#gráinne ní mháille

[oh2e]

Every time I think about Gráinne Mhaol I want to cry. Why oh why must she be called Grace? Why is Granuaile so disgusting to look at? Grania is…bad but actually not too bad in comparison to what else there is. Gráinne is not a hard name or an unusual name. I know multiple Gráinnes. I will completely accept Gráinne O’Malley instead of Gráinne Ní Mháille or Gráinne Ó Máille (which she reportedly used) because that’s still the same name effectively. Grace and Gráinne have nothing to do with one another except beginning with G and being a virtue. Is it so hard to respect someone’s name?

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1594 – English expedition sets out from Galway to kill pirate queen, Gráinne Ní Mháille (Grace O’Malley).

England used Galway as a launching pad for capturing the Pirate Queen, Gráinne Ní Mháille — and failed miserably. Gráinne Ní Mháille was chieftain of the Ó Máille clan in the west of Ireland, following in the footsteps of her father Eoghan Dubhdara Ó Máille. Commonly known as Gráinne Mhaol (anglicised as Granuaile) in Irish folklore, she is a well-known historical figure in 16th-century Irish…

[prince-atom]

This article leaves out a few things about Gráinne Ní Mháille, possibly for space, possibly because a couple of them are covered by "Yeah she got married a couple of times and had some kids but that’s not what defined her."

The folk who wrote down the Irish annals did not see fit to mention her at all, so the fairly abundant documentary evidence we do have come from the English, who were mad pressed about her. Elizabeth I had some eighteen Articles of Interrogatory written and sent to her. All indications are that Gráinne was fully literate in English, and those interrogatories were duly answered.

Her first husband was Dónal an Chogaidh, who had expectations of one day ruling what is now Connemara. Queen Bess recognized one of his kinsmen instead of him, dashing those expectations, and the next year a local feud cost him his life when members of Clan Joyce ambushed him. They then marched on Castlekirk on Lough Corrib, expecting to take it without any trouble, but found Gráinne in residence. She barred the gates against them and told them to fuck off, then led her men in a defense so fierce that Clan Joyce was forced to retreat. Castlekirk has since then been known as Hen's Castle.

Gráinne pursued her vendetta against her husband's killers for years, even after marrying her second husband, Risdeárd an Iarainn Bourke. Legend has it she cornered one of her targets in a church tended only by a silent hermit. Her target claimed sanctuary, and she settled in to starve him out. He dug an escape tunnel and got away, and the hermit broke his vow of silence to chide her for trying to violate sanctuary.

She divorced Risdeárd. She took a shipwrecked sailor as a lover, reportedly, but Bingham's forces killed him. She may have welcomed Spanish sailors shipwrecked by storms as the Armada fled around the north of Ireland.

She petitioned Bess for what amounts to letters of marque, and Bess granted her a portion of her own sons' crown taxes to keep her household.

Shaun Davey composed an album, Granuaile, based on Gráinne's life and times, performed by the incomparable Rita Connolly, which has long been a favorite of mine.

[miasmultifandomdump]

It's so funny to me when certain people think they're doing something so revolutionary by having female pirates. Like they invented the concept.

My guy, women were pirates. Zheng Yi Sao was one of the most successful pirates (or the most successful? can't remember) and she was a woman. Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Gráinne Ní Mháille, Sayyida al-Hurra, all women.

Going on and on about the gender of the pirates is annoying. You should actually flesh them out. Your female characters are still people and if all they can do is bring up their gender, it gets old after a while.

[inky-duchess]

Not sure if this is a good question but

Have there every been any cases of medieval women/noblewomen leading armies or fighting? Besides Joan of Arc, obviously.

Yes, lots of women led battles either on the field or commanding them. Mary I, Isabella of Castille, Isabella of France, Gráinne Ní Mháille, Margaret of Anjou, Caterina Sfzora, Jeanne de Clisson, Elizabeth I, Katherine of Aragon, Zenobia of Palmyra, Hatshepsut, Amanirenas, Boudicca to name a few.

[sammygems]

i just wanna share this.

i want a period piece show about female pirates. like, that tells the stories of them. not just Anne Bonney, Mary Read, & Ching Shih. i want them and also Joanna of Flanders, Duchess of Brittany (c. 1295 – September 1374) & Jeanne de Clisson, the Lioness of Brittany (1300 – 1359). i want Gráinne O'Malley/Grace O'Malley/Gráinne Ní Mháille (c. 1530 – c. 1603), Sayyida al Hurra (1485 – July 14th, 1561), and the women of the Killigrew family. i want the possibly fictional, possibly real pirate women of Charlotte de Berry (17th century) & Jacquotte Delahaye (fl. 1656). i want the real but stories are mostly probably fictional Anne Dieu-le-Veut (August 28th, 1661 – January 11th, 1710). i want something that shows us the pirate women from outside Europe & the Caribbean, i want the Canadian pirate woman, Maria Lindsey, and the American pirate woman, Rachel Wall.

[neverhangd]

Headcanon Dump Because I Am Obsessed

Anne’s middle name is Grace. This means different things to her in a few different verses, including

A sense of closeness with her own pirate idol, Gráinne Ní Mháille, anglicized as Grace O’Malley. This really shaped Anne’s early perceptions of herself and piracy, and really shaped her life’s goal as well: she wants her name to go down in history, just like O’Malley.

It came from her father. Her mother had chosen her first name, her father her middle: that had been their agreement on learning Mary was pregnant. Grace was the name of an aunt William had been particularly fond of; Anne the name of a beloved sister-in-law.

In modern verses, her birth certificate was originally filed incorrectly under Grace Anne Cormac, a mistake that I sometimes leave legally unchanged for the fun of it. For example, in spy verses like the kinds I’ve been dreaming up behind the scenes, none of her legal documentation ends up following her into her profession, making her harder to properly trace. Grace Cormac is alive on paper and living on a small farm near a small town in South Carolina. Her shoddy teenaged wedding to James Bonny is the birth of her paper trail as Anne Bonny, with no legally recognized Anne Cormac having existed before that moment either.

Now for some unrelated shenanigans.

Anne wants to get her J tattooed over with an anchor. It’s fair to say both of those J’s weighed her down; maybe symbolizing it can help her drop it, now. Like an anchor to a ship, it’s an important part of her. Also like an anchor to a ship, it doesn’t define her. This is one of about four tattoos Anne’s ever seriously considered in any verse.

In most verses, especially pirate ones, Anne also wants a swallow tattoo as well. Swallows among historic sailors were symbols of the owner having sailed 5000 miles. You can see where earning that would be appealing to someone who feels like they’re only ever alive when at sea.

Anne would also consider getting a constellation tattooed on her right shoulder, to match the anchor. Probably Ursa Major, her preferred way to find the North Star.

For similar reasons, she’s considered a compass as a simplified design for the same motif: the pull of exploration, the surety of the path.

TW for dv and da.

Just before the end of their marriage, James got the idea to brand Anne with his initials. He only managed the J before she knocked him off of her and broke free. Later, when Jack met her, he insisted it was a sign of fate: his name starts with a J, too! Anne was less certain that was a good thing, and it turned out to be a good thing she was.

[inaris-mage-of-storms]

Pirate Zombie Cleo times 2?!? Pirate Cleo in the empires crossover and Cleo on Pirates SMP? Fuck yeah! (Feel free to info dump about pirates and privateers.)

Yeah!!! And she was a pirate in season 6 of Hermitcraft! (I haven't watched her POV yet but it's near the top of my list after Scar.) Cleo is already one of my top favorite Hermits and pirate Cleo especially has me weak in the knees. I am absolutely not going to be normal on the 30th.

Oh man, so many fun things I could talk about! Like the entirety of the legends about my favorite pirate Gráinne Ní Mháille / Grace O'Malley. She's so sassy in most of them! Her second marriage was a year-long trial marriage, and at the end of it she waited until he was out, changed the locks to his castle, and told him it was over from the battlements when he got home. Or there's Samuel Bellamy, who in his very short piratical career - only about a year - became the richest pirate in recorded history and had a reputation for being merciful. The wreckage of his ship the Whydah Gally is still being explored and excavated today! One of these days I would love to visit the Wydah Pirate Museum in Massachusetts. :D

[sentientsliotar]

I want people to remember that “Jingle Bells” was written in the 1850s

I know there’s a lot of other really popular songs that predate it, I just think more people can sing old songs than they realise.

Also Silent Night was written in 1818.

And a famous Irish song “Óró Sé Do Bheatha Abhaile” was originally associated with the Scottish-Jacobite rising of 1745, and later the Bonnie Prince Charlie was replaced in the song by the pirate queen Gráinne Ní Mháille when Pádraig Pearse composed the lyrics we know today.

please do look it up if you dont know the date bc there may be at least an approximate answer and otherwise the last option will completely dominate and this poll will be boring.

and dont be like 'but i cant sing'... just answer the earliest tune you know well enough that you COULD sing it

periods of western classical music provided only for reference

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1593 – Gráinne Ní Mháille (Grace O'Malley) meets Elizabeth I.

Gráinne Ní Mháille was chieftain of the Ó Máille clan in the west of Ireland, following in the footsteps of her father Eoghan Dubhdara Ó Máille. Commonly known as Gráinne Mhaol (anglicised as Granuaile) in Irish folklore, she is a well-known historical figure in 16th-century Irish history, and is sometimes known as ‘The Sea Queen of Connacht’. She was well-educated and regarded by contemporaries…

[laikaflash]

is there a culture you would like to see represented in soulcalibur that isnt already there yet? and if so, which culture?

Irish. (Not just me being a Plastic Paddy or whatever the female equivalent is, I swear.)

If memory serves, there was a throwaway mention of Grace O'Malley (Gráinne Ní Mháille) in Libra of Soul, but I'll admit it got me psyched because I had a fascination with her some years back. Moreover, I feel like the basic idea of a tough female Irish pirate would fit the setting.

Also, it's not a pirate-y weapon, but I also have to admit I want a shillelagh in-game. Just because.

[writinginnorthnorfolk]

Gráinne Ellen

Her names originate from myth and legend, and she bears them with a graceful nonchalance. From the Celtic word for sun, Gráinne, daughter of Cormac, was promised to the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill. She could be a descendant of Gráinne Ní Mháille, landowner of Mayo and Irish pirate queen. It’s hard to pronounce, even if you find it cool, and it’s harder still when spelling, it was easier to call…

[celticjade13]

The majority of this episode is about the history of Ireland leading up to the British colonization and then after the British colonization.

[our-flag-means-death-ao3feed]

Good At Being in Love

by hoshiforever

Ed tells Stede about his past relationships.

Words: 451, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Our Flag Means Death (TV)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Blackbeard | Edward Teach, Stede Bonnet, Israel Hands, "Calico" Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Gráinne Ní Mháille | Grace O'Malley

Relationships: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet

Additional Tags: Past Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Israel Hands, Past Blackbeard | Edward Teach/"Calico" Jack Rackham, Bisexual Blackbeard | Edward Teach, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, No beta we die like Stede’s heterosexuality

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/44222965

[margridarnauds]

So, one of the most common complaints I’ve seen, since I began really getting into medieval/early modern Irish history/Celtic Studies in general, is that we still don’t have a Gráinne O’Malley movie. And, frankly....we do need one. Still. 

BUT! What’s less well-known is that Cartoon Saloon, the same people who produced The Secret of Kells, The Song of the Sea, The Breadwinner, WolfWalkers, etc. also did a collection of animated songs in Gaeilge, including the traditional “Oró sé do Bheatha Abhaile”, which is about Gráinne, invoking the image of her as a symbol of rebellion to come lead the Irish against the English, welcoming the 16th century chieftain back to the fight. 

The animated short itself is about 3-4 minutes long, isn’t AS political as the lyrics from the source material would suggest, mainly covering Gráinne’s life from the time she was a young girl up until her meeting with Elizabeth I. 

If you’re interested, the entire collection is called “Anam an Amhráin” and it’s available via the Cartoon Saloon website for about 20 Euro, and I do, highly, recommend supporting them given that this is an Irish company working to revitalize Irish culture, and doing some really fantastic work while not having nearly the same budget as some other animation companies. That being said, if you just want to see this song...searching the title + “Anam an Amráin” should do the trick as far as showing the full video.

[onelastfic]

My Einherjar Picks

Alright, @kururu418 challenge accepted! Here’s my picks for human fighters. Now mine are all women because while I love Record of Ragnarok, I really wish they’d include the badass ladies of myth/history in battles. As a fellow fan of history, I know there’s some great ones. Though since readers might be unfamiliar with the ladies on my list I’m going to include some brief info on them to save y’all the google searches

1. Khutulun

A devastating cavalry woman and one of the greatest wrestlers the Mongols had ever seen. She helped her father repeatedly repel the invading hordes commanded by the mighty Khublai Khan, who also happened to be her great uncle. Her favorite tactic was to seize an enemy soldier and ride off with him, the explorer Marco Polo recounted, “as deftly as a hawk pounces on a bird.” Off the battlefield and in the wrestling ring, Khutulun went similarly undefeated. She declared that she wouldn’t marry any man who couldn't beat her in a wrestling match; those who lost would have to give her their prized horses. Suffice it to say, Khutulun had a lot of horses. She overpowered all her suitors though she did eventually choose a husband from among her father’s men and married him. She did it without submitting him to the evidently impossible challenge to out-wrestle her. By RoR standards she’d probably be the best replacement I could think of for Raiden. I get that he was a famous Japanese sumo wrestler (I ain’t saying he wasn’t awesome in his match), but Khutulun was a warrior AND a wrestler. And remember, Mongols were NOT weak fighters, so seeing how a Mongol wrestling princess would go up against a god would be cool.

2. Tomoe Gozen

If you know anything about samurai, you probably know that they aren’t big on backing down. Battling to the death? Sure. Charging into certain doom? Absolutely. Ritual suicide? Race you to the knife closet. But going one-on-one against a woman whom the history books describe as “a match for any god or demon?” No thank you. One of Japan’s few known female warriors, who fought in the 12th century Genpei War. She was described as a peerless swordswoman, horsewoman and archer, with a taste for beheading her enemies. Tomoe stands out as one of Japan's extraordinarily rare woman warriors who engaged in offensive battle, known as onna musha. These women can be differentiated from the defensive female fighters known as onna bugeisha. Her story in the Tale of the Heike influenced several generations of samurai. She is often celebrated in books, music, poems, films, historical novels and culture in general. No denying, she is a badass and I would love to see her face off with a god.

3. Gráinne “Grace O’Malley” Ní Mháille

So I knew that I wanted to pick a notorious pirate but I didn’t want to do the usual picks like Anne Bonny and Mary Read so I decided to do Grace instead. There has never been anyone else like Grace O’Malley in the history of Ireland. A combo of queen and pirate, she spent most of her life performing, in her words, “maintenance by land and sea.” She impounded ships, extorted money, burned down castles, and generally ran the Irish waters for decades. Grace proved spirited enough to request an audience with none other than Queen Elizabeth. She demanded that her brother and sons, who had been captured, be released. And the queen obliged. She became one of the most ruthless pirates of her time. In 1623, 20 years after her death, Grace O’Malley was recognised as a “leader of fighting men” by the British Lord Deputy of Ireland. Honestly, I would love to see her in a naval style battle with a god. Though it’s been recorded that she used to fight with a sword in each hand as well with a gun so she’d be totally capable of fighting in close range combat too.

4. Petra “Pedro” Herrera

Mexican revolutionary who was instrumental in turning the tide of the war for the revolutionaries. Herrera’s valiance and skills as one of the Mexican Revolution’s most successful soldaderas are an example of the bravery and sacrifices of women during times of war. In classic Mulan-style fashion, Petra “Pedro” Herrera disguised herself as a man to fight alongside her male companions in the Mexican Revolution. Herrera blew up bridges and demonstrated extraordinary leadership abilities, having gained a reputation as an excellent soldier. Eventually, she became so popular that she dropped the “I’m a man” pretense and shouted 'I'm a woman and I will continue to carry out my duties as a soldier using my real name!'. Petra Herrera continued to fight in combat under her own name and took part, together with some 400 other women, in the second Battle of Torreón. Herrera would eventually leave the battlefield, but her departure wouldn’t slow her passion for fighting for a better Mexico. After her service, she served as a spy. Before she left the battlefield, she commanded a female-only brigade of nearly 1,000 women who she looked after like a mama bear armed to the teeth. She wouldn’t let men sleep in her camp, and enforced that rule by staying up late and using any wayward male soldier that tried to get in as target practice. If you ever wanted to see Mulan-type in RoR, imagine a Mulan that was a gunslinger and ammunition expert who was not only a warrior but spy too

5. Hedy Lamarr

I know what you’re thinking: Did you choose an Old Hollywood Actress to fight against a god? Yes, yes I did. If Tesla can be a fighter, why not the mother of WiFi? Hedy is a real beauty with brains. With a two-decade career playing femmes fatale in Hollywood movies, Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress and inventor who came up with a radio wave frequency hopping system to guide torpedos, allowing torpedos to find their target while also preventing interception, pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for today’s WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems, and engineered a more economical, speedier design for aircrafts. RoR has Tesla being the inventor, but think about Hedy with a wifi based Volunder. Like how many things do we have now that use wifi and with her being an actress, I’d think it would be like VR meets illusion magic or reality warping. I mean, as we’ve seen with Tesla’s match, seeing more modern tech take on ancient god magic is pretty cool. She could create a grand spectacle that could fool even a god, though she’d still be weak physically. She’s an inventor, not a warrior after all.

6. Elizabeth Báthory

If RoR includes Jack The Ripper, then why not include the most prolific female murderer in history? Countess Elizabeth Báthory, The Blood Countess, a vampire, a torturer, a creature beyond human who bathed in the blood of innocent girls to maintain her looks. Jack’s crimes don’t even compare to the atrocities that Bathory committed. She had more victims, killed in more ways, and killed for much longer than Jack (I’m assuming, not sure since he never got caught). This lady was CRAZY. According to the testimonies, Elizabeth Báthory amused herself by torturing girls with pincers, needles, razors, knives, red-hot irons and pokers, or biting off their breasts, faces, and limbs. Some were plunged into icy streams and frozen to death. Others were starved in the dungeons and torture chambers the countess had installed in her castle, or smeared with honey, and left to be attacked by bees and ants. Two court officials claimed to have personally witnessed the countess torture and kill young servant girls. She was even suspected of cannibalism. You also might’ve heard how she was also rumored to bathe in the blood of her young victims (but that’s considered unreliable). Nevertheless, over 10 years of torture, she reputedly brutalized 650 different ladies, that number reported by a peasant girl who was a witness to these crimes. But when caught she was only officially charged with the murder of 80 women. How many did she kill? We'll probably never know.

7. Scáthach

Now Scáthach technically comes from an Irish myth but she’s still a legendary figure that began as a human so I’d say she counts, especially by RoR standards. According to Irish legend, she trained soldiers and heroes at her covert school — so covert in fact, that if you wanted her to teach you, you had to search for her first. Scathach’s training regime was as difficult and deadly as the journey to her island. She taught her trainees how to pole vault over a castle’s walls, fight underwater, and use a special weapon of her own making called a gáe bolg, which was a barbed harpoon. One of the most famous pupils of Scathach was Cu Chulainn, a warrior who eventually became a central figure in the origin stories of Ireland. He successfully completed her training and before going off to fight his own legendary battles. In addition to training scores of great heroes and warriors, Scathach also became the goddess of the dead eventually (guess that would make her like Heracles or Buddha in RoR). The legends say that if a warrior was strong enough to defeat her in mortal combat, they could enter the Land of Eternal Youth as a reward for defeating one of history’s greatest women warriors. Honestly, if they canonically included women in the Einherjar or God line ups, I’d bet Scathach would be on it.

8. Sarraounia Mangou

Sarraounia (a title indicating a female chief, nowadays referring mostly to this Sarraounia) was the “panther queen” of the Azna people. Credited with sorceress powers, she had been to the “protect my people” rodeo many times before — she’d first driven off the Tuareg, who routinely attempted raids on her village; then the Fulani people, who wanted to convert the Azna to Islam. Sarraounia Mangou was the most famous of the Sarraounias due to her resistance against French colonial troops at the Battle of Lougou in 1899. While most chiefs in Niger pragmatically submitted to French power, Sarraounia Mangou mobilized her people and resources to confront the French forces of the Voulet–Chanoine Mission. According to native oral history she was a witch with pure yellow eyes who could hurl fire at the invaders and even summon fog to help them get away from the French army. It's said her magical charms erased her troops' footsteps from the battlefield and any crops that were blazed to ash regrew overnight with more than enough food to keep the warriors going. Now a god going up against a magical panther queen definitely sounds interesting.

9. Boudica

Gotta include the original Braveheart in the list of fighters. I mean, it’s just a given considering the things she did. This legendary warrior queen killed 70,000 Romans, burnt London to the ground, and became the most famous headhunter of all time - and to this day, Britain loves her for it. Now not much is actually known about Boudica (when she was born, how she died, where she died, where she came from, or if Boudica was even her name), what we do know, largely from two Roman historians, is enough to earn her a place in the badass hall of fame. Her methods are almost directly equivalent to tribal headhunters and religious extremists, but she’s held up as a vengeful heroine instead of deranged villain.

10. Nitocris

For any of you that know me, you know I love Ancient Egypt, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a badass Egyptian queen in this list. I chose Nitocris due to a tale in Herodotus (Histories ii-100) that goes like this: Nitocris succeeded her brother. He had been the king of Egypt, and he had been put to death by his subjects, who then placed her upon the throne. Determined to avenge his death, she devised a cunning scheme by which she destroyed a vast number of Egyptians. She constructed a spacious underground chamber and, on pretense of inaugurating it, threw a banquet, inviting all those whom she knew to have been responsible for the murder of her brother. Suddenly as they were feasting, she let the river in upon them by means of a large, secret duct, drowning everyone inside. FYI, no details of this story can technically be verified. There's no Egyptian record of it, only Greek. So this may be just a story, but legendary human figures clearly aren’t off limits in RoR so I chose her anyway.

Honorable Mentions: Queen Nzinga, Thákane, La Jaguarina, Mai Bhago, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Nancy Wake, Maria Bochkareva, Black Agnes, Amanirenas, Jeanne de Clisson, Lozen

My Einherjar Picks

Record of Ragnarok season 2 came out, and I thought it was pretty good! At least a step up from last season anyway. Then I remembered I had this idea. I thought this would be a fun idea and potential reblog/tag game to do! So here’s the list of Einherjar (human fighters) I would have gone with. Feel free to reblog with your own picks of them (or the list of gods) you would have chosen.

Keep reading