It's bad when an author's socio-political motivations mar potentially decent scholarship. Case-in-point is the term Dub (Dubh, Dubhlinn, Dubhlin) - a term meaning 'black', 'dark'. Instead of indicating both, the author chose to define the term solely as 'dark'. Of course I questioned, why? Examining a number of references to places and characters, particularly characters, that normally are designated as 'Black' in Irish mythology and history, have now been transformed to 'dark' by the author instead. I then queried, could this be in response to the on-going discussion of the presence of 'Black' people that permeate Irish history and mythology, and an attempt to transform them instead to 'dark' White people? Also, Dubh-linn (Dublin), is now, according to the author 'Dark-pool' instead of Black-pool. What ever the case, consider another encyclopedia or dictionary on Celtic (Irish) mythology and history, in addition to this one, else run the risk of being left in the 'dark' on certain matters. See, as a better reference, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology - James Mackillop.

The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore PDF

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