Lugh: A Prelude

Lughnasadh, the Celtic celebration of the first harvest, arrives this week, and I could not be more busy.  It’s my own fault, after a fashion.  I requested a couple days off from work this week, to celebrate the holiday, but I didn’t want to sacrifice any of my vacation time in the process, and as a result my work schedule has been unforgiving.

I had intended to post a retelling of one of my favorite stories from Irish mythology, “Lugh at the Gate” in which the god is kept waiting outside the gates of Tara while the Tuatha dé Danann consider the finer point of his résumé.  Time, however, has not been on my side, and the story, told from the perspective of a curious bird who watches the proceedings, is still happily rewriting itself in my brain.

And so, all I have to share with you this week, is this:

This (not quite finished) illustration, in ink on paper, is of the god Lugh.  It’s a little rough, but it’s been a while since I worked in this medium, and I’ve never done so using a quill-pen, which I insist on doing when working in my codex.

What goes on the rest of the page, and the pages around it?  Perhaps the same story I had hoped to post here.  Or maybe something else.

In the back of my mind I hear a ritual chant growing, a celebration of the talents of the “Many Skilled God.”

The spirit is there and the inkwell is full.  I need only the time.

A blessed Lughnasadh to you all!