The
mythology of pre-Christian
Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity. However, much of it was preserved in
medieval Irish literature, though it was shorn of its religious meanings. This literature represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of
Celtic mythology. Although many of the manuscripts have not survived and much more material was probably never committed to writing, there is enough remaining to enable the identification of distinct, if overlapping, cycles: the
Mythological Cycle, the
Ulster Cycle, the
Fenian Cycle and the
Historical Cycle. There are also a number of extant mythological texts that do not fit into any of the cycles. Additionally, there are a large number of recorded
folk tales that, while not strictly mythological, feature personages from one or more of these four cycles.