Ogma Studios - My blog

Post archive

+ Book Review - The 7 Daughters of Eve (22/07/2010 - 21:06:46)

+ Book Review - A Short History of Myth (03/07/2010 - 08:57:47)

+ Black Clan Origin Myth - The Bare Bones of the Sag (30/06/2010 - 17:08:50)

Book Review - The 7 Daughters of Eve

Just finished another great book, The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes. This interesting book explores the genetic matriarchal link from mother to daughter through mitochondrial DNA. During his research the author and his team have identified 7 distinct genetic groups or clans, from whom 95% of Europe can claim ancestry. His work also explores the human clans of the world and how they have migrated from Africa since the dawn of time.

Most of the book looks at the evolution of the authors work and how he reached his conclusions, with the information presented in an easily understood form. The later part of the book narrates a glimpse into the life of each of the 7 Clan Mothers. These mini-stories really help to bring the lives of these people to life, though obviously they have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

The most interesting thing this book brought to me was the idea that the Black Clan origin myth really is part of a larger story. Obviously I knew this anyway but still it really did bring it to the fore, keeping everything in perspective. I may well end up looking at a prequel myth or two...

The idea of belonging to one of the 7 Clans of Europe is also quite interesting and the author has set up a business where you can find out; Oxford Ancestors. It would be cool to find out but its a bit pricey, something for the future perhaps.

The research is slowly coming along but I'm hoping to speed things up again next week. I need to do more sketching as well.

OS

Book Review - A Short History of Myth

Just finished a great little book a colleague from work lent to me - A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong.

As the title would suggest this book explores the evolution of myth which is broken down into 6 periods; Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Early Civilisations, Axial Age, Post-Axial and the Great Western Transformation. A history of myth does seem a little bit of a contradiction, especially for me as I feel that myth gives a more accurate portrait of what was than written history.

I really enjoyed this book, it works as a nice counter-point to the writings of Joseph Campbell who is very scholarly in his style of writing whereas Karen does embrace the spiritual more readily. This spiritual leaning does bring up the only problem I had with the book, a bias towards the religions of the Middle East, which comes to the fore in the Chapter on the Early Civilisations and onwards. This is hardly surprising as Karen is a former Nun, in a Roman Catholic Order. The last chapter suggests the growing spiritual malaise in the West is firmly due to the dismissal of myth by the rational and scientific mind.

Overall a good read written in a straight forward style.

OS

Black Clan Origin Myth - The Bare Bones of the Saga

I have the basic structure to the Black Clan origin myth. I actually started this a while back and have had it just about finalized in my head, at least for now. The last few weeks I have been researching into the Milesians and their invasion of Ireland. Few what I have so far...

The basic creation myth with Dana & Bíle
I may include a bit about other invasions of Ireland but I doubt it
Míl hears of the death of his nephew Ith at the hands of the three sons of Ogma and decides to set sail to Ireland where he will conquer it as revenge. Míl dies en route but his sons and wife, Scota, continue
The sons of Míl wage war against the Dé Danaan and Scota is killed. Peace between the Milesians and Dé Danaan, who enter the Sidhe mounds; the Milesians divide Éire (Ireland) between them
Over time the Scots or Irish spread to Alba and fight against the Picts
The arrival of the sons of Odin
The Highland Clearances - the clan scatters and my branch heads south to Northen England

Obviously this is a very rough start and I still have a bit more research to do before I move onto the slow migration of the Scots to Alba and the subsequent battles against the Picts. The plan is to move through the basic structure fleshing out as I go, I then want to go back and give the whole saga a good polish. Lots to do but I hope to get a lot done over the summer...hopefully.

OS

Film & Graphic Novel Review!

Hi all,

It occurred to me that it might be a good idea to share some of the cool and inspiring books and films I have seen, with you. All the items I will review in this blog will all have something to do with Gaelic (Celtic) or Norse myth and/or history. As you can imagine my research is leading me to all sorts of interesting texts so I thought I had best make a start.

First up is Outlander, which is directed by Howard McCain; a cunning reworking of the Beowulf myth. Set in ancient Norway, a space ship crash lands releasing a fearsome stow-away. Kainan, the only survivor of the crash, is caught by a group of Norse and attempts to convince them to hunt the beast down. We find out that Earth is an abandoned seed-colony of Kainan's people and it is they who hunted the Moorwen, the beastie, to extinction. At least they thought they had untill it kills Kainan's family and stows-away on board his ship.

The Norse are understandably reluctant to go on the hunt when Kainan starts talking of a dragon but soon the evidence speaks for itself, leading to the ultimate face-off...Vikings vs. an Alien-monster!

It sounds like a load of old tosh but I found it fun, entertaining and an interesting working of the tale; my finance enjoyed it as well, bonus! I think I'd have to give it a solid 4 Stars!

Next up is Druids: The Ogham Sacrifice, a graphic novel by Dalen books. It's the first volume of a murder mystery and thriller set around the time of the Celts conversion to Chrisitianity. Someone is bumping off Christian monks and leaving behind evidence pointing to the druids.

Gwynlan, a respected druid, and his apprentice are drawn into the events and set about trying to figure out whats going on. Along the way we meet Padrig, the future Saint Patrick, and visit the city of Ker-Is which some of you may recognise from the Breton myth of an ancient drowned city.

Really, this book is setting the scene and the key players of the tale so it's hard to know how it's all going to turn out, both in terms of quality and the narrative. I did enjoy the tale and appreciate the quality of the artwork but mainly I am left with an urge to find out what happens next... If I could read Welsh then I could find out now but unfortunately I don't so will have to wait till it is released in English.

I have lots more films and books to review at some point so keep an eye out. I have also been continuing my research and I hope to put something up soon(ish). Have a good week!

OS

Research...research...research!

Wow, such a simple word yet such a lot to do.

The research for this project is like a flower bud opening...the more it opens the more there is to to see. It's so unbelievably complicated as different versions of the myths share some similarities then shoot off in different directions, not to mention the addition of Christian influences who added their own flavour.

Characters are dropped and never heard from again, while one character, Bilé appears to be both the son and father of Míl as well as the God of Death. Slowly though I hope to bring all together and pluck the story strands needed to bring some sort of harmony. Having said that I would still like to keep in elements of anarchy...for without which their would be a lack of flavour, lol.

New Project...Family Origin Myth!

I can reveal my new project is something I have been wanting to do for many years...an origin myth for my family! I have been looking into this for many years but I have finally started to stitch it all together.

I am in the process of compiling all the info I can find and have done a few simple storyboard sketches, like the one shown. My aim is to use this research to write a script and so create a graphic novel detailing the origin myths of my family and out ancestral heritage. Everything that will go into it will be genuine myths though a certain amount of creative licence will be needed to fill in the gaps, I am going to be covering two and a half thousand years here!

I will be working on the research over the next few months as well as lots of sketching to get me back into the flow. I have no idea when this will be finished as there will be a lot of work involved but I hope to produce something that I will be able to share with my family and my eventual children, in short it is a life long dream, so no small order then, lol.

Enjoy the current lovely weather!

Tee Prices REDUCED!

I have reviewed and reduced the price of the tees! They are reduced from £17.50 to £13.50, that's an impressive saving of £4 each. I have also decided to give away a free shopping bag if you buy two or more tees!

The revisions to the website are nearly done and hopefully will be finished by the weekend. I have also started a new project and am hoping to have something I want to share with you by the end of the week!

It's all go today.

Welcome to my blog!

I am currently in the process of re-working this site as my life and direction has taken quite a change right over the last year or so. This website is going to become more of a project log for my personal work and I am hoping to keep it updated regularly with my progress so stay tuned for the changes happening this week!

Take a look in the gallery to see my latest work, The Rescue of Etain.