The Definition of the other World on Irish and British Oral Literature

Abstract

The other world on Irish folktales can be found as habitats of supernatural beings or the world where such beings exist. Ireland has not only its rich oral traditions among the ordinary people but also medieval manuscripts written by Christian monks that include mythical and hero tales, the stories of saints’ pilgrimages over the seas, geographical descriptions, laws and so on. Both of the Irish treasure provide us various unique and diverse descriptions of the other world, mythical gods/goddesses, and fairies. The author has been researching on Irish and British oral literatures to clarify the concept of the other world, picking up the examples of the tales and classifying them. Reading the preceding researches made me notice that the definition of the word other world was not always same or clear. Before the research proceeds, it is indispensable to make the definition of the other world clear at first. The purpose of this report is to clarify the definition of the word other world through several preceding researches.