Celtic fairy traditions
Hill of Tara in Fairy Tradition
Collected testimony describes fairy races circling Tara’s western slope in old Irish clothing. Processions gather around an earthwork associated with the crowning of kings. A separate account follows a fairy route across Tara road and around long-undisturbed bushes. The landscape preserves royal memory alongside rules about passage and interference.
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In the sources
Principal account
ReportedCollected testimony describes fairy races circling Tara’s western slope in old Irish clothing. Processions gather around an earthwork associated with the crowning of kings.
Further detail
ReportedA separate account follows a fairy route across Tara road and around long-undisturbed bushes. The landscape preserves royal memory alongside rules about passage and interference.
Context & interpretation
Evans-Wentz combines named informants, manuscript narratives, and his own psychical theory in a 1911 survey. This entry preserves those distinctions: collected belief and literary tradition do not establish the physical existence of an Otherworld.
Original passages
Source 1
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
IRELAND 33 seen serenading round the western slope of Tara, dressed in ancient Irish costumes. UnHke the little red men, these fairy races areOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 64
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0064
- Original scan leaf
- 65
- Recorded leaf number
- 65
- Current Reader position
- 60
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
Ringlestown would form in a procession, across Tara road, pass round certain bushes which have not been disturbed for ages, and join theOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 64
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0064
- Original scan leaf
- 65
- Recorded leaf number
- 65
- Current Reader position
- 60
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
Fairy Paths
Routes whose passage humans are warned not to obstruct.
Same subject and traditionCarnac in the Fairy-Faith
Breton megalithic landscape surrounded by living tales of korrigans.
Same subject and traditionLough Derg and Patrick’s Purgatory
Pilgrimage lake interpreted through monster legends and earlier sacred associations.
Same subject and traditionNewgrange and the Palace of the Boyne
A real monument discussed through funerary evidence and fairy-palace traditions.