Hey everyone, Welcome to Blurry Photos. I'm your host, David Flora.
Welcome. This is I guess, the official kickoff to season twelve super Late,
and we usually start as this tradition with a slurry photos a drinking episode
where I have some guinness and Jamison, we talk about fun topic of Irish
lore, and that's what we're doing, except well, I didn't make it
through the slurry photos portion. I will have what I did at the end
of this episode, after everything's said and done, so if you'd like to
hear the slurry photos that almost was stick around to the very very end after
the music and everything. That's because I was in a very toasty spot with
it. And then about halfway through the episode I got hit with about of
hiccups that no joke lasted about half an hour, and by then I was
so worn out I basically just passed out. It spiraled from there, let's
just say, super annoying, unfortunate. It's taken me forever to write this
episode and get it recorded and then you know all that, and then since
then, I've been sick. There's a wildfire near us, so the air
quality has been crap. My voice has been crap. This episode might be
cursed. I don't know, but anyways, I'll get back to the scripted
hand. We're doing some Irish mythological artifacts in this one. It's not going
to go as deep as the Devil episode did. It's just a fun list
and we're going to go through some mythology from our Irish, Celtic and Scottish
friends. Maybe some Welsh thrown in there too, we'll see, but we'll
mainly be talking about artifacts, weapons, instruments and items that figure into stories
and legends of the Emerald Dial and beyond. We'll get you started shortly.
Let me update you with what's going on in the Blurry Photos world. I've
slowed down my production of episodes. As you can tell, I'm not dead,
but I have paused my Patreon because I'm not putting out as much content
now. If you did still want to support my creative endeavors, please join
the patreon quiz Quizbang Bang, the trivia show I do with my wife Hanny.
That's a great way to support Coffee Kofi dot com, Slash Blurry Photos
or slash Quizbang Pod. That'd be a great way to help, and I'm
excited to announce I've started a new podcast I didn't have enough to do,
in collaboration with author Tom Lyons, for whom I narrate audiobooks, and this
new podcast is five Minute Frights, short weekly episodes of frightening encounters compiled and
edited by Tom and narrated and produced by So please subscribe to it, leave
me a five star review. All that good stuff. I think you guys
will enjoy it. They're really just little bite size things. It's all narrative,
storytelling, narration. Again, that's five minute Frights. It might do
better in the search if you type in the number five and then minute frights.
Secondly, one reason I've been so busy lately is I've started a new
theater company here in beautiful and weird Crested Butte, Colorado. It's called Firebird
Theater Company, and I will be producing and directing Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the
beginning of September. I'm very excited for this, and if you'll be around
the area at that time, please drop me a line and find out more
info. You can also go to FIREBIRDSCB dot com to check out what we're
doing and follow us on the socials. We've got links at the bottom of
the page for that that'll help the theater get going. So that's fun.
And one more thing, Sorry this is taking so long. There's a lot
of new I haven't talked to you guys in a while. So the film
shadows in the desert, high strangeness in the Brego Triangle. The film is
premiering on August seventeenth in Idlewild, California. We are awaiting the word of
when this is going to stream, and by that we're thinking Amazon to be
those kinds of channels. I don't know if Hulus on there, but not
Netflix about everything else really, and we've been told the fall maybe October,
maybe sooner, but the streaming is just a couple months away. You guys
will finally get to see what has taken up the last four years of work
in life, and we're very excited about that. The film will also be
in Crested Butte at the Movie Theater here on September sixteenth. If you're around,
please come see it then. And it is going to be in Joplin,
Missouri, at the Joplin Theater, running for a week starting September eighth.
We are also working on trying to get it into more little indie theaters
anywhere. If you guys have any connections or know of any that we should
reach out to or anything like that, please drop me a line. Let
me know. Probably the best place to do that would be either Facebook,
Messenger, email, and I'll try and check the contact form in the next
week or two. So exciting stuff all around, super busy stuff. Everything
is just tied me up. But here we are. Let's get into this
episode, and again apologies for voice quality and not being super slurry. Now.
Mythologies around the world are rife with heroes, monsters, and fantastical lands,
but none of that would shine quite as brightly without the accoutrement that help
heroes slay the monsters, travel the lands, and perform supernatural acts. Zeus
had thunderbolts forged by the giants with one eye. The cyclopeas plural as imagined
by the poet Hesiod. Thor had his hammer mulenier. King Arthur had excalibur.
The mythology of the British Isles has many objects of power and wonder,
including the aforementioned excalibur. We'll discuss three types of mythical objects. Objects of
war, objects of benevolence, and objects of nobility, And for the interest
of time, I'll only do five from each of those categories, because I
have found many, especially weapons, and we'd be here all night if I
did them all, plus it would take forever to write out, and I'm
already so far behind. We'll focus mainly on Ireland and throwing some Scottish,
maybe some Welsh stuff in there if there's time. We'll discuss several weapons and
artifacts, what they did, who wielded them, and just have a fun
time reveling in mythology. So let's get to it. Translated as the Sword
of Light, the Clive Soulish was a mystical weapon said to possess the power
to defeat evil and bring victory to its wielder. In Irish and Gaelic folk
tales, it's both associated with deities and featured in tales of heroic quests,
it being the prize sought after The thirteenth Son of the King of Erin and
Widow's Son are both tales that feature a hero who needs to find the sword
as part of a marriage agreement. There have also been arguments made of it
being a type of grail object in tails something quested for and or an object
of great significance and symbolism. But the most entertaining descriptions of the Clive Soulish
involve its inclusion as one of the four treasures of the Tuaya da Dana,
early deities of Irish mythology brought with them in their conquest of Ireland. The
four treasures are magical items, which I'll be discussing as we go along here.
The first up is this one, the sword of Light from the city
of Phineas associated with the first king of the Twyddanon, Nuada. It was
said no one ever escaped from it once it was drawn from its sheath,
and no one could resist. It was also described as Nuada's connell or Nuda's
torch. Now, there are so many swords in Irish mythology we could do
a whole episode on just them, but for now I'll leave you with just
one more. Orna was the fearsome, magical sword of the Fomorian king Tehra.
The Fomorians were the evil race of beings defeated by the Twyddanon, and
Tehra was thought as the Femorians generally were to be associated with the sea.
His sword Orna translated as little green, probably due to its color, and
while formidable as a weapon wielded by a formidable warrior, nonetheless came into the
possession of the god Ogma after Tethra was defeated at the Second Battle of moy
Torah. Upon being unsheathed, Orna began to speak and told of all the
deeds it had accomplished in its lifetime. I'm just guessing that a ton of
D and D magical items and ideas came from mythologies just like this one.
You have sentient swords, swords that can talk, albeit telepathically, flaming swords,
all kinds. It's just fun. One of the most famous implements used
by the warrior deity Lou was the gay Assail aka the Lightning Spear. It
was an amazing weapon wielded by Lou in his many battles, and it was
considered one of the Four Treasures, like the Sword of Light, and was
said to be forged in the city of Gorrius. According to folklorist Whitley Stokes,
out of Gorrius was brought the spear that Lou had. No battle was
ever won against it or him who held it. In his hand. It
was said to have a shaft of you would and never missed its mark.
With a word of command, it could also return to its owner's hand,
and according to folklore's Charles Squire, the spear had such a thirst for blood
its tip had to be kept in a draft of poppy leaves to keep it
sleepy. Once unleashed in battle, fire flashed from it, and it never
tired of slaying. I just love that there's a spear that you had to
basically knock out with heroin and it just spends all day chase in the dragon
in the form of just killing dudes. Swords and spears were but some of
the trappings of magical war items. How about protective stuff? Oken was a
magical shield of Connor mcnessa, a king in the Ulster cycle of Irish mythology,
translated as Moner and sometimes ear of Beauty. Oken had four gold borders
and was said to moan aloud when its wielder was in danger. Ohmer clank
honor. When the previous king of Ulster, Fergus, had been tricked out
of his kingship by Connor, Fergus met him in battle. According to the
tale quote therewith, Fergus gave three stout blows on the oaken of Connor,
so that Connor's shield cried aloud on him, and the three chief waves of
Erin gave answer. Whenever Connor's shield cried out, the shields of all the
Ulsterman cried out. However great the strength and power with which Fergus smote Connor
on the shield, So great also was the might and valor wherewith Connor held
the shield, so that the ear of the shield did not even touch the
ear of Connor. Quote. The last item of war weaponry is basically the
horn of gondor, a circular horn of magical effect. It was found by
Finn mccool's son Ocean, after a trip to the fabled land of tyrnan Ogue.
Under a great stone in a field did Ocean find the horn, which
circled round like a seashell. And it was the rule that when any of
the Finians of Erin blew the Boriboo, the other mythical warriors of Ireland would
assemble at once from whatever part of the country they might be in at the
time. No word on whether or not four of those warriors were hobbits moving
along to objects of benevolence, these are things that weren't meant specifically for war,
but instead for the good of many and sometimes individuals. Here and there,
we'll start with another horn. The Horn of Bran comes from Welsh tradition,
and like the Spear of Loo and sort of Light are part of the
four Treasures of the Tui da Dana, this horn is part of a bigger
collection. The Thirteen of the Island of Britain are a set of items from
late medieval Welsh folklore and included utensils, weapons, clothes, and various other
kuchiman, all with some kind of magical power. We could probably do an
episode on them some day as well, but for now we'll focus on one
in particular, the Horn of Bran. Galad Brand the stingy Brand from Cumbria,
who is a separate character from that of Brand the Blessed, the Giant
Welsh King of Britain. Brand Glad was the owner of a horn that was
pretty much a cornucopia, for it was described that quote the drink and food
that one asked one received in it when one desired end quote. Some sources
say it was only drink that was furnished, but any drink one desired.
One legend has ties to the Welsh Bardic hero Merthin, a figure later parlayed
into the Arthurian Merlin. Merthin tried to gather the thirteen treasures together for say
keeping, and was told that he could have twelve of them if he could
obtain the horn from Brand Gilead. Such was Brand's infamy for stinginess. Somehow
Merdan accomplished the task and took all the treasures to the quote unquote glass house,
where they remained to this day. Some writers of the tales about the
horn traced its origin to Hercules in Roman myth, saying it was removed from
a centaur slain by the hero before Hercules himself was slain by the centaur's wife.
Following up this well shared effect with a similar Irish one, and our
third treasure of the twy d Danon, we have the Koreansic the cauldron of
the Dagda. This one's pretty straightforward. The Dagda was the chief god of
the twy d Danon, representing fertility, wisdom, and life and death.
His cauldron, brought from the city of Murius, never ran empty, and
none that attended gatherings and were served from it, ever went away unsatisfied.
The Dagda had other goodies in his bag of tricks, one of which was
a harp called Ugya. This harp was said to control seasons and emotions of
people who heard it from the book Gods and Fighting Men by folklorist Lady Gregory.
After the second Battle of Moytura, Lou and the Dagda and Ogma followed
after the from war, for they had brought away the Dagdas harp with them,
that was called the Uuya. And they came to a feasting house,
and in it they found Brez and his father elephant, and there was the
harp hanging on the wall. And it was in that harp the Dagda had
bound the music so that it would not sound until he would call to it.
And sometimes it was called dr de Blah the Oak of two glosses,
and sometimes kor kathar Kun the four angled music. And when he saw it
hanging on the wall, this is what he said, come summer, come
winter from the mouth of harps and bags and pipes. Then the harps sprang
from the wall and came to the Dakta and had killed nine men on its
way. And then he played for them the three things harpers understand, the
sleepy tune, and the laughing tune, and the crying tube. And when
he played the crying tune, their tearful women cried. And then he played
the laughing tube till their women and children laughed. And then he played the
sleepy tune, and all the hosts fell asleep, and through that sleep the
three went away through the famor that would have been glad to harm them.
Next on the list is the fete fiata, a magical mist veil or cloak
used to shield the wielder from human eyes. It's a literal cloak of invisibility
and was said to have been used by the Toy de Dana and also the
warrior king of the Other world, Mananon McLear, to conceal the she from
humans. McLear, and the toy, it seems, could use this cloak
individually or to hide whole islands Menanon cloaks the Isle of Man in particular.
Now it's debated whether or not his name was taken from the island's name or
vice versa fun fact, but the cloak he used protected the island by keeping
it from being seen and thus safe from outside influence, invaders and such.
The cloak also had the amazing power to erase memory. Menanon had his wife
stolen by the Irish warrior Kukolan, but was able to get her back by
placing the cloak between his wife and Kuklan, which erased their memory of each
other. Pretty powerful little artifact. Now here's a little different offering for the
artifact. List a fish that held the knowledge of the world. The salmon
of knowledge comes to us from the Finian cycle of Irish mythology, that is,
the stories of the mythical hero Fion McCool. The story goes that a
normal run of the mill salmon once ate nine hazel nuts that had fallen from
nine hazel trees surrounding the Well of Wisdom, the mythical source of the River
Shannon. This granted the salmon all the world's knowledge, which meant anyone who
were to eat the salmon would then themselves gain that knowledge. The legendary poet
and teacher of Fiann finn Echis sought this salmon for himself and spent seven years
fishing for it, and one day he caught it tired from fishing so much
that day, he gave it to Fionn to cook up for him, with
the explicit instruction to not taste of it. First. Fion cooked the fish,
but while it was cooking, a small bubble rose just under its skin,
which Fian poked with his finger. The bubble burst, scalding him,
and he quickly stuck his thumb in his mouth to ease the pain. Suddenly
the knowledge of the world was opened to him. When the fish was done,
he gave it to Finn to eat, but Finn noticed the shine in
Fionn's eyes, and after Fion explained what had happened, Finn knew the boy
had received the wisdom of the fish and gave him the rest to eat.
From then on, Fion needed only to bite his thumb to gain insight about
a particular topic. The Salmon of Knowledge has also been linked to a couple
of fellas by the name of Finton mcbocra the Wyse and Tuan McCarroll in a
more christianized telling of the story, with lots of shape shifting and a hawk.
Our last section for this episode deals with objects of nobility. There have
been many items and artifacts of lore and reality connected to Irish kings and queens.
Here are five. The Leah Fall or Stone of Fall is a still
standing monolith located on the Hill of Tera in County Meath. The Hill of
Terra is the traditional place of inauguration and seat of the High Kings of Ireland.
It's a place where ancient ceremonial rites and burials were performed, with many
monuments, mounds and tombs, and the Lea Fall is there at the top.
Also known as the Stone of Destiny and the Speaking Stone, the Lea
Fall is said to have been brought to Ireland from the city of Thallius by
the Toua da Danon as the last of the four Treasures. There are conflicting
accounts that say it's the same thing as the Stone of Schoon, a big
block of red sandstone that Kings of Scotland and England sat upon while being crowned.
Those accounts, rich in tales of stealing the stone back and forth between
Ireland and Scotland, aren't quite as fantastical as the Tuia stories. But seeing
as how the Stone of Schoon is in England just used by King Charles,
and the Leaphal is on the Hill of Tera. It's probably a good chance
that they're two separate stones. Well, Leaphal has said to roar and joy
when the rightful King of Ireland put his feet upon it, and also granted
him a long reign. Some accounts say it shrieks a number of times that
correspond to the number of descendants who would be king as well. Associated with
the sovereignty of Irish kings was the Cup of Sovereignty. It was believed that
the rightful king or queen could drink from the cup and receive divine blessings and
legitimacy. It appears in a tale about the hero Khan of the Hundred Battles.
Lost in a mist, a rider appeared and guided Khan to a beautiful
castle. There he met the lord of the castle, who had a beautiful
maiden beside him on a crystal throne. She filled a golden cup with mead
and asked the lord to whom shall this cup be given to which the replied
Khan of the Hundred Battles, thereby conferring kingship to him. The lord of
the castle was actually the god lou and the maiden the Goddess of Sovereignty.
The next item did not confer sovereignty or grant long reign. Instead, it
foretold the end of a king's time in this world. Ibel's harp was a
shimmering gold instrument played by the fairy guardian and sometimes goddess of love and loss.
Ibel. Her playing was lovely and haunting, but ultimately a harbinger of
death. Whoever heard it would die shortly after she played it for Brian Boru
on the eve of his death and the Battle of Clontarf. She played it
before the hero Kuklan fell in battle. Ibel's harp is banshee like in its
foretelling of doom. We get a little more esoteric with the silver branch or
silver bow featured in the tale im rum Brand Voyage of Bran. It's a
tree branch of white apple blossoms that is given to the King Bran mcfabele by
a mysterious old woman. She sang of her magical homeland and then parted ways,
with the tree branch magically flying back to her hand. Brand set off
to find this land called the Land of Women, where it's always spring and
without disease or despair, and let's be honest, probably the land where shit
gets done. The tale is a classic voyage tale, wherein the hero sets
off discovers a way into the fairy realm, time passes in the human realm,
magic sailing off, etc. The branch parallels other myths of being an
object given to a king or hero in order for them to be admitted into
the other world. A similar story involves the legendary king Cormac McCart, who
was given a silver branch by Mannanon mcclear. This branch had three golden apples,
which in some accounts created music to soothe pains and illness, and in
others caused people to forget their woes. Finally, we end on a weapon
again, but one of king lay significance kalidvolg This was the legendary sword of
the King of Fergus Mcroch in the Ulster cycle. There are a couple of
magical properties associated with it, like a connection to lightning, having an arc
as big as a rainbow, and it's use by Fergus to cut off the
three bald top hills of County Meath near the Hill of Terra. Arguably the
most interesting aspect of this item, however, is its connection to a much
more famous sword that is associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain, Excalibur.
The name Excalibur derives from the Welsh name Kalidfulch, and some, though not
all, scholars think that name could either be derived from or have roots in
the name kalid Vogue, caled Volks, kalid Vogue. It's pretty close,
and we'll leave the different ways. Arthur came by the famous blade for a
re Listen to episode ninety nine where we gotta find King alf So, My
lords and ladies. There you go, a list of mythological items of Celtic
flavor in a not as tipsy lethal musical nutshell and now the object that groans
in agony when touched puns. There's a pub that summons all the great drinkers
and dive bar regulars nightly. I'm guessing once you open the door, it
sends out a blast to them all, and that is the boy or a
brew. There's another one you can use for two scoops of raisins and cereal
that will feed everyone for breakfast and bring an Irish army to your aid after
eating it. The Horn of Raisin brand. All right, I wrote these
whilst drunk, Sorry and thanks for making it this far. You guys are
great. Thank you. Please keep up to date with what's going on by
checking out the Facebook page and make sure to subscribe to all the shows,
Play your Photos, Quiz, Quizbang Bang, Hysteria fifty one and five Minute
Frights. Again, thank you for listening. I really appreciate it. Now
after this, if you want to hear how the show probably should have gone
or almost went before I got attacked by hiccups and just getting too drunk,
stick around after the music for this episode of Blurry Photos. I've been David.
I literally spelled my name wrong because I was drunk when I wrote this.
Flora, don't stop blurriding. Hello and welcome to the twelfth season of
Blurry Photos. We did it a butcher's doesn't, which which is just like
everybody everyone else's doesn't. Hey, I'm David, Florida. Welcome, and
let me explain our season kickoff is always celebrated with a drinking episode and a
fun topic of Irish mythology, as is the custom since season two back in
twenty thirteen, ten years ago. Can believe it. Good grief. So
I've been in and I've been inbibing Jamison and Guinness today, And if you're
not driving or dog sitting, I invite you to raise a glass with me
and toast to another year of podcast madness slauncha. And if you're new to
listening, I only do a drinking episode once a year, so rest assured.
This is not the norm. Listen to some other things. Don't start
with this anyway. The episode won't be as deep a dive as Say the
Devil was. Rather, it's gonna be more a a fun list list of
stuff and explaining a bit of mythology. It's more going through a fun list
of explaining a bit of mythology from our Irish, Celtic and Scottish friends.
Maybe some Welsh thrown in there as well. We'll see. We'll be talking
about mainly Irish mythological artifacts and weapons, instruments, items that figure into stories
and legends of the Emerald Isle and beyond onto the topic. Mythologies around the
world are rife with heroes, monsters and fantastical lands, but none of that
would shine quite as brightly without the accoutrema that help heroes slay the monsters,
travel lands and performs pernatural acts. Think about it. Zeus had his thunderbolts
forged by the giants with one eye. The Cyclops or a Cyclopes as imagined
by the poet Hesiod. Thor had his hammer Muelner. King Arthur had Excalibur.
Oh, keep that on the backburn. The mythology of the British Isles
has many objects of power and wonder, including the aforementioned excalibur. We'll discuss
three types of mythological mythical objects, objects of war, objects of benevolence,
and objects of nobility. And for the interest of time Jesus, I'll only
do five from each of those categories, because well, I've found many and
especially weapons, and we'd be here all night if I did them all.
We're already gonna be here all night. Jeez. Yeah, this episode is
supposed to come out of March. What am I doing. We'll focus on
mainly Ireland, throwing some Scottish, maybe some Welsh stuff here and there.
If it's time, we'll discuss several artifacts and weapons and what they did,
who wielded them. You know, we'll just have a fun time reveling in
mythology, right, boy, I haven't been this drunk from a season kickoff
episode in a while. I thank you for sticking with this. There's gonna
be fun information. Bear with me. You're great, thank you. Let's
get to this. Start with the objects objects of war, all right,
we'll begin with objects of war. Clive Soulish translated as the Sword of Light.
This mystic weapon was said to possess a power to defeat evil and bring
victory to its wielder man. That's pretty hand pretty and in Irish and gay
like folk tales. It's both associated with deities and featured in tales of heroic
quests, it being the prize sought after. The thirteenth Son of the King
of Erin and Widow's Son are both tales that feature a hero who needs to
find the sword as a part of a marriage agreement. There have also been
arguments made of it being a type of Grail object in tales, something quested
for and or an object of great significance and symbolism. A side note,
as this is off script. I found a lot of these. There's a
lot of things that are associated with the Holy Grail, things of that nature
that are so exalted. That's that's a word I just thought of with my
brain. But it's it's pretty interesting thing that things that people quested for quested
for the most entertaining descriptions of the Clive Soulish. The most entertaining involved its
inclusion as one of the four Treasures of Tuaiddanon twa early deities of Irish mythology
brought with them in the conquest of Ireland. The four treasures are magical items
which I'll be describing as we go along here and the first stop is this
the sword of light from the city of Phineas, associated with the first king
of the Twyaddanon, whose name was Nuada. It was said no one ever
escaped from it the sword once it was drawn from its sheath, and no
one could resist it. It was also described as nuit as connell or nuitous
torch. Think of it as a sword. You draw it, it springs
to life and light. Fiery, h it'll, it'll f the up.
Pooh, this is the Clive Soulish. Awesome. There's so much else the
detail wise to do this word hit what is this? Fifteen fifteen things fast
and loose? Here, next one is orna. There are so many swords,
are so many swords in Irish mythology. We could do a whole episode
on them, but for now, I'll leave you with just one more sword.
Well, yeah, there's some more coming up for now. Orna was
the fearsome, magical sword of the Fomorian king Tethra. The Fomorians were a
and the It's an evil race of beings defeated by the Twya Didna, and
Tethera was thought as the Fomorians generally were to be associated with the sea.
His sword Orna translated as little green, probably due to its color. Was
it copper? Did it get oxidized? What did the green copper did?
And while formidable as a weapon wielded by a formidable warrior, it nonetheless came
into the possession of the god Ogma after Tethera was defeated at the Second Battle
of Moytura. Upon being unsheathed, Orna began to speak and told of all
the deeds it had accomplished in its lifetime. So it was a talking sword
telling about everybody it had killed. Basically, wow, how do you shut
that up? Next? One one of the most famous implements used by the
warrior deity Lou Lou has come up before. If you're familiar with our past
Irish episodes. Lou of the Long Arm, a god one of the twi
a a enon the Gay Assail aka the Lightning Spear, was an amazing weapon
wielded by Lou in his many battles. It was considered again one of the
Four Treasures, like the Sword of Light, and was forged in the city
of Gorias. We'll be coming back. I'm going to hit all the four
treasures. Don't worry. Don't you fret? Maybe, According to folklorist Whitley
Stokes, out of Gorrius was brought the spear that Lou had. No battle
was ever won against it or him who held it in his hand. It
was said to have a shaft of you would and never missed its mark.
With a word of command, it could also return to his owner's hand,
and according to folkloris Charles Squire, the spear had such a thirst for blood
its tip had to be kept in a draft of poppy leaves to keep it
sleepy. Once unleashed and battle, the fire flashed from it, and it
never tired of slaying. Man. What a weapon you had. Basically you
had to keep it addicted to heroin until you're ready to use it and then
it just it couldn't get enough of killing. Wow. The next up swords
and spears were but some of the trappings of magical war items. Hey,
how about protective stuff. Okan was a magical shield of Connor mcnessa, a
king in the Ulcra cycle of Irish mythology, translated as Moner and sometimes ear
of beauty. Oken had four gold borders and was said to moan aloud when
it's wielder was in danger. When the previous king of Ulster named Fergus had
been tricked out of his kingship by Connor, Fergus met him in battle.
According to the tail quote, therewith Fergus gave three stout blows on the Okan
of Connor, so that Connor shield cried aloud on him, and the three
chief waves of Aaron gave answer. Whenever Connor shield cried out, the shields
of all the ulsterman crowd out. However great the strength and power with which
Fergus smote Connor on the shield. So great also was the might and valor
wherewith Connor held the shield, so that the ear of the shield did not
even touch the ear of Connor. It was a good shield and when it
was hit, it cried out and summoned people to the fight. That's what
you need to know. That's okan thorn o'kenshield. Right next one we got
the last item of weaponry. Is is basically the horn of gondor a circular
horn of magical effect. It was it's called Boraboo, was found by Finn
mccool's son Ocean, after a trip to the fabled land of Tiernanogue. I
don't know if we've ever covered tiernanog on blurry photos could be its own episode.
I bet Tiernanogue under a great stone in a field did Ocean find the
horn, which circled round like a seashell. And it was the rule that
when any of the Finnians of Aaron blew the Boraboo, the other mythical warriors
of Ireland would assembol at once from whatever part of the country there might be
in at the time. No word on whether or not four of those warriors
were hobbits. Horn of horn of Gondo, Boraboo, horn that summoned warriors
to fight. Boy oh boy cool. Moving along to objects of benevolence,
these are things that weren't meant specifically for war. But instead for the good
of many sometimes individuals here and there. So let's start with another horn.
We just ended with one. Let's let's go all right on into another.
Horn of Brand comes from Welsh tradition, and like the Spear of Loo and
the sort of Light are part of the four Treasures of the Tuya Dadanan,
this horn is a part of a bigger collection. It's interesting. The Thirteen
Treasures of the Island of Britain are a set of items from late medieval Welsh
folklore and include utensils, weapons, clothes, various other kutuma, all with
some kind of magical power. And you know, we could probably do a
whole episode on them someday as well Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain,
but for now we'll focus on this one in particular, the horn of Bran
Galad Brand the stingy Brand from Cumbria, who has a separate character from that
of Brand the Blessed, the giant Welsh King of Britain. Don't get them
twisted. Brand Galad was the owner of a horn that was pretty much a
cornucopia, for it was described that quote, the drink and food that one
asked one received in it when one desired end quote. Some sources say it
was only drink that was furnished, but any drink that one desired. Hey,
you wanna Mohito, ask the horn of Brand. Man. You want
a can of Milwaukee's best, go for it. Bro. One legend has
ties to the Welsh Bardic hero Mrthin, a figure later Parlett parlayed into the
Arthurian Merlin. Hello, go back to episode. I don't know what thirteen
or something for that whatever. Merthin tried to gather the thirteen Treasures of Great
Britain together for safekeeping, and was told that he could have twelve of them
if he could obtain the horn from Brand Galad, such was his infamy for
stinginess Brand. Somehow Merdin accomplished the task and took all the treasures to the
quote unquote glass house, where they remained to this day. Some writers at
the tales about the horn traced its origin get thus two Hercules in Roman myth,
saying it was removed from a centaur slain by the hero before Hercules himself
was slain by the centaur's wife. What a pedigree, jeez, oh, why why