While Mananan MacLir is a work of fiction and not intended as a faithful retelling of the Irish myths and legends it does, nevertheless, follow both the chronology and content of the legends fairly closely. This, of course, would not have been possible without becoming familiar with the myths themselves and it is here that I will run through the various source materials and their relevance to the novel.

The first version of the legends that I read was T. W. Rolleston’s ‘Celtic Myths and Legends’ published by Senate (Amazon) -This is the hardback version of the same text ISBN: 0517604434. Whilst this is a fairly old book (I have to guess here and say it is probably from the first half of the twentieth century) and is therefore a little out of date in some of its historical/archaeological references it was still the inspiration behind writing the novel.

The myths that inspired the novel divide into two groups. Firstly there is the Túatha Dé Danand Cycle. These centre round the tribe of the same name who are magical, almost godlike beings in conflict with the bestial, savage and deformed Formor. Lugh Ildánach, the all-craftsman, is the shining golden hero of the Túatha Dé Danand and he ultimately defeats the Formor and their leader, Balor of the evil eye. Mananan’s character in the legends is that of a mentor and guardian to Lugh. The second set of tales is the Ulster Cycle. These centre round the tribes of the four regions of Ireland, Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connaught, although the Old Irish names are used in the novel. These tribes are far more human and far less magical and the stories mainly concern the conflict between Ulster and Connaught. The hero of these legends is Cú Chulaind, grandson of Conchubur, King of Ulster. Cú Chulaind is a warrior of unnatural strength, warped by rage in battle, his body expanding and twisting, blood spurting from his head to form a red mist. Among the lesser champions of Ulster there is Fergus Mac Roech, the King’s half-uncle who is forced to change sides, to join the army of Queen Medb of Ulster when Conchubur breaks his word and kills four dear friends of Fergus.

The stories that I read there, although much abridged, were so full of life and colour that they could not fail to spark ideas in my own mind, my own visions of a central character set loose in these worlds. At this stage I wrote a few sample chapters and gave them to John Binns, an editor and good friend. He suggested that I should extend these into a full novel, which I took as an encouraging sign but felt I did not quite have enough background knowledge to do so.

To overcome this problem I resorted to three more texts. First among these was Jeffrey Gantz’s ‘Early Irish Myths and Sagas’ published by Penguin Classics (Amazon) - ISBN: 0140443975. Not only did this contain more detailed versions of the Ulster Cycle myths that form the basis for the second half of the novel but also used Old Irish spellings for names. Wherever possible these are the ones that I have used and it also contained a pronunciation guide, so if you want to hear how I imagined the names sound I recommend you read this book.

Finally there were the two volumes by Frank Delaney, ‘Celts’ and ‘Legends of the Celts’ published by Harper Collins (Amazon , Amazon) - ISBN: 0586203494 , ISBN: 0586211519. Celts provided invaluable historical and archaeological information about the Celtic peoples and their artefacts, though I would be the first to admit that I played fast and loose with some of the artefacts you find in the novel. This is, of course, largely due to the back-story for the character of Mananan MacLir which comes from my own fevered imagination rather than any traditional telling of the myths. ‘Legends of the Celts’ again provided more varied renditions of the Ulster Cycle tales as well as a short alternative to the version of the earlier Túatha Dé Danand Cycle found in ‘Celtic Myths and Legends’. Both versions of this cycle formed the basis for the first half of the novel.

As I have already pointed out this novel was never intended to be a straight retelling of the legends but it may be of interest to highlight some of the main areas of divergence. As mentioned previously the background of Mananan MacLir and the inhabitants of the continent of Sera is a fiction entirely of my own and is born of my own desire to provide a harder, albeit pseudo-scientific, explanation for the magical powers possessed by various characters within the novel than was available in the legends alone. This also allowed me to give Mananan a far more modern outlook on life, one of his defining characteristics.

The characters of Mananan MacLir and Fergus Mac Roech were never depicted as one and the same person in the original legends but this fusion provided a neat way of allowing one central character to run through both the Dé Danand Cycle and the Ulster Cycle.

Certain characters from the myths have either had their roles absorbed by other characters in the novel or in some cases certain actions have been transferred to a different character. In all these cases I have allowed the narrative thread of the novel take precedence over the accurate adherence to the original legends.

As a last word it should be said that none of the above is necessary for the enjoyment of the novel as long as it is read as it was intended; a self-contained work of fiction.