Studies in Irish Mythology

Introduction vii
1. Hiberno-Rossica: \'knowledge in the clouds\' in Old Irish and Old Russian 1
2. Cú Roí and Svyatogor: a study in chthonic 15
3. Autochthons and otherworlds in Celtic and Slavic 27
4. The significance of pentads in Early Irish and Indian sources: the case of five directions 43
5. The five primeval trees in Early Irish, Gnostic and Manichaean cosmologies 57
6. The alliterative poem \'Eó Rossa\' from the \'Dindṡenchas\' 69
7. The \'Dindṡenchas\' of Irarus: the king, the druid and the probable tree 77
8. The king in exile in \'Airne Fíngein\': power and pursuit in Early Irish literature 99
9. Conn Cétchathach: the image of ideal kingship in Early Medieval Ireland 113
10. \'Búaid Cuinn, rígróit rogaidi\' — an alliterative poem from the \'Dindṡenchas\' 127
11. Roads and knowledge in \'Togail Bruidne Da Derga\' 155
12. Oral past and written present in \'The Finding of the Táin\' 175
13. The migration of the soul in Early Irish tales  183
14. Goidelic hydronyms in Ptolemy\'s Geography: myth behind the name 197
15. Swineherds in Celtic lands 205
16. Fintan mac Bóchra: Irish synthetic history revisited 217
Bibliography 237
Index of Personal Names and Ethnonyms 271
Index of Places and Rivers 275
Index of Texts and Manuscripts 278
General Index 28