The Otherworld Journey: A Celtic and Universal Theme

As with every other region of Europe and the world, the traditional folklore of Ireland abounds with tales involving the supernatural and the fantastic, but nowhere else have these tales so influenced the literature and the shaping of that country, and no other country has produced so many world-famous authors whose work has shown those influences. These intermingling themes were therefore the ideal subject for a symposium held at the Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco, in May 1998 to which, reflecting the international interest in the subject, a host of international scholars contributed, and whose papers are published in these two volumes.The subjects range from early Irish history and folklore to the present day, but mainly deal with nineteenth and twentieth century literature, from Gothic novels, Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde, through W.B.Yeats, Lord Dunsany, Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett, and Flann O'Brien, to Seamus Heaney and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.