Ireland's Myths & Legends: Four-Week Online Introduction Course

About this experience

Step Into Ireland’s Mythic World - A 4-Week Online Experience

With Anthony Murphy - author, mythologist and guide to Ireland’s ancient landscape

Discover the stories, symbols and deeper meaning behind Ireland’s ancient myths - guided by one of the country’s leading interpreters of its sacred landscape.

Over four weeks, you’ll explore the origins of Irish mythology, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the hidden connections between myth, place and cosmology - all from wherever you are in the world.

Why this Matters

These stories are not just folklore. They are deeply connected to Ireland’s landscape - to places like Newgrange, Dowth and the Boyne Valley - and offer a way of seeing the world that still resonates today.

This course gives you the tools to understand them.

Included in the course fee will be comprehensive notes (a PDF will be sent to all participants) running to over 50 pages.

Course Programme:

Week 1

Introduction

• Ireland’s manuscripts and their origins.


• Key monasteries associated with writing our myths.


• What was lost, and what survives?


• Ireland preserves much more myth than other Celtic nations.


• The Four Cycles of Irish mythology: The Mythological Cycle, The Ulster Cycle, The Fianna Cycle and The King’s Cycle.


• Key scholars in the development of the cycles.


• The patronage of kings and nobles.


• What is original versus what was altered by Christian scribes?


• The nativist versus anti-nativist debate.


• Irish creation myths.

Week 2

•         Two good examples of Irish creation myths.


•         Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Book of Invasions – key influences.


•         Lebor Gabála Érenn – what are its genuine pre-Christian myths?


•          Lebor Gabála Érenn – The six ‘takings’ of Ireland.


•         Who were the Tuatha Dé Danann?


•         Where did they go?


•         How the church ‘repackaged’ the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Week 3

•         Key figures of the Tuatha Dé Danann.


•         Folk beliefs about the return of the Tuatha Dé Danann.


•         What do the medieval sources say about their return?


•         Who are the Milesians, ancestors of the Irish?


•         Who is Amergin, the Milesian bard?


•         What secrets are hidden in Irish mythology?


•         The 20 most influential scholars of Irish myth and tradition.

Week 4

•         Discussion and questions, focusing on specific myths:


•         Tochmarc Étaín – the Wooing of Étaín.


•         Aislinge Oengusso – The Dream-Vision of Oengus Óg


•         Cath Maige Tuired – Second Battle of Moytura


•          The four great objects of the Tuatha Dé Danann


•          Suggested reading: My top 15 books about Irish myth and folklore.

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