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My group is heading to Blarney Castle in my game. I need some good sources for Irish mythology and adventure inspiration. Which monsters do you think work best to capture that Irish feel to it? Are there any good published adventures (for any edition or game system really) that I should check out to steal ideas from?
Any links to classic Irish fairy tales that are public domain and freely available on the web would be greatly appreciated too.
I'd start with a Google search on the Ulster cycle.
Also, I think there are some free Irish fairy tales available on iTunes. Search podcasts and iTune's U.
I've read Mabinogion (a long while ago) and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which I know aren't Irish but are closest in feel to what I'm trying to go for. My group is 17th level, and they need to basically kiss the Blarney Stone for luck. I want the Queen of the castle to send them on a quest to prove their worthiness. I'll probably use titan stats from B2 as the Irish Fomorians, perhaps at the Giant's Causeway.
I may need a high level leprechaun to tease them along the way as well. Since the adventure is luck themed, any particularly Irish gambling games I can throw in? Perhaps the leprechaun will give them advice or help each time they beat him at a game of chance.
There is actually an old 2e source book (green paperback) called, "Celts" I think. It is pretty good and has a lot about their culture and mythology (as translated into D&D).
I should look at me 2e stuff, I may just have that book. Now that I think of it, I think I have the Gurps Celtic book somewhere too.
I remember the Celt book. Never owned it, but it was pretty cool. That, and various fey, druids, etc. would work out great in a PF-not-exactly-historical way.
Hero Games put out a great Celtic Setting book for Hero System 5th Ed.
called "Tuala Morn."
https://www.herogames.com/viewItem.htm?itemID=220627
Fantastic book; you can get it in PDF. It is it's own setting but the back of the book has a huge list of Celtic Monsters with backgrounds and which Celtic nation they come from. Granted, you'd have to stat everyting yourself but again, the source material is great.
If you want to get a good feel for Celtic mythology read some of the books by Teresa Edgerton. Specifically the Green Lion trilogy, and the Celydonn trilogy. Both series are full of ideas.
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Hero Games put out a great Celtic Setting book for Hero System 5th Ed.
called "Tuala Morn."Fantastic book; you can get it in PDF. It is it's own setting but the back of the book has a huge list of Celtic Monsters with backgrounds and which Celtic nation they come from. Granted, you'd have to stat everyting yourself but again, the source material is great.
Never heard of Tuala Morn before. I would also recommend GURPS Celtic Myth
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Bibliograhpy from Steve Jackson Games
Bibliography for GURPS Celtic Myth
The following are books we've found very useful and which might be worth seeking out for more information in particular areas. In addition to the date of first publication, where available the publisher and most recent date of U.S. publication are listed.
Sources for Mythology
Irish mythology is usually divided into four "cycles":
The Mythological Cycle: stories of the Tuatha de Danaan,
The Ulster Cycle: stories of King Connor and his court, especially Cuchulain,
The Fenian Cycle: stories of Finn and the Fianna.
The Historical Cycle: stories of various kings said to have reigned between the 3rd century B.C. and the 8th century A.D., which fall outside the scope of GURPS Celtic Myth.
Much of the above, especially the stories of the Mythological Cycle, are found in a collection called The Book of Invasions, last translated into English in 1902 and long out of print. Those without access to academic facilities must rely on retellings of these stories. Luckily, there is a good modern translation of most of the Ulster Cycle:
Kinsella, Thomas (trans.): The Tain (Oxford University Press, 1970)
The Welsh tales are readily available in many editions, the most readable of which is:
Jones, Gwyn and Jones, Thomas (trans.): The Mabinogion (J.M. Dent & Sons, 1949, rev. 1989). The version of the Mabinogion translated by Patrick Ford (University of California Press, 1977) has been recommended by others.
Other useful sources include:
Bromwich, Rachel (ed.): Trioedd Ynys Prydain (The Welsh Triads) (University of Wales Press, 1978)
Gantz, Jeffrey: Early Irish Myths and Sagas (Penguin, 1981)
Strange and interesting Welsh poetry (good for bards and druids) can be found in:
Pennar, Meirion: The Black Book of Carmarthen and Taliesin Poems (Llanerch Press, 1989)
Retellings of the Tales
There are lots of retellings, some good, some bad. Here are some that we found useful, either because the original source was unavailable or because these were pleasantly readable.
Dillon, Myles: Early Irish Literature (University of Chicago Press, 1948). Summaries and discussion. Very readable.
Fitzpatrick, Jim: The Book of Conquests (Paper Tiger, 1978) and its sequel The Silver Arm (Paper Tiger, 1991). Beautifully illustrated retellings of the Mythological Cycle. Details of armor, etc., are not always accurate but these give a better immediate feel for the heroic nature of the Tuatha than any number of scholarly works.
Gregory, Lady Augusta: Gods and Fighting Men (first pub. 1904, pub. Maclean Hunter, 1976). A reasonable retelling of the Mythological Cycle and the Fenian Cycle. She has also done a retelling of the Ulster Cycle, Cuchulain of Muirtheme (1902).
Rolleston, T.W.: Myths of the Celtic Race (first pub. 1913?, reissued under the title Celtic in Senate's Myths and Legends series, 1994, and in the U.S. as Celtic Myths and Legends, Dover, 1990). Excellent retellings of Irish and Welsh stories, but ignore the somewhat dotty theories on Celtic religion.
Squire, Charles: Celtic Myth and Legend (first pub. 1905?, pub. Grammercy Books, 1994). Reasonable retellings, but ignore the "facts" about the Celts.
Delaney, Frank: The Celts (Little, Brown, 1989, rev. Sterling, 1991).
The Enchanted World series by Time-Life Books contains many good retellings of Celtic tales, with excellent illustrations which can be used by GMs. The volumes Legends of Valor (1984) and Spells and Bindings (1985) in particular contain a lot of Celtic material.
Factual Information on the Celts
There are many books about the Celts; it seems that hardly a week goes by without a new coffee-table book about them being published. Many are inaccurate and should be avoided (particularly the "New Age" mystic genre). Below are some of the more respectable books. Any relevant books by these authors can also be considered recommended.
Chadwick, Nora: The Celts (Pelican, 1970). Good for post-Roman Celts.
Ellis, Peter Beresford: A Dictionary of Irish Mythology (ABC-Mythology, 1989, Oxford University Press, 1991); A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Constable, 1992, ABC-Clio, 1992). The first is an excellent Who's Who of Irish mythology. The second is rather hastily put together and far less reliable (the Welsh material in particular contains errors), but generally useful.
Fitzgibbon, Constantine: The Irish in Ireland (W.W. Norton, 1983). A good readable survey of Irish history from the megalith builders to the present.
Graves, Robert: The White Goddess (Faber, 1948, Octagon Books, 1972). Not strictly a factual book, but full of interesting speculations, and the source for this book's magic system. Graves looked at druidic riddles and tried to unravel them – a valiant effort even when he was wrong.
Lynch, Michael: Scotland: A New History (Century, 1991). From earliest times to the present.
Morris, Jan: The Matter of Wales (Oxford University Press, 1984). An excellently readable anecdotal Welsh history and description of contemporary Wales.
Piggott, Stuart: The Druids (Thames and Hudson, 1968, Praeger, 1975). A good summing-up of the evidence on the druids (there isn't much!) but rather a drudgery to read.
Ross, Ann: Everyday Life of the Pagan Celts (B.T. Batsford, 1970, Barnes & Noble Books, 1986).
Ross, Ann: Pagan Celtic Britain (Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1967).
Webster, Graham: The British Celts and their Gods under Rome (Batsford, 1986; U.S. title Celtic Religion in Roman Britain, Barnes & Noble Books, 1987). Scholarly evaluation of all the archaeological and epigraphic evidence for Celtic religion; a good updating of the information in Ross.
Modern Fiction
The list of modern fiction dealing with the Celts is almost endless. Below are some which are likely to inspire GMs. Some are "novelizations" of the old stories, others just incorporate Celtic themes and atmosphere.
Broxon, Mildred Downey: Too Long a Sacrifice (Dell, 1981). Ancient Celts emerge from the Otherworld into modern Belfast.
Chant, Joy: The High Kings (Bantam, 1983).
Cherryh, C.J.: The Dreamstone (Daw, 1983), The Tree of Swords and Jewels (Daw, 1983), and Faery in Shadow (Ballantine, 1993). Doom-laden Celtic fantasy.
Cooper, Susan: The Dark is Rising series, (Puffin, 1968-1980). Magical adventures in modern Britain, with a distinctly Celtic flavor. Consists of Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, and Silver on the Tree.
de Camp, L. Sprague and Pratt, Fletcher: The Green Magician (Galaxy Publishing Corporation, 1954). The fifth (and weakest) of the Harold Shea Incomplete Enchanter stories, Shea finds himself caught up in the feud between Cuchulain and Queen Maeve. Available in The Complete Compleat Enchanter (Baen Books, 1989).
Duane, Diane: A Wizard Abroad (Corgi, 1994). Wizards in modern Ireland and Celtic mythology.
Garner, Alan: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (Collins, 1966, Ballantine, 1981) and The Moon of Gomrath (Collins, 1967, Ballantine, 1981). Celtic and Saxon magic in modern Britain.
Garner, Alan: The Owl Service (Collins, 1967, Dell, 1992). The Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion replayed in modern Wales.
James, John: Not for All the Gold in Ireland (Cassell, 1968). Themes from the Mabinogion and the Tain in a story set in 1st-century A.D. Britain and Ireland. Very funny.
Kay, Guy Gavriel: The Summer Tree and sequels (Berkley, 1986-1992). Epic fantasy with Celtic and Norse themes. Very evocative.
Kerr, Katherine: Daggerspell (Ballantine, 1987) and sequels. A world where the Celts have fled from the Romans to another world, where their culture has developed for 1,000 years free of outside influences. Fascinating.
Llewelyn, Morgan: On Raven's Wing. (U.S. title The Red Branch) (Morrow, 1989). The Tain novelized. Llewelyn has written a number of Celtic novels and novels of Irish history – apart from The Druids, they are all well researched and readable.
MacAvoy, R.A.: The Book of Kells (Bantam, 1985). Excellent novel of Viking Ireland, bursting with roleplaying ideas.
MacDonald, Ian: King of Morning, Queen of Day (Bantam, 1991). Celtic archetypes emerge in Victorian, 1950s and modern Dublin.
May, Julian: The Many-Colored Land (Houghton Mifflin, 1981) and sequels. The Tuatha de Danaan as psionic aliens in Pliocene Europe. Interesting basis for cross-over campaigns (including GURPS Psionics, GURPS Ice Age, GURPS Ultra Tech, and GURPS Time Travel).
Mills, Pat & Bisley, Simon: Slaine Celtic graphic novels, very atmospheric and well researched.
Moorcock, Michael: The Corum (Ace, 1987) series (particularly the second trilogy). Uses many Celtic themes and has a particularly sinister version of the Fomor.
Sutcliffe, Rosemary: The High Deeds of Finn mac Cool (Dutton, 1967) and The Hound of Ulster (Dutton, 1963).
Walton, Evangeline: Prince of Annwn, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon and The Island of the Mighty (Ballantine, 1971-1975). Novelizations of the Four Branches of the Mabinogion.
Music
Especially in recent years, music with a Celtic influence has been increasingly popular.
Horslips: The Tain and The Book of Invasions. Both are terrifically atmospheric and thoroughly recommended for Celtic atmosphere. The Tain is also a good retelling of the story.
Stivell, Alan: The Renaissance of the Celtic Harp.
Many other recordings of traditional Irish and Welsh harp music are available.
Well worth going through.
Banshees, fey creatures of all kinds, NPC druids, fighter-barbarians with javelins that split into horrific 27-barbed monstrosities as they're thrown...
The Morrigan would make a good "quest giver"/BBEG/recurring plot driver, as she/it/they is/are shapeshifter(s). The various legends about the Morrigan leave a lot open to interpretation. Despite her deific aspects, in the Tain Bo Culainge one character wounds her in combat and she flees. Granted, I would call Cuchulainn an epic-epic level character with all of his insane weapons (the man practically has vorpal fists, and don't get me started on his sling stones).
The Morrigan is easily my favorite Celtic mythological figure, if only because [it] can be adapted to suit so many purposes.
I believe the Slaine game had a d20 version.
I looked through my older books last night. How can I have a shelf full of GURPS books and not have Celtic Myth? :P I also seem to not have near enough of the historic 2E books, I only have Charlemagne's Paladins.
I'm not looking to be too accurate, just make sure I have some of the right feel to it. I'll try and brush up with some of the suggested sources.
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry by W. B. Yeats is a good source that seems to hit a lot of the high points of Irish folklore. It's public domain in the US. Project Gutenberg has a lot of other Yeats available too.
If you're looking to add traditional music, Cantaria is a good source. They have loads of traditional and traditional-style songs. For some songs they just list the lyrics, but for many they've made arrangements with performers to have whole or partial recordings of the songs available.
Use fey beings like the "Tuatha de Danaan", "Daoine Sidhe", "Unselie Court", "Fomoraig" and "Firbolg", wikipedia has a nice article with many linked articles about irish fey (scroll down just above the categories and you find a huge bulk of articles about the irish mythology):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos_S%C3%AD
and remember that there was influence from other sources, use scottish, english, german and scandinavian stuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elf
Focus on places and areas (the well known irish plains), for example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant%27s_Causeway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_round_tower
or in general:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Ireland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Visitor_attractions_in_Ireland
in fantasy, read the old Conan stuff by Robert E. Howard, Ireland's involved (also Cthulhu, ia iä!)
