by Irish Myths
not give for all your whole kingdom one night of the nights of
the Sidhe."
With that Laegaire turned from them, and went back to the
kingdom. And he was made king there along with Fiachna, son of
Betach, and his daughter, and he did not come out of it yet.
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B O O K F I V E :
THE FATE OF THE CHILDREN OF LIR
Now at the time when the Tuatha de Danaan chose a king for
themselves after the battle of Tailltin, and Lir heard the kingship
was given to Bodb Dearg, it did not please him, and he left the
gathering without leave and with no word to any one; for he
thought it was he himself had a right to be made king. But if he
went away himself, Bodb was given the kingship none the less,
for not one of the five begrudged it to him but only Lir. And it is
what they determined, to follow after Lir, and to bum down his
house, and to attack himself with spear and sword, on account of
his not giving obedience to the king they had chosen. "We will
not do that," said Bodb Dearg, "for that man would defend any
place he is in; and besides that," he said, "I am none the less king
over the Tuatha de Danaan, although he does not submit to me. "
All went on like that for a good while, but a t last a great misfortune came on Lir; for his wife died from him after a sickness of three nights. And that came very hard on Lir, and there was heaviness on his mind after her. And there was great talk of the death of that woman in her own time.
And the news of it was told all through Ireland, and it came to
the house of Bodb, and the best of the Men of Dea were with him
at that time. And Bodb said: "If Lir had a mind for it," he said,
"my help and my friendship would be good for him now, since
his wife is not living to him. For I have here with me the three
young girls of the best shape, and the best appearance, and the
best name in all Ireland, Aobh, Aoife , and Ailbhe , the three
daughters of Oilell of Aran, my own three nurselings. " The Men
of Dea, said then it was a good thought he had, and that what he
said was true.
Messages and messengers were sent then from Bodb Dearg to
the place Lir was, to say that if he had a mind to join with the Son
of the Dagda and to acknowledge his lordship, he would give him
1 46
IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS
a foster-child of his foster-children. And Lir thought well of the
offer, and he set out on the morrow with fifty chariots from Sidhe
Fionnachaidh; and he went by every short way till he came to
Bodb's dwelling-place at Loch Dearg, and there was a welcome
before him there, and all the people were merry and pleasant
before him, and he and his people got good attendance that night.
And the three daughters of Oilell of Aran were sitting on the
one seat with Bodb Dearg's wife , the queen of the Tuatha de
Danaan, that was their foster-mother. And Bodb said: "You may
have your choice of the three young girls, Lir. " "I cannot say," said
Lir, "which one of them is my choice, but whichever of them is
the eldest, she is the noblest, and it is best for me to take her. " "If
that is so," said Bodb, "it is Aobh is the eldest, and she will be
given to you, if it is your wish." "It is my wish," he said. And he
took Aobh for his wife that night, and he stopped there for a fortnight, and then he brought her away to his own house, till he would make a great wedding-feast.
And in the course of time Aobh brought forth two children, a
daughter and a son, Fionnuala and Aodh their names were. And
after a while she was brought to bed again, and this time she gave
birth to two sons, and they called them Fiachra and Conn. And
she herself died at their birth. And that weighed very heavy on
Lir, and only for the way his mind was set on his four children he
would have gone near to die of grief.
The news came to Bodb Dearg's place, and all the people gave
out three loud, high cries, keening their nursling. And after they
had keened her it is what Bodb Dearg said: "It is a fret to us our
daughter to have died, for her own sake and for the sake of the
good man we gave her to , for we are thankful for his friendship and his faithfulness. However," he said, "our friendship with one another will not be broken, for I will give him for a wife her
sister Ao if e."
When Lir heard that, he came for the girl and married her, and
brought her home to his house. And there was honour and affection with Aoife for her sister's children; and indeed no person at all
THE FATE OF THE CHILDREN OF UR
147
could see those four children without giving them the heart's love.
And Bodb Dearg used often to be going to Lir's house for the
sake of those children; and he used to bring them to his own place
for a good length of time, and then he would let them go back to
their own place again. And the Men of Dea were at that time using
the Feast of Age in every hill of the Sidhe in tum; and when they
came to Ur's hill those four children were their joy and delight, for
the beauty of their appearance; and it is where they used to sleep,
in beds in sight of their father Lir. And he used to rise up at the
break of every morning, and to lie down among his children.
But it is what came of all this, that a fire of jealousy was kindled in Aoife, and she got to have a dislike and a hatred of her sisters children.
Then she let on to have a sickness, that lasted through nearly
the length of a year. And the end of that time she did a deed of
jealousy and cruel treachery against the children of Lir.
And one day she got her chariot yoked, and she took the four
children in it, and they went forward towards the house of Bodb
Dearg; but Fionnuala had no mind to go with her, for she knew
by her she had some plan for their death or their destruction, and
she had seen in a dream that there was treachery against them in
Aoife's mind. But all the same she was not able to escape from
what was before her.
And when they were on their way Aoife said to her people:
"Let you kill now," she said, "the four children of Lir, for whose
sake their father has given up my love, and I will give you your
own choice of a reward out of all the good things of the world."
"We will not do that indeed," said they; "and it is a bad deed you
have thought of, and harm will come to you out of it. "
And when they would not do as she bade them, she took out a
sword herself to put an end to the children with; but she being a
woman and with no good courage, and with no great strength in
her mind, she was not able to do it.
They went on then west to Loch Dairbhreach, the Lake of
the Oaks, and the horses were stopped there. And Aoife bade the
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IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS
children of Lir to go out and bathe in the lake, and they did as she
bade them. And as soon as Aoife saw them out in the lake she
struck them with a Druid rod, and put on them the shape of four
swans, white and beautiful. And it is what she said: "Out with
you, children of the king, your luck is taken away from you for
eve
r; it is sorrowful the story will be to your friends; it is with
flocks of birds your cries will be heard for ever."
And Fionnuala said: "Witch, we know now what your name
is, you have struck us down with no hope of relief; but although
you put us from wave to wave, there are times when we will
touch the land. We shall get help when we are seen; help, and all
that is best for us; even though we have to sleep upon the lake, it
is our minds will be going abroad early. "
And then the four children of Lir turned towards Aoife, and it
is what Fionnuala said: "It is a bad deed you have done, Aoife,
and it is a bad fulfilling of friendship, you to destroy us without
cause; and vengeance for it will come upon you, and you will fall
in satisfaction for it, for your power for our destruction is not
greater than the power of our friends to avenge it on you; and put
some bounds now," she said, "to the time this enchantment is to
stop on us." "I will do that," said Aoife, "and it is worse for you,
you to have asked it of me. And the bounds I set to your time are
this till the Woman from the South and the Man from the North
will come together. And since you ask to hear it of me," she said,
"no friends and no power that you have will be able to bring you
out of these shapes you are in through the length of your lives,
until you have been three hundred years on Loch Dairbhreach,
and three hundred years on Sruth na Maoile between Ireland and
Alban, and three hundred years at Irrus Domnann and Inis Gluaire; and these are to be your journeys from this out," she said.
But then repentance came on Aoife, and she said, "Since there
is no other help for me to give you now, you may keep your own
speech; and you will be singing sweet music of the Sidhe, that
would put the men of the earth to sleep, and there will be no
music in the world equal to it; and your own sense and your own
THE FATE OF THE CHILDREN OF UR
149
nobility will stay with you, the way it will not weigh so heavy on
you to be in the shape of birds. And go away out of my sight now,
children of Lir," she said, "with your white faces, with your stammering Irish. It is a great curse on tender lads, they to be driven out on the rough wind. Nine hundred years to be on the water, it
is a long time for any one to be in pain; it is I put this on you
through treachery, it is best for you to do as I tell you now.
"Lir, that got victory with so many a good cast, his heart is a
kernel of death in him now; the groaning of the great hero is a
sickness to me, though it is I that have well earned his anger."
And then the horses were caught for Aoife, and the chariot
yoked for her, and she went on to the palace of Bodb Dearg, and
there was a welcome before her from the chief people of the
palace. And the son of the Dagda asked her why she did not bring
the children of Lir with her. "I will tell you that," she said. "It is
because Lir has no liking for you, and he will not trust you with
his children, for fear you might keep them from him altogether."
"I wonder at that," said Bodb Dearg, "for those children are
dearer to me than my own children." And he thought in his own
mind it was deceit the woman was doing on him, and it is what
he did, he sent messengers to the north to Sidhe Fionnachaidh.
And Lir asked them what did they come for. "On the head of your
children," said they. "Are they not gone to you along with Aoife?"
he said. "They are not," said they; "and Aoife said it was yourself
would not let them come."
It is downhearted and sorrowful Lir was at that news, for he
understood well it was Aoife had destroyed or made an end of his
children. And early in the morning of the morrow his horses were
caught, and he set out on the road to the south-west. And when
he was as far as the shore of Loch Dairbhreach, the four children
saw the horses coming towards them, and it is what Fionnuala
said: "A welcome to the troop of horses I see coming near to the
lake; the people they are bringing are strong, there is sadness on
them; it is us they are following, it is for us they are looking; let
us move over to the shore, Aodh, Fiachra, and comely Conn.
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Those that are coming can be no others in the world but only Lir
and his household."
Then Lir came to the edge of the lake, and he took notice of
the swans having the voice of living people, and he asked them
why was it they had that voice.
"I will tell you that, Lir," said Fionnuala. "We are your own
four children, that are after being destroyed by your wife, and by
the sister of our own mother, through the dint of her jealousy. " "Is
there any way to put you into your own shapes again?" said Lir.
"There is no way," said Fionnuala, "for all the men of the world
could not help us till we have gone through our time, and that
will not be," she said, "till the end of nine hundred years. "
When Lir and his people heard that, they gave out three great
heavy shouts of grief and sorrow and crying.
"Is there a mind with you," said Lir, "to come to us on the land,
since you have your own sense and your memory yet?" "We have
not the power," said Fionnuala, "to live with any person at all
from this time; but we have our own language, the Irish, and we
have the power to sing sweet music, and it is enough to satisfy the
whole race of men to be listening to that music. And let you stop
here to-night," she said, "and we will be making music for you."
So Lir and his people stopped there listening to the music of the
swans, and they slept there quietly that night. And Lir rose up early
on the morning of the morrow and he made this complaint:-
" It is time to go out from this place. I do not sleep though I am
in my lying down. To be parted from my dear children, it is that is
tormenting my heart.
"It is a bad net I put over you, bringing Aoife, daughter of
Oilell of Aran, to the house. I would never have followed that
advice if I had known what it would bring upon me.
"O Fionnuala, and comely Conn, 0 Aodh, 0 Fiachra of the
beautiful arms; it is not ready I am to go away from you, from the
border of the harbour where you are."
Then Lir went on to the palace of Bodb Dearg, and there was a
welcome before him there; and he got a reproach from Bodb
THE FATE OF THE CHILDREN OF UR
1 5 1
Dearg for not bringing his children along with him. "My grief! "
said Lir. "It is not I that would not bring my children along with
me; it was Aoife there beyond, your own foster-child and the sister of their mother, that put them in the shape of four white swans of Loch Dairbhreach, in the sight of the whole of the men
of Ireland; but they have their sense with them yet, and their reason, and their voice, and their Irish. "
Bodb Dearg gave a great start when he heard that, and he
knew what Lir said was true, and he gave a very sharp reproach to
Aoife, and he said: "This treachery will be worse for yourself in
the end, Aoife, than
to the children of Lir. And what shape would
you yourself think worst of being in? " he said.
"I would think worst of being a witch of the air," she said. "It
is into that shape I will put you now," said Bodb. And with that he
struck her with a Druid wand, and she was turned into a witch
of the air there and then, and she went away on the wind in that
shape, and she is in it yet, and will be in it to the end of life
and time.
As to Bodb Dearg and the Tuatha de Danaan they came to the
shore of Loch Dairbhreach, and they made their camp there to be
listening to the music of the swans.
And the Sons of the Gael used to be coming no less than the
Men of Dea to hear them from every part of Ireland, for there
never was any music or any delight heard in Ireland to compare
with that music of the swans. And they used to be telling stories,
and to be talking with the men of Ireland every day, and with
their teachers and their fellow-pupils and their friends. And every
night they used to sing very sweet music of the Sidhe; and every
one that heard that music would sleep sound and quiet whatever
trouble or long sickness might be on him; for every one that
heard the music of the birds, it is happy and contented he would
be after it.
These two gatherings now of the Tuatha de Danaan and of the
Sons of the Gael stopped there around Loch Dairbhreach through
the length of three hundred years. And it is then Fionnuala said to
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her brothers. "Do you know," she said, "we have spent all we have
to spend of our time here, but this one night only. "
And there was great sorrow on the sons of Lir when they
heard that, for they thought it the same as to be living people
again, to be talking with their friends and their companions on
Loch Dairbhreach, in comparison with going on the cold, fretful
sea of the Maoil in the north.
And they came early on the morrow to speak with their father
and with their foster-father, and they bade them farewell, and
Fionnuala made this complaint:-
"Farewell to you, Bodb Dearg, the man with whom all knowledge is in pledge. And farewell to our father along with you, Lir of the Hill of the White Field.
"The time is come, as I think, for us to part from you, 0 pleasant company; my grief it is not on a visit we are going to you.