Stories From The Otherworld

Ancient Tales from the Celtic Lands

Volume 2. Tales of Love & Transformation

Classic love stories of passion and beauty that also illustrate the Celtic fascination with crossing the borders between humankind and the Faerie world.

Tam Lin

This story is adapted from the Scottish ballad of the same name, of which many versions exist from the Border country to Aberdeenshire. Janet, the fiercely independent heroine, is witness to the `Faery Rade' or ride, at Hallowe'en: the time-between-times when the gates are wide open between the Otherworld and our own.

The Story of Deirdre

Known as one of the `Three Sorrowful Tales of Erin', the tragedy of Deirdre and Naisi is one of the best-loved Irish sagas. Versions can be found dating from the 8th century, and yet the story can still be heard in remote districts of Ireland and Scotland today.

The Wooing of Etain

One of the great Irish faery love stories, `The Wooing of Etain' dates from the 9th century and deals mainly with the Tuatha De Danaan, the early inhabitants of Ireland and great masters of magic who, when they were conquered by invaders, withdrew into underworld dwellings and became those whom we know as the Faery folk.

The story can also be understood as an allegory of the incarnation of the Soul into physical form, its sojourns on earth, and the eventual remembering of its true nature, that sends it soaring Home again with the Beloved.

The Mother of Oisin

A tale of the Fenian heroes, this is one of many Irish stories in which shapeshifting from human to animal form occurs. The deer motif may hark back to the time when each tribe had its animal totem, for the original name of Finn himself - Demne - also means `deer'.

In Celtic myth, women often withdraw into Otherworldly realms where they cannot be followed: the one who, like Finn, is left behind, may be seen as each one of us in the modern world, sorrowing for our lost connection with the feminine spirit of the Sacred Earth.