A Wizard Abroad, New Millennium Edition (37 page)

rath
(pr. “rawth”): A hill-fort. Sometimes the term includes whatever buildings (halls, towers, etc) are built into or on the rath.

Sidhe
(pr. “shee”): the Faery People of Ireland. Sometimes (most inaccurately) confused with elves. Usually considered to be the Tuatha de Danaan, the original Children of the Goddess Danu, one of the mother-Goddesses of Ireland; or descendants of those Children. Some legends identify them with “weak-minded” fallen angels, too good to be damned, but too fallible for Heaven. Considered by wizards to be descendants of those of the Powers that Be Who could not bear to leave the place They had, under the instruction of the One, built. They are deathless except by violence, and are expert in some forms of wizardry, especially music, shapechange, illusion, and the manipulation of time; but humans are usually physically stronger, and their wizardries have much more effect on the physical world. Often referred to as “the Good Folk” or “the Good People of the Parish,” “the Gentry,” “the People of the Hills,” (from which is derived their commonest Irish name, dÁine sidhe), and other euphemistic idioms meant to keep from offending them by invoking their real names, or reminding them of portions of their history they prefer to forget.

Slán
(pr. “slawn”): Hello, or goodbye.

Taoiseach
(pr. TEEshock): the Prime Minister of Ireland. Leader of the political party presently in power, who has legislative and political powers somewhat like those of the President of the US or the Prime Minister of the UK. By contrast, the Presidency of Ireland is largely a ceremonial position and is considered to be “above politics.”

Tir na nOg
(pr. TEER naNOHG): the Land of Youth (or of the Ever-Young), the alternate universe or other-Ireland inhabited by the Sidhe. Time runs at a different rate in this universe, or rather entropy does: experience continues unabated while bodily aging proceeds at a infinitesimal fraction of its usual speed, if at all. Humans who venture there frequently experience untoward side effects on attempting to return to universes with different time/entropy rates. See the legend of the hero Oisín for an example.