Hello everyone,

Having just registered on these boards you'll
have to excuse any mistakes I make in
posting until I get used to the functionality of
the site.

I have been writing a book now for over a year
and since its incarnation it has gone through a
plethora of alterations. I am approaching the
end of my first draft but I still have many many
questions, queries and things I still feel could
be done better or differently.

1) Tir Na Nog - This is the irish faerie realm
where the Tuatha de Dannan were meant to
have fled to I think after their battle with the
Fremorians or something like that. In my book
I use the Scottish Sellie Court as the home of
the heroic, noble faeries of light. What I need
to know is do you think it is viable to use Tir Na
Nog as a generic name for the whole faerie
realm, the Sellie Court merely residing within
it, where all faeries reside no matter what
culture they are derived from or do you believe
tradition should be adhered to and stick to the
boudaries that present folklore has set down?

2) Can anyone think of a really nasty bad man
within the realms of the faerietale, excluding
Rumplestiltskin, who did harm to children,
whether that be kidnapping or otherwise.
Having problems over this as Mr. Stiltskin is a
tad too small for what I need him for.

That's all for now but I will leave you with a
ponderous thought:

Have you noticed that although all faerytales
have a message, something which invites
questioning and debate, there never really is
any answers within them? Terry Pratchett
said it best in 'The Wee Free Men' when
Tiffany stated that we're all expected to just
believe these characters and tales for what
they are, i.e. the wicked witch, the poor miller's
daughter, the greedy King etc. This comes
across to me as a contradiction. If the classic
'fairytale' is meant to say something, have a
moral or a message within it, then this like I
previously said in itself invites people to
question it, yet the essence of a fairytale is to
merely accept without question. Purely
paradoxical in my mind.

Anyway thanks for reading this and I hope you
can assist me in my endeavours to get this
book of mine completed. More later...

There is no bad or good in Irish Faerylore. Everyone serves a purpose. Some are more Chaotic than others, but it has nothing to do with absolutes such as good and evil.

A Banshee isn't bad, and should not be feared. She might bring bad news, but she is noble. A Brownie must work in a house until someone praises the work done and then they are released (I think this might be where Harry Potter's House Elves came from). There are wood spirits that despise humans, not because they are bad, but rather because humans are always destroying trees and nature.

This does not make any of them bad. You might want to look at things from a different point of view, an Irish point of view. We have Heroes and worthy opponents, but very few villians. It is understood that your greatest enemy is someone's hero.

Tír na nÓg was also known as the land of eternal youth, the land of beautiful ladies, and many other names. It was not limited to just faeries, and it has an enterance somewhere on the shores of Lough Gur.

There is a lake with a tremendous amount of folklore surrounding it. The Birthplace of Poets, created by Áine when she was making her water, the hiding spot for the Axis Mundi, which comes very close to matching the Biblical description of the Tree of Life, it is rumored that a poet who sleeps on its shores will be driven mad by first light.

There are numerous books available that will provide you with information about Irish Folklore. We used to have a resident expert, named Shay, but he has not been around in ages. Good luck to you in your yarn, spin it in good health

Tír na nÓg, does not represent all of Faeryland. That would commonly be refered to as the Land of the Fey. It can also be refered to as The otherworld, or the Land/Forest of Mists. Some refer to it as the land beyond the Veil.

It was according to legends at one time a land where humans and members of the Fey and the elder gods & goddesses could all travel to and from freely. Cuchulainn the valiant and Fand, wife of Manannan Mac Lir had a bit of a fling, and when it was over, Manannan Mac Lir placed a divide between the two worlds, so that humans could not travel there on their own anymore. Humans can only travel there now accompanied by one of the residents of the realm.

There are numerous different versions of this particular tale, but I think that sums them up. You can look up Fand, Manannan Mac Lir and Cuchulainn on Google, and find the various versions of the tale.

As was said before, good luck to you.

Thank you both for your insight. However since I've been working on this project for well over a year now (and that's just the writing part, the research dates back much further than that) I have most references to those place names and characters you speak of. I actually use my own version of Manannan's dividing of the worlds to explain the rift between the otherworld and our own realm.

Do not get me wrong, I am far from single-sighted. I do not have a blinkered vision and regard everything as either good or evil. The thought I left you with was meant to express the fact that although we can examine and debate the tales and fables concerning Tir na nog, faeries and other folk who exist within the land of fey, traditional storytelling teaches us not to question or debate, merely to accept.

I have read various source information regarding Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Scandinavian and Germanic folklore, to name but a few, and my query was merely to enquire whether the merging and manipulation of traditional folklore would be considered blasphemous or creative. As for the Scottish and Irish points of view of these plethora of places and beings who live there, they seem so similar that at times it feels as though you could just swap the names in the tales and you'd still have the same story.

The only reason I am asking you all this and feel so strongly about it is, in my mind, traditional folklore is there not only for us to enjoy reading but also for all of us to use as a basis for really good writing. Just because Tir na Nog, the land of eternal youth does not represent all of Faeryland in traditional folklore, who's to say it doesn't elsewhere? The land of fey and the land of eternal youth could be one and the same. I've spoken to prude people who believe I should leave well enough alone and not dabble in mixing up the folktales of old. Personally I think they're all bonkers :)

I am currently looking for a publisher of a collection of poems called the Leprechaun Wars, which describes a conflict between the Leprechauns of Ireland, and the Nissan of the Swiss Alps. I think it is marvelous to use the old legends as a basis for new tales.

I am also working on a novel about Ériu, Nemain and MacGrene, and a love-triangle that never occured in traditional folklore. I understand and applaud any new fiction based on the old legends. It covers a traditional myth basis, however, in depicting the struggle between the Peace that Ireland hopes for, and the troubles that it has faced and must face to gain peace.

Hopefully it also shows the Morrigan in a different light, than the one this triple deity is normally cast in. They are not there to cause war, but rather to make it so gruesome, that man shuns it, and looks to better ways to resolve disputes.

Just remember, you will have critics who will decry your work if your new fiction violates any of the precepts of the traditional legends. As Shay was always fond of saying, Irish Faeries never have had, and never will have wings. If a faery has wings, it is Germanic, not Celtic.

Good luck in your writings.

Having a bit of a brain cramp yesterday, I meant the Nissen of Swedish folklore, not Swiss. I had been reading about the Swiss Alps, right before that posting.