Listen To The Land Speak

Our ancestors developed a uniquely nature-focused society, centered on esteemed poets, seers, monks, healers, and wise women who were deeply connected to the land. They used this connection to the cycles of the natural world – from which we are increasingly dissociated – as an animating force in their lives.

In this illuminating new book, Manchán Magan sets out on a journey, through bogs, across rivers, and over mountains, to trace these ancestors’ footsteps. He uncovers the ancient myths that have shaped our national identity and are embedded in the strata of land that have endured through millennia – from ice ages through to famines and floods.

Here, the River Shannon is a goddess, and trees and their life-sustaining root systems are hallowed. See the world in a new light in this magical exploration into the life-sustaining wisdom of what lies beneath us.

This is the second book in a series for Irish publisher Gill by Manchán. The first, Thirty-Two Words for Field is available here.