SMOKE FROM THE SAMHAIN FIRES

Samhain, the Celtic New Year, the Night of the Day of the Dead, when the Walls between the Worlds grow thin, and the barrows open to release the ancient dead and the faerie people...Four haunting stories from prehistoric Ireland, based on original myths but told anew with a nod to actual archaeological finds and folk memory.Crom Cruach, the Bowed One of the Mound, asks for his tribute of corn, milk and children...till St Patrick comes. But are the Old Ways really dead and gone?Aillen the Burner, one of the beautiful yet amoral Tuatha de Dannan, arrives each Samhain to burn down the King's roundhouse at Tara with his flaming breath, but one year, ten-year-old Fionn Mac Cumhal takes a stand with his magic iron spear, Birga.King Aillil, wife of Medb the Intoxicator, sends a potential rival, Nera, out to tie a withy around the ankle of a hanged man. The corpse drops onto Nera's shoulders and he proceeds on a journey that ends with him serving a lord of the Dananns--and taking a Sidhe woman to wife.Aenghus the Love-God can find no love of his own. Then one night a beautiful maid of red-gold hair appears in his dreams as he lies within the great mound of Newgrange. He must seek her out on Samhain Eve, when she flies around the lake in the guise of a swan, before love-longing makes him fade away...Short story collection, approximately 12,000 words.