Chapter 5 — Page 3
Stone age burial mounds (tumulus you would call one; plural would be tumuli? tumuluses?) for Celtic royalty in ancient Ireland and other parts can be pretty impressive. The one Owen and Fetch pass through is rougher than some you might find where the walls are lined with brick and passages wind deep under the hill. I don’t know if any of them have murals, but I thought it might be worth giving the reader an idea what the Tuatha Dé Danann might have looked like. They’re usually depicted as more glamorous than you see here, but they’re in a hurry. Who has time to do one’s hair when being chased by hordes of Milesians. (Forebears to modern humans in Ireland, it is said.)
↓ Transcript
PANEL1: Fetch gestures at the entrance of the burial mound.
FETCH: Case in point: We get to the Summer Court through this ancient burial mound for dead Celts.
OWEN: Burial mound?
PANEL 2: Fetch and Owen walk through a cave-like passageway. On either side are torches placed in the walls of rock and earth.
FETCH: Legend says the Otherworld -- this one, anyway -- arose from the demise of the Tuatha de Danann, our faerie forebears driven out of Ireland by invading hordes of humans.
PANEL 3: Fetch and Owen pass a mural of Tuath Dé gods and goddesses riding horses.
FETCH: Depending who you ask, the Tuath Dé were either gods or magical kings and queens. In any case, dead ones are buried in these mounds. Magic, folklore, and time turned them into passages to the Otherworld.
PANEL 4: Fetch and Owen keep walking through the tunnel.
OWEN: Huh. So it’s not just puddles. You can use a grave, too.
FETCH: Yep. Wherever one state of being rubs up against another. A puddle bridges the land and the aquatic. A grave stands between life and death.
PANEL 5: Owen pauses to consider this news. Fetch looks a little surprised.
OWEN: Wait. Have we been in the land of the dead this whole time?
FETCH: Er, no. But we’re friendly neighbors with the dead.
PANEL 6: Owen gets a worried look on his face. Fetch points towards a warm glow in the distance.
OWEN: This place just gets creepier.
FETCH: Hey, look! Something bright and shiny!
FETCH: Case in point: We get to the Summer Court through this ancient burial mound for dead Celts.
OWEN: Burial mound?
PANEL 2: Fetch and Owen walk through a cave-like passageway. On either side are torches placed in the walls of rock and earth.
FETCH: Legend says the Otherworld -- this one, anyway -- arose from the demise of the Tuatha de Danann, our faerie forebears driven out of Ireland by invading hordes of humans.
PANEL 3: Fetch and Owen pass a mural of Tuath Dé gods and goddesses riding horses.
FETCH: Depending who you ask, the Tuath Dé were either gods or magical kings and queens. In any case, dead ones are buried in these mounds. Magic, folklore, and time turned them into passages to the Otherworld.
PANEL 4: Fetch and Owen keep walking through the tunnel.
OWEN: Huh. So it’s not just puddles. You can use a grave, too.
FETCH: Yep. Wherever one state of being rubs up against another. A puddle bridges the land and the aquatic. A grave stands between life and death.
PANEL 5: Owen pauses to consider this news. Fetch looks a little surprised.
OWEN: Wait. Have we been in the land of the dead this whole time?
FETCH: Er, no. But we’re friendly neighbors with the dead.
PANEL 6: Owen gets a worried look on his face. Fetch points towards a warm glow in the distance.
OWEN: This place just gets creepier.
FETCH: Hey, look! Something bright and shiny!
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