List of Illustrations ix Abbreviations xi Preface xiii Guide to Pronunciation xxi PART ONE 1 Hidden Beginnings: From Cult to Conversion 3 2 Earthly Gods: Pagan Deities, Christian Meanings 30 3 Divine Culture: Exemplary Gods and the Mythological Cycle 72 4 New Mythologies: Pseudohistory and the Lore of Poets 128 5 Vulnerability and Grace: The Finn Cycle 194 6 Damaged Gods: The Late Middle Ages 248 PART TWO 7 The Imagination of the Country: Towards a National Pantheon 277 8 Danaan Mysteries: Occult Nationalism and the Divine Forms 310 9 Highland Divinities: The Celtic Revival in Scotland 361 10 Coherence and Canon: The Fairy Faith and the East 406 11 Gods of the Gap: A World Mythology 434 12 Artgods 489 Acknowledgements 503 Glossary of Technical Terms 507 Conspectus of Medieval Sources 511 Works Cited 517 Index 557
Mark Williams is the Simon and June Li Fellow in the Humanities and Tutor in English at Lincoln College, University of Oxford, where he teaches medieval Irish, Welsh, and English literature. He is the author of Fiery Shapes: Celestial Portents and Astrology in Ireland and Wales, 700-1700.
Honorable Mention for the 2017 PROSE Award in Literature, Association of American Publishers "[A] fascinating history and in Mark Williams's Ireland's Immortals it has found a magnificent historian. Williams ... is equally at home in the arcana of Old Irish texts and modern English-language writing, and it is this range of erudition that has allowed him to write the first full overview of the long twilight of the Irish gods. Ireland's Immortals is not just a history of their afterlife--it deserves to be seen as itself a part of that history."--Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books "Scholars and researchers will leap to add [Ireland's Immortals] to their collections."--Publishers Weekly "Imaginative, well-written, and full of interesting information and insights about the elusive Irish gods... Williams's book is a magnificent and exciting undertaking."--Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Irish Times "[E]xcellent... [T]he writing ... makes [Ireland's Immortals] a book that can be enjoyed by people of all interest levels in Ireland's mythology."--Adam Farley, Irish America
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