The Pagan Music List 23: Songs for Lughnasadh
The PAGAN MUSIC LIST is an attempt to create a comprehensive list of Pagan, Heathen, Esoteric, Animist, and related music that we listen to and love. We include embedded YouTube, Soundcloud, or Bandcamp links when possible for each artist.
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Collection 23: Songs For Lugnasadh
Lughnasadh, “the assembly of Lugh,” is an ancient Gaelic festival of harvest. In myth, the god Lugh initiated the holiday as a funeral celebration and athletic tournament for his foster mother, Tailtu, a goddess who first tilled the earth to make it fertile for humans and died to do so.
This month’s Pagan Music list is a compilation of songs about the holiday, from the holiday, or related to Lugh.
Faun—SonnenreIgen (Lugnasa)
Sonnenreigen means “sunshine,” and this song by FAUN is probably the best Lugnasadh song in existence.
Sowulo—Lammas
“Lammas” is the Christianized continuation of the festival of Lugnasadh. It means ‘loaf mass,’ pointing the continuation of harvest and abundance from the older festival. It was also the name adopted by Wiccans for the holiday, rather than the actual older pagan name.
Maddy Prior: John Barleycorn
Maddy Prior was the lead singer of Steeleye Span. The band also has a version of this song, which is a much older folk song, but Maddy Prior’s solo version is in my opinion much better.
Omnia—Luganasadh
Omnia is usually considered the bubble-gum pop of neopagan music and very rarely taken seriously for very good reasons. However, this song is regardless a pretty good song:
Lugdunon—Eluvietie
Many, many cities in Europe are named after the god Lugh, or Lugos in his older form. The most notable of these cities is Lyon, which was once called Lugdunon by the Celts and later Lugdunum by the Romans. This song by Eluveitie perhaps best captures the sense of what it meant to travel to a city named for a god.