Why I depict Irish mythology the way I do

Happy St. Patrick's Day

To celebrate this joyous, Irish-filled holiday, I shall now present a thorough explanation for my depictions of Irish mythology here on Mythology Worlds.

As a mythology lover, I long for the moment when Irish myths and legends finally get the spotlight outside of Ireland.

However, with fame comes a lot of misconceptions...so I don't even know.

With that said, here is why I portray Irish mythical characters and stories in my own creative way:

Balor and the Fomorians

My depiction of the enemies of the Tuatha De Danann (and their Nemedian ancestors as well as the Parthalonians) shows influence from Dungeons and Dragons.

In D&D, the balor demons are basically balrogs from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth...but with their name changed in D&D's pre-Internet days to avoid a lawsuit from Tolkien's estate.

This is the same reason the halfling race are basically hobbits.

Hence, in this image, Balor is portrayed as a one-eyed balrog.

The one-eyed aspect is an Irish mythical original.

Balor's eye was said to kill anyone who looked upon it, so thank the great mother goddess Danu this is just a drawing.

The Fomorians are drawn as hideous purple yellow-eyed giants since that is how they are portrayed in D&D's Monster Manual.

This therefore ends up creating a terrifying mental image of a one-eyed demon commanding an army of vile giants.

On a side note, when Balor announces that he is Lugh's grandfather (another Irish mythical original), he is referencing the famous line from Star Wars where Darth Vader announces that he is Luke Skywalker's father.

The Firbolgs and the Milesians

The way I depict the fourth wave of invaders in the Irish Mythological Cycle is another token of D&D influence.

Here, I am pulling from 5th edition...specifically, the book Volo's Guide to Monsters, where the Firbolgs were introduced as a playable race.

Here (as in Volo's Guide), they are elf-like, grey-skinned beings.

If I had used 4th edition, I would have drawn the Firbolgs as towering Celtic warriors because that is how they appear in earlier editions of D&D.

For the Milesians (the mythical ancestors of the Irish), I use a character from one of my own cartoon universes.

She is the "Ireland" character from World Women, a series of international female representatives for different countries.

I have stories featuring them on both my Instagram and Facebook accounts, and have even devised an epic Facebook special revolving around them for the week leading up to International Women's Day!

You can check out my cartoons by using the links provided above!

Cuchulainn

Since Cuchulainn is the protector of Ulster, the flag of Ulster is featured on his shield.

Once, before the Great Vanishing, I wrote my own take on the tale of Cuchulainn from the perspective of Queen Medb of Connacht.

This is since the story has Cuchulainn fighting the forces of Connacht (where the Irish part of my family comes from).

On a side note, Connacht is also where the Tuatha De Danann's battles against the Firbolgs and the Fomorians take place.

These are known as the First and Second Battles of Moytura.

With that said, the battle scene on the lower right of Cuchulainn's portrait features the flags of Ulster and Connacht at odds with each other.

Between his battle rage and the incredibly badass way he died, Cuchulainn is pretty much the O.G. D&D barbarian.

Finn McCool

(Yes, I know it's "Fionn MacCumhaill" as Gaeilge)

Finn McCool is the leader of a band of warriors known as the Fianna.

Fianna also means "deer" in Gaeilge, Ireland's native tongue.

With this in mind, I decided to give Finn McCool an antlered helmet.

In this representation of his scuffle with the Scottish giant Benandonner, Benandonner utters an insult that references a famous scene from The Simpsons where Groundskeeper Willie is at odds with his Irish counterpart.

The Leprechaun

My depiction of Ireland's most famous mythical creature is a far cry from decorations you see everywhere when St. Patrick's Day arrives.

On Mythology Worlds (as well as in my social media cartoons), I have taken the leprechaun back to his roots.

That is to say, my leprechaun wears red since in the past, leprechauns were said to wear red.

He also carries a hammer and a shoe since leprechauns were also said to make shoes for the Good People.

However, I keep the pot of gold to make my leprechaun image recognizable.

The Good People

The Irish traditionally refer to the faeries as "the Good People"

As with faerie beings in other cultures (including the Greek nymphs), I have designed the Irish Good People after the elves of Middle-Earth.

Indeed, J.R.R. Tolkien drew a ton of influence from Celtic as well as Norse and Finnish mythology.

I also gave this Good Person light blue hair; the color of the sky.

Throughout Mythology Worlds, I tend to give deities and spiritual beings different colors of hair to represent what they are associated with (ex. green hair for nature spirits, blue hair for water spirits, literal red hair for gods of fire, pale white or light blue hair for heavenly beings).

This was inspired by the recent fashion trend of unnaturally-colored hair.

My workplace actually allows that--no joke!

Note that I have featured six entries on this post.

This is because the early Celtic peoples were obsessed with the number three.

Hence, the number of entries on this post is divisible by three.

A personal trend of mine is to have my Celtic representation come in threes (or a number divisible by three).

Hence, for example, the Irish section of the Celtic webpage features nine of the Celtic gods of Ireland.

That concludes our grand tour of my inventive takes on Irish mythology.

Go raibh maith agat (that means "thank you" as Gaeilge), and have a happy St. Patrick's Day!