Brown Bag Luncheon: Tinkerbelle versus the Celts: Fairy Lore as Oral History with Michael J. Simonton

March 21, 2019 12:00PM-01:30PM
Behringer-Crawford Museum
1600 Montague Road
Covington, KY, 41011
United States
Celtic fairy lore is not just entertaining stories for children, Disney-esque ‘Tinkerbell’ type ‘fakelore’ of the nineteenth and twentieth century romanticists, nor dismissible as rural superstition. Stories of the dangerous, sinister Sidh/Fey/Gentry/Good People of peasant folk tradition actually may be the oral history of a series of 2,500 to 3,000 year-old clashes between Iron Age cattle herding people and Bronze Age cultivators that resulted in continuous guerilla warfare. Michael J Simonton, director of Celtic Studies at Northern Kentucky University, will examine some key elements of Celtic myth and legend, fairy lore, history, cultural analogies and archeology to conclude that some legends would be better considered as oral history. Simonton earned his Ph.D. in social anthropology at the National University of Ireland-Galway with a longitudinal study of aging within the context of sociocultural transformation. He is the author of several books and papers that include Celtic subjects. The lunch and presentation will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the BCM Education Center. Bring your own brown bag lunch. Drinks and desserts are on us. Cost: $3 for BCM members; $10 for future BCM members. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. Free parking. Reservations recommended by calling (859) 491-4003.