DALRYMPLE AND THE WILD DAIMONS
Illumination Tales
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"Illumination Tales is a story and song cycle based on the Irish mythological hero/poet, Finn mac Cumhaill and his archaic appendage, the thumb of knowledge. The thumb of knowledge tales revolving around Finn mac Cumhaill are found surviving in a scant few precious lines of text housed in rare and extremely treasured manuscripts.
These stories only offer a tantalizing glimmer of what the 'whole' must have contained. A fleeting bit of dialogue here, an obscure topographical reference there and then a hopeful fragment cut off mid-sentence. In my own rendering of these stories, I have endeavored to find that missing 'whole' and breathe new life into the storytelling traditions of Finn. Here we enter a landscape shrouded in what I call, the terrific and terrifying mysteries."
~Dalrymple MacAlpin
Illumination Tales Film Series
Illumination Tales Film Series
Dalrymple MacAlpin, Illumination Tales, "The Son Of Swift"
Dalrymple "Summer Has Gone" Illumination Tales
Dalrymple "Supernal Maytime", Illumination Tales
Dalrymple "Tír na nÓg" Illumination Tales
Synopsis~
Part One: The Druids Daughter. Tells of Finn's conception and birth and how he was raised in the wilds of Erin by his two Bendrui aunties who taught the young Finn the first qualification of becoming a poet, Dichetal di Chennaib, That is composing poetry extemporaneously by way of awakening ones body to the pure realms of spontaneous imagination.
Part Two: The Salmon of Knowledge. Tells the famous salmon of knowledge story from the perspective of a reincarnated ancestor of Finn's, the Irish God Nuada come back in the form of a salmon of knowledge to impart the second qualification of becoming a poet onto Finn,
that is; Teinm Laida, the shining of the intellect.
Part Three: The Faerie Fort. Here we see Finn grown to manhood as he continually searches for the mysterious final qualification of becoming a poet. His journey inadvertently leads him into a heated chase on Samhain night with the faerie, Culdub mac Dein. Finn is confronted with his destiny when his thumb gets stuck in the door between two worlds and he is given the gift and the curse of Imbas Forosnai, the great wisdom of illumination itself.
Woe be to anyone who has nothing more to learn and nowhere else to grow.
For to always know and never guess?
That is the lonely road of unhappiness.
The broad road there which has no end. This road I choose instead.
~Illumination Tales
