The Otherworld: Music & Song from Irish Tradition (Scribhinni Bealoidis / Folklore Studies)

You don't have to be a folklorist or ethnographer to appreciate this well written compilation. The recordings range from vintage field recordings to contemporary trad singers and musicians, but they blend well and the performance quality is consistently high. For students of the Irish language, having the text in Irish and English is a great study aid. These are not CDs you can put on in the background, but beg you to sit down, open the book and follow along.

Book is largely transcriptions & info. on selections of songs, tunes, and narratives from 2 included CDs, supplemented with additional archival information & photographs relating to Irish supernatural beliefs. A nice concept, well executed.

Wonderful works, in song and words. This is an Alan Lomax for Ireland kind of project. Some fine photos and some great tunes from regular, gifted musicians, not professionals, the kind who play for friends and family.

This is a treasure in presentation, text and music. I highly recommend it to those interested in traditional Irish music.

Here my darlings is the fine distilled Sidhe border world. This is not Fairy shaman bullxxxx. You do not force your way in with mumbo jumbo you do not order anybody with magic. You'll be lucky to come away with any color still shinning in your hair.This is a rare treasure that will not stay long in print I assure you. I am a out of print Celtic book dealer for 33 years and any books published by Comhairle Bhealoideas Eireann go out of print and sell for six times the price in print! I am not selling this so as not to conflict with my review. This book is a 160 page collection of true experiences people in modern Ireland have with the Fairy and Ghost world. It gets better it includes b/w photos of the people and the Fairy Roads and Fairy Trees where these stories happen! Oh believe me this is the real thing. My wife's family still live in the Gaelic speaking part of the west of Ireland and I have seen there what I wont tell, but I have taught classes on Celtic folklore for decades. So when I tell you to get this, you should if this subject excites you. You get a great book and the other thing is you ALSO get two freaking CDS of Irish music heard at Fairy mounds and Gaelic and English language ballads about the Good People, such as the "Fiddler and the Fairy" The photos alone are worth the price. You want magic, pagan or otherwise, be silent and look softly, better do what I am trying to do...Listen.

For those interested in Irish folklore and its influence on trad. music, this book is a must. It gives an intriguing insight into the influence of superstitions and piseogs on Irish music. Beautifully illustrated and accompanied by two CDs jam-packed with collected recordings of song, story, music and lilting(!), The Otherworld delves into the mysteries of the sídhe, standing stones, cairns, holy wells, the púca, the banshee etc., providing many first-hand accounts of encounters with the paranormal. The book goes a long way to explaining the mystical, ethereal quality of Irish music - the music has emerged from a cultural matrix of strong belief in the remnants of the pagan religion that Christianity only partially supplanted in the middle of the first millennium AD. Another thread of the book is the source of inspiration. Where do the tunes come from? For many in Ireland, they come from being lead astray by the fairies and the sense of magic that surrounds places like the Burren or Croagh Patrick. Even if you are quite au fait with Irish folklore, this book will surprise you and the quality of the recordings and testimony will delight you.