More Myths and Folklore

     February 1st was the festival of Imbolc and the first day of Spring, when the Celt's celebrated the goddess Brigid. Ruling over spring, fertility, and healing, as well as poetry and smithcraft, she would walk through the land bestowing the seasons bounty on those who left her tribute. If the day was bright, however, winter was still at hand. Something starting to sound familiar hear?

     With Christianity, the feast became Candlemass and the goddess was replaced by St. Brigid, but the custom of First Day continued. If St. Brigid's Day was bright, spring would still be a ways off.

The Coming of Bride by John Duncan (1917)

     There are quite a few tales about Aengus, but the main one I want to talk about here is the one about his love of Caer Ibormeith, the goddess of sleep and dreams, because Ciaran refers to them in "The Book of Carraig".

     As the god of love, Aengus could woo anyone he met, but he was also susceptible to the lure of love. He began to dream about a beautiful woman who would come to him in his sleep, but each time he'd reach out to her, she would disappear. Unable to find her, he grew heartsick, so much so that his father Dagda, the chief of the Tuatha De Danann went to look himself. 

     Finally, the girl was found, but was held captive and a curse put upon her whereby every other year she would turn into a swan for a year. Her captor told Aengus, he would release her if he could identify her in the form of a swan. Aengus was a shape shifter, and so turned into a swan himself, calling to his love, and thus winning her release.

     They flew off together and sang such sweet songs that all who listen fall to sleep for three days and nights.  

     A little background - the story is about a love triangle between an aging Fiannian warrior, Fionn mac Cumhaill, a widower, his intended bride, the young and beautiful Grainne, and her lover, Diarmuid Ua Dubhne. 

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     Diarmuid ua Duibhne was the son of Donn, and a brave and handsome member of the Fianna, the skilled warriors who guarded and protected all the lands of Erui. Like many warriors of the time, Diarmuid had a geis or two placed upon him, one of which stated that he was never to pierce the skin of a pig. Easy enough to avoid. Just no boar hunting. 

     There came a time, when Fionn mac Cumhaill, the leader of the Fianna, and  a great warrior in his own right, was grieving over the loss of his wife. His men set about finding him another and discovered that the princess Grainne, daughter of Cormac mac Airt,was the most beautiful woman in the land. The wedding arrangements were made, and all the Fianna were invited to the betrothal celebration. Of course, Diarmuid went along, happy to celebrate Fionn's good fortune. 

     By this time, however, Fionn was an old man, and Grainne was not at all happy with the arrangement. She thought she would be marrying his son Oisin (yes, the one from the previous tale) or his grandson, Oscar. On seeing Diarmuid, however, she is attracted to the handsome warrior, possibly because of the magical love spot on his forehead that makes him irresistible, but that's another story. Regardless of the reason, an idea came to her about how she could avoid marrying Fionn. 

     She made a potion and passed it to all in attendance, except herself and Diarmuid of course. When everyone was asleep, she approached Diarmuid and told him she loved him, and that they should run away together. Loyal to his friend and leader, Fionn, Diarmuid was reluctant at first, but Grainne finally persuaded him, threatening to put a geis on him forcing him to comply, and the two ran away together. When Fionn awoke, he was furious to find his future bride had taken off with the very man he had entrusted her safety to, Together with his men, Fionn took off in after the couple, and so began the pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne.. 

     Diarmuid and Grainne managed to keep one step ahead of Fionn,  enlisting the aid of Dearmuid's foster father, Aengus (yes the same one from the previous story)., as well as some of his fellow warriiors from the Fianna.  At last, Aengus was able to convince Fionn that he should forgive the couple and let them live in peace. And so the couple lived happily enough and Grainne bore Diarmuid four sons.

     Alas, the story didn't end there. Years later, Dearmuid woke one night to the baying of a hound, and determined to protect his family, he went in search of the creature, eventhough Grainne begged him not to. The only one he found, however, was Fionn MacCuhaill. Suspecting the man had finally come to kill him, he confronted his one time friend, but Fionn looked at him as thought he'd lost his mind, saying that he was there searching for one of the Fianna's lost hounds. Fionn went on to add that Diarmuid should probably head home since a wild boar was said to be in the vicinity as well.  

    Now at first, you might think it was kind of Fionn to warn Diarmuid, since he knew of the geis set upon Dearmuid, but was it? Or did he figure the man would react just as he did,  Letting his pride get in the way of his good judgment, Diarmuid refused to leave, saying he wouldn't run from a mere pig.

     By and by, he did run across the creature, of course, and piercing him with his spear, killed the animal, but not before the boar had gored him with his tusk. Near death, Diarmuid begged Fionn to cure him. Fionn had the power to do so if he would but pour some water from his hands upon the wound. (Ever since he had burned his fingers on a fish from the Well of Knowledge many years before, Fionn has had magical hands - a tale for another time.)

     Though Fionn says he would surely do so, but he does not know where to find any water, his grandson, Oscar, the son of Oisin, reminds him there was a stream a short distance away, and that he was certain to know of it.    

    Fionn agreed that so he did, but as he went to get the water, the old jealousy and anger surfaced, and he let the water slip through his fingers before he could get back to Diarmuid. He went back a second time, but on returning, he stewed over Diarmuid's betrayal once more, and allowed the water to slip away once more.

     Finally, on the urging of his grandson, Oscar, who treatened him with bodily har, Fionn relented, remembering how Diarmuid had once been his friend. He went to retrieve the water a third time, hurrying back to Diarmuid's side, but he was too late. Diarmuid had already passed away, for he had broken the geis that had been placed upon him and pierced the boar's skin.  

The story has vaires endings. Some say that Grainne is so distraught she takes her own life, while others say she charges her children with hunting down Fionn. Still, others say she ultimately relents, and makes peace with Fionn, even going so far in some cases to finally marry Fionn. What ending do you like? 

At last the sky gloomed above them, and Niamh urged their steed faster. The wind lashed them with pelting rain, thunder roared across the sea and lightning blazed, but they held on their way till at length they came once more into a region of calm and sunshine. And now Oisín saw before him a shore of yellow sand, lapped by the ripples of a summer sea. Inland, there rose before his eye wooded hills amid which he could discern the roofs and towers of a noble city. The white horse bore them swiftly to the shore and Oisín and the maiden lighted down. And Oisín marvelled at everything around him, for never was water so blue or trees so stately as those he saw, and the forest was alive with the hum of bees and the song of birds, and the creatures that are wild in other lands, the deer and the red squirrel and the wood-dove, came, without fear, to be caressed. Soon, as they went forward, the walls of a city came in sight, and folk began to meet them on the road, some riding, some afoot, all of whom were either youths or maidens, all looking as joyous as if the morning of happy life had just begun for them, and no old or feeble person was to be seen. Niam led her companion through a towered gateway built of white and red marble, and there they were met by a glittering company of a hundred riders on black steeds and a hundred on white, and Oisín mounted a black horse and Niamh her white, and they rode up to a stately palace where the King of the Land of Youth had his dwelling. And there he received them, saying in a loud voice that all the folk could hear, "Welcome, Oisín, son of Finn. Thou art come to the Land of Youth, where sorrow and weariness and death shall never touch thee. This thou hast won by thy faithfulness and valour and by the songs that thou hast made for the men of Erinn, whereof the fame is come to us, for we have here indeed all things that are delightful and joyous, but poesy alone we had not. But now we have the chief poet of the race of men to live with us, immortal among immortals, and the fair and cloudless life that we lead here shall be praised in verses as fair; even as thou, Oisín, did'st praise and adorn the short and toilsome and chequered life that men live in the world thou hast left forever. And Niam my daughter shall be thy bride, and thou shalt be in all things even as myself in the Land of Youth."

Then the heart of Oisín was filled with glory and joy, and he turned to Niam and saw her eyes burn with love as she gazed upon him. And they were wedded the same day, and the joy they had in each other grew sweeter and deeper with every day that passed. All that Niam had promised in her magic song in the wild wood when first they met, seemed faint beside the splendour and beauty of the life in the Land of Youth. In the great palace they trod on silken carpets and ate off plates of gold; the marble walls and doorways were wrought with carved work, or hung with tapestries, where forest glades, and still lakes, and flying deer were done in colours of unfading glow. Sunshine bathed that palace always, and cool winds wandered through its dim corridors, and in its courts there played fountains of bright water set about with flowers. When Oisín wished to ride, a steed of fiery but gentle temper bore him wherever he would through the pleasant land; when he longed to hear music, there came upon his thought, as though borne on the wind, crystal notes such as no hand ever struck from the strings of any harp on earth.

But Oisín's hand now never touched the harp, and the desire of singing and of making poetry never waked in him, for no one thing seemed so much better than the rest, where all perfection bloomed and glowed around him, as to make him long to praise it and to set it apart.

When seven days had passed, he said to Niamh, "I would fain go a-hunting." Niamh said, "So be it, dear love; to-morrow we shall take order for that." Oisín lay long awake that night, thinking of the sound of Finn's hunting-horn, and of the smell of green boughs when they kindled them to roast the deer-flesh in Fian ovens in the wildwood.

So next day Oisín and Niam fared forth on horseback, with their company of knights and maidens, and dogs leaping and barking with eagerness for the chase. Anon they came to the forest, and the hunters with the hounds made a wide circuit on this side and on that, till at last the loud clamour of the hounds told that a stag was on foot, and Oisín saw them streaming down an open glen, the stag with its great antlers laid back and flying like the wind. So he shouted the Fian hunting-cry and rode furiously on their track. All day long they chased the stag through the echoing forest, and the fairy steed bore him unfaltering over rough ground and smooth, till at last as darkness began to fall the quarry was pulled down, and Oisín cut its throat with his hunting-knife. Long it seemed to him since he had felt glad and weary as he felt now, and since the woodland air with its odours of pine and mint and wild garlic had tasted so sweet in his mouth; and truly it was longer than he knew. But when he bade make ready the wood-oven for their meal, and build a bothy of boughs for their repose, Niam led him seven steps apart and seven to the left hand, and yet seven back to the place where they had killed the deer, and lo, there rose before him a stately Dún with litten windows and smoke drifting above its roof. When they entered, there was a table spread for a great company, and cooks and serving-men busy about a wide hearth where roast and boiled meats of every sort were being prepared. Casks of Greek wine stood open around the walls, and cups of gold were on the board. So they all ate and drank their sufficiency, and all night Oisín and Niam slept on a bed softer than swans-down in a chamber no less fair than that which they had in the City of the Land of Youth.

Next day, at the first light of dawn, they were on foot; and soon again the forest rang to the baying of hounds and the music of the hunting-horn. Oisín's steed bore him all day, tireless and swift as before, and again the quarry fell at night's approach, and again a palace rose in the wilderness for their night's entertainment, and all things in it even more abundant and more sumptuous than before. And so for seven days they fared in that forest, and seven stags were slain. Then Oisín grew wearied of hunting, and as he plunged his sharp black hunting-knife into the throat of the last stag, he thought of the sword of magic temper that hung idle by his side in the City of Youth, or rested from its golden nail in his bed-chamber, and he said to Niam, "Has thy father never a foe to tame, never a wrong to avenge? Surely the peasant is no man whose hand forgets the plough, nor the warrior whose hand forgets the sword hilt." Niam looked on him strangely for a while and as if she did not understand his words, or sought some meaning in them which yet she feared to find. But at last she said, "If deeds of arms be thy desire, Oisín, thou shalt have thy sufficiency ere long." And so they rode home, and slept that night in the palace of the City of Youth.

At daybreak on the following morn Niam roused Oisín, and she buckled on him his golden-hilted sword and his corselet of blue steel inlaid with gold. Then he put on his head a steel and gold helmet with dragon crest, and slung on his back a shield of bronze wrought all over with cunning hammer-work of serpentine lines that swelled and sank upon the surface, and coiled in mazy knots, or flowed in long sweeping curves like waves of the sea when they gather might and volume for their leap upon the sounding shore. In the glimmering dawn, through the empty streets of the fair city, they rode forth alone and took their way through fields of corn and by apple orchards where red fruit hung down to their hands. But by noontide their way began to mount upwards among blue hills that they had marked from the city walls toward the west, and of man's husbandry they saw no more, but tall red-stemmed pine trees bordered the way on either side, and silence and loneliness increased. At length they reached a broad table-land deep in the heart of the mountains, where nothing grew but long coarse grass, drooping by pools of black and motionless water, and where great boulders, bleached white or stained with slimy lichens of livid red, lay scattered far and wide about the plain. Against the sky the mountain line now showed like a threat of bared and angry teeth, and as they rode towards it Oisín perceived a huge fortress lying in the throat of a wide glen or mountain pass. White as death was the stone of which it was built, save where it was streaked with black or green from the foulness of wet mosses that clung to its cornices and battlements, and none seemed stirring about the place nor did any banner blow from its towers.

Then said Niam, "This, O Oisín, is the Dún of the giant Fovor of the Mighty Blows. In it he keeps prisoner a princess of the Fairy Folk whom he would fain make his bride, but he may not do so, nor may she escape, until Fovor has met in battle a champion who will undertake her cause. Approach, then, to the gate, if thou art fain to undertake this adventure, and blow the horn which hangs thereby, and then look to thy weapons, for soon indeed will the battle be broken upon thee."

Then Oisín rode to the gate and thrice he blew on the great horn which hung by it, and the clangour of it groaned drearily back from the cliffs that overhung the glen. Not thus indeed sounded the Dord of Finn as its call blew lust of fighting and scorn of death into the hearts of the Fianna amid the stress of battle. At the third blast the rusty gates opened, grinding on their hinges, and Oisín rode into a wide courtyard where servitors of evil aspect took his horse and Niam's, and led them into the hall of Fovor. Dark it was and low, with mouldering arras on its walls, and foul and withered rushes on the floor, where dogs gnawed the bones thrown to them at the last meal, and spilt ale and hacked fragments of flesh littered the bare oaken table. And here rose languidly to greet them a maiden bound with seven chains, to whom Niam spoke lovingly, saying that her champion was come and that her long captivity should end. And the maiden looked upon Oisín, whose proud bearing and jewelled armour made the mean place seem meaner still, and a light of hope and of joy seemed to glimmer upon her brow. So she gave them refreshment as she could, and afterwards they betook them once more to the courtyard, where the place of battle was set.

Here, at the further side, stood a huge man clad in rusty armour, who when he saw Oisín rushed upon him, silent and furious, and swinging a great battleaxe in his hand. But doubt and langour weighed upon Oisín's heart, and it seemed to him as if he were in an evil dream, which he knew was but a dream, and would be less than nothing when the hour of awakening should come. Yet he raised his shield and gripped the fairy sword, striving to shout the Fian battle-cry as he closed with Fovor. But soon a heavy blow smote him to the ground, and his armour clanged harshly on the stones. Then a cloud seemed to pass from his spirit, and he leaped to his feet quicker than an arrow flies from the string, and thrusting fiercely at the giant his sword-point gashed the under side of Fovor's arm when it was raised to strike, and Oisín saw his enemy's blood. Then the fight raged hither and thither about the wide courtyard, with trampling of feet and clash of steel and ringing of armour and shouts of onset as the heroes closed; Oisín, agile as a wild stag, evading the sweep of the mighty axe and rushing in with flickering blade at every unguarded moment, his whole soul bent on one fierce thought, to drive his point into some gap at shoulder or neck in Fovor's coat of mail. At length, when both were weary and wounded men, with hacked and battered armour, Oisín's blade cut the thong of Fovor's headpiece and it fell clattering to the ground. Another blow laid the giant prostrate, and Oisín leaned, dizzy and panting, upon his sword, while Fovor's serving-men took off their master in a litter, and Niam came to aid her lord. Then Oisín stripped off his armour in the great hall, and Niam tended to his wounds, healing them with magic herbs and murmured incantations, and they saw that one of the seven rusty chains that had bound the princess hung loose from its iron staple in the wall.

All night long Oisín lay in deep and healing slumber, and next day he arose, whole and strong, and hot to renew the fray. And the giant was likewise healed and his might and fierceness returned to him. So they fought till they were breathless and weary, and then to it again, and again, till in the end Oisín drove his sword to the hilt in the giant's shoulder where it joins the collar bone, and he fell aswoon, and was borne away as before. And another chain of the seven fell from the girdle of the captive maiden.

Thus for seven days went on the combat, and Oisín had seven nights of healing and rest, with the tenderness and beauty of Niam about his couch; and on the seventh day the maiden was free, and her folk brought her away, rejoicing, with banners and with music that made a brightness for a while in that forlorn and evil place.

But Oisín's heart was high with pride and victory, and a longing uprose in his heart with a rush like a springtide for the days when some great deed had been done among the Fianna, and the victors were hailed and lauded by the home-folk in the Dún of Allen, men and women leaving their toil or their pleasure to crowd round the heroes, and to question again and again, and to learn each thing that had passed; and the bards noting all to weave it into a glorious tale for after days; and more than all the smile and the look of Finn as he learned how his children had borne themselves in the face of death. And so Oisín said to Niam, "Let me, for a short while, return to the land of Erinn, that I may see there my friends and kin and tell them of the glory and joy that are mine in the Land of Youth." But Niam wept and laid her white arms about his neck, entreating him to think no more of the sad world where all men live and move under a canopy of death, and where summer is slain by winter, and youth by old age, and where love itself, if it die not by falsehood and wrong, perishes many a time of too complete a joy. 

But Oisín said, "The world of men compared with thy world is like this dreary waste compared with the city of thy father; yet in that city, Niam, none is better or worse than another, and I hunger to tell my tale to ignorant and feeble folk that my words can move, as words of mine have done of old, to wonder and delight. Then I shall return to thee, Niam, and to thy fair and blissful land; and having brought over to mortal men a tale that never man has told before, I shall be happy and at peace for ever in the Land of Youth."

So they fared back to the golden city, and next day Niam brought to Oisín the white steed that had borne them from Erinn, and bade him farewell. "This our steed," she said, "will carry thee across the sea to the land where I found thee, and whithersoever thou wilt, and what folk are there thou shalt see, and what tale thou hast to tell can be told. But never for even a moment must thou alight from his back, for if thy foot once touch again the soil of earth, thou shalt never win to me and to the Land of Youth again. And sorely do I fear some evil chance. Was not the love of Niam of the Head of Gold enough to fill a mortal's heart? But if thou must go, then go, and blessing and victory be thine."

Then Oisín held her long in his arms and kissed her, and vowed to make no long stay and never to alight from the fairy steed. And then he shook the golden reins and the horse threw its head aloft and snorted and bore him away in a pace like that of flowing water for speed and smoothness. Anon they came to the margin of the blue sea, and still the white steed galloped on, brushing the crests of the waves into glittering spray. The sun glared upon the sea and Oisín's head swam with the heat and motion, and in mist and dreams he rode where no day was, nor night, nor any thought of time, till at last his horse's hoofs ploughed through wet, yellow sands, and he saw black rocks rising up at each side of a little bay, and inland were fields green or brown, and white cottages thatched with reeds, and men and women, toil-worn and clad in earth-coloured garments, went to and fro about their tasks or stopped gazing at the rider in his crimson cloak and at the golden trappings of his horse. But among the cottages was a small house of stone such as Oisín had never seen in the land of Erinn; stone was its roof as well as the walls, very steep and high, and near-by from a rude frame of timber there hung a bell of bronze. Into this house there passed one whom from his shaven crown Oisín guessed to be a druid, and behind him two lads in white apparel. The druid having seen the horseman turned his eyes again to the ground and passed on, regarding him not, and the lads did likewise. And Oisín rode on, eager to reach the Dún upon the Hill of Allen and to see the faces of his kin and his friends. 

     As his name signifies Manannan or Mananndan mac Lir was the son of the sea god, Lir and a deity of the Tuatha de Danann. According to legend, he was  the first ruler of the Isle of Man, and it appears eventually took over the duties of his father, Lir. As ruler of the Otherworld, he was said to live there on the island of Emain Ablach or Tir Tairngire, the Land of Promicse, and appears in all four cycles of Irish mythology. 

     In his role as guardian of the Tuatha de Danann after the coming of the Milesians, the humans, he uses the feth fada, the magical mist to cloak the Otherworld and the homes of the aos sidhe from detection. He is the owner of a number of magical items, which he gifts to the heroes of the Irish myths at various times. Along with the Wave-Sweeper, a self-navigating boat the skmis across the water without the use of oar or sale, he possesses a horse called Aoabharr, which can gallop across both land and sea. His sword, the Fragrach, the Answerer or Retaliator, served a dual purpose. No man could tell a lie if it were held against their throat, nor could they survive a blow from its blade. 

     He also listed the Goblet of Truth among the magical items in his custody, The goblet was reported to break in three if three lies were told over it, but repair itself when three truths were told. Another of his items was a cloak of forgetfulness. When his wife, Fand, has an affair with the hero Cuchulainn, Manandan uses it to make the two lovers forget each other. The corrbolg or Crane Bag, is another of his possessions. The tales say that it was full of treasures, but its contents could uld only be seen at high tide. It was said that any pig that was killed for dinner would magically appear alive in that bag the next day.

     One legend referring specifically to the county of Mayo, speaks of a treasure, buried in Manann's woods that is guarded by a serpeant.