Otherworld

The characteristics of heroes vary culturally and the characteristics that they hold are highly influenced by the culture that they come from. In the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", the hero Gawain represents the Celtic culture and the views that the ancient Celts held for heros. The characteristics that Gawain holds are humble, focused, brave, loyal, virtuous and religious. Within the poem, the trials that he undergoes and the events in the journey that are faced are influenced…

slaughtered and their bones would be thrown into the flames, this is also where the bonfire( originally it was bone fire) got its name from, it literally means a fire of bones. The ancient Celts also believed this to be a time when a door to the "otherworld" was opened and spirits of the dead could freely pass between the two. On the eve of Samhain, Supper would be served in complete silence, there would be one place set at the head of the table for their ancestors to join them. They would set…

delweiss, at first glance, appeared to be nothing more than a natural occurring valley, buried at the bottom of some cliffs, but looking closer, gentle curls of smoke floated up above a cluster of pines. “Come on, then. Down we plunge,” said Finn. “You don’t mean jump…Do you?” Grace stared back with alarm. “I can’t!” Finn hooted with laughter. “Of course not! We’ll use the stairs,” prancing through a patch of wildflowers, Finn revealed a spiraling set of stairs cut into the side of the cliff…

Found in many early medieval Irish manuscripts, an Immram is the traditional Old Irish tale of a sea voyage in which a saint travels across various islands in search of the Otherworld of eternal bliss. One of the most well known depictions of the sea voyage is The Voyage of Saint Brendan, which follows Saint Brendan and his brothers as they embark on their journey in search of the Promised Land of the Saints. Throughout their legendary seven-year journey, Brendan and his followers encounter an…

Mythology is best known for creating symbolisms behind the circle and giving human-like qualities to god-like figures. The circle is a symbol with no beginning or ending. Such is true with mythologies that reference the circle and its symbolic meaning. In mythology, the circle can represent anything from the process of being born, breathing your last breath, and being reborn, to the never-ending process of the classical elements of the world; water, fire, earth, and air. These four elements of…

Natasha Trethewey’s poem Myth is an emotional piece, published in her prize winning poetry book, Native Guard, in 2007. Natasha Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, where she was raised with her mother and father, a mixed race couple who ended up divorcing when she was six years old. After the divorce, she moved to Georgia to live with her mother, and spent the summers with her father. During this period of her life was when she began to understand the complex life of her mother and…

“For what reason?” wondered Virgil, his curiosity was piqued by what was mentioned to him by Brünnhilde. “My sisters…Well, you see, my sisters and I were witnesses of a Marian apparition at our local town of Osnabrück,” Isolde told Virgil. “The local Gestapo unit misconstrued it as being a celestial Weltanschauungskrieg action by occultists within MI6. Believe me, Virgil; that was their official explanation when they threw me and my sisters into an asylum.” She continued to elaborate further…

Contrapasso in Inferno by Dante Alighieri as Illustration of Justice Dante Alighieri, who lived from 1265 to 1321, was one of the major Italian poet and political figures during the Middle Ages period. He is particularly famous for a piece of literature which later made a major impact on the development of the Italian literature and the world literature – Divine Comedy, which he composed during the final years of his life. Dante 's Divine Comedy belongs to the list of the most gorgeous pieces…

In many myths, heroes and gods are prominently featured, as well as the protagonists they go up against. One prominent main character in one of the most popular myths in Finn Mac Cool, who ends up becoming “the greatest man in Ireland”9. The heroic characters shown in these myths often share the same character traits as some of the popular gods. Many of them are kind hearted, and cunning, as well as being well liked among the Celtic people. Celtic mythology strongly revolves around the story of…

The Epic of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh was the very first short story to be written down. Unlike many other ancient texts, the story of the Assyrian king Gilgamesh remained hidden for a while until it was rediscovered in 1853. It is a large compilation of early heroic tales that was collected and made one around 2000 BC by an unknown Babylonian scribe. It was found written on clay tablets in Akkad. The fullest version of Gilgamesh was said to be about three thousand lines, written on…