Weekly Response: Week 6

We have been reading Celtic literature for a while now, and I am still not used to the uniqueness and quirkiness of the writing styles.  In the “The Cattle Raid of Froech” I was completely shocked with the nonchalant deaths. I literally exclaimed out loud my shock and surprise when “…sixteen men died looking.” And “twelve men died of weeping and sorrow.” I had to reread those lines a couple times to make sure I read them correctly. After all of the readings we have had this semester, I am not sure why I was so shocked, but I was. The author skimmed over these deaths like it was normal for large quantities of people to drop dread from excitement. The fact that there was no other explanation or what was done regarding these people is so odd. I was expecting more comments about happened after the deaths, instead the story continues as if the deaths did not even happen. I am so used to death being a serious situation, and it is, but when characters in a story act like it is normal, I don’t think I would ever get used to it. I truly enjoyed how each story talks about magic without a second thought about it within that realm. The whole relaxed feeling of magic makes it almost imaginable that there are other worlds out there with magic, or that is did exist at once but has just died from lack of practice and faith. To live in a world full of magic and that be normal would be an interesting world to live in. When compared to what we have read it eh past I don’t think these new stories really can be compared. I don’t know if is because it was my first time experiencing Celtic literature, but the first readings we had, the Four Branches of Mabinogi will be one of the most remarkable stories I have read. It has a way of introducing magic and unique stories I have never read before. It was also a culture shock reading these stories, with the different names, that it has been ingrained into my brain I won’t ever be able to forget my first feeling of reading these new stories.