting it off. The 14 00:01:22,879 --> 00:01:27,799 reason I am scared of it is that when you bring Ireland into the conversation, 15 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:36,560 people go a little crazy. I mean really specifically Americans go a little 16 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:38,879 crazy. You know, there's this sort of I don't know, like, 17 00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:44,640 does everybody turn Irish on Saint Patrick's Day in Quebec. I'm gonna assume no, 18 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,280 No, we don't. We don't. You don't like turn your life 19 00:01:47,519 --> 00:01:49,439 river, you don't turn your local river green or anything. No, we 20 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:52,319 don't. We don't. Yeah, we don't, because they do that in 21 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:56,560 Chicago, you know, like and in some other places, like they for 22 00:01:56,719 --> 00:01:59,439 a ton of green dye. You know, I don't know what the long 23 00:01:59,519 --> 00:02:01,760 term envices mental consequences of that ar I'm sure somebody's figured that out, but 24 00:02:01,879 --> 00:02:07,879 we've decided it's worth it. Yeah, And and all of the every single 25 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:14,199 uh, every single uh store and you know, like like liquor stores, 26 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,479 grocery stores, et cetera, will will sell like all the schlocky Irish stuff, 27 00:02:16,599 --> 00:02:21,120 Irish foods. Obviously they sell a lot of guinness, they sell a 28 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:24,479 lot of Irish whiskey at that time, et cetera. And and yeah, 29 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:28,199 so this is kind of like, uh, there's something about it. There's 30 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:31,840 something about it, and and the thing is like it's not inaccurate. Like 31 00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:38,759 almost every you know, person in America has some amount of like Irish DNA 32 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:42,879 or blood or like however you want to say it. I myself, you 33 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:47,120 know, and like most of my ancestors are from Scotland and Ireland, so 34 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:53,960 so there's something about it. But but it's it's, it's it's it's weird. 35 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:58,560 Like it's almost difficult to quantify a similar thing with Scottish culture. But 36 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:00,479 I think not quite as much. I think quite as much, although I 37 00:03:00,479 --> 00:03:05,719 think there were probably that did get a bunch bump from Mel Gibson's Brave Heart, 38 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:10,280 yeah for sure. Yeah, but okay, so there's something about Irish 39 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:19,360 culture, Irish history that is like that is simultaneously when it's presented, especially 40 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,960 kind of like in a North American context, it's simultaneously like very kitsch but 41 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:30,039 also somehow is compelling enough to kind of like hold on. So here, 42 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:37,120 I'll tell on myself for a minute. I've only ever been to two concerts 43 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:40,000 in my entire life. I mean, you have to remember that I grew 44 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:44,400 up like fundamentalists. It's true, you know everything, so we didn't listen 45 00:03:44,439 --> 00:03:46,879 to rock music. As you play it backward, you can hear the words 46 00:03:46,879 --> 00:03:50,000 the demons are saying, which is a real thing that I was actually told. 47 00:03:50,039 --> 00:03:52,199 I'm not just that's not just a joke. That's a real thing that 48 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:54,280 I was told it probably should play anything backwards. You can hear the words 49 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:59,599 of the demons. They're say, because why you play why are you playing 50 00:03:59,599 --> 00:04:01,199 it backward? In the first I don't know, like like uh and like 51 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:06,319 what did what did like you know, did how did CDs mess with the 52 00:04:06,319 --> 00:04:09,599 Devil's planned? Like how do you play a CD of backwards? I don't 53 00:04:09,599 --> 00:04:12,159 know? But anyway, okay, all right. So also the biggest complicated 54 00:04:12,199 --> 00:04:15,759 thing is also because why do you listen to backwards when listening to doing it 55 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:20,439 straightforward? You can already hear the Dean and speaking also that like like who 56 00:04:20,519 --> 00:04:23,959 was like I'm gonna play this backwards? Yea? Anyway, okay, I 57 00:04:23,959 --> 00:04:27,319 listened to Mega Death backwards. You know, I have all these weird things's 58 00:04:27,319 --> 00:04:30,160 like, dude, just listen to it for you're good, like you got 59 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:33,800 enough demo? Man? Oh boy? Okay, who had derail this one? 60 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:38,759 Okay? So so uh you know, so I've only been to two 61 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:42,800 concerts. One was you know, dirt Poor Robins with you guys, Like 62 00:04:42,879 --> 00:04:46,720 really yeah, like literally that's what. That's the only time, the only 63 00:04:46,759 --> 00:04:48,920 time in my life I've ever been in front of an actual rock band playing 64 00:04:48,959 --> 00:04:53,839 actual music. Yeah, and and yeah, so horribly sheltered everything else here. 65 00:04:54,079 --> 00:04:57,360 But you also also understand it when I in my family going to a 66 00:04:57,399 --> 00:05:00,439 concert mean you were going to the symphony. Like so going to the concert 67 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:04,560 literally meant you put on a tuxedo and you went to the symphony. And 68 00:05:04,639 --> 00:05:08,319 if I say I'm going to a concert, that is still what I mean, 69 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:11,000 Like, you know, I'm still a giant snob or whatever. But 70 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:14,439 anyway, okay, so the only other time that I've been to a concert 71 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:23,199 was when the band Celtic Woman came to ame to grit My town and performed. 72 00:05:23,319 --> 00:05:26,720 Yeah, there's there's like a band or like a group called Celtic Woman 73 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:30,959 or Celtic Woman. But it's like it's a bunch of bunch of tall blonde 74 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:36,879 ladies singing, you know, vaguely Irish music, like vaguely irish. You 75 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:41,040 know, you get to your obligatorio Danny Boy and everything else is kind of 76 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:45,439 new age and whatever. But uh, my wife and I really like them, 77 00:05:45,439 --> 00:05:46,720 so we went like, I mean, this is like this is like 78 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,240 this would be more embarrassing a big deal for you, This would be more 79 00:05:50,279 --> 00:05:55,079 embarrassing if I didn't own literally every album Enya has ever made, but anyway, 80 00:05:55,120 --> 00:06:00,319 that's a different conversation. It's a different conversations, so right, so 81 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:02,040 I just I say all of us to say, like there's something about that, 82 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:05,800 like the Celtic Woman of it all, that is really kitch and yet 83 00:06:06,439 --> 00:06:13,879 continues to remain like interesting or compelling on some level enough that like all kitch 84 00:06:13,959 --> 00:06:16,160 things like it it like you know, there's there's got to be something to 85 00:06:16,199 --> 00:06:21,480 it or people wouldn't still be doing it. Right, So what I'd like 86 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:27,000 to do in the next few Universal History of Videos will be to take a 87 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,439 look at some things in the British Isles because the other reason I'm scared to 88 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:36,040 talk about this is because there's so much and and and there's really the end 89 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:39,680 of the world, so you know, there's gotta be a lot exactly. 90 00:06:39,759 --> 00:06:43,519 But but also like there is like this much stuff about other cultures. But 91 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:46,000 I'm you know, this is my native language for one thing, so that 92 00:06:46,079 --> 00:06:49,240 makes it easier. But also like this is the thing I've I've dedicated my 93 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:55,240 entire academic life to study. Really is is Anglo Saxon and Saxon and medieval 94 00:06:55,279 --> 00:06:58,240 Kiltic cultures, and so there's just like so much to choose from. It's 95 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:01,319 really difficult to it's really difficult to kind of know where to start. So 96 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:05,759 what I thought we'd do today, what I thought we'd do today would be 97 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:13,720 to start with a book which is sometimes called the Book of Invasions. The 98 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:18,160 Book of Invasions is a it's a work of it's also called like the Book 99 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:23,639 of the Conquest of Ireland is literally what the Irish named Court means, but 100 00:07:23,759 --> 00:07:29,079 it's a it's an eleventh century work of universal history. And so here we're 101 00:07:29,079 --> 00:07:32,199 on pretty firm footing in terms of kind of what we've come to expect and 102 00:07:32,279 --> 00:07:36,439 in terms of medieval universal history and what they What it tries to do is 103 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:42,319 it tries to take the pagan history of Ireland, and specifically the lineage of 104 00:07:42,319 --> 00:07:46,079 the High Kings of Ireland, which is like the main source of the pagan 105 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:51,079 prehistory of Ireland. Tries to take that and merge it with the biblical and 106 00:07:51,079 --> 00:07:57,800 classical narratives, and so basically you get a sense of well, it starts 107 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:03,000 with Genesis, it starts with God made the heaven and the earth at the 108 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:05,959 first and he himself hath no beginning nor ending. That's the beginning of the 109 00:08:05,959 --> 00:08:13,000 book, so we find uh. I'll read a little bit from the creation 110 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:18,560 narrative here actually because it's it's kind of interesting to see how they interpreted certain 111 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:22,600 things from the Genesis account. He made first the formless mass and the light 112 00:08:22,759 --> 00:08:26,759 of angels. That's the light. They'll let there be light. That's the 113 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:30,439 angels. Which is which is? Uh? This is actually a common medieval 114 00:08:30,439 --> 00:08:33,039 debate, by the way, people, You know, when were the angels 115 00:08:33,039 --> 00:08:35,679 created? Were they created on the first day or were they created on the 116 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:39,240 same day as the stars? The sun and the stars. So he made 117 00:08:39,279 --> 00:08:43,679 the form first, the formless man, in the light of angels. He 118 00:08:43,759 --> 00:08:46,799 made firmament. On the Monday, he made earth and seas. On the 119 00:08:46,879 --> 00:08:50,960 tuesday. Did it say he made the formless ten? Uh, the formless 120 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:56,120 mass. I'm sorry, nice mass, but basically like what a formless mass 121 00:08:56,159 --> 00:08:58,639 of matter? Right, that's the shape stakes the formless man would have been 122 00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:03,559 insane, adam crazy. He made the firmament. On the Monday, he 123 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:05,639 made the earth and the seas. On the Tuesday, he made sun, 124 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,399 moon and the stars of heaven. On the Wednesday he made birds of the 125 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:11,639 air and reptiles of the sea. On the Thursday, he made beasts of 126 00:09:11,639 --> 00:09:15,960 the earth in general, and Adam to rule over them on the Friday. 127 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:20,480 Thereafter, God rested on a Saturday from the accomplishment of a new creation, 128 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:26,200 but by no means from its governance. Thereafter, he gave the bailiffrey, 129 00:09:26,279 --> 00:09:30,759 that is, like the jurisdiction of Heaven to Lucifer, with the nine orders 130 00:09:30,799 --> 00:09:33,639 of the angels of Heaven. He gave the bailiffrey of Earth to Adam and 131 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:37,600 to Eve with her progeny. Thereafter, Lucifer sinned so that he was leader 132 00:09:37,639 --> 00:09:41,960 of a third of a host of angels. The king confined him with the 133 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:46,320 third host of angels in his company in Hell. And God said, unto 134 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:50,360 the foe of Heaven HAUGHTI is this Lucifer. Thereafter, and Lucifer had envy 135 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:54,399 against Adam, for he was assured that this would be given him, that 136 00:09:54,519 --> 00:09:58,960 is Adam the filling of Heaven in his room. So this is a very 137 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:03,480 common idea by way that you run into in I can't remember if I read 138 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:09,720 this already in our series from the Anglo Saxon Genesis, but there is a 139 00:10:09,879 --> 00:10:20,799 very common kind of a thing where you have this idea that the humanity is 140 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:24,879 created or humanity's destiny is to take the place of the angels that fell. 141 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:28,440 And this is implicit, by the way, even in the Book of Revelation, 142 00:10:28,639 --> 00:10:31,679 like you have four and twenty elders, because that's a third of the 143 00:10:31,799 --> 00:10:37,360 number the traditional number of the divine council. Right, so let's see. 144 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:41,519 So thereafter lucirette envy against Adam free he was assured that this would be given 145 00:10:41,559 --> 00:10:46,679 to Adam, the filling of heaven in his room or that is his place 146 00:10:46,759 --> 00:10:52,440 of jurisdiction. Wherefore he came in the form of a serpent and persuaded Adam 147 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:54,200 and Eve to sin in the manner of eating the apple from the forbidden tree. 148 00:10:54,360 --> 00:11:00,840 Wherefore Adam was expelled from Paradise into common Earth. So, uh, 149 00:11:01,519 --> 00:11:05,000 most of this is the way, you know, happens, the way that 150 00:11:05,039 --> 00:11:11,320 we would expect it to happen. But there are some kind of additional details 151 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:15,120 that are very basically like nothing unusual for the Middle Ages here, but they 152 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,879 are kind of interesting blosses on the Genesis text. So the story goes on 153 00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:33,039 to trace the the lineage of the Gaelic peoples through the line of Noah. 154 00:11:33,639 --> 00:11:37,720 So you have Jith, Jafith of course being in in the genesis account and 155 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:43,000 in the kind of medieval understanding, Jafith is the father of the father of 156 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:48,279 the medieval of like medieval Europe, for the new European peoples. And so 157 00:11:48,759 --> 00:11:54,039 it says that Maygog, the son of Jafifth, of his progeny are the 158 00:11:54,039 --> 00:12:00,600 peoples who came to Ireland before the Gaddy to it the the part Tholins, 159 00:12:00,759 --> 00:12:05,720 and it goes on and list a bunch of tribe names, including the including 160 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:11,559 the progeny. It says a Mnemed of the fear Bolt and the two epidanin 161 00:12:11,799 --> 00:12:16,679 which are the These are important groups of essentially what we now think of Asperis. 162 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:20,360 That will come back to a minute. So descendants Megad, they're descendants 163 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:22,879 of Magod. So I thought you would like that, Well, yeah, 164 00:12:22,919 --> 00:12:28,000 I do like that. Yeah, So yeah, they're decendce of make So 165 00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:31,879 Magog is of course a giant. He's a monster. He's a giant. 166 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:39,399 There's kind of different how do I say this. There's there's like sort of 167 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:45,480 different magog Uh legends, and sometimes it's like Gog and Magog are like two 168 00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:48,600 monsters and giants. Obviously, they're they're sort of like the names of countries, 169 00:12:48,919 --> 00:12:50,320 you know, on the edge of the world. I mean, we've 170 00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:54,320 talked about this in a previous video. It's been a minute though, so 171 00:12:54,399 --> 00:12:58,879 maybe people should still back then and revisit that it. Sometimes they're they're kind 172 00:12:58,879 --> 00:13:01,600 of cannibal type monster that live on the end of the world. That they're 173 00:13:01,639 --> 00:13:05,639 the people that Alexander locked out, right, locked out with the gates of 174 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:11,480 Yeah. Well, in another legend, they came to the island of Albion, 175 00:13:11,039 --> 00:13:16,240 Yeah, which is that is the island of Britain, and we're kind 176 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:20,799 of actually the first people to settle there. And so in for instance, 177 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:24,000 like the history of the Kings of Britain and the Brutus legend, which we've 178 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:26,720 talked about way back the very beginning of the series, and we are going 179 00:13:26,759 --> 00:13:30,879 to revisit that stuff. But in the Brutuist legend, that's who Brutus fights, 180 00:13:30,919 --> 00:13:33,879 like basically, you know, they fight the giants when they come to 181 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,759 the island, right. So that's interesting that that the Irish or the Gaelics 182 00:13:37,759 --> 00:13:43,519 see themselves as descendants of Magog. So it's like the idea that they're the 183 00:13:43,559 --> 00:13:48,799 ones who were chased out of So this is going to get even more interesting 184 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:54,519 in a certain way. So to kind of to kind of summarize, to 185 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:58,799 kind of summarize this, the the Book of Invasions or the Book of the 186 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:11,600 Invasions of Ireland basically identifies six major waves of invasions, right and so in 187 00:14:11,639 --> 00:14:13,840 the way that same way that we talked about Ethiopia being kind of like the 188 00:14:13,879 --> 00:14:18,080 symbolism of the nest, right the thing that's made of leftovers, right of, 189 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:20,879 and then sort of but then it kind of collects things and becomes a 190 00:14:20,919 --> 00:14:28,600 place where life can be sheltered. Ireland is similarly. Ireland is similarly a 191 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:33,639 it's a it's a catch all, it's on the end, it's sort of 192 00:14:33,679 --> 00:14:37,799 the It doesn't quite have the same nest imagery that Ethiopia has, but it 193 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:41,120 does have the sense of being, you know, the literally the edge of 194 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:43,120 the world. I mean, it is the edge of the world for most 195 00:14:43,159 --> 00:14:48,000 of the history of medieval Europe that you can't go any farther west Ireland. 196 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:52,320 Yeah, that makes sense, and that's why you know there are some legends 197 00:14:52,879 --> 00:14:56,679 that find themselves there and you don't know why. Like a good example is 198 00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:01,039 the Saint Christopher legend. So Saint Christopher is a dog man in the East 199 00:15:01,159 --> 00:15:03,279 and then he's usually a giant in the West. But then in Ireland for 200 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:07,240 some reason, they caught that, Like they have these legends of Saint Christopher 201 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:11,000 as a dog headed man, even Gog and Magog. Right, they're they're 202 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,759 supposed to be off in the East, you know, shut out by Alexander's 203 00:15:13,759 --> 00:15:16,879 skates, but then they show up in the British Isles. Like it's like 204 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:20,879 yeah, yeah, yeah, So so basically what happens. What would you 205 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:26,720 have in the Book of Invasions, is this idea that these groups keep invading 206 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:31,320 the island of Ireland. When they invade, they usually wipe out the previous 207 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:35,080 peoples or the previous people are left there, but they kind of go into 208 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:39,240 hiding. Yeah, and the previous peoples that are left there and go into 209 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:46,240 hiding have the names or identities or culture that modern scholarship, like I'm talking 210 00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:52,320 about archaeology and history and things like that here would associate with like this this 211 00:15:52,399 --> 00:15:56,200 Stone Age culture or this brondza Aid culture or whatever, but also with the 212 00:15:56,440 --> 00:16:00,120 different pantheons, pantheons of gods that are worshiped by that group of people. 213 00:16:00,759 --> 00:16:07,720 And it's sort of like, I mean typically speaking, when you like if 214 00:16:07,759 --> 00:16:11,840 you drive a people out of the land, you know, so you push 215 00:16:11,879 --> 00:16:14,519 them out, they go somewhere else. They take their gods with them. 216 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:21,919 And it's relatively unusual for the gods of a conquered people, or let's say, 217 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:25,879 like of four conquered peoples ago to sort of like still hang around in 218 00:16:25,919 --> 00:16:27,600 the hills, right, But it's kind of like the idea is like in 219 00:16:27,639 --> 00:16:32,399 Ireland, there's nowhere else for them to go, right the edge of the 220 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:34,279 world already at the edge of the world, and so on. On an 221 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:38,039 archaeological level, this is happening. But also you could say on the level 222 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:41,279 of principalities and powers, right, this is also kind of happening. Like 223 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:47,399 there are there's a reason that Ireland is so strongly associated. It's not the 224 00:16:47,399 --> 00:16:51,679 only place in the world, but it is probably the place in western the 225 00:16:51,679 --> 00:16:56,919 western like you know, like the anglosphere is probably the place most strongly associated 226 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:03,920 with ferries. Yeah, and there is some aspect of fairies that are something 227 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:08,839 like a like a splinter or a piece that's broken off of or kind of 228 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:15,759 like leftover hierarchiece, and I that's that is something that's it's hard to like 229 00:17:15,799 --> 00:17:22,319 even say that out loud because it's like yeah, but thense because that's that's 230 00:17:22,319 --> 00:17:26,359 how they function. You know. They're they're kind of like the gin, 231 00:17:26,559 --> 00:17:30,000 right, we talked about this before, because they're they're very ambiguous and they're 232 00:17:30,759 --> 00:17:33,839 they're you know, why is it why would they want to like trick you, 233 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:38,279 Like what the idea that principalities kind of want to get your attention or 234 00:17:38,319 --> 00:17:42,799 trick you and all of these things. It means that they have they have 235 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:48,279 to be uh, and of wandering. They're they're they're wandering in the desert. 236 00:17:48,319 --> 00:17:52,960 They don't have they're not attached to to the right order. You know, 237 00:17:52,519 --> 00:17:57,960 if you read I wouldn't account of fairy stories or or like fairy encounters 238 00:17:59,039 --> 00:18:00,720 rap, I wouldn't account of fairy encounters. These are people who were like 239 00:18:00,799 --> 00:18:04,039 walking along, usually in Ireland or Wales where most of these things happen. 240 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:11,599 And we'll talk about Wales in a future episode, I think, but people 241 00:18:11,839 --> 00:18:15,359 people so walking along and you meet a fairy right. Very often it's like 242 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:18,200 the bishop is walking along or like a priest is walking along and they meet 243 00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:26,240 a fairy, and the fairies are always concerned with a question of whether or 244 00:18:26,279 --> 00:18:29,839 not they can be saved. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, And 245 00:18:30,039 --> 00:18:33,960 so there's like all kinds of like strange things like where where Like the priest 246 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:37,440 or the bishop will say, you know, well, can you say the 247 00:18:37,519 --> 00:18:40,640 potter and oster? And like the fairy can't say our father, and you 248 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:42,559 can't say that, and so then it's like so that, by the way, 249 00:18:42,599 --> 00:18:45,160 the answer is always that can't be known until the day of judgment. 250 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:49,279 That's alwayeah answer like and so there is this sort of thing like where and 251 00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:52,759 maybe some of this is tied to the idea that you also find in the 252 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:57,839 Legends of jin Oh way, right now I'm reading rereading for the upteen time 253 00:18:59,279 --> 00:19:03,839 a wonderful novel called Declare by Tim Powers. You should read this at some 254 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:07,079 point because it's, uh, it's but it's all about it's all about gin 255 00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:11,799 and also like Cold War spycraft and and stuff. Anyway, great book, 256 00:19:11,839 --> 00:19:17,240 great book. But uh but they but but Powers digs into Powers is a 257 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:19,720 is an amazing Actually, you should have him on the channel. He's he's 258 00:19:19,759 --> 00:19:26,079 an amazing He's a Roman Catholic, amazing contemporary author, probably probably for money 259 00:19:26,079 --> 00:19:29,480 money. He's like the best current fiction author. Okay, he's great, 260 00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:33,279 but anyway, uh, he's got a great book about this and and uh 261 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:36,799 but what he but he he like he's really deeply researched, like all of 262 00:19:36,839 --> 00:19:38,319 these different legends about the Gin and the fairies and so on, and it 263 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:41,039 kind of incorporates them all into kind of this thing that makes a lot of 264 00:19:41,119 --> 00:19:45,279 sense. But anyway, all that to say, in the legends of the 265 00:19:45,319 --> 00:19:49,039 fairies and the Gin, one of the theories of where they come from is 266 00:19:49,119 --> 00:19:53,720 something is that they're basically like angels who only fell halfway, or that they 267 00:19:55,079 --> 00:19:57,400 they didn't join Lucifer's rebellion, but they didn't side with God either. So 268 00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:00,720 they're cast out of heaven, but they're not cast all the way down, 269 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,359 right, So that's one kind of medieval theory about where fairies come from. 270 00:20:04,839 --> 00:20:08,079 There also seems to be something though, like as I was saying, like 271 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:12,359 they're the sort of the remnant or like like a sort of a fractal, 272 00:20:12,599 --> 00:20:18,440 like a piece that's broken off of an older hierarchy, and Ireland just sort 273 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:23,319 of collects these things. Yeah, it collects these hierarchies, collects these these 274 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:26,559 stories of invasions, and so this is important. I think this is at 275 00:20:26,599 --> 00:20:30,759 this little point that you made is really important people to understand kind of how 276 00:20:30,839 --> 00:20:33,480 it works. And so how it works is that there are traces of this 277 00:20:33,759 --> 00:20:37,759 at every level. Right, So you have a story, like you said, 278 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:41,359 of the idea of these gods that have been kind of chased away, 279 00:20:41,519 --> 00:20:45,160 that they that they are, you know, in ambiguous spaces, they haunt, 280 00:20:45,759 --> 00:20:48,759 you know, places that are unclear and that they're or like we saw 281 00:20:48,759 --> 00:20:52,680 in Dante, like we do actually have in Dante a place in Hell where 282 00:20:52,759 --> 00:20:57,599 these ambiguous spirits are where they didn't take a they didn't take position in the 283 00:20:57,599 --> 00:21:02,559 war between Heaven and Hell. And then that will then reflect itself at the 284 00:21:02,599 --> 00:21:06,200 lower level. So, like Richard said, it also means that there is 285 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:12,200 an ancient civilization that was there that was maybe broken up, and the residues 286 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:18,640 of that were not fully you know, assimilated into the next into the next 287 00:21:18,799 --> 00:21:25,000 civilization. And therefore it leaves these these these little parts of stories, parts 288 00:21:25,039 --> 00:21:30,119 of rituals, maybe superstitions, all these types of behaviors and things that are 289 00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:33,759 actually residues from a world that is now over, but that are still kind 290 00:21:33,799 --> 00:21:38,240 of haunting the margin of a story. So then and then you can have 291 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:42,480 that several layers of that, like you said, and then you end up 292 00:21:42,519 --> 00:21:48,559 with these odd spaces of remainder that that are part of your of your culture. 293 00:21:48,599 --> 00:21:52,480 And so when the archaeologists and the modern historian, they'll that's they just 294 00:21:52,559 --> 00:21:56,319 see that level. So they'll say, oh, this weird story is a 295 00:21:56,519 --> 00:22:00,119 trace of an older story that the age of people that were there before, 296 00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:04,720 you know, and and it's not really well integrated into the new mythology. 297 00:22:04,759 --> 00:22:10,440 And the answer is yes, yes, but it also is it also means 298 00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:15,160 that the principalities that we're ruling over those people, they're also kind of there 299 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:18,680 but not there, you know that the effect they still affect the world, 300 00:22:18,759 --> 00:22:22,759 but in a in an indirect in an indirect way. Yeah, that's exactly. 301 00:22:22,839 --> 00:22:26,000 It like like that that whole well, this is just like this is 302 00:22:26,039 --> 00:22:30,759 probably just a leave over from a previous civilization. That is what a fairy 303 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:34,680 is like, you know, and and and the the and of course like 304 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:40,519 when people historically came across those like the burial amounts from those people, they 305 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:42,720 say, oh, that's a she mold, right, that that's the Irish 306 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:45,359 work for a fairy. It's a much better word than ferry. By the 307 00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:48,960 way, a fairy comes from the French. You guys know how if you 308 00:22:49,039 --> 00:22:55,440 know, I'm kidding, just but I just I want to press one left 309 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:57,519 thing because I think it's really important. So it's like, I know, 310 00:22:57,599 --> 00:23:00,839 it's hard because we talk about these things and sometimes they just soundjust mythological. 311 00:23:02,319 --> 00:23:04,400 They are, but it's important to understand that. Like when for example, 312 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:11,599 people build computer system this is an example, they create a program, like 313 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,279 they create a language, or they create a a what do you call it, 314 00:23:15,319 --> 00:23:18,119 like a platform for something to run on, and then if they want 315 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:23,039 it now add another platform. Sometimes they can't completely destroy the one that was 316 00:23:23,079 --> 00:23:26,799 underneath. They tried to like press it down and it's a word. You 317 00:23:26,839 --> 00:23:30,079 had Windows running on doss and then dots is like this weird thing that it's 318 00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:33,680 kind of lingering in the background that you don't know. But sometimes the effect 319 00:23:33,799 --> 00:23:38,440 of doss would peek itself into Windows and then you'd have all these weird things 320 00:23:38,519 --> 00:23:42,680 happen because it's basically running layers of things running on top of each other. 321 00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:48,559 So this idea of this problem of how to create a new world without like 322 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:56,400 on a place that already exists creates these residues that will infect sometimes the systems 323 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:57,559 that are built on top of it. So it's not just like a like 324 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,960 we're just not to talking about like weird mythological stories, like this is actually 325 00:24:02,039 --> 00:24:06,240 how you build systems of meeting and that this is how it works. So 326 00:24:07,279 --> 00:24:12,000 in the Book of Invasions, the first people to settle in Ireland before the 327 00:24:12,079 --> 00:24:18,480 flood, before the Flood of Noah is a woman and the people with her 328 00:24:18,599 --> 00:24:22,799 who come from Egypt. I know, you just hate it when stuff comes 329 00:24:22,839 --> 00:24:30,759 from Egypt, but here we are true. The reason we haven't done a 330 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:34,000 universal history of Egypt yet, you guys, is because Jathan's always like, 331 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:40,079 well, nineteenth century Egyptologist in no, it's a it's a but we are 332 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:41,920 going to do it at some point. You could do it. The symbolism 333 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,920 of Egypt is important in the Bible, but also like the symbolism of egypt 334 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:49,680 pology, like the way that just like took over the British cultural consciousness for 335 00:24:49,759 --> 00:24:52,720 one hundred years, I mean is really crazy. But anyway, okay, 336 00:24:53,279 --> 00:25:00,079 so they come from Egypt with a great, great plan for perpetuating civilization, 337 00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:07,799 here fifty women and three men. And depending on the story that you read 338 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,440 the accounts here is that is that it's just that's kind of a lot of 339 00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:18,319 women. And the first two men kill themselves, it's just higher themselves out. 340 00:25:18,039 --> 00:25:25,680 And the third man, the third man, a guy named Fintan. 341 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:32,519 He throws himself into the sea. And when he throws himself into the sea, 342 00:25:32,599 --> 00:25:37,839 he changes into a salmon. On discip a lot of shape shifting in 343 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,920 Celtic myth, and turning yourself into salmon is one of the main things that 344 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:45,000 you would turn yourself into. It turns himself into a salmon, and then 345 00:25:45,039 --> 00:25:47,160 leader on into a bird, and so on and so on. And it's 346 00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:52,440 because of this that Fintan survives the Great Flood, survives the Flood Noah. 347 00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:56,319 Not only does he survive the Flood of Noah, but he survives every single 348 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:03,559 successive invasion, every single successive generation. And he's the sort of the one 349 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:07,319 who tells about it all, like in kind of the the idea you know, 350 00:26:07,759 --> 00:26:11,000 when he, you know, is able to tell the story to the 351 00:26:11,039 --> 00:26:15,000 first High King of Ireland of all the generations that came before and so all 352 00:26:15,039 --> 00:26:18,599 the way back, like even there's this idea of like a residue from before 353 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:23,039 the flood, right, which is which is? Which is something that shows 354 00:26:23,079 --> 00:26:26,680 up in a lot of world cultures. Right Obviously it's there in Gilgamesh is 355 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:30,440 there and other things. But this idea of a residue before the flood, 356 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:36,160 something like a seed, something that survives before the flood. Like even even 357 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:41,599 it's it's difficult now in a time, in an age where people are so 358 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:48,480 widely divorced from their food to understand how incredibly important the salmon were not just 359 00:26:48,559 --> 00:26:52,559 for like so that people could live and eat in in the you know, 360 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,200 in ancient Britain and in Ireland, but also the way that the salmon, 361 00:26:59,799 --> 00:27:03,599 the the place that it took in in the the sort of the my mythological 362 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:07,599 consciousness right as the as a thing that goes out and returns, right and 363 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:11,079 the thing that you know, like it the salmon. The salmon come back 364 00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:15,400 to the river, like and they always they always home back to the place 365 00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:18,000 that they're from. They always home back to the place they're from. They 366 00:27:18,039 --> 00:27:22,160 come back to the river they're in to spawn and then to die, right, 367 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,880 and there's like out of that death is gonna this new life is going 368 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:30,480 to come. So it's it's and uh and and somehow like this this figure 369 00:27:30,519 --> 00:27:33,799 of fintam Is is related to that. And there are other really similar figures 370 00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,000 in later Irish myths that are basically the same idea, like this this this 371 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:41,359 this residue or this guy that's leftover from a previous age. He's usually got 372 00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:47,559 cheap shifting powers. He's usually a poet, and and he's able to remember 373 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:51,920 the stories of what happened for because he was actually there. Yeah. So 374 00:27:52,039 --> 00:27:56,839 then the next group that come along are the are the Parthlons, and you're 375 00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:02,200 going to really enjoy this. Uh. So they came from They basically came 376 00:28:02,279 --> 00:28:07,000 from either like Sicily or maybe Greece, and actually most of the most of 377 00:28:07,079 --> 00:28:11,000 the early groups are usually said to have come from Greece or Egypt or somewhere 378 00:28:11,079 --> 00:28:15,559 in the old kind of the biblical lobe. And they do a bunch of 379 00:28:15,599 --> 00:28:21,920 different things. They are the ones who originate cattle husbandry, that the first 380 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:26,079 people to like keep cattle in Ireland, which becomes like the main thing that 381 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:27,920 you do with Ireland later on. In fact, the Great Irish Epic, 382 00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:33,079 basically the Irish Iliad. If you will Is called the catl Rate of Kolie, 383 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,519 And you're going to talk about it at some point because it's it's one 384 00:28:37,519 --> 00:28:38,640 of my favorite things to read as a kid, Like it's one of those 385 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,559 books somebody gave me as a kid, probably because they didn't know what was 386 00:28:41,599 --> 00:28:45,200 in it, and and then as a kid I read this and I was 387 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,359 like, oh boy, this is us some good stuff. I see, 388 00:28:48,599 --> 00:28:53,960 Yeah, it's pretty spicy. They also or it's in a cooking, drinking 389 00:28:55,160 --> 00:29:02,000 and dueling three things. As everybody knows, the Irish love stereotypes are really 390 00:29:02,039 --> 00:29:06,160 old. I don't know what to say. So they are eventually either white, 391 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:11,720 I doubt, by a flag or by the invasion of dog headed apes. 392 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:17,519 Right. I don't have a lot more to tell you about that right 393 00:29:17,599 --> 00:29:19,920 now, but I thought that was a very little interesting. Yeah, it 394 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,359 definitely is interesting. There is a whole connection between the dog headed men and 395 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:29,200 also the dog headed apes. And you know, this is one of the 396 00:29:29,279 --> 00:29:33,279 theories obviously of the matern type scholars. They talk about how the dog heed 397 00:29:33,319 --> 00:29:37,559 man are basically are bad boons really, I mean people the encountered with baboons. 398 00:29:37,559 --> 00:29:41,559 I think it's boring. It's a way I mean, my main problem 399 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,960 with that is, like you act like nobody in the ancient world ever saw 400 00:29:45,039 --> 00:29:49,279 a monkey, but like half of half of the Roman Empire was in Africa, 401 00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:56,480 man like, like people saw baboons like anyway, So then the next 402 00:29:56,519 --> 00:30:02,559 the next wave or the next invasion is is by a guy named Nemod who 403 00:30:02,599 --> 00:30:06,279 also comes from Greece with his four sons. There's a whole kind of an 404 00:30:06,359 --> 00:30:14,039 interesting thing about them. Let's see if I can find this several of them. 405 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:19,680 Basically, uh, man, there, the reason I'm paused, people 406 00:30:19,799 --> 00:30:22,880 is because there's so many weird things here. I'm like, they're they're trying 407 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:26,160 to all get out of my mouth at once, and it's a little hard 408 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:32,079 to prioritize. So Nemed he comes and comes from Greece with his four sons. 409 00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:36,519 A bunch of his sons actually drown trying to seize a tower of gold 410 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:38,480 in the sea. So there's like this undersea kingdom and a tower of gold 411 00:30:38,559 --> 00:30:44,319 and everything. I think we'll come back to this and uh and Nemed is 412 00:30:44,359 --> 00:30:48,400 the one who clears the planes and builds the royal force. So basically you 413 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:52,440 have kind of these iterative things that explain why Irish culture is the way that 414 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:57,759 it is in mid In the Middle Ages, Irish culture was was basically uh 415 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:03,119 organized, as was much of the culture of Northern Europe, organized around like 416 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:07,200 these networks of hillforts and then eventually that's those are where the monasteries will be 417 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:11,880 built later on, and so we got cattle husbandry, cooking, drinking, 418 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,680 dueling, we get the network of forts that comes, you know, is 419 00:31:14,799 --> 00:31:25,640 established by the successive generation, and basically basically they are they come into conflict 420 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:32,000 with this group known as the Formorians. Formorians are not one of the six 421 00:31:32,079 --> 00:31:36,680 traditional invasions, but they seem to be sort of like basically the Irish or 422 00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:41,759 the Celtic equivalent of the of like Titans or the Giants. Okay, right, 423 00:31:41,759 --> 00:31:45,559 there are these really monstrous kind of spirits that you know, like cathonic 424 00:31:45,599 --> 00:31:49,519 spirits that have to do with the like uncontrolled nature something like that, and 425 00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:56,160 so they mostly get killed. About thirty of them flee back to Greece, 426 00:31:56,319 --> 00:32:01,759 and there's this idea later on that the uh that the next group that comes, 427 00:32:01,799 --> 00:32:05,880 which will be the fear Bulg, that they're going to be, you 428 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:08,079 know, basically they're the survivors of those guys and they're coming back trying to 429 00:32:08,119 --> 00:32:12,920 take take back. So this is the fourth invasion. These guys also come 430 00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,640 from Greece, where they've been slaves. That might be what the word fear 431 00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:19,000 bulg means. It means might mean something like it's like the men of pouches 432 00:32:19,119 --> 00:32:23,000 or the men of breeches. But also, uh, there's this this word 433 00:32:23,039 --> 00:32:29,640 bolg uh. Funnily enough, same word in Dante, like the bolgia in 434 00:32:29,839 --> 00:32:32,799 uh in in in circle eight of of Inferno. Right, this is an 435 00:32:32,839 --> 00:32:39,160 old Indo European root that means like something is swollen, and so it could 436 00:32:39,279 --> 00:32:43,480 also have the that that like it can have the idea of like a pocket 437 00:32:43,559 --> 00:32:45,359 or a pouch or like some you know, kind of compartment that swells out. 438 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,160 It might also, in the case of the fear of bulg, it 439 00:32:50,279 --> 00:32:54,279 might have something to do with them being like swollen with rage. That's a 440 00:32:54,319 --> 00:32:59,519 pretty that's that's one possible etymology. There are some people about that they're actually 441 00:32:59,599 --> 00:33:01,240 related to, like the bell guy, like the Belgians, and maybe if 442 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:05,720 there's a relationship between the two of them there, but they're swollen with rage 443 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,680 all the time. It's soon see ah, Yeah, everybody has somebody else. 444 00:33:09,119 --> 00:33:14,920 They joke, the English pick on the French. The French very okay, 445 00:33:15,079 --> 00:33:20,359 it's cool, all right. So yeah, so they come and they 446 00:33:20,759 --> 00:33:25,279 divide Ireland. They're the ones who divide Ireland into the traditional fifths. And 447 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:30,079 the interesting thing about them is that the fear Bulk don't fight against the Fomorians. 448 00:33:30,119 --> 00:33:34,400 In fact, they seem to fight alongside them. Later on they seem 449 00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,839 to make some kind of rapprochemont with the with the like these these monstrous nature 450 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:44,000 spirits. So the next group that comes and invades Ireland after the Fear Bulk 451 00:33:44,279 --> 00:33:47,039 is uh and there these are the ones who are the most probably well known, 452 00:33:47,319 --> 00:33:54,200 would be the Tuafta Done. And they were told unlike the one, 453 00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:58,599 unlike unlike everybody else who comes from like Greece, ories which or whatever. 454 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,759 We're told that they come from the north of the world, and that they 455 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:08,360 that they're and and they're experts in magic, like these are the fairies. 456 00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:12,960 These are the old Celtic gods. That's basically who they are the most, 457 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:15,719 you know, Lug being like the main the main you know, they're their 458 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:20,360 main champion, who is also like the main Celtic war god, right and 459 00:34:20,519 --> 00:34:23,719 so so they come and they show up, and there's a whole bunch of 460 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:30,760 battles with the fear of bulk of the Fermorians, and basically eventually Tadan win 461 00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:36,559 all of these battles, drive everybody else and take over Ireland. And these 462 00:34:36,639 --> 00:34:39,760 are the sort of like the most strongly sort of the group that we most 463 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:44,639 strongly associate with fairy traditions later for a reason I'll explain in a moment, 464 00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:50,159 But the but they, I mean, one of the things that's really interesting 465 00:34:50,199 --> 00:34:54,960 to me is this idea that gets developed kind of in parallel, gets developed 466 00:34:55,039 --> 00:34:59,880 in in Celtic, like British Celtic, like in other words, like Welsh 467 00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:05,800 uh lore, is the idea of like the great treasures of the land. 468 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:10,599 So the two at the don have four great treasures, and then later on 469 00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:15,920 there are you know, the things developed into there are twelve treasures of the 470 00:35:17,679 --> 00:35:22,280 the the twelve treasures of the island of Britain. You know, later on, 471 00:35:22,559 --> 00:35:25,159 you know this idea that Merlin or somebody else like cultivates these twelve treasures, 472 00:35:25,199 --> 00:35:30,039 and the treasures are always items that are important to kind of like the 473 00:35:30,079 --> 00:35:34,800 Bronze Age or like early Iron Age, civilization in some way. So I 474 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,800 mean, as for for for uh an example, that the the four treasures 475 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:43,239 of the two at the Don are the stone of fall. And I'm not 476 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:49,559 I'm not a kelp cissis. So if I'm mispronouncing some of these these old 477 00:35:49,599 --> 00:35:52,000 Irish words, everybody, you're gonna have to forgive me. I'm sure I 478 00:35:52,119 --> 00:35:55,480 know somebody out there, you know, Martin Shoff if nobody else will correct 479 00:35:55,519 --> 00:36:00,000 me later. But uh so this is the uh the stone of fall is 480 00:36:00,079 --> 00:36:06,280 the is the the stone that cries out beneath the king who takes the sovereignty 481 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:09,079 of Ireland. Right. And so it's like and this is something that shows 482 00:36:09,159 --> 00:36:13,760 up again in lots of like even today, like like the Blarney Stone, 483 00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,199 right, you have this this idea like this is of like this magical stone 484 00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:21,519 which might be related to some like the later on the the later rail stuff 485 00:36:21,559 --> 00:36:24,599 and the connection between the Grail and the Stone of Preparation in Jerusalem, which 486 00:36:24,639 --> 00:36:30,000 we talked about earlier in the series. But this the stone that cries out 487 00:36:30,039 --> 00:36:35,079 beneath the king who takes Ireland, like whoever's the high king? Right? 488 00:36:35,159 --> 00:36:42,559 And so this is how you sort of know there's the uh and and and 489 00:36:43,159 --> 00:36:45,880 each of these treasures, there are four treasures. Each of the treasures comes 490 00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:51,280 from these four legendary islands called the four Jewels, that are like supposed to 491 00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:54,320 be in the very north of the world. So, you know, his 492 00:36:54,559 --> 00:36:58,119 you know, historians might try to like tie that to like the hebrides or 493 00:36:58,119 --> 00:37:00,960 something like that. It doesn't really matter for our purposes, like for mythological 494 00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:04,239 purposes. But the idea that there are these four islands, and each of 495 00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:08,400 these four islands had this beautiful has this beautiful like city on it, and 496 00:37:08,519 --> 00:37:14,480 the two of tadan As as powerful magicians or gods or whatever they are. 497 00:37:15,199 --> 00:37:16,519 They when they come to Ireland, they come by the way. They don't 498 00:37:16,599 --> 00:37:22,320 arrive on ships. They arrive on burning clouds right and invade the island, 499 00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:30,920 and they bring with them they bring with them each of these four They bring 500 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,199 with them each of the you know, these four treasures, one from each 501 00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:36,559 of the islands. So there's a stone of Fall, There's a spear of 502 00:37:36,639 --> 00:37:42,360 lug. This is basically, you know, just an invincible weapon. There's 503 00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:47,679 also a sword. No one ever escapes from it. Once it is drawn 504 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:52,039 from its sheath, nobody can resist it. And it glows like a bright 505 00:37:52,079 --> 00:37:57,679 tort so like it's a magic sword probably you know, close to the original 506 00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:00,239 magic sword basically, I mean, like as the idea of like a magical 507 00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:05,280 sword that shines with light and that's completely irresistible. There's a ton of other 508 00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:08,920 stuff downstream from this, like caliber and or ex caliber you know, art 509 00:38:09,039 --> 00:38:13,000 King Arthur's sword and so on. Like there's a ton of there's a ton 510 00:38:13,039 --> 00:38:16,159 of uh you know, examples of this all the way down to Tolkien, 511 00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:21,119 right, But this idea of like a blade that shines brightly and that nothing 512 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,960 can resist is a very celtic idea. And then there's also a cauldron, 513 00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:30,599 a magical cauldron which basically you know, produces unlimited amounts of food and drink 514 00:38:30,679 --> 00:38:37,039 like this would. And this is like about half the magical items are that 515 00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,119 kind of thing, like a horn of plenty or like a mystical molder or 516 00:38:39,159 --> 00:38:44,880 something like that nowadays. A stone, a cauldron, a sword, and 517 00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:50,800 a and a spear a spear, yes, yeah, very I mean like 518 00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:57,440 very evocative, very kind of the word for this if but like the fundamental 519 00:38:57,599 --> 00:39:00,360 things that you need for civilization, that's the idea here, right, because 520 00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:07,719 the conflict between the two ep the Don and the Fomorians, is something like 521 00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:13,000 the conflict between the gods of civilization versus the god like the Cathonic you know, 522 00:39:13,079 --> 00:39:15,880 it's like the Olympians versus the Titans, right, it's that kind of 523 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:19,599 a thing, and or the Olympians versus the Giants. It's that kind of 524 00:39:19,639 --> 00:39:25,440 a thing. And the interesting thing is that the Irish trace themselves to the 525 00:39:25,519 --> 00:39:32,960 people who sided with the monsters, which is I think pretty awesome. So 526 00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,559 the it says the fear of Bulk, who fight along with the Fomorians against 527 00:39:37,599 --> 00:39:40,400 the TuEF the Don. And then later on the final group that comes, 528 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:45,159 and this is the group that the Irish, the medieval Irish, trace themselves 529 00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:52,239 back to, is the Sons of mill Or the Milesians. And the sons 530 00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:57,280 of mill Or the Milesians. They come from Spain. This is not like 531 00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:00,280 an accident. By the way, Spain was Celtic. Uh. During the 532 00:40:00,519 --> 00:40:04,599 you know, the ancient world, it was Celtic. Everybody remembered that, 533 00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:12,559 by the way. Uh and uh and so he shows up uh so so 534 00:40:13,039 --> 00:40:15,599 uh so so the sons of mill they show up at Ireland. Uh. 535 00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:21,079 There's there's a ton of amazing stories. Uh, there's a ton of amazing 536 00:40:21,119 --> 00:40:24,880 stories here, which we will maybe go into in the kind of a future 537 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:28,320 thing. There's there's a bunch of stories that I want to kind of abstract 538 00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:31,960 it. But but most of the time, medieval Irish writing is like it's 539 00:40:32,039 --> 00:40:37,559 just like sometimes just a wall of names and then like these little these little 540 00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:42,480 like excerpts of story or these long poems things like that, and so it's, 541 00:40:42,639 --> 00:40:45,800 uh, it's rather hard reading for modern people. And so what you 542 00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:49,719 have to what I want to do reading numbers in the Bible. It's like 543 00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:52,239 that, but worse. You know, maybe maybe maybe only because I grew 544 00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:55,199 up with with with numbers, like and I grew up with this and and 545 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,800 so I'm used to it. But but yeah, it's like these like here's 546 00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:01,599 a wall of names that you can pronounce anyway, and then somewhere at the 547 00:41:01,679 --> 00:41:05,920 end of that wall of names you get a little, uh you get these 548 00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:12,280 little like vignettes of like weird things that happen, like the Tua Don when 549 00:41:12,559 --> 00:41:17,000 the Milesians are coming to Ireland and they're they're basically coming because they're they're they're 550 00:41:17,079 --> 00:41:22,519 they're coming for a good Irish reason to do anything which is revenge, right, 551 00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:25,559 And so they're there are they're headed towards Ireland, and the Tuta don 552 00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:30,400 like they disguise the land to make it look like a like a pig swimming 553 00:41:30,119 --> 00:41:36,000 in the in the ocean, and there's all this other stuff. Eventually they 554 00:41:36,119 --> 00:41:42,960 fight these battles uh uh the oh and the they're the ones who basically invent 555 00:41:43,199 --> 00:41:45,960 druid Is, like Druidic magic and Druidic just and things by the way, 556 00:41:46,199 --> 00:41:51,559 And so they fight some battles and the Theta say we like like a three 557 00:41:51,639 --> 00:41:55,039 day ceasefire, and then Mylesians say fine, they agree to it, and 558 00:41:55,159 --> 00:41:59,360 so they say, and you have to wait like a certain number of hours 559 00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:01,239 off the coast in a boat, right. And then while they're waiting off 560 00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:04,960 coast in the boat for three days, the two did call up all these 561 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,480 storms and tried to kill them. But then the Harper, the main harper 562 00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:14,000 of the Milesians, he sings a song that calms the storm, right, 563 00:42:14,119 --> 00:42:15,840 and so then the two are like, all right, well, we can't 564 00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:20,559 really we bet our broken piece. So they say we'll divide the land between 565 00:42:20,639 --> 00:42:30,840 us and the uh the the Harper, I think, uh I think his 566 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:32,559 name is Aramon, but that might be wrong. I can't remember right now. 567 00:42:34,199 --> 00:42:38,119 But he he They they all looked at him and they say, well, 568 00:42:38,159 --> 00:42:40,920 this is he's the smartest guy. So he can he can divide the 569 00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:44,360 land. And the idea is again, this guy is like a sort of 570 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,519 a bard in the Celtic tradition, right, And so they say, we 571 00:42:47,639 --> 00:42:52,840 can. You can divide the land fairly between us, and so it's got 572 00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:58,360 to be exactly even. You will take half and and they'll take half. 573 00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:01,599 And he says, yeah, no problem at all for the Milesians. They 574 00:43:01,639 --> 00:43:07,480 can have the upper world and the tu de don can have the underworld. 575 00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:09,840 It's half and half. And so it was like a little bit of trickery 576 00:43:09,920 --> 00:43:14,719 there. And so then the Tuta don all go down into like they go 577 00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:17,159 into the sea, the she mound, they go into the earth, they 578 00:43:17,239 --> 00:43:22,679 come into like the the other world. And that's that sort of like explains 579 00:43:22,119 --> 00:43:24,360 why is Ireland the way that it is now? Right? Is that? 580 00:43:24,639 --> 00:43:30,639 Uh? And so again it's there's something interesting to me about the Tua de 581 00:43:30,679 --> 00:43:37,400 Don being associated so strongly with civilization and the sort of like the arts of 582 00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:43,119 civilization, Right, what are the things that you need to found, uh 583 00:43:43,599 --> 00:43:46,440 you know a civilization in the Middle Ages. Well, you need stones and 584 00:43:46,599 --> 00:43:50,320 you need a king, and like the idea of a stone of kingship. 585 00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:52,920 Those two things go together because who rules over the city, right, and 586 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:58,280 then you need you need weapons, and you need the ability to like provide 587 00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:00,840 for feed everybody, right, even in their treasures like these are the fundamental 588 00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:06,920 treasure of civilization. But then those are the those but then basically they get 589 00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,599 like civilizations stolen from them by this trek and then they have to go down, 590 00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:14,320 they have to go into the other world. Yeah. Interesting, I 591 00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:19,800 mean it's interesting because in some ways this is the duality of civilization I think 592 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:22,519 is being represented very well here. Right, we have the same situation the 593 00:44:22,599 --> 00:44:29,199 sort of Cain, which is it's reversed, but it's that Caine gets ejected 594 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:31,920 and it becomes a wanderer and then because of that then he found the city. 595 00:44:32,559 --> 00:44:37,599 And so you have and you have this image right in antalocal mythology that 596 00:44:37,679 --> 00:44:43,920 the idea of hiphestos or these underworld gods that are the origin of technology and 597 00:44:44,079 --> 00:44:46,440 weapons and all of this stuff. So, you know, the the duality 598 00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:51,320 of it might actually it might seem contradictory, and in some ways it is. 599 00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:57,719 But it's contradictory in the sense that there's a relationship between you could say, 600 00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:02,239 the underworld, the world world of death, and civilization because they play 601 00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:07,079 off each other, right they they kind of they act as you know, 602 00:45:07,119 --> 00:45:14,320 civilization is a way to prevent to protect ourselves from that world. So it's 603 00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:17,119 not surprising that you find this this relationship at stories like that as well. 604 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:22,440 Yeah, so there's there's a lot of I mean this this particular work, 605 00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:27,079 the Book of Invasions, which you can find art of online. It's kind 606 00:45:27,119 --> 00:45:30,800 of hard to find out a full English translation, but is full of just 607 00:45:30,079 --> 00:45:35,440 very strange, wonderful things that we haven't even talked about today because it's like 608 00:45:35,559 --> 00:45:38,880 it's too much. But I will try to h for our next video. 609 00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:44,320 What I'm going to try to do is to kind of exert these, you 610 00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:46,079 know, like some vignettes so you get a so people get a sense of 611 00:45:46,119 --> 00:45:49,159 the storytelling style and things like that. Actually a lot of it is just 612 00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:52,320 poetry. It's about this guy and how famous his cows were, and you 613 00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:54,719 know, stuff like that. So it's like this, this this sort of 614 00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:59,800 thing maybe would be more important to you if you you know, like if 615 00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:01,559 you like cattle, if that was your whole life, you know, But 616 00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:07,800 what the interaction between the different So so is there this idea that all of 617 00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:13,159 these people like the ape, the ape, dog headed apes and stuff like 618 00:46:13,199 --> 00:46:15,480 that, like that they're still kind of lingering. Yeah, I mean, 619 00:46:15,599 --> 00:46:19,119 so this is the this is the thing like that, Like some of these 620 00:46:19,199 --> 00:46:22,400 earlier groups, like the Fearable, they'll come back later on in like the 621 00:46:22,480 --> 00:46:24,880 Ulster cycle, which is like again that's like the big that's one of the 622 00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:30,119 big main Irish mythological cycles. Like, so a lot of these groups will 623 00:46:30,159 --> 00:46:36,760 come back, and as throughout later Irish and earlier Irish stories like you'll you 624 00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,800 come across people who were like uh and it's it's is very kind of common 625 00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:45,679 thing. One of the main stories that I want to look at in our 626 00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:49,840 series on Ireland is going to be a book that's sometimes called The Colloquy of 627 00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:54,039 the Ancients. This is a hugely important work of universal history. Basically, 628 00:46:54,119 --> 00:46:58,679 it's a book that explains the place names in Ireland, why the places in 629 00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:07,079 Ireland are called what they are. But actually it's a story about Saint Patrick 630 00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:12,559 meeting and baptizing the last giant and then he travels around with him, and 631 00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:16,440 the giant tells the stories of like, hey, what about this great and 632 00:47:16,519 --> 00:47:19,960 by the way, I mean, this is really sad. I have I 633 00:47:20,079 --> 00:47:22,840 had an extensive book of notes on the Colic by to be Ancients that I've 634 00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:27,800 been studying for months and months and months, and it got left out in 635 00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:30,960 the ring. Oh no, I was so sad. But anyway, it's 636 00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:36,199 okay. I have most of it in my mind, but I'm working out 637 00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:39,360 reconstructing my online for those videos. But we'll probably spend more than one on 638 00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:44,480 it because it's it's got so many important details about kind of like early Indo 639 00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:51,199 European civilization, and so many important details about how did Christians in Ireland where 640 00:47:51,199 --> 00:47:53,440 they where they encountered the stuff in kind of a different way, like we've 641 00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:58,679 talked about all along, like there's always what CSOs referred to as like a 642 00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:00,800 Christian right and a Christian left, and the left is always trying to get 643 00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:05,880 rid of things right, So that's actually the more extreme rigorous who are trying 644 00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:07,639 to like urge all the paganism and everything, and there's a right that's like, 645 00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:10,880 no, there's good stuff that we need to hang on to here and 646 00:48:12,079 --> 00:48:15,440 most of the Irish, most of the Irish fell into the second category. 647 00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:17,079 So they're always trying to figure out how to say things. But this is 648 00:48:17,159 --> 00:48:21,679 actually it's dealt with explicitly in the story. We'll come back to this, 649 00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:25,159 but I'll just tease it. In the story, Saint Patrick, everybody knows 650 00:48:25,159 --> 00:48:29,840 Saint Patrick has two guardian angels, by the way, you know, like 651 00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:34,679 maybe the rest of us only rate the one, but Patrick of Ireland, 652 00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:37,639 the Salmon of Heaven, as he's called, he has two guardian angels, 653 00:48:38,599 --> 00:48:45,960 by the way. This is awesome metathet but anyway, and so he's sitting 654 00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:50,400 there and he's listening to basically the last Irish hero, the last Irish giant, 655 00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:52,239 right telling. And he saw these guys, there's two of them. 656 00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:55,039 He saw them coming towards him, like with a cloud of demons over them. 657 00:48:55,599 --> 00:48:59,280 So like he baptizes them and all the demons go away, and then 658 00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:01,039 they sit down to head dinner, and he says, you know, tell 659 00:49:01,079 --> 00:49:05,000 me about like what was the greatest horse you ever saw? Or who was 660 00:49:05,039 --> 00:49:07,159 the great who had the best talents back in the old days, and all 661 00:49:07,199 --> 00:49:12,400 these different things. And at some point Patrick is like, maybe it's not 662 00:49:12,639 --> 00:49:15,880 good for me to think about these things because it is keeping me from prayer. 663 00:49:17,079 --> 00:49:20,639 And so he prays about this and as the Guardian angels come to them 664 00:49:20,639 --> 00:49:24,960 and they basically tell them something to the effect of it's okay, all of 665 00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:29,840 this stuff in this that's harmful is going to be forgotten. Wow. Right, 666 00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:31,960 And so there's this idea that like the stuff that's like when it comes 667 00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:37,280 into contact with Christianity, the stuff in paganism that's like that's like harmful or 668 00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:39,320 it was a detrimental, it's going to be sort of like it'll be left 669 00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:43,920 behind. But the stuff of the remnant. And again, this is what 670 00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:49,239 this is really like the main idea in Irish you could say like Irish mythology 671 00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:51,719 or folklore like whatever. I don't know, there's not a good name for 672 00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:54,159 it actually, but let universe. That's why we've been using universal history. 673 00:49:54,639 --> 00:50:00,079 But like the main idea at Irish universal history is the idea of the of 674 00:50:00,159 --> 00:50:04,400 the remnant from whatever came before, like some before the flood, from the 675 00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:08,119 previous civilization, right, and the way that that remnant carries forward and it 676 00:50:08,199 --> 00:50:12,800 carries forward through the medium of story, right, it carries forward. It's 677 00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:15,440 always it's always poets is always poetry, right, That's the thing that you 678 00:50:15,519 --> 00:50:19,320 always when you sit down with like one of these people, if you were 679 00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:22,440 ever, if you're ever, you know, like you run into you know, 680 00:50:22,559 --> 00:50:24,199 a man who can change into a salmon and then into a hawk, 681 00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:29,639 and he remembers the life before the flood. Dear listener, Like, if 682 00:50:29,639 --> 00:50:31,920 you ever run into this guy, the thing you need to ask for is 683 00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:36,360 the poetry. Yeah, you know, like you know what what who were 684 00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:38,760 the great who had the seven greatest sounds of Ireland? Right? Who had 685 00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:42,360 the best horse? Who had the you know, these are the kinds of 686 00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:45,039 things that you want to know. And so that's what the that's what the 687 00:50:45,159 --> 00:50:50,760 Colloquiy of the Elders of Ireland is. By the way, Martinshaw has done 688 00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:57,159 an amazing retelling of it on his sub steck. Wow, we should really 689 00:50:57,280 --> 00:50:59,639 have him on to talk about it. But he's done an amazing retelling of 690 00:50:59,639 --> 00:51:02,199 it on the sect and of course like it's got this this fancy you know, 691 00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:06,480 scholarly titled the Colloquiy of the Ancients, which he's readin into old men 692 00:51:06,559 --> 00:51:09,880 talking, which is what it is, just old men talking and anyway. 693 00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:15,880 So I have a question about these Do the Irish have a connection to Troy? 694 00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:20,199 Did they, did they trace, did they develop that story? Or 695 00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:23,840 they only have this idea that they are connected to people before the flood. 696 00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:31,480 So the health of Britain have an explicit connection to Troy. And that's that's 697 00:51:31,559 --> 00:51:36,119 the Brutus story that we talked about. Of course, that's we'll revisit again 698 00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:40,760 in at least in this particular book, at least in the in the the 699 00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:45,880 the Invasions of Ireland. There there is not an explicit connection to Troy. 700 00:51:45,960 --> 00:51:54,719 There's there are there are other connections to see here. There are other connections 701 00:51:54,760 --> 00:52:00,760 to kind of uh important locations in Italy but are not Italy in Western Europe, 702 00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:07,679 mainly Spain and Egypt and Greece. But I think the idea is that 703 00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:10,880 all of this is kind of like before that. Yeah, and it's interesting. 704 00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:16,480 I find it so interesting, the whole Egyptian connection also because the the 705 00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:22,800 Egypt really is considered in a lot of stories as the strange culture. Like 706 00:52:22,199 --> 00:52:25,280 it's a strange culture, but it's also the oldest culture. It's the one 707 00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:30,920 that is the is the oldest. It's like a it's somehow connected to like 708 00:52:30,039 --> 00:52:32,880 pre flood world, and that sounds like it seems to be continuation of the 709 00:52:34,039 --> 00:52:37,480 of the pre flood world. But they also is the one that's least connected 710 00:52:37,519 --> 00:52:43,239 to all the others, and so it has this particular function. But interestingly 711 00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:50,519 enough too, is that Irish monasticism seems to Egyptian. That's right. Yeah, 712 00:52:50,639 --> 00:52:52,239 so this will be something that we're going to talk about in a future 713 00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:59,400 video. But again to just tease it a little bit, the there's a 714 00:52:59,639 --> 00:53:07,360 there are are lots of indications that the Christianity that came to the British Isles 715 00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:15,679 and particularly to Ireland probably came from the Egyptian desert. And there's there's plausible 716 00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:19,599 historical reasons this could have happened, and there's like different archaeological evidence as you 717 00:53:19,639 --> 00:53:22,440 can point to. This kind of gets us into the messy world of talking 718 00:53:22,519 --> 00:53:27,159 about Celtic Celtic Christianity, which, as I've said before, is kind of 719 00:53:27,199 --> 00:53:30,800 a wax nose. People like to shape it into whatever they want it to 720 00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:32,679 be. And yeah, so a lot of times, like it's like it's 721 00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:36,719 just like shorthand for New Age. Yeah, and the things you have to 722 00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:38,480 understand that's what they do with the egypt too. But yeah, yeah, 723 00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:44,639 you're right, you're right that. But the thing you have to understand about 724 00:53:44,719 --> 00:53:51,000 both Egyptian Christianity and then also Irish Christianity, and to me this is as 725 00:53:51,079 --> 00:53:53,679 good evidence as anything that they're related, is that these are actually the most 726 00:53:53,760 --> 00:54:01,280 hardcore, most rigorous versions of Christianity that existed in the in the the medieval 727 00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:05,159 world. So I mean, as you know, for I mean, most 728 00:54:05,239 --> 00:54:09,480 of the rigorous heresies basically come out of come out of the Egyptian desert or 729 00:54:09,719 --> 00:54:14,840 you know, Britain Ireland, right, Like that's you know, it's like 730 00:54:15,159 --> 00:54:17,960 I mean, Palagianism. People forget Pelagianism was a rigorous heresy, right and 731 00:54:19,760 --> 00:54:22,679 bess Donatism, Like there are two opposites, but they're both, you know, 732 00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:28,159 founded in this rigorism in Irish monasteries in the Middle Ages. Okay, 733 00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:31,599 so just get a sense of how hardcore they were in Irish monasteries in the 734 00:54:31,639 --> 00:54:37,039 Middle Ages. A newly baptized monk, so like they baptize you and they 735 00:54:37,079 --> 00:54:39,840 make you a monk. So this is not just like a lay person like 736 00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:44,239 you and me living the world, raising a family, an early baptized monk, 737 00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:47,840 somebody's dedicated their entire life to like living the sasthetic experiences life of holiness, 738 00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:55,400 was not even allowed to receive full communion in both kinds until three years 739 00:54:55,480 --> 00:55:00,400 after they've been baptized. So like they were like really hardcore, like took 740 00:55:00,440 --> 00:55:06,559 things really seriously. And I do plan like on doing four or five episodes, 741 00:55:06,559 --> 00:55:07,920 and we're going to talk about mythological stuff, and then we're gonna talk 742 00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:10,679 about the conversion of the British Isles. And one of the things that we'll 743 00:55:10,719 --> 00:55:15,360 see is that this rigorism is one of the problems that the Celtic Church or 744 00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:17,639 like that you could call it the British Church or the Irish Church at that 745 00:55:17,719 --> 00:55:22,119 time. It's one of the problems that they ran into with the the the 746 00:55:22,159 --> 00:55:27,480 Augustinian Mission when Santa Agustine of Canterbury comes to comes to England and he's there 747 00:55:27,639 --> 00:55:30,480 and he's got basically let us from the pope that says we're gonna, you 748 00:55:30,559 --> 00:55:35,480 know, let's reunify the whole church here in the British Isles. And the 749 00:55:35,519 --> 00:55:40,199 British bishops were not into it at all. And and one of the reasons, 750 00:55:40,320 --> 00:55:44,800 one of the reasons is that that that British Christianity had kind of taken 751 00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:47,199 this sort of weird turn on its own and it had to be sort of 752 00:55:47,239 --> 00:55:51,320 brought into line with the rest of the church, you know. And this 753 00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:53,599 is symbol you know, symbolized by you know, the way they're doing the 754 00:55:53,679 --> 00:55:57,800 taunture and also like the day the celebrity Easter and things like this, and 755 00:55:57,920 --> 00:56:00,880 those things seem trivial to us in retrospect. You got to think about, 756 00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:06,880 like if you put yourself in the place of a like a medieval pagan right, 757 00:56:07,199 --> 00:56:09,920 you know, in the sixth century, and you see there's two groups 758 00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:14,840 of people and they're all like, this group over here cuts their hair one 759 00:56:14,880 --> 00:56:17,000 way, this group over here cuts their hair another way. And then you 760 00:56:17,119 --> 00:56:22,519 see that the rights of initiation are different because the Celtic Church got to doing 761 00:56:22,599 --> 00:56:28,639 baptism kind of weirdly talk about this, so the rights of initiation are different, 762 00:56:28,679 --> 00:56:31,119 and they don't even have the same feast days, but they're not even 763 00:56:31,199 --> 00:56:36,119 celebrating on the same day. You could be forgiven thinking these are two completely 764 00:56:36,159 --> 00:56:37,840 different religions. I mean, why not you know, like you don't know 765 00:56:37,960 --> 00:56:42,719 about all the like ecclesial politics and everything going on, and so anyway, 766 00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:45,320 so that the Celtic Church actually got out of light. And this is this 767 00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:49,000 is the other thing that I'll say is that you have to be very careful 768 00:56:49,559 --> 00:56:52,800 ideal. Why taken the side of Rome in this question here? I mean, 769 00:56:52,880 --> 00:56:55,480 I mean, I'll be up I'll just say up front, I do 770 00:56:55,639 --> 00:57:00,559 take this light light light, like the sin of senative would be did what 771 00:57:00,679 --> 00:57:04,800 it was supposed to do, like like like you know, they needed to 772 00:57:04,840 --> 00:57:07,679 be like in line with the rest of the church as far as the date 773 00:57:07,719 --> 00:57:10,400 of Pasca and under obedience. And the pope at the time was Pope Saint 774 00:57:10,400 --> 00:57:15,440 Gregory the Great, who's you know, as as as bishops go, you 775 00:57:15,519 --> 00:57:17,679 know, kind of wrote literally wrote the book on it. Actually, his 776 00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:22,440 book on pastoral care was like the handbook for how to be a pastor in 777 00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:25,000 the Middle Ages. So anyway, and of course he's he's very important in 778 00:57:25,079 --> 00:57:29,599 our own Orthodox tradition. He wrote, uh, he's he's the he's the 779 00:57:29,639 --> 00:57:34,159 person who is credited for writing down the liturgy of the presanctified gifts. So 780 00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:38,440 and anyway, so all that to say all that to say, yeah, 781 00:57:38,519 --> 00:57:44,039 I I I'm mentioning all of this because it's important that we don't over idealize, 782 00:57:44,960 --> 00:57:47,280 uh that say, I'm getting ahead of myself on like two or three 783 00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:53,360 videos at even even trying to talk about Ireland is like like yeah, like 784 00:57:53,519 --> 00:57:57,880 it's just like it's one of those things where symbolism happens. Like even trying 785 00:57:57,920 --> 00:58:01,039 to like make notes or make an outline and for today's video was just like 786 00:58:01,239 --> 00:58:05,159 so impossible because I had all these little things kind of popping up as I 787 00:58:05,320 --> 00:58:07,719 was trying to write. But the thing, the thing that I would say 788 00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:10,079 is it's important not to when it comes to kill the Christianity things like that. 789 00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:15,639 First of all, we know almost nothing about it because it didn't survive. 790 00:58:15,239 --> 00:58:19,880 And the second thing is that it's important not to over idealize these things 791 00:58:20,079 --> 00:58:22,760 of them because there is a kind of one of the things that comes with 792 00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:28,639 the symbolism of being on the edge is that you are you do tend towards 793 00:58:28,679 --> 00:58:32,039 certain kinds of extremes. Yeah, and those extremes are very often unhealthy. 794 00:58:34,159 --> 00:58:37,519 But what's beautiful about it, what's what's really wonderful about it is its capacity 795 00:58:37,679 --> 00:58:43,719 to preserve right so that you can have these these things like what's good from 796 00:58:43,800 --> 00:58:47,320 the previous ages, even the celt the pagan past, like the things that 797 00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:52,480 are good about that have this capacity to be carried forward in a way that 798 00:58:52,519 --> 00:58:57,119 they weren't, for instance, in medieval France. And to pick something that's 799 00:58:57,159 --> 00:59:01,360 at the center. Yeah, yeah, because medieval civilization is mostly French, 800 00:59:01,760 --> 00:59:07,239 so give them their do there. So so maybe that's a good place to 801 00:59:07,800 --> 00:59:10,440 think. So, I mean, it's a great introduction. Yeah, And 802 00:59:10,880 --> 00:59:14,920 again I apologize that this is so scattered, like it is difficult to talk 803 00:59:14,960 --> 00:59:17,559 about like it is. It is truly like there's partly because there's so much 804 00:59:17,639 --> 00:59:21,199 material and it's just so all over the place. It's just all over the 805 00:59:21,239 --> 00:59:23,119 place. But what I want to do in future videos is we're going to 806 00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:30,079 do another video or two looking at some specific examples from Irish mythology. I 807 00:59:30,199 --> 00:59:32,800 want to look at the and then look at the colloquy of the ancients, 808 00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:36,880 and then introduce the Ulster cycle, which is like the big again, this 809 00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:42,480 is like the like the Irish Iliad, and then uh and then after that 810 00:59:42,679 --> 00:59:47,599 we'll move on to looking at the kind of the ways that the British Isles 811 00:59:47,639 --> 00:59:52,519 were converted, starting with the which happened in like multiple happened multiple times, 812 00:59:52,639 --> 00:59:57,079 like you know, Christianity, the religions and Ice they did it twice, 813 00:59:57,320 --> 01:00:00,679 Like it's going to be there's going to be you know, there's like the 814 01:00:00,760 --> 01:00:04,599 Celtic conversion, and then there's multiple waves for the Anglo Saxon conversion. And 815 01:00:04,639 --> 01:00:07,239 I'm going to look at all of that in a lot of details. So 816 01:00:07,840 --> 01:00:09,880 that's probably gonna be like five videos. So everybody just like, you know, 817 01:00:10,239 --> 01:00:13,000 buckle and be patient. We're going to get to all of it, 818 01:00:14,159 --> 01:00:19,519 and hopefully by the end you'll understand why I'm so terrified of talking about about 819 01:00:19,559 --> 01:00:22,360 all of this stuff. But at the same time, like there's something about 820 01:00:22,360 --> 01:00:25,320 it that that is really like like I said, I mean, there's something 821 01:00:25,360 --> 01:00:29,800 about even the kitchen. There's something about even the kitch that's like really durable. 822 01:00:30,440 --> 01:00:34,559 And you know, especially as Americans, when we so often don't have 823 01:00:34,679 --> 01:00:37,760 a sense of where we're from or for who we are, I think that's 824 01:00:37,840 --> 01:00:40,880 part of part of you know, the Celts as like the sort of the 825 01:00:42,199 --> 01:00:46,960 perpetual underdogs and you know the only people who who have ever you know, 826 01:00:47,079 --> 01:00:51,119 well not the only people, but like one of one of the few people 827 01:00:51,159 --> 01:00:53,760 groups who have ever become famous through losing, you know, like like you 828 01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:58,400 know, over and over again, you know. But there's something there's something 829 01:00:58,440 --> 01:01:02,960 about that that that took root here in American soil, like very early on, 830 01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:08,199 very early on. So my ancestors I on one side of the family 831 01:01:08,280 --> 01:01:10,800 it's sort of like English Quakers, and the other side of the family it's 832 01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:15,760 like Scotch Scotch Irish. And the funny story that I'll end with is that 833 01:01:16,639 --> 01:01:21,519 when the Quakers were settling, they were settling too close to the the the 834 01:01:21,920 --> 01:01:24,039 the Indians, the Native Americans. They were settling too post on the worse, 835 01:01:24,079 --> 01:01:30,000 Quakers are pacifists and Native Americans less so and so and so they said, 836 01:01:30,039 --> 01:01:34,639 what can we do about this? And so that's when you have these 837 01:01:34,880 --> 01:01:38,639 massive waves of immigration from Ireland and Scotland coming and because what they figured out 838 01:01:38,840 --> 01:01:45,599 was we could get all of these Scotch Irish. And there there's a group 839 01:01:45,679 --> 01:01:51,239 called the Ulster Scots who are basically Scotts who settled in Ireland for a little 840 01:01:51,280 --> 01:01:53,679 while and then came over to the US. And that's my family basically. 841 01:01:54,679 --> 01:01:59,440 And they basically said we're going to get them to come and settle between US 842 01:01:59,559 --> 01:02:04,239 and the Native of Americans between US, so that so that they I think, 843 01:02:04,480 --> 01:02:06,920 we won't have to deal with it. And so you know, very 844 01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:14,639 fast for us. That's basically why Appalachia here in the US, like, 845 01:02:14,760 --> 01:02:16,599 that's why it is what it is, that's why it exists. And uh, 846 01:02:17,159 --> 01:02:22,239 and we just got back from a trip through Appalachia, you know, 847 01:02:22,360 --> 01:02:25,199 as a family. And and the the fun thing is that geologists will tell 848 01:02:25,239 --> 01:02:30,400 you that that range of mountains is the same as the Scottish Islands, like 849 01:02:30,599 --> 01:02:34,719 back when all the continents were all together. It's like one contiguous range ranch 850 01:02:34,760 --> 01:02:38,119 of mountains that split off. And Appalachia is the that is deep place in 851 01:02:38,199 --> 01:02:44,480 the United States where you can still run into ferries. Well that is the 852 01:02:44,559 --> 01:02:46,320 best place to finish for sure. So I'm going to stop right there, 853 01:02:46,599 --> 01:02:51,960 all right, everyone, And so get ready we're going to have several episodes 854 01:02:52,639 --> 01:02:57,400 of the University and then I am definitely already crazy, guys. It's going 855 01:02:57,440 --> 01:03:00,360 to be crazy, all right everyone. And so it was wonderful. Thanks 856 01:03:00,440 --> 01:03:04,039 Richard again, thanks for taking us on these trips. I love it and 857 01:03:04,239 --> 01:03:07,280 I know everybody else does, so thanks a lot. Yep. If you 858 01:03:07,400 --> 01:03:12,760 enjoyed these videos and podcasts, Please go to the Symbolic world dot com website 859 01:03:12,880 --> 01:03:15,840 and see how you can support what we're doing. There are multiple subscriber tiers 860 01:03:15,880 --> 01:03:20,280 with perks. There are apparel and books to purchase, So go to the 861 01:03:20,320 --> 01:03:22,079 symbolic world dot com and thank you for your support.