quite possibly a very silly question,
but after reading the Erlkönig fic to its most recent chapter-
(was VERY elated to hear it finally updated btw!!!! so so so good im planning on re-reading the previous chapters as well after this ask)
-and i wanted to ask on what site(s) or place(s) you learned about irish folklore!!
it's always been of interest to me but i've never known where to start which just lead to me not rlly looking into it unfortunately!
anything would be of help and i cannot wait for the next chapter!!!
Hi! First off ahhhhhh ty for reading and enjoying it i'm sobbing xoxo
In terms of learning, I actually got into it initially from my dad, who scammed his way into our local Irish Club (he got a DNA test for the sole purpose of getting in... talk about committed to the application) 😭 talking to the people involved in that community has been incredibly enlightening on the folklore aspects. Your best bet is always oral tales.
For convenience, though, there are a few sites! I did use a lot, so these are pulled from my browser history. I usually link a few (or discuss sites) in the authors note too! I'll add them under a read more (accept my apologies for yapping).
It can be a little overwhelming wrapping your head around it, but there are a lot of good sources that make it easy to follow! I'd advise (if you're into fae) reading up on the Tuatha de Dannan first and their battles with the Fomorians! Cu Chulainn's tale is also a major Irish tale and part of the Ulster Cycle, which I'd recommend checking out!
For the Wylde Hunt, here are a few sources I used:
https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/38162196/WildHunt_first_edit.pdf (academic research about mythos)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Erlkonig (the original poem)
An animation of the work that I remember gave me nightmares as a kid because the national film board of Canada played it on public broadcast LMAO (https://youtu.be/1_dighphz_A?si=P6syghQ6pd2B2ryX)
https://writinginmargins.weebly.com/home/the-fairy-tithe-to-hell-in-scottish-tradition (discusses where the tithe aspect of Erlkönig came from)
For Fae:
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/religion-and-philosophy/tuatha-de-danann-celthic-mythology (discussing the tuatha de dannan)
https://www.wildernessireland.com/blog/irish-folklore-fairies/ (Blog post discussing fae and historical attachments)
https://irishpagan.school/sidhe-irish-fairy-folklore/ (solid general source)
For general folklore, here are a few good sources:
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Folklore-Traditional-Studies-Elsewhere/dp/1521423261 (Amazon is linked, but if you're buying, do so elsewhere or find a pdf online)
https://celt.ucc.ie/ (free digital library on Irish myth, language, etc)
Geordi if no one else has asked already, Deanna if you've answered for Geordi already
favorite thing about them
he’s literally so good at friendship that he introduced an android and a borg to the concept of friendship. like that’s essentially two entire races that didn’t have an understanding of friendship until they interacted with geordi. I love that while he’s busy holding the ship together all the time, and while he’s an engineer and engineers are. not typically known for being outgoing, he’s still so good at relating to people and making them feel comfortable that ro laren, who has trouble opening up to anyone, straight up hugs him
that said, from a character building perspective, I also really like that it has limits and oversights. guinan has to tell him to take a different approach with barclay because just pushing him harder isn’t working (we’re ignoring for them moment the exact nature of what barclay is doing in the holodeck because they don’t know that yet). he immediately adapts and is successful in making that connection, but I think it’s really interesting to see that it isn’t always pure instinct and sometimes takes more deliberate effort. in tng lower decks, I definitely don’t think he comes off as the worst commanding officer, but it’s a different light than we’re used to seeing him in. it’s a critical situation, taurik is just one crew member among many, and I think it would ultimately feel out of place for him to be super friendly under these conditions even if we’ve seen him reach out to help/reassure subordinates before (ex. sonya gomez).
and these examples make sense in that, as kind and patient as he is capable of being, he IS still the guy trying to hold the ship together and who needs his crew to just do their jobs and you can’t always do that and be 100% unfailingly friendly. sometimes you are going to brush someone off or say something wrong to someone, so I feel like they hit a really satisfying balance there
least favorite thing about them
this isn't really about him it's about the show but he got some of the worst individual/focus episodes. like. in other people’s episodes he’s a cool funny smart guy and then in a lot of his it’s either like “haha geordi can’t talk to women” as though women aren’t, like, people and as though geordi is not really good with people or just kinda mediocre redos of other scifi media (although that said I was kinda fond of the manchurian candidate inspired one). they also just kind of tend to feel Weird in a way I can’t really explain. disconnected? idk. other people have talked about the intersection of racism and ableism in the ways aspects of this character were handled, particularly the romantic plotlines, and I definitely think that’s evident across a lot of his focus episodes. on one hand I wanna do a scene rewrite like I did for remember me for one of his episodes, but on the other, a lot of times it’s the entire episode concept that’s rough.
brOTP
im very fond of the geordi/data/wesley engineering trio that pops up a lot i think they're fun and i also LOVE his friendship with ro laren in the next phase. i wish they'd drawn on that more going forward because it was two characters who hadn't had much of a reason to spend time with each other before so i think it would've been really cool to see them spending free time together willingly even just in the background of other episodes
OTP
i do think he and data are effectively married i do love their dynamic and i was surprised how clear it was that the troy and abed dynamic in community is a direct descendant. that said, i hate that like. all geordi content is in the context of this ship. the couple times I have gone into the geordi la forge tag to see geordi la forge who is my friend it’s basically all ship content
nOTP
I don’t know that he’s commonly shipped with anyone else tbh? I’ll talk more about the leah brahms plotline later in a general sense but I do resent any implications the series tries to make that they would ultimately end up together just because she’s the one woman he had a significant connection with in the series. it’s one thing if like we knew she got divorced and saw them really reconnecting or something but you know they’re literally just namedropping her bc she’s the only woman they could think of that fits that category
random headcanon
I think it is geordi’s god given right as one of the only characters with a sibling let alone one that he was 1) aware of, 2) raised with, and 3) is on good terms with to have a series of completely incomprehensible jokes with his sister. she visits the enterprise and one of them says the absolute stupidest most contextless series of words and they’re both laughing about it and everyone’s just like. uh. okay. for comparison my most recent one with my sister is “you can cut a hot dog up into 16 pieces” so that’s the kind of energy I want here.
unpopular opinion
idk how unpopular this is here but I used to read imdb reviews for episodes before I finally developed some self control and stopped doing that but people on there acted like geordi was the creepiest person alive for the leah brahms plotline and I somehow suspect that opinion represents a racist double standard. I’ve said this before i think but I wonder how many of them were okay with barclay. like as far as I can recall, in booby trap he ran this program literally to try to save the ship, and he gets caught up beyond that as he’s working. it’s a high stress situation, this version of her is someone that he’s really clicking with, and even if he crosses some lines he never set out to do so. this is not a hollow pursuits situation where he created a simulation of a real person with the specific intent to have sex with her. in the followup episode, the real leah brahms chews him out for the program, he’s sorry for it, and he develops a genuine friendship with the actual version of her. I feel like this is a reasonable way for this plotline to be handled! it’s fair to think mistakes were made especially in the beginning since he was kind of specifically looking for a woman when that wasn’t necessary, and he did get hung up on a fake version of a real person to the degree that it impacted his relationship with that real person, but i feel like the intent wasn’t malicious, and those mistakes were apologized for and handled and there doesn’t ultimately seem to be any lasting harm. to me that doesn’t say “wow this guy is so creepy,” it says that he made some mistakes regarding boundaries but ultimately made amends.
song i associate with them
hmm I don’t think I have one? I don’t have one for most star trek characters tbh I was just lucky on the last two. that said electric feel by mgmt did just appear unbidden in my head so maybe it’s a sign.
