Pagan Texts: My redeemer to the torch and pitchfork mob

Thanks for the encouragement lecanis! :D Actually I have to shamefully acknowledge that, though I serve a Celtic Goddess, I have yet to come across references to ancient Celtic material that has not been distastefully 'tainted' (if you know what I mean), e.g. The Red Book of Hergest, etc Would you happen to have any title of a manuscript, book, etc of good ancient Celtic books? I'll do the resource myself, I know I'm pretty good at it (hey, internet research is part of my day job), but I need a lead to follow. Thanks in advance! :D

It is true that much of the Celtic texts were somewhat "tainted" in a way, because at some point the transcribing of them got taken over by Christians. I'm not sure I can point you to anything completely "pure", but I can tell you the things I have learned about and let you decide for yourself. What most people know is the Táin Bó Cuailnge (usually loosely translated to "The Cattle Raid of Cooley), which is part of what is known as the Ulster Cycle. There are actually four "cycles" of Irish mythology: The Ulster Cycle, the Fenian Cycle, the Historical Cycle, and the Mythological Cycle. It's funny because a lot of these stories actually center around heroes and not Gods, but if you read them, you learn a lot about the society and religion of the time. And you learn about the Gods as well, because in many cases the lives of heroes are intertwined with those of Gods. There are a lot of good translations of the Tain out there, but the other texts might be harder to find.

I'm choking on that lead LOL! Thanks lecanis! I spotted a number of online translations you might be very interested to read, but there is too much data for me to sort out at one go. Give me a few days and I'll release the inform on my blog as I go through them. It goes to show that my research has been too narrow all this time :( but thanks for the wake up call!

Omgz, I hope my blog lives up to your expectations =x It's the first time I'm doing such a big scale research project, so if I screw up somewhere, please bluntly put it across to me :) Hopefully this will help us pagans in some ways.