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0:00
What is the story
0:02
behind this vital
0:04
waterway? Ireland's
0:10
River Shannon, the longest in the British
0:12
Isles, is important not just to Irish
0:14
life today, but has had
0:16
a long and crucial role in local legends
0:19
and folklore. So what is
0:21
the story behind this vital waterway
0:23
which remains important to modern life
0:25
and economics in the country? You're
0:28
listening to Tool Stories, a monocle production
0:30
brought to you by the team behind
0:32
The Urbanist, Hamantri Tuck. In this episode,
0:34
Sarah Gries recalls the fishy tale behind
0:37
the Shannon. The
1:06
Shannon is the longest river in the British
1:08
Isles, running 350 kilometres in length. Its
1:14
slow, steady passage divides the island of
1:16
Ireland in two as it flows from
1:19
east to west. The
1:24
source of the river is the Shannon Pot,
1:26
high up on the mountain slopes and county
1:28
cavern. The water issues
1:30
from a deep pool, gradually becoming a
1:32
small trout stream, which slowly but
1:34
surely becomes the great wide river. Its
1:42
island's most vital waterway steeped in
1:44
Celtic history, poetry, myth and
1:47
legend, and it flows through 11
1:49
counties before reaching its mouth in the Shannon
1:51
Estuary and County Limerick. For
1:54
most of its journey, the Shannon is tranquil
1:56
and calm, as it's wide but
1:58
not particularly deep. rising only
2:01
76 meters above sea level at
2:03
its highest point. But
2:05
at the place where it meets the
2:07
Atlantic, where sky, river, marshland and sea
2:09
come together, it's transformed. Here
2:11
it becomes tidal, the waters suddenly
2:13
chubby and wild, before margins the ocean.
2:18
Like many great rivers across cultures and
2:20
borders, the Shannon has an origin story that
2:22
comes from the myths and legends of the land from
2:24
which it flows. This story
2:27
comes from ancient Ireland, long before
2:29
medieval Christianity or Roman Catholicism took
2:31
hold, while Viking or normal
2:33
invasions changed the landscape of the island,
2:35
along with its culture, economy and ecology.
2:39
The creation myth of the Shannon predates
2:41
the church and can be traced back
2:43
to tales of Ireland's Celtic
2:45
ancestors, populated by
2:47
ancient tribes and pagan deities. These
2:50
stories continue to be passed down orally
2:52
and in the written word through poetry,
2:54
art and music, kept alive
2:56
through storytelling and imagination, from
2:58
generation to generation. The
3:05
story of the salmon of knowledge might be
3:07
familiar to some listeners, the legend
3:09
of a magical fish with red spots, which
3:12
lived in the waterways of old Ireland. If
3:15
caught and eaten, the salmon would bestow upon
3:17
the finder the ultimate reward for the curious
3:19
at heart, all the knowledge in the world.
3:22
But there's another chapter to this tale. This
3:25
chapter is less widely known and concerns the
3:27
beginnings of the Shannon River, a
3:29
cautionary tale like the story of Adam and Eve
3:31
in the Christian and Hebrew sacred texts about
3:34
the feminine quest for forbidden knowledge. While
3:37
a man may fish for the salmon and
3:39
consume its wisdom through eating its flesh, this
3:42
other legend warns that if a woman eats of
3:44
the salmon of knowledge, she will not live to
3:47
tell the tale. Our
3:50
story begins with a woman named Shannon, or
3:52
Shannon in the Irish, who went
3:54
to the well where the mystical fish was said to
3:56
be swimming. Despite the warning of the ancestors,
3:59
she was a woman. was hungry for knowledge
4:01
and thirsty with curiosity. She
4:03
wanted to know everything there was to know about this world
4:05
and all the other worlds. She
4:09
found the well and she caught the salmon. She
4:11
cooked the fish and began to eat. As
4:14
she ate, her skin began to glow.
4:16
The girl was wrapped with sensual ecstasy
4:19
and carnal pleasures. The sweet
4:21
smell of the fish, the rough touch of its
4:23
skin, the taste of its flesh. Her
4:26
whole body began to radiate light. In
4:28
Shannon's shone with an aura that rippled through
4:30
her entire being. She
4:33
felt the blood rushing in her veins and
4:35
her eyes glittered with fire and poetry. All
4:38
at once she could see into the past, present,
4:40
and future. She understood the
4:42
meaning of all languages, human and
4:44
non-human tongues, and animal voices. The
4:47
powers of speech belonging to plants and animals,
4:49
so she found. In
4:52
her rapture, she leapt into the air and she
4:54
fell down into the dark, deep world. The
4:57
water poured forth and washed her out of the land
4:59
of the living. Her
5:02
body was never seen again. She
5:04
disappeared from corporeal existence and
5:07
was transformed, becoming one with the river
5:09
itself. This
5:11
metamorphosis of a girl who wanted
5:13
to know the answers is the story of
5:15
the River Shannon. That's how it got its
5:17
name. There
5:22
are many ways to read a myth, and I like
5:24
to think that perhaps, although the young woman was destroyed
5:26
in physical form for daring to defy the
5:28
will of the gods, she was
5:30
resurrected as a river deity, the
5:32
goddess of the Shannon, whose brave curiosity
5:34
was the source of its power. Water
5:37
is a substance that no human or creature
5:39
or ecosystem on Earth can survive without,
5:42
just as Ireland's natural infrastructure relies on
5:44
the nurturing flow of the Shannon River.
5:47
Maybe this myth in some way reveres
5:49
this natural curiosity and shows
5:51
the powerful transformation of a woman in
5:53
pursuit of knowledge. The
5:56
Famine of Knowledge. I'm
6:01
Celtic mythology, the Other World or the
6:03
Realm of the Dead as a to
6:05
trust and magical place. So. The
6:08
series and spirit temptations and
6:10
submitting fruits. There is much
6:12
that can be learned from. It's strange old ways,
6:14
but every piece of knowledge comes for the previous.
6:18
Like Eve Shannon taste is the thrill
6:20
of knowledge, the discovery of. Totally places
6:23
and eating the fish and the
6:25
finished. Overseen if
6:27
punishment is becoming. A river
6:29
goddess and experiencing knowledge that maybe that's
6:31
the site last. Awesome for and being
6:33
transformed. From. My
6:36
family originates from county memory and the sun
6:38
and has always. Been a great source of
6:41
joy, inspiration and part train for the inhabitants
6:43
of Limerick City and county. Clan. Walking.
6:46
By the son and his hearing. Five songs.
6:48
And sing poetry in the ricin, the wrestled
6:50
in the water the size of the phone.
6:56
There's so much work going on around the
6:58
sun and these days in terms of tourism,
7:00
art. Project Archives and Heritage Sites
7:02
which is unsurprising as it's waters
7:04
make up a total of one
7:07
says of Ireland total land area.
7:10
And twenty twenty one, the Sun and Tourism
7:12
master plan says how a new vision. To
7:14
sustainable tourism along the Summons
7:16
Waterways. Has it's in the
7:18
river and is developing regions as t
7:20
tourist destination within the heartlands of Ireland.
7:23
Offering up at stories, As poetry.
7:26
The wild beast in wildlife to visitors from
7:28
all over the world. Tolstoy's
7:40
is a Monocle production from a
7:43
team behind the Urbanist. This episode
7:45
was written by Sir Across I'm
7:47
Produce a nested by David Stevens.
7:49
Be sure to subscribe to the
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podcast, receive new episode every week
7:53
and talk to Buy Sex or
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