daoi-sith vs du-sith: a folklore question

[slohairt]

I think the reason that you are finding contradictory information is that people are still in the process of making it up . Daoine Sidhe, Cu sidhe and Cat sidhe are certainly mentioned, but the Tolkienesque dark and light elves that daoi-sith and du-sith suggest seem to me to be a modern mish-mash of multiple mythologies (I wanted to put "Western European" before "mythologies" but that would have ruined the alliteration ).

Actually, the concept of dark and light elves comes more from Norse/Germanic mythology which Tolkien was well-acquainted with. He then used it to create his own mish-mash!

[thanmuwa]

Actually, the concept of dark and light elves comes more from Norse/Germanic mythology which Tolkien was well-acquainted with. He then used it to create his own mish-mash!

Yes, and Tolkien had the ambitious aim of providing an Anglo-Saxon mythology (obviously heavily based on the Norse/Germanic mythologies) which he considered sadly lost.
I guess what I meant is that the people talking about daoi- and du-sith seem to me to be taking their inspiration from Tolkien and other fantasy sources rather than European legends. Put it this way, one of the highest results when searching on Daoi-sith is for a game called adventure quest....

Certainly I have never heard about dark and light Sidhe in Irish legends. The concept of the dark elf is much more likely to be represented by a Fomor or Firbolg (not that the Sidhe are considered particularly similar to light elves, they are probably equivalent to dark (or at the very least shady) elves by themselves!)

[Bugbear]

Yes, and Tolkien had the ambitious aim of providing an Anglo-Saxon mythology (obviously heavily based on the Norse/Germanic mythologies) which he considered sadly lost.
I guess what I meant is that the people talking about daoi- and du-sith seem to me to be taking their inspiration from Tolkien and other fantasy sources rather than European legends. Put it this way, one of the highest results when searching on Daoi-sith is for a game called adventure quest....

Certainly I have never heard about dark and light Sidhe in Irish legends. The concept of the dark elf is much more likely to be represented by a Fomor or Firbolg (not that the Sidhe are considered particularly similar to light elves, they are probably equivalent to dark (or at the very least shady) elves by themselves!)

From what I've read some of the Irish ledgens relate them having kings and queens etc, and often appearing fairly anthropomorphized to humans.

I thought we were going to get to discuss some Scottish and Irish folktails of the Sith and Sidhe as told by Scots and Irish in this thread...

I was looking forward to it...
I'll go read some more history books.

[Rawlinson]

I thought we were going to get to discuss some Scottish and Irish folktails of the Sith and Sidhe as told by Scots and Irish in this thread...

I was looking forward to it...
I'll go read some more history books.

By all means, if there're folktales out there, don't withhold them.