Things haven't been going quite according to plan lately...
On my last trip to the library I picked up a few articles, one of which was John Carey's The Name 'Tuatha Dé Danann.' This was in an effort to tackle the whole issue of where Danu (technically, *Danu) fits in to the whole scheme of the gods, as well as the Tuatha Dé Danann themselves; I've seen plenty of other writers talking about Carey's arguments from the article, so I wanted to look at it myself. So while I was making a hurried library run, I photocopied it, got home, and found that of all the five pages of the article, I'd got the first page, and then the final page twice. Not the middle two pages.
Arse.
So on Saturday I decided I needed to go back to the library to get some more bits and pieces anyway, return some books, and get the rest of Carey's article. In the end I didn't go, because there was quibbling about whether or not we were going over to the in-laws the next day, and I could go to the library then if that was the case, and eventually it was too late to be worth the train journey into Glasgow. I was also desperately looking for a book I needed to take back, which I still can't find, and have a horrid feeling that I might have accidentally thrown it into the recycling bin with a bunch of random bits of paper that were sat on the kitchen sideboard...
As it happened, it was a good thing I didn't go, because that afternoon my back completely gave out and I haven't been anywhere since. I can just about walk now, though. Being semi-crippled and slightly tripping on the lovely drugs the doctor's given me (that are supposed to help but aren't), I've had plenty of time on my hands, and plenty of reason to look for distractions. I've been working my way through a book I saw recommended on the Nemeton list, and I've had a stab at another article which is now published on the website:
The Gods in Scotland
When I started it, I was intending to tack it on to the end of the Gods of Landscape and Lore article, because really it's along the same lines. It quickly became apparent that my usual blethering and awesome map-making skills were going to make the article too long to be able to do that, so a completely new article it is.
It's not one of my prouder efforts, I don't think (maybe it's the drug haze...). I can't help but feel it raises more questions than it answers, but I've exhausted all possible avenues of research that I have to hand just now, and it is what it is (as it were). I'm hoping that eventually I'll find some pointers to help flesh things out a bit (any suggestions welcome), but as it stands at the moment, what you see is all I've got. I think once I get onto the issue of tackling the Good Folk and where they fit in to the scheme of things, I might have more to go on.
For now, I'm hoping that now I've got this one out of the way, I can get round my writer's block for the article I was originally working on...It's given me a more solid idea about the issue of how the gods fit into the landscape but aren't (necessarily) strictly tied to it, though. I'm wary of over-emphasising that at the moment, so hopefully that's something I'll be able to articulate in the next one, and balance things out a little in that respect. Possibly after my back gets better, because the drugs aren't working and I'm hoping for something a little more effective when I see the doctor later today...