Time Space and The Otherworld 20557183

Time, Space, and the Otherworld Author(s): John Carey Source: Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Vol.
7 (1987), pp. 1-27 Published by: Department of Celtic Languages & Literatures, Harvard University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20557183 . Accessed: 20/10/2013 01:11
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JOHN CAREY
TIME, space; and
the
otherworld
The minimal
"Otherworld"
a term which
I shall use at the outset
as a
for any place inhabited by supernatural beings and designation ? seems to have itself exhibiting characteristics many supernatural in contradictory and confusing locations in Irish legend, and is described student of the evidence that observation Chadwick scholars or on is likely to quarrel with Tom?s O it is "extraordinarily Myles complex"7 spoke of Celtic deities as residing "either distant of the
terms: no
Cathasaigh's Dillon and Nora underground islands."2 Some
the seas or on the earth, often across have seen this diversity as a reflection
or nondifferentiation the "archaic" held to characterize indeterminacy have the different locations of the taken Others Celts.1* pagan mentality a to be distinct, contrasting sinister thus Kuno regions: Meyer opposed "Island of the Dead" Rees Brinley "the limits of such a world direction. to the "Islands of the Blessed."* is an expression of paradoxical multiplicity cannot be defined* For Alwyn and transcendence: or to narrow
in terms of distance
have sought James Carney and Heinrich Wagner are in the of the Otherworld the range by arguing that localizations to the context: tradition confined indigenous geographic empirical accounts of fabulously remote Otherworld lands, reached by voyages the local frame of influence. thus be due to foreign, reference, would a few years ago I In a short article published to this adherence position/
beyond clerical
expressed my own I shall Here
the apparent confusion of the try to look beyond to structure material and determine whether lies behind any legendary it The nature of the Otherworkfs links to mortal reality, in time as
well
as space, will be the specific object of my inquiry. Two principal guidelines will be observed, (i) To the extent that a distinct Otherworld
? JOHN CAREY
JOHN CAREY
too hastily assumed or Christian rationalization; until not be that this the
it should ideology can be uncovered it represents either indigenous belief question, ideas themselves in a study insofar such as
temptation from the great parallels or from the general findings religious traditions, from exotic mythologies, of comparatists:5 this is a temptation which I must resist for lack of space and of the requisite personal competence. My discussion will be as this to adduce possible based means upon medieval Irish comprehensive) Irish folklore; I hope, however, that the evidence in other fields. may prove helpful to workers literature, with the occasional (and by no use of material and from modern from Wales put forward below
is best postponed it can be answered, is a natural have been assessed, There (ii)
* *
The enumerated these
various
"locations" aside
of
the Otherworld
have
often
been
Otherworld," Leaving hills (natural or artificial); dwellings or regions beneath lakes, wells, or the sea; islands in lakes or off the coast; and houses found in darkness, is the Worth storm, or mist9 particular attention the contrasting belief ? notwithstanding view that the side were the ? one residences of individual of these places that each immortals70 include immortal realm, the Otherworld in its grant access to the whole our It will be evident that the from Otherworld's separation entirety.77 -contrast world the radical expressed by its supernatural characteristics, - coexists with its inversion of mortal norms, and usual inaccessibility could immediacy: it is hidden within, or identified with, the landmarks of each locale. This opposition provides us with our first instance of a theme which central to the Irish conception of the Otherworld: is, I believe, that of fundamental paradox. we may consider As an illustration of this paradoxicality the little one of the Mong?n tale Tucait Baile Mong?in. anecdotes to believed derive Mong?n's from the wife lost manuscript asked Findtigern Cin Dromma Snechta. It tells how him for an account of his adventures
the controversial
"overseas
TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHERWORLD
then agreed to give him a seven years" respite before he (imthechta), In the meantime granted her request they attended a great assembly mac CerbailPs to at to accession Uisnech celebrate Diarmait (d?l mar) that it left the kingship of Tara. A storm broke out, of such violence lit and his twelve streams behind which have flowed ever since. Mong?n retinue suddenly fantastic went upon "aside from the cairn" (din, charnd for kith), and came the habitation" (airecol n-amrae) where was lavished characteristic of the Otherworld upon luxury them. and gave a trance-inspired became intoxicated, Mong?n to Findtigern. related his imthechta recitation in which he (baile) When they awoke next morning they found that a full year had passed than a single night; moreover they were no longer in the vicinity own stronghold of R?ith Mor Maige of Uisnech, but inMong?n's line rather in D?l nAraide.I3 then, at one more Not but point places give only do many the converse is also true: one in Ireland and emerge instance of the from access to the the can enter it at another. a "wonderful
Otherworld, Otherworld A
same phenomenon is problematical wife of the the Tochmarc Bec.fhola. Becfhola, story king provided by to go Diarmait mac Aedo Sl?ne, leaves Tara early one Sunday morning to a tryst with her husband's fosterson. Diarmait, when she gives him a pretext for her excursion, remarks that it is wrong to travel on the Sabbath. She Baltinglass, in a lake nearby. They spend the night in a luxurious but abandoned house. In the morning she retraces her steps to Tara, only to find that no time has passed there, and that her husband imagines that she never set out at all. A year later it is revealed that the island which she had ~ is Co. 100 visited Daminis Fermanagh) approximately (in Lough Erne, miles from Dubthor Lagen." The at some Dubthor vicinity geographical in the point for by a confusion anomaly can be accounted tale's prehistory between Dubthor Lagen and latter being a spot situated in the immediate it cannot possess is repeatedly said 6 as indeed is the of Daminis of Dubthor loses her way in the woods Lagen (near then follows a mysterious warrior to an island Co. Wicklow),
the text as we Nevertheless, there the Dubthor in question simply be dismissed: to be in Leinster, south of 1 ara (a Temraig fo des), island itself; while the prominence of
the Guaire, of Daminis.
the monastery
JOHN CAREY
the period of the tale's composition and transmission, clearly throughout reflected by its frequent appearance in the annals, renders it extremely that it lay in the southeast of that the author imagined unlikely an integral part of I believe that the anomaly is deliberate, the fabric of the existing tale. An island which is "near" Dubthor Lagen to an adventure which seems but "really" Daminis is entirely appropriate no time at all: the to take a day and a night but "really" occupies Ireland75 similarities afforded to Tucait by stories In the Further are particularly Baile Mong?in insight into the spatial interconnection in which tale Baile kings of Tara undertake in Sc?il the dynastic by a thick mist while striking here.79 of the worlds the supernatural Conn patriarch is
journey. C?tchathach walls remarks
is surrounded
A horseman approaches through "Great our misfortune, if he brings us into an unknown land" a a tTr him and to horseman The conducts fair plain (a n-ainiuil). marvellous he is welcomed court, where by the god Lug and by a maiden distributing ale who personifies "the kingship of Ireland forever." She offers kingship, conclusion Conn which inwhose reign the world will end. The is confused, but it seems to be implied that finds himself suddenly back in Tara20 He is given the vessels in of the ale kingship had been dispensed*7 of the narrative In Echtrae pursue is overtaken a man Cormaic Conn's from "a land where to is induced grandson Cormac there is nothing save truth," but he Tara.22 He finds himself alone on a him a goblet of ale, down to Flann Cinach then serves all of his successors in the
of Tara.
the standing within the mist, and Conn
by mist just outside two with great forts in front of him; he enters one of them, and plain is welcomed and by a beautiful woman wearing by the god Manann?n a gold diadem. He eats the meat of a pig which can only be roasted when truths are uttered, and is given a cup which can be used as a talisman he is on beside for determining truth. When he wakes up the next morning the green of Tara, with the cup and a sleep-inducing branch him. and Cormac's Conn's adventures bear an obvious to the Mong?n anecdote already discussed: a outside discovers just royal stronghold, the next morning in his own dwelling.
resemblance bad weather and awakens
a king, lost in a magical hall

Just below the surface of these
in the minds of their authors, present of the Otherworld hall is the equivalent still Uisnech: while just outside (or within) incarnation
stories, and almost certainly would appear to he the ?dea that site of Tara or the royal the latter, the protagonist near a fortress containing the
then finds himself loses his bearings, and legitimation of the Tara kingship. The function of mist or storm is particularly as in other in this connection: interesting Otherworld however, obscured the mist Manann?n to him
a character is cut off from the mortal realm; adventures, traversed but of vision the barrier here is not one of distance ? it is his in perceptions which have changed.. Hie horseman to to the hall of Lug may be compared who brings Conn
accosting Bran in the limbo of the high seas and revealing as ocean is in fact the land of the that what he perceives Tom?s 0 Cathasaigh,
in an insightful article to which the present essay is greatly indebted, has argued that in a just king's reign of the blessed Otherworld; in the his realm will mirror the conditions immortals.2* the ?oeus of sacred kingship considering human and the divine simultaneously planes. is one of the points of Otherworld That the royal stronghold access is also apparent on those occasions when an Otherworld emissary stories which have been exists on Connlae k first approached appears suddenly within its boundaries by lover "on the height his supernatural of Uisnech" Ci nd-?chtar 6 woman "in the royal Bran is addressed by a mysterious Uissnig"); house full of kings" ("a r?gthech l?n de rfgaib") when all the doors are shut; Midir and in Tochmarc ?ta?ne Eochaid Airem at dawn on the ramparts of Tara, and of the guarded hall dwellings is first approached by loses ?tafn when his rival we
appears When they may relationship provincial Otherworld
in the midst be
royal and magical
immediately juxtaposed: tends to be antagonistic, stands kings of Connacht, habitation destructive and "Ireland's raids are made
are not essentially identical in these cases, however, their citadel of the R?ith Cruachan, next to Sid an Cruachan, iffirn na fdorus
H?rend")*, In the Welsh the royal
the mound Mabinogi court of Dyfed, and it is said
gate to Hell" the two strongholds^ between Arberth looms beside of (gprsedd) that "the peculiarity of to any nobleman who
the sits
gorsedd
is that one of two things will happen
6 upon
one
JOHN CAREY
it: a wound
occasion when
or blow, or else
the experiment
that he should
m undertaken,
see a marvel."'
events very similar
On
to
are the result: a fall of mist, experienced by Conn and Cormac the appearance the disappearance of an o? familiar surroundings, a golden vessel, and the abduction and Otherworld fortress containing those recovery of the family of the central character. We may therefore add royal sites to lakes, wells, groves, hills, and tumuli as pointe of access to the Otherworld33 All of these were seems reasonable, It of and for the cult Celts. pagan places sanctuary to conjecture that in pre-Christian Ireland any sacred spot would a have facto been ipso gateway. supernatural The Otherworld associations of the royal site -- the symbolic center of the tuath ? bring out the paradoxical opposition of separation then, texts Some clarity. immediacy with especial nearness of the land immortals. of the mysterious Loegaire a man mac Crimthainn, "Not far from here where from and dwell the upon In the story of his in describing
the sfd says it is" country ("ni c?an di shlu inid fail"), in ?mrru;ajn_I?rajn says more noncommittally the woman of Emne that it is "maybe near, maybe far" ("b?su ocus, b?su cian"). After her own to her sojourn on the Becfhola recites a poem alluding adventure, it includes
to the road / the couplet it lies close "Although warriors do not find it" ("Ciaso focus do rooty nis fogbat o?g The woman who entices Connlae away from his people ulchaig"). sun that the reach the sid before is will says although setting they island; Bearded In instantaneous/*7 implying that the journey will be virtually to the medieval and immortals claim be the tales, many modern, JO invisible witnesses of our most private lives. Of R?ith Ailella in Clare it is said that it "is seen from afar and is not found near" ("atc?ther di same seems to be true of the seven ch?in 7 ni fagabair ? n-ocus");1^ the immortal "guardians of Patrick's household" whom the saint left dwelling } in the high places of Ireland. of this idea A more oblique expression is presumably a in the to statement of implicit supernatural youth night, Colum "from unknown lands, from known lands" 7 and in Loeg's announcement upon ("a tfrib ingnadu, a tirih gnath"), "a from that he has been the Otherworld in returning place strange it seems though it was familiar9* ("bale ingn?d c?arbo gn?d").*2 Often Cille that he has come

as if we are separated from, the Otherworld indeed reached by no barrier
7
save
(dfchelt).4" k nearby, perhaps The Otherworld It may be but hidden and alien as well.
concealment
immediately by way of
present, the holy
these he beyond the lands settled by the tuath or at the places, whether a single tribal center. The whole of the Otherworld may lie beneath to be linked well or hill; or a single Otherworld points far palace may distant anomalies immanent nevertheless Otherworld Irish: rather,
realm.44
from each
other
and contrasts everywhere transcends
in the geography of mortals. All a world which, point to the idea of and and under certain circumstances with is incommensurate
of
these
although
accessible, our own. The locations by the the mortal
is not, properly speaking, assigned different it exists in no definable spatial relationship
with
* * *
the temporal connections between the worlds? The a a to idea that brief sojourn "there" corresponds far longer widespread in Ireland. interval "here" is well represented There are also a few What of examples of only Becfhola leaves her husband it;*5 early one Sunday a a a on and her preternatural day, night, morning, morning spends journey, and returns to find the king still in bed on the same Sunday. Finn describes a protracted Otherworld One of the poems in Duanaire adventure from which Finn returns passed for his followers.47 The an episode which must reflect Bran's disastrous expedition Harddlech Otherworld, after leaving the opposite Nera returns After phenomenon to the court at Cruachu some in the days a few minutes
to find that only a few hours have contains second branch of the Mabinogi the same discrepancy: spend seven the survivors of in years feasting and entertained
to Ireland
and eighty feasting inGwales, supernaturally of in the world"; when every "affliction they return to the forgetful no seems normal to conditions of time have passed in existence, JO Otherworld time, as the Rees brothers observe, "is both
Britain.
JOHN CAREY
in other words, temporal sequence time it is as
longer and shorter than the time of our world"; as independent of and incommensurate with our its geography is discontinuous with We can go further. I would only out of alignment with mortal different in kind. The moment our own. argue
that Otherworki
is not
time, but that ?t is fundamentally in which one may be ensnared for
the years which can be hidden within an instant, partake of centuries, ? a mode the character of being of eternity yet transcending two and duration tales The reflect this in time ways. comprehending in the midst of the present, the continues, conditions of a vanished Golden Age; the journey to the Otherworld a return to in fact also be the distant Second: in the may past all of time exists simultaneously in an eternal present. Otherworld the Otherworld The freedom from mortal cares enjoyed in the Otherworld recalls the delights of Paradise, and the connection is explicit in several texts. as a branch of the Dwellers in the Otherworld describe themselves human the is immortal because and make Unf?llen,52 that it is the taint of renders Sin which them interesting Original invisible to us:53 here the inaccessibility of the supernatural realm is claim with the loss of Eden and the attendant change in human race which First:
associated
consciousness.5*
Elsewhere conceptions. mac Febail a chariot expanse
to less biblical imagery of the tales points I have already mentioned the famous scene inwhich Bran the in the midst the waves. but Manann?n of the sea by the god Manann?n driving tells him that he sees not an
is met across
rather a flowering plain, prophesies the birth of that he is on his way to beget the wizard-king Christ, and explains of time involved We may note in passing the problems in Mong?n. these statements: the annals record Mong?n's death at A.D. 625/6, but of water Manann?n Christ's future. As as an event about speaks of his conception birth as an occurrence somewhere apparently central interest noted elsewhere, from a tale in which derivation on the shores of Loch once he sees was it shows to happen, of further in the
Of more
I have
of the scene. is the textual background close of and connection signs Colum and plain. Cille encounters has Febail, learns from him Carney
perhaps direct a mysterious
youth that the lake which
a flowering

adduced other evidence of a tradition drowned that Bran's Otherworld
provoked Loch Febail.50
journey the waters of his kingdom beneath the import of Manann?n's In this context speech clear: for him the lost kingdom He can drive is s till,.there. becomes across fields from which we have been cut off by a catastrophic deluge, a flood which as he still lives in a stMte from which Here as elsewhere we have been sundered by the Fall.57
even
some may feel no need to view the many and apparent contradictions of the material as representing ambiguities or confusion on the part of the tradition's more than incompetence ? as Immram Brain obviously a redactors. But in story which deals ? the mortal with the fundamental and differences does separating immortal and Redemption, and which in its hammer? home themes the discrepancy between mundane and Otherworldly climactic episode as see we to anomalies that be believe these I should time, prepared to the tale's message and narrative central strategy. to support is at hand this realm of Mag D? Ch?o, which Loegaire mac Crimthainn is enters by passing through the waters of ?nloch,5^ ? to in the tale Togail where Bruidne Da Choca there is alluded mention of "the birds of Mag D? Ch?o, that is, Loch na n?n today,"59 for Loegaire the lake, although Here the plain seems to have preceded it happens, other The Otherworld interpretation. As evidence it still exists Otherworld folklore beneath magically takes the protagonist to the it: again, then, the journey In modern into an "antediluvian" past in towns or regions instances of a belief past, now inhabited by fairies, states, of Fall one which dwells with such arcane insistence on the
are many swallowed by lake or sea in the distant at certain times.60 and still accessible there Manann?n interlocutor mentions
passed Loch Febail. Mong?n's of prior
(perhaps through various imthechta
Mong?n's metamorphose^ to be identified as Mong?n) in his account of
and Colum Cille's
shapes I am inclined to believe inTucait
speaks of having the plain covered by recitation of that the entranced
existences,07 him is strikingly in reminiscent of his secretive behavior questions that he is a reincarnation another anecdote when it is revealed of Finn
Baile Mong?in was a similar enumeration as his reticence when his wife first especially
10 mac Celtic Cumai?la~ narrative The motif
JOHN CAREY
of a metamorphosis-sequence to connect the present with is used in
its origins, the beginnings of history or the transtemporal eternity of the An example of the former is the career of the long-lived, Otherworld. in illustration of the latter may be cited historian Tu?n;^ many-shaped whether over many ages between the divine and human states, the in the tale explaining of the swineherds shape-shifting fairy Otherworld etiology of the "historical" crisis of the Tain?**5 and inWelsh ?ta?n's the changes the claim of Ta?iesin been created when Taliesin's "before to have passed through many shapes, and to have recites a poem similar to the world. Amargen on Irish soil, at the symbolic moment he first sets foot from immortal tales with these to mortal occupancy.67 Clearly is the widespread motif of the "Oldest as a formula for envisaging the totality
as a device
of the island's to be associated Animals," which of time.68 That further
transition
serves explicitly
baile dealt with a sequence of former lives is we Baile in Sc?il. As have seen, Conn enters a by suggested hall where he iswelcomed she preternatural by the maiden Sovereignty: offers him a draught of ale symbolic of kingship, then presents her cup to every king who will reign over Ireland until the end of time ? all, in the Otherworld6 This baile apparently, gathered simultaneously Mong?n's therefore balances Mong?n's: future as well as past are gathered into same a single point idea: Tadg The later voyage tales suggest the mac C?in reaches a plain containing three forts, in which dwell all the first kings and holy men who have ever lived in Ireland;77 he converses with a queen of the Fir Bolg, then with finally with one of Adam's daughters. the antediluvian Gesair, and 7 Maic In Immram Sn?dgusa lakes of water and fire which
the voyagers find eschatological Riagla are restrained Ireland by the prayers of the saints, from overwhelming and reach the place where Enoch and Elijah wait for Doomsday.7** idea of past and future converging The is in an Otherworld present reflected Samain: also on in the popular observances associated with the feast of return to visit hand, the living, when food is left out for the departed and the neighborhood of churchyards shunned; on the other it is the time when scrupulously to learn the the future lies bare, when divinatory charms are practiced it is the time when the dead the one
TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHER WORE!)

course be of one's
11 yd
life or the identity of one's destined mate. of the Otherworld with the eternal might That this identification in the articulated minds of medieval Irish authors consciously of the remarkable sights before allegory entering in strange
clearly from a consideration Cormaic. The king sees hall: Manann?n's emerges Echtrae
great
fort it A
stood house
in the midst of white
of
the plain,
rampart
of
bronze
around
in the fort, half-thatched with the of the sjd frequenting the feathers of white birds. A troop of horsemen birds for thatching it A of the feathers of white house, with armfuls ways done came continually, the and whatever gust of wind thatching silver would cast with bear a great another fort He away. tree-trunk tree-trunk, ... He saw from saw a man there and kindling crown; into it, root a fire, and he when he came He saw
wind would back
the first would
be consumed.
another five
king?y streams flowing .... the streams
and then a shining well in the enclosure, the water of it, and the hosts in turn drinking
Later
these puzzles
are explained
to him:
The of
troop skill (aes
of horsemen dina) of
that you
saw
thatching
the house
are
the men
wealth and cattle which Ireland, gathering pass the fire is a young The man you saw kindling lord, away into nothing. and out of his household he pays for everything he consumes. which well with the five it one streams from it which you senses is through the five will be skilled (nf bia dan the well drink itself and from the from both." saw that is the well of ts knowledge lais nach n-Q who streams. Those of
The
knowledge obtained, not does many
(fiss). and no drink are
from
skills
they who
In Manann?n's
hall
itself Cormac
learns of other wonders:
and a pig which can be consumed every night and are found seven cows and next day, a supply of wheat which is never exhausted, seven sheep which provide all the people of the Land of Promise with milk and wool.
a log renewed
12 The nature
JOHN CAREY
of the contrast is clear: the first fortress is a place of
to the flow of time thwarting every attempt struggle and futility, accumulate "wealth and cattle which pass away into nothing"; and its are identified as people with of this world, preoccupied inhabitants worldly concerns. ever exhausted Manann?n's household the The or dispersed: to the insatiable fire. is is a place where nothing in vivid log stands perpetual the and
is within well of knowledge opposition not divine enclosure, within the hall itself; inspiration though between the worlds. likewise mediate poetic ability
The doctrines clear to see Otherworld
exotic
use of
of and the
of Paradise came
allegory the Fall extent
in Echtrae to which the
Cormaic, nature
and of
of
the are Irish
in such tales as Immram Brain, the
indications the concepts
to be expressed terms. Are we therefore in Christian examined above as themselves of Christian origin, a clerical attempt to impose a rationale upon the Were this the case, one would
representing perhaps muddled uncertainties
of paganism? to be far clearer in the tales than they appear the ideas expect guiding to be; they would not so often be woven into their structure, or indeed buried beneath it It may also be asked what purpose such an artificial elaboration could serve: even with
or at least not when incompatible a the idea of the Christian vision and pagan eternity competitive ? it seen and time be in other could any space beyond scarcely light could never further the Church's purposes in any but the most doubtful or in which they are language imagery however remarkable with the degree of their accomodation conveyed, can the orthodox these be concepts only religion, plausibly interpreted as part of a non-Christian belief system -- the remains of the pagan fashion. Whatever the Irish doctrine of the Otherworld.
* #

Had the Otherworld
13
a significance which extended its beyond fonction as dwelling-place of the immortals and setting for narrative to ? had, I have already alluded adventure? it supernatural Clearly that a served m model of a perfect realm, argument Cathasaigh's the king acquired his right to rule along with the legitimating whence 1 would like to take this line blessings of peace (sid) and truth (fit)/8 a direct somewhat and of further, posit symbolic speculation the Otherworld between and the tribal assembly or oenach; equivalence a constitute the dead, belonging both to the tuath and the hereafter, One might express the triad's in this ideological complex third element by iMe oenach, unity by saying that society, affirmed arid symbolized its legitimacy from the traditions received from ancestors who or that the oenach a establishes into the Otherworld; departed link between the life of the tuath and the transcendent validity of an These eternal state of which both death and immortality are aspects/ derives have contentions can be illustrated by a series of parallels.
at sacred spots, most is accessible (a) The Otherworld notably ancient burial mounds (side): s?d is in fact "the normal to term can be used without further definition which generic "^ denote the Otherworld. The t^nacl? also was regularly held at a burial site, and many tales link the institution of oenaige with When legendary figures.5 Loeg enters the the oenach "across in Serglige Con Qjlainn he goes Otherworld of Emain and into the oenach of Fidga" (dar Oenach nEmna 7 the deaths of i nOenach dwelling the tribal assembly Fidga);^ are directly juxtaposed. is accessible (b) The Otherworld the festival of Samain. and the Otherworld times, in of the
at sacred was one
particular for the holding principal occasions were the able when dead night
Satnain
of an oenach, and was the to return In Tucait Baile we do not assemblies
and the story of Loegaire mac Crimthainn Mong?in are attending know the date, but the protagonists (dala) when they enter woman the Otherworld
Bran is addressed the Otherworld; by in the midst of an assembly, and returns
JOHN CAREY
to a ??? when he sails back to Ireland. In Tochmarc Becfhola, the sacred time is the Christian Sunday. as we have seen, all of time is (c) In the Otherworld, in an eternal comprehended Otherworld may be contained oenach of the and the whole present; The within a single hill or well a the tuath in of entire single together
is the bringing at a single time; the word oenach itself is a derivative and place is evidently one of of oen "one," and the fundamental concept on convened The dead also are a great assembly, unification. their lord is called Donn darnach the tiny island of Tech Duinn: "Donn of the companies. is a place of fabulous feasts, and (d) The Otherworld Celtic burials of aristocratic is characteristic feasting equipment
in Britain.*7 The oenach was likewise of DO course a time of feasting. and other games were Races an at texts mention them events and several oenach. principal m association It is therefore with funeral ceremonies. on the Continent and races figure so prominently that Otherworld interesting seems modelled on here the Otherworld Immram Brain:
oenach rather than vice-versa.
in the
are the Otherworld's gifts to a (e) Truth and peace was the for duration of maintained Peace righteous king. strictly an oenach;92 that the king and jurists and it was at an oenach were expected A to dispense truth to the tuath through text Briatharthecosc line in the wisdom their Con
judgments.9,3 Culainn seems of
to imply that the dead are guarantors of the oaths the living.94* (f) The king, central figure and authority of the oenach. assumed full identity as such after the inaugural ceremony called the fejs; as many scholars have convincingly argued, this ritual the land. of This his marriage with the goddess represented sacral union between embodiment of the bond the of between tuath's its supernatural expression and the representative most the is vivid territory In several tales the anticipates the king's death
the worlds.
imagery of the Otherworld wedding rather than his inauguration.90
15
freedom
guiltless drawn attention countenanced
is characterized in the Otherworld by a (g) Existence itself either as a from sexual anxiety: this may manifest Mac Cana has sexual freedom or as beatific chastity. to at the various fact that popular sexual license was likewise the festivals, especially It is interesting that the also at held at that time:
gatherings associated with Lugnasad^ on the oenaige and Tailtiu, of Carman poems stress the sexes the of Lugnasad, segregation oenach and Otherworld exhibit
the same contrast"
From Otherworld
these
indications
I conclude
that for the ancient
Irish the
but also at the lay not only beyond the limits of existence, was source which heart it the from values and authority of very society: a derived the people convened in sacred place which At the oenach itself a reflection of the just, lasted, -- and the and of abundant, timeless, peaceful, placeless dwelling gods not a reflection merely, the ritual boundaries of time and for within itself was in some sense present space the Otherworld became, while the assembly
of Celtic Languages Department Harvard University 02138 Cambridge, Massachusetts
and Literatures
16
JOHN CAREY
NOTES
7"The semantics
of sid," ?igge
17 (1977-78):
137-55;
149.
^rhe
Celtic
Realms
(New York,
1967),
143.
3E.g. Marie-Louise M. Dillon (Berkeley,
Sjoestedt, Gods 1982), 111-12.
and Heroes
of the Celts,
trans.
und die Toteninsel," *"Der irische Totengott Konigl. Preuss. Akad. der Wissensch., view was Sitz.-Ber. The opposite (1919): 537-46. T. F. Irish and History upheld by Early Mythology O'Rahilly, (Dublin, to it, the diversity of locations assigned 1946), 481: "Notwithstanding there was, in Irish pagan belief, but one Otherworld"
5Celtic Heritage
(London,
1961),
342-44.
Abbatis (Notre Dame, 1959),Medium Aevum 32 (1963): 37-44; 40 a

9. Wagner, "Origins of pagan Irish religion," ZCP 38 (1981): 1-28.
Carney,
review
of Carl
Selmer,
ed,
Navigatio
Sancti
Brendani
in Irish tradition," ?igse 19 (1982): 7"The location of the Otherworld was my failure to cite the 36-43. this omissions article's Among remarks of Professor Wagner.
an example of the relevant scholarship I will confine myself to the works of Mircea and History, trans. Cosmos Eliade, especially citing Willard R. Trask (New York, 1959), and The Sacred and the Profane. trans, id (New York, 1959). As

yCf. the characterization 1983), 125. above (notes by Proinsias Mac Cana, I have collected several 17-23).
17
(New York, article cited
Celtic Mythology in the references
Ji>Both views
coexist
in the
little
tale De
Gab?il
in tSfde,
ed.
Vernam Hull, Z?P 19 (1933): 53-58.

in ?igse 19: 41 n. 23 I would add SC2 468-70, ;;To the references the "bright, noble where land" ("tir sorcha s?er,* ib. 541) over which rules seems to lie within a cairn. Labraid
A later account is given in the of this assembly Diarmada meic Fergusa Cenrb?oil, SG 73-74; the allusion mar in our text is not cited by Dr. Binchy in his discussion of at Uisnech, "The fair of Tailtiu and the feast of Tara," ?riu 113-38; 113-15.
tale Aided to the d?l gatherings 18 (1958):
yjEd.
56-58.
trans. Kuno Meyer,
The Voyage
of Bran
(London,
1895):
I,
fEd trans. M?ire
Bhreathnach,
?riu
35 (1984):
59-91.
The evidence in the dindshenchas consulted may be conveniently in LL 22042-49, the explicit association of the two Besides 30519-38. the rivalry of two sons of (in) places, note that the legend describes involves a feud between two group6 Becfhola DalK even as Tochmarc of grandsons of Fedach mac in Daill.
7<*?riu 35: 73, ?6.
7'Thus nDubthair."
ib. 75,
?10:
"Inis Feadaid
mac
in Doill
/ i tir Lagen,
18
JOHN CAREY
that ?For this reason I am uneasy with Bhreathnach's suggestion the monastic the anomaly arose from a confusion between patrons Mo "Since the two saints and Mo Laise of Lethglenn: Laise of Daminis were confused, an obvious error would be to mistake the location of Daminis and to lend to an island of dubious origin the credibility of a of two long dead monastic settlement" The overlapping (ib. 63). of an the violent dislocation from namesakes is quite different important contemporary monastery.
with
to the Otherworld calls attention 79Bhreathnach imagery associated "the Dubthor that the visit to the island, but concludes merely an with otherworld adventure" is confused (ib. 65-66). Lagen episode
given as Aisling an Scail fZCP 3 (1901): 460. 18).

ZCP 3 (1901): 27Ed Kuno Meyer, Baile in Sc?il." ZCP 13 (1918): 232-38, 458-66; cf. id, "Das Ende von and R. Thurneysen, ed., "Baile
Perhaps
awaking Jo
find himself
there; one
of
the tale's
titles
is
in Sc?il" ZCP 20 (1936): 213-27.
^This must be the meaning of the phrase for lar inmaighi sonnaich. For use of rendered by Stokes "in the midst of the plain of the wall" and indeed mag to signify the area immediately outside an enclosure, as a synonym of faithche, see DIL s.v., senses (b) and (c); it is on the faithche that Cormac finds himself upon awaking from his Otherworld
adventure.
rEd trans. Whitley
Stokes,
IT UM:
193-98,
211-16.
na A. G. van Hamel, Immrama (Dublin, 1941), 13-15, In Acallam a group of warriors is accosted by Manann?n Sen?rach riding his horse across the sea; he conducts them to Tfr Tairngire (SG 177).
Op.
cit.,
1 above.
TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHERWORLD 28; 221.

2?Ed. trans. H. P. A. Oskamp, "Echtra Condla." ?? 14 (1974):
19
207
Van Hamel,
9.
^Ed.
trans. Osborn
12 (1938): 137-96; 174, 182.

ITS L: 48.
Bergin
and R.
I. Best, Tochmare
?tafne,"
?riu
'As in Echtrae
Nera.
ed.
trans. KLMeyer,
R?_
10 (1889):
212-28.
ed. Ifor Williams 3/Pedeir Keine v Mabinogi. 1978), 9. (Caerdydd, is reminded of one of the "lucky deeds" (buada) of the king of the One it with i.e. sleeping upon terror of Emain Macha; "the deadly Ulaid: for three nights before crossing the border." See Myles one's weapons ed., "The taboos of the kings of Ireland," PRIA 54 C (1951): 1 Dillon,
36; 20.
32Williams,
51-65.
fo the idea that both wild and kingly places had JJThe persistence Irish usage in the Modern associations may be reflected supernatural to characterize of both uasal "noble, 'gentle*" and uaigneach "lonely" spots frequented by the fairies.
J4Ed. Crimthainn,"
trans. K. H. Speculum
adventure Jackson, The 17 (1942): 377-89; 380-81.
of Laeghaire
mac
Van Hamel,
11.
i6Eriu 35: 75, 80.
20
JOHN CAREY
it is faraway we will / cidh cein ricfem ria
J7?C 14: 225, 228: "I see the sun sets. Though reach it before night" ("Adchiu tairinde in ngrein, n-aighid").
12: 180; S?sc?alta 6 Th?r Chonaill ed S, ? hEochaidh, M. Ni N?ill

and S?amas O Cath?in (Dublin, 1977), 266-67.
3%g. Echtrae
Conlai.
EC 14:223.28~224.,29;
Tochmarc
?taine.
?riu
jyFianaig..
32-33*
(Dublin, 1982), 88 ff.

trans. Kuno Meyer, 4IE? at Cam youth Eolairg," ZCP "The colloquy of Colum 2 (1899): 313-17; 314.
^Frip2
1376-78;
cf, M?ire
Mac
Neill,
The
festival
of Lughnasa
Cille
and
the
the phrase 467. In other contexts ^SC2 mean simply "everywhere"; e.g. Trip.2 758.
tfr
ingnad
7 gn?th
can
-Thus one MS of Lebar Gab?la states that certain of the immortals are hidden by magic "save for every Samain, for their concealment was not possible on Samain night" ("acht gacha Samna namma, ar n? fe ta a nd?cheilt oidchi Samna," ITS XLI: tree is 156); and a supernatural said in a Middle Irish poem to be "secretly concealed among the sfde, with devious fo dfamair / ac sidib co power (?)" ("i ndfchilt M. the in ed of "The Dillon, trans., yew s?ebrfaglaib"; disputing sons,"
?riu 14 (1946): 154-65; 160).
At one point in Serglige Con Culainn the Otherworld to simply as "the other side" (leth n-aill SC2 141).
is referred
^With the example in Tucait Baile Mong?in cited above cf. the innumerable modern versions of the Oisfn legend; also the experiences of Bran (van Hamel, 18-19) and Barinthus (Selmer, op. ?jt, n. 6 above, A copious selection of instances from the Celtic countries and 6-7).

elsewhere (London, is provided by E. S. Hartland, 1925), 161-254. The Science
21
of Fairy Tales
In fact, he returns to the same instant in "Sequence anomalies in detail temporal Nerai." ?riu 39 (1988): 67-74.
twice. I discuss and causation
this tale's in Echtra
parted a brief
Finn related how he had 4/ITS VII: 44: "Greatly bemused, from his warriors; how a day and a night had been made scrap of a single day."
been from
Williams, hEochaidh
46-47. For modern examples from et al, 286-91; Hartland, 225-26.
Ireland and Wales
cf.
4yO?.
cit.,
344.
the canonical definition is probably that of 5aln Latin Christendom tota simul et Boethius: vitae "Aeternitas igitur est interminabilis V, prosa 6). perfecta possessio" Philosophiae (De consolatione
that "that other, and happier, land which ^yMac Cana observes was a continuation loomed so large in the Irish consciousness of man's condition he tasted of the Tree of the of before primitive Knowledge and Evil" ("The siiijess Otherworld of Immram Brain." ?riu 27 Good to the yearning and Golden Age as "different responses Otherworld an ideal world," to of I would think different modes prefer a transcendent realm. conceiving single 5
(1976): 95-115; 100). Cf. O Cathasaigh, ?igse 17:143-44; where he sees

for of
Thus Manann?n's boast that "We are, since the beginning of the ... the Fall has not a covering of earth world, without age, without touched us" (van Hamel, tells the first Gaels 15). The goddess Banba in Ireland that she is descended from Adam but "older than Noah" (ITS XLIV: 34). A woman encountered in Immram Curaip by the voyagers Ua Corra tells them that they canot remain with her, "though our 104. 307-08). lineage is the same" (van Hamel,
22
JOHN CAREY
reckoning" fTimthect
It is the darkness of Adam's transgression which conceals us from can see Manann?n (?riu 12: 180). Only the immortal Farm co se / ni acend acht s?daige," SC2 799-800). seochainni
account of the voyage of Tadg mac C?in, In the late, flamboyant of "Adam's the Otherworld is identified as the western counterpart we was one of the and learn mistress in fact Conlae's that Paradise," of Adam daughters (SG 349-50).
n 41 above), 19: 37-38. The text is edited by Meyer (see 55?igse and discussed "On the of Immram Mac Brain," Cana, by 'prehistory in Immram the Otherworld ?riu 26 (1975): 33-52. With descriptions it was flowery, it was green, it Brain compare the lines "It was yellow, was hilly, it was full of drink, it had abundance of rushes (or 'of rush i.e. of hospitality), itwas rich in silver, it had numerous chariots" beds/ Cana's ib. trans,, (Mac 36).
in J. J. O'Meara and B. Naumann, 56"The earliest Bran material," ed., Latin Script and Letters A.D. 400-900 (Leiden, 1976), 174-93; cf. Mac CanaTEriu 26: 47-50. Compare with Manann?n's speech the lines "... Mag the fair flowering is a grey stony sea" ("... Febuil, place, chlochach /Mag Febuil, a findscothach," glassfairrce Carney: 182-83). Another is implicit here, since Bran's voyage if it time-discrepancy over a the emergence of Loch Febail would have occurred preceded thousand years before Mong?n's birth: the Annals of Inisfallen date the to the ninth year before the accession of "bursting" of Loch Febail c. 870 and the of Inisf. B.C. Judah, Jehoshaphat king (Ann. ?106), statement of the first recension of Lebar Gab?la that it occurred in the XLIV: would it in reign of Tigernmas place approximately (ITS 202) the same period.
The significance of the Flood as a barrier dividing mankind from an earlier state seems to have been powerfully felt by the Irish; thus Chronicon contains statement "Prima aetas Scottorum the curious tota periit in diluuio sicut infantiam mergere mundi... solet obliuio" (CS 2).
'Speculum
17: 380-83.

39Ed. 149-65; trans. Whi?ey 154. Stokes, "Da Choca's Hostel," RC
23
21 (1900):
O S?illeabh??n, of Irish Folklore A.Handbook 506-07. A striking example relating to Lough Gur is 1942), (Wexford, RC 4 paraphrased by David Fitzgerald, "Popular tales of Ireland/ 171-200; 185-86, 190. (1879-80): ^^Thus 0
Se?o
it may Imthecht is a word of very broad application; nevertheless be worthwhile the passage in Sc?LTu?in in which the age comparing to old Tu?n, despite his own reluctance, is prevailed upon by Finnio relate "your own imthechta, and the history of Ireland** ("Sc?l T?ain mere Chairiir ed. trans. J. Carey, ?riu 35 (1984): 93411; 101.17).
to name Meyer, Voyage of Bran I: 45-52; cf. the druid's reluctance the future kings of Tara to Conn in Baile in Sc?il (Z?P 3: 459. 7-8). The metamorphoses of Gear?id Iarla are in later legend associated with the lapse of many centuries; thus the legend of his disappearance of the Irish Fictions (beneath a lake!) in Patrick Kennedy, Legendary 172-74. Celts (Eondon, 1866),
Ql>- cit? n. 61 above.
here 12: 152-57; 101" vears elapse; between ?taftVs ^?riu as a mortal, in the sid and her conception 1 believe it to conception ma re be that two Tech wiih fstafne significant temporal begins nine months which pass in a single day (ib. 142-43), and a paradoxes: day and a night which comprise all time (ib. 146-47).
in D? Muccida, ed. trans, Ulrike Roider; ^De Chophur Innsbr?cker zur Bd. the 28 Beitr?ge Sprachwissenschaft. 1979). Note (Innsbruck, 26-27. specific comparison with Mong?n,
Am swynwys sywydon sywyt kyn byt," in J. G. Evans, ed,, The Text of the Book of Taliesin In the much (Llanbedrog, 1910), 26.5-6. later I janes Taliesin he claims to have been "with my lx>rd in the ?, fell into the depths of Hell heights / when Lucifer [cf. Luke 10:18]
24
JOHNCAREY
I shall be on the face of the earth until the Day of Judgment" (The Mabinopon. ed Charlotte Guest (London, 1849): 3. 339-40). TTS XLIV: 32-33.
range of examples is discussed by Eleanor "The hawk
i\ wide 409.
Hull,
of Achill or the legend of the oldest animals,"Folklore 43 (1932): 376
ferportacrri of Hell (OtiaMerseiana 1 (1899): 113-19; 115).
Vision of of this idea is found inThe 09An interesting refinement sees will suffer who those all the in which Laisr?n," protagonist in the "vestibule" hereafter unless they repent already being tormented
and the date of Cin Dromma Snechta,"?riu 16 (1952): 145-51.

7/Cf. the much earlier belief that all the Irish go after death inMeyer, house of their ancestor Donn; references and discussion 4 irische Totengptt" above). (n.
own to be Conn's 70Th& early text Baile Chuinn would appear the parallel with Mong?n ecstatic prophecy of his successors, making see Gerard Murphy, "Baile Chuind still closer; for text and discussion
to the "Der
72SG 347-49.
91. Bede Hamel, to consume "flaring up were essent consumpturi," Historia ' Van relates that Fursa saw four fires which succendentes the world" ("qui mundum ecclesiastica 1??.19).
7?KevinDanaher, The Year in Ireland (Cork, 1972), 200-27. TTffl: 1. 195.
7*Ib. 198.

and inspiration idea that the contrast between perception to that between time and is eternity elegantly expressed analogous to the images of stream and well. The same symbolism is applied Boyne and the Shannon, earthly rivers with their springs hidden in to collected in my article Irish sfd (cf. the references parallels of Folklore 94 Odin's myth eye," (1983): 214-18). The
25
is by the the the
and close In Echtrae Cormaic the Otherworld character of these virtues is emphasized embodiment in the connection their by two talismans which frame the action of the tale: the sleep-inducing branch and the truth-revealing cup.
*n Echtrae Conlai of the mortal state renders the impermanence us dead already (marbu the dwellers in the "great sid" are duthaine); "eternal living ones" fbi bithbH (EC 14: 223).
^0
Cathasaigh,
?igse
17: 149.
(ib. 25185? *7E.g. the assemblies at Tai?tiu (LL 1087-91) and Carman was at the Cruachu called Oenach Cruachan burial-ground (LU 92); as a necropolis IV: 152. 89 is described (MetDs. 2801), and Tailtiu of burials with popular 154. 104), Cf. Ellen Ett?inger, "The association fairs and races in ancient assemblies, Ireland/ EC 6 (1952): 30-61.
82SC2 456-57.
*Tt was said to be the date of and of the feis Temro (LU 4208-14; to reject "the Dr. Binch/s decision later legendary sources" with regard based on his a priori conception of
rite."
the oenach of the Ulaid (ib. 1-6), SG 73. 25, 81. 2-3, 319, 4-10, etc.). testimony of the virtually uniform to the latter is (?riu 18. 134-35) the details of a "primitive fertility
Meyer,
Voyage
of Bran
I: 56-57;
Speculum
17: 380-81,
384-85.
Van
Hamel,
9, 18.
26
TT m: 1. 22;
JOHN CAREY
in DDL s.v. darnach.
later exx.
Cf. further Posidonius' account of the Gaulish chieftain Louernius, one and a half miles each way, within who "made a square enclosure so great a which he filled vats with expensive liquor and prepared could enter and quantity of food that for many days all who wished a break by the the feast prepared, served without enjoy being trans. Celtic attendants" J. J. The Tierney, ethnography (Athenaeum, of Posidonius," PRIA 60 C (1960): 189-275; 248). The event itself can associated be explained as an example of the conspicuous expenditure at with prestige "Contention in an heroic society (cf. Philip O'Leary feasts in early Irish literature," ?igse 20 (1984): 115-27); but the close similarity to Irish Otherworld imagery is almost certainly significant
7 tomailt ^Longaid (SC2 5); Audacht of the ale-house" (b?aid cuirmthige^ privilege an oenach (ed. Fergus Kelly (Dublin, 1976):
includes "the Morainn among the immunities of 10, ?28).
at Audacht Morainn ^Tius speaks of "horse-drivinj* (loc. cit) note further the definition oenach .i. aine oenaige" (?n ech n-6enag): ech (Corm. Y 1002). Other references abound, e.g. LU 8885, LL 22. 35677. Eriu2:~178.
^These cafnte(ch):
are often designated cf. DIL s.v.
by the specific
term cluiche
9. 28-29, 11. 62-69; and cf. SC2 443-44. When Mael P/Van Hamel, crew come upon a supernatural D?in's it an horse-race, they declare name a oenach demna (van Hamel, often Mell Mag assigned 31.193). to the Otherworld, is perhaps to be translated "Plain of Sports": thus Mell is one of the playing-fields fmuige cluiche) of the Tuatha D? (ITS XLI: 134); and Mag Mon. "Plain of Feats," is used as a synonomous in Immram Brain (van Hamel, 11. 64, 12. 98, 14. 154). expression
10. 101-24; Laws 5: 302. The king is obligated to y^Met.Ds. ni: maintain "the three immunities of violence at every assembly" (^tre blai loc cit). b?raig im cech n-?enach": Audacht Morainn.

VJE.g. LU 4212-14, impose enactments LL 35670-710. (gejja, rechtge)
27
king 24).
Only at the oenach could the on the tuath (Crith Gab.. 502
let them be enlivened Let the living be summoned, by oaths in fri ?ethu the place where the dead have dwelt* ("Gairter bf, beoaigter airm irro trebsat mairb," SC2 275). This translation seems to me more ib. 34, and Roland Smith, "On than those proposed by Dillon, plausible ZCP 15 (1924): 187-98; 189, 13. the Briathartheeosc Conculaind.?
fair of Tailtiu and the feast 95See in particular D. A- Binchy, The of Tara," ?riu 18: 113-38. The oenach as well as the fejs was associated to the dindshenchas the land's abundance, with maintaining according and of Tailtiu of Carman Ill: 22. (ib. IV: 152. 73-76). (MetDs. 271-72)
Some instances are discussed by ML Bhreathnach, "The sovereignty as 243-60. of ZCP 39 death?; goddess goddess (1982): v
For contrasting interpretations material," 186-89; Mac Cana, The Brain," ?riu 27: 95418.
see Carney, of the evidence "Bran sinless Otherworld of Immram
lb.
10840.
in: 18. 225-28, IV: 150. 65-68; the first couplets of the "MetDs. are almost two quatrains identical. It should be borne in mind that these statements may represent deliberate thus the Carman revisionism; is also implausibly said to have involved fasting (troscud, ib. Ill: oenach 22. 277-80).

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Time, Space, and the Otherworld Author(s): John Carey Source: Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Vol.

TIME, space; and

I shall use at the outset

Cathasaigh's Dillon and Nora underground islands."2 Some

expressed my own I shall Here

The enumerated these

TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHERWORLD

the Guaire, of Daminis.

journey. C?tchathach walls remarks

the standing within the mist, and Conn

resemblance bad weather and awakens

a king, lost in a magical hall

TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHERWORLD

appears When they may relationship provincial Otherworld

royal and magical

H?rend")*, In the Welsh the royal

the mound Mabinogi court of Dyfed, and it is said

is that one of two things will happen

TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHERWORLD

present, the holy

and contrasts everywhere transcends

accessible, our own. The locations by the the mortal

is not, properly speaking, assigned different it exists in no definable spatial relationship

time, but that ?t is fundamentally in which one may be ensnared for

Elsewhere conceptions. mac Febail a chariot expanse

perhaps direct a mysterious

youth that the lake which

TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHERWORLD

provoked Loch Febail.50

passed Loch Febail. Mong?n's of prior

(perhaps through various imthechta

Mong?n's metamorphose^ to be identified as Mong?n) in his account of

and Colum Cille's

shapes I am inclined to believe inTucait

speaks of having the plain covered by recitation of that the entranced

10 mac Celtic Cumai?la~ narrative The motif

of the island's to be associated Animals," which of time.68 That further

TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHER WORE!)

in the midst of white

wind would back

the first would

king?y streams flowing .... the streams

troop skill (aes

knowledge obtained, not does many

(fiss). and no drink are

learns of other wonders:

The doctrines clear to see Otherworld

allegory the Fall extent

in Echtrae to which the

the are Irish

in such tales as Immram Brain, the

indications the concepts

representing perhaps muddled uncertainties

TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHERWORLD

at sacred was one

of an oenach, and was the to return In Tucait Baile we do not assemblies

Bran is addressed the Otherworld; by in the midst of an assembly, and returns

judgments.9,3 Culainn seems of

imagery of the Otherworld wedding rather than his inauguration.90

TIME, SPACE, AND THE OTHERWORLD

guiltless drawn attention countenanced

the same contrast"

that for the ancient