W.B. Yeats and Celtic Mythology

1
W.B. Yeats and Celtic Mythology

• By Ellyn Willis

2
Orientation A Brief History

• Ireland had been under English control for about
  400 years when Yeats was writing, and in that
  time the British had been importing their own
  culture, language, and politics.
• British rule was so invasive that the daily lives
  of the Irish were effected, not only the general
  outlines
• Loss of Gaelic language
• Loss of old traditions, political structures, and
  myths

3
The Hero in Irish Folk History

• Traditionally in Irish culture, the poet was
  often believed to be a protector of the
  community as late as 1539, there were pacts
  between chieftains with poets acting as
  guarantors on the same level of significance as
  archbishops.
• If one man reneged on his promise, the archbishop
  promised to excommunicate him, whereas if the
  other reneged, 3 established poets agreed to
  publically satirize him.
• This information is gathered from Daithi O
  Hogains The Hero in Irish Folk History

4
Ireland as Part of Englands Colonies

• By thinking of Ireland as part of the 3rd World,
  Yeats becomes part of a body of anti-imperialist
  authors in the 19-20th centuries.
• Said suggests that Yeats work is literature from
  an anti-imperialist resistance, developed out of
  a desire to distance the native Irish individual
  from British mastery.
• Saids redefinition of nationalism resistance
  against an alien occupying empire on the part
  of peoples possessing a common history, religion,
  and language.

5
Irelands Authors

• In his book Inventing Ireland, Declan Kiberd
  suggests that a resistance writer learns from the
  occupier that society around him may be no more
  than the institutional inferences drawn from an
  approved set of texts.
• Irish writers were imitating English traditions
  to sell books.
• Yeats, as a resistance writer, is attempting to
  recreate Ireland, but has little authentic
  tradition to go on, as Ireland had been occupied
  by outside forces for so long.

6
Alfred Crosbys Ecological Imperialism The
Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900

• Presents the idea that the Europeans tried to
  make their colonies look like home by importing
  everything from building methods and political
  systems to plants and animals.
• This practice alienates the natives from their
  authentic tradition, ways of life, and political
  organizations.
• Reaction? Natives begin myth-making
  retrospectively, reclaiming the land in a state
  that antedates imperialism.

7
Yeats and Crosbys Theory

• Yeats was driven by a need to recover the
  landscape of Ireland, which he must begin through
  imagination because of the British presence he
  began by reviving Celtic myth
• In his early works, Yeats tries to revive Irish
  myths in a pure form, pulling strongly on
  figures from Celtic mythology in poems such as
  The Hosting of the Sidhe
• This recreation is difficult, as Ireland never
  had a chance to define itself in modern terms
  independent from outside control
• Names of figures and myths have become
  Anglicized, even within the myths themselves.

8
Celtic Mythological Figures Used Significance

• Aengus/Aonghus Ogbeautiful love god who fell in
  love with Caer Ibormeith, who lived in the shape
  of a swan on a lake with 150 other swans until
  Sowain
• He had to identify her correctly before he could
  claim free her, much like the Irish had to
  identify themselves correctly before they could
  claim freedom.
• FergusKing of Ulster he made a deal with his
  brothers widow, Nessa, that her son, Conchobar,
  could rule for one year in exchange for her hand
  in marriage. At the end of the term, he found
  himself betrayed, and eventually exiled.
• Like the Irish, Fergus has lost control of his
  country. The Irish had a similar promise from
  the English, who promised to reinstate self-rule,
  but kept postponing when.

9
Celtic Figures Continued

• Cuchulainnsingle-handedly defended home against
  invading forcers was also a tragic figure,
  because he is constantly in love with women
  (several of whom he loses), is forced to kill his
  son as well as his best friend.
• Seamus Deane suggests in Celtic Revivals that the
  limitless troubles of Cuchulainn are equal to the
  endless, meaningless recurrences in the Irish
  resurrection that anger Yeats
• In poems such as Easter, 1916, September
  1913, and Nineteen Hundred Nineteen Yeats
  shows his frustration with the wasteful acts of
  his countrymen.

10
Still Continued

• Niamhmarries Conganchas MacDaire, a warrior whom
  no one can slay, and then reveals his weakness to
  her father so that he may slay him. She then
  marries Conchobar Mac Nessa, son of the woman who
  betrayed Fergus.
• This reference to Niamh shows later in Yeats
  work, after he has seen Maud Gonne incite so many
  men to battle and wasteful death.
• Niamh Oisingoddess of the Otherworld, who
  enticed Oisin into living with her for 300 years
  (although he believed only 3 weeks had passed).
• Perhaps meant to show Irelands situation, stuck
  for an infinite amount of time in someone elses
  control because of deciet.

11
Last One on Figures

• Sidhedwelling place of De Danaan after their
  defeat by the Milesians. The De Danaan were
  ancient gods, driven underground and minimized in
  memory to fairies.
• The ancient gods of Ireland were minimized in
  power, just as Yeats Ireland had lost its land
  to the English.

12
Neil Smiths Uneven Developments

• The imperialists ideology maintained that the
  process was a result of natural fertility and
  infertility, geographical advantages, and
  climates, making it second nature to colonize the
  weaker.
• The anti-imperialists believed this made third
  nature necessary, one that builds on history and
  reinvents the nations self, instead of trying to
  retrospectively revert back to practices and
  beliefs that antedate colonization.
• This requires new heroes, myths, and religions,
  as well as a resurrection of the native languages.

13
Yeats and Uneven Development

• Yeats evolved from simply trying to revive Celtic
  myths to inventing some of his own, discovering
  that his previous vision of Ireland was not
  meshing with reality.
• To this end, Yeats begins introducing characters
  such as Hanrahan , who he placed in the center in
  many myths of his own creation, such as The Book
  of the Great Dhoul and Hanrahan and Red
  Hanrahans Curse.

14
Shift to Classical Mythology

• In his later works, Yeats shifts to an
  overwhelmingly classical myth base.
• Generally the myths he references are moments of
  violence that lead to great change, usually for
  the worse. Most frequent among these are
• Troy
• Helen
• Leda and the Swan
• Also shifts his focus to Byzantium, as opposed to
  Sligo, his boyhood home.

15
Conclusion

• Yeats mythological references within his work
  shift chronologically from trying to recreate
  purely Irish myth, to creating new myths and
  pulling on classical myths to support, to a focus
  on purely classical myth.
• I believe this process is a result of his
  disillusionment following the Irish unwillingness
  to revive old tradition, tendency towards violent
  uprising, and the Great War. The Ireland of his
  imagination simply was not meshing with reality,
  causing his shift to a new myth (Byzantium) that
  he could not be proven wrong about.

16
Works Cited

• Crosby, Alfred. Ecological Imperialism The
  Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. New
  York Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Deane, Seamus. Celtic Revivals. New York Wake
  Forest University Press, 1987.
• Ellis, Peter Berresford. Dicionary of Celtic
  Mythology. Santa Barbara ABC-Clio, 1992.
• Hogain, Daithi O'. The Hero in Irish Fold
  History. New York St. Martin's Press, 1985.
• Kiberd, Declan. Inventing Ireland. Cambridge
  Harvard University Press, 1995.
• Said, Edward W. "Yeats and Decolonization."
  Eagleton, Terry, Fredric Jameson and Edward W.
  Said. Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature.
  Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1990.
  69-98.
• Smith, Neil. Uneven Development Nature, Capital,
  and the Production of Space. Athens The
  University of Georgia Press, 1990.