Shapeshifter

by Holly Bennett

  Or perhaps, after all, I would. Perhaps a far-off day would come when the memory of my years in exile would be as weightless and untroubling as a wisp of cloud in a blue summer sky, and I could once again play at being a deer. It was possible. After all, in the Land of the Ever-Young, never is a very long time.

  A pronunciation guide to the

  major characters and places in

  SHAPESHIFTER

  Some names have an extra “half-syllable” tucked into them: a slight uh sound, for example, DER-uh-g instead of DERG. I’ve indicated this with a • symbol. Kh is pronounced as a soft k in the back of the throat.

  PEOPLE

  Bodb Dearg ( BOVE Der•g) One of the ancients of the Sidhe; Grian’s first husband and Daireann’s father

  Caoilte (KWEEL-tyah) One of the Fianna, and Finn’s close companion

  Cormac (COR-mac) The High King of Eire (Ireland)

  Daireann (DAIR-en) Sive’s half-sister

  Derg Dianscothach (DER•G Dee-an-SCUH-hakh) Derg of the Quick Speech, Grian’s husband and Sive’s father

  Elatha (EL-a-tha) Sive’s first love

  Far Doirche (Far DUR•kha) The Dark Druid or Dark Man; evil sorcerer of the Sidhe who pursues Sive. (The more common spelling is Fear.)

  Fianna (Fee-AH-nah) Elite troop of warriors serving the High King of Ireland

  Finn mac Cumhail (FINN moc COO-ul) Leader of the Fianna who protects Sive

  Grian (GREE-an) Sive’s mother, daughter of the great Manannan

  Lugh (LOO) Lugh of the Long Hand; one of the ancients of the Sidhe, related to Finn

  Maine and Sarai (MAH-nyah, SAH-rye) Sive’s first hosts in Eire

  Manannan (MAN-an-awn) One of the ancients of the Sidhe; his realm is the ocean

  Murigen (MUR-ee-gan) Woman of the Sidhe associated with lakes; sometimes called a “goddess of lakes”

  Niamh (NEE•V) Grian’s sister through Manannan; loves Oisin

  Oisin (ush-EEN) Finn and Sive’s son; his name means “little deer”

  Oran (OR-an) Far’s servant

  Sceolan (Scyo-LAWN) Sceolan and Bram were born to Finn’s aunt when she was under a spell that changed her into a hound; they had human wits and were Finn’s favorite hounds

  Sive (SIVE) Pronounced with a long I. I have taken pity on my readers and used the anglicized spelling; the older version is Sadbh!

  Tanai (TAH-nee) Bard who teaches Oisin

  Tuatha de Danaan (TOO-a-ha day DON-an) Children of Danu; humans call them the “People of the Sidhe.” Sidhe can refer to either the people or their settlements.

  PLACES

  Baile’s (BOLL-ya’s) Strand—Beach near present-day Dundalk

  Ben Bulben (BEN BUL-ben) Mountain near Sligo

  Cruachan (CROO•khan) Royal seat of the king of Connaught, in the modern County Roscommon

  Eire (AIR•) Ireland. Used in this book to signify the Ireland of the Celts

  Glendalough (GLEN-da-lokh) A valley in the Wicklow Mountains, with two interconnected lakes

  Hill of Almhuin (ALL-vin) Finn’s fort and headquarters, now known as the Hill of Allen near Kildare Town

  Loch Lein (LOKH LEEN) Lake near Killarney

  Mound of Hostages—One of the most ancient monuments on the hill of Tara, the Mound of Hostages is said to be a passageway between mortal Earth and the Otherworld.

  Mourne (MORN) Mountains—Mountain range on the northeast coast of Ireland

  Sidhe Ochta Cleitigh (SHEE OKH-ta CLET-ee) Sive’s home sidhe

  Tara (TA-ra) The Hill of Tara was the political and spiritual centre of ancient Ireland. The monuments on the site are pre-Celtic and are said in legend to have been left by the Tuatha de Danaan.

  Tir na nOg (TEER na nog) The land of the Tuatha de Danann, also known as the Sidhe, which exists as a (normally) invisible parallel land to Ireland. (Actually it’s more complicated than that, with several seemingly different “countries” within the Otherworld, but I chose to keep it simple.) Also referred to as the Land of Youth, the Undying Lands and the Land of the Ever-Young.

  Underwave—Used in this book to refer to Manannan’s kingdom. Manannan is often called the Celtic god of the sea.

  Ventry—Now a village on the Dingle peninsula, on the southwest coast of Ireland.

  THE LEGEND OF SIVE

  This story was inspired by an episode in the ancient Irish legends of Finn mac Cumhail, famous leader of the Fianna. The original story, or one version of it, goes like this:

  Finn was hunting one day, and he and his men were chasing a strange white fawn. The fawn was surprisingly fast, and gradually the men and dogs began falling back, until only Finn and his two wolfhounds, Bran and Sceolan, remained. The dogs finally overran the deer, but to Finn’s surprise, when he caught up he found the white fawn resting on the grass, with the dogs gamboling and playing joyfully about her. Finn realized this was no ordinary deer and spoke gently to her. The fawn followed him home, and he commanded she was not to be harmed.

  That night a beautiful woman appeared before him. “I am Sive,” she said. “I am the deer you spared on the hunt.” She was a woman of the Sidhe, and she explained that a dark druid, Far Doirche, had pursued her. He grew angry when she rejected him, and in punishment had laid an enchantment on her and turned her into a deer. (In other versions, as in my story, Sive turns herself into a deer to escape him.) Sive told Finn she had wandered Ireland for three years as a wild deer, until the dark druid’s servant took pity on her and told her that she would be safe within the walls of Finn mac Cumhail’s dun.

  Finn fell instantly in love with Sive, and not only offered her shelter but married her. They were very happy together, but one day the Fianna were called upon to protect Ireland against an invasion, and Finn had to leave Sive behind.

  Sive waited anxiously for his return. One day, she saw Finn climbing up the road to Almhuin with his two dogs. Too excited to wait for him, she ran down the road to meet him. Too late she realized it was not Finn coming toward her but the Dark Druid himself, wearing an enchanted disguise. He raised his hazel wand, and the last the servants saw of her, she had been turned into a deer and was being dragged by the neck into the forest. They tried to follow, but Far Doirche’s enchantments confused and tricked them, and they stumbled around in the fog after false voices without ever finding their quarry.

  Finn was heartbroken on his return and searched everywhere for Sive, but he never saw her again.

  However, six years later he and his men were hunting boar on Ben Bulben, when the dogs set up a great hue and cry. The men rushed after them, and Finn was astonished to find Bran and Sceolan set against the other dogs, keeping them away. Behind them sat a little, long-haired, naked boy. And Finn thought there was a look of Sive about his face, and that he might be her son. He took him home and named him Oisin—little deer—and when the boy was less frightened and found his voice, he told them that he had indeed been raised by a deer. They lived in a cave and had everything they needed there. But from time to time, he said, a Dark Man would come. He would speak nicely at first, but Oisin’s mother would huddle away in fear, and then the Dark Man would become angry. The last time he came, he drew out his druid rod and struck the deer, and then he led her away. And though she cried pitifully and tried to go back to her son, she was not able but was compelled to follow the man. And though Oisin tried to follow, an invisible barrier held him back. He fell insensible, and when he awoke, he was on the mountain all alone.

  That’s the last we hear of Sive in the legend. But Oisin’s story continues. Years later, when he is a great champion of the Fianna, Niamh does appear to him, profess her love, and take him away to live with her in Tir na nOg. He stays with her for three years and then wishes to return to visit his father and friends. He travels back on Niamh’s white horse, only to find that in Ireland three hundred years have passed, and everything has changed. But that’s another story!

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks go out once again to Richard Marsh of Dublin: storytel
ler, author, scholar and “legendary tour guide.” Over the past few years Richard has generously shared with me research sources, variant versions of legends, theories of the Irish “otherworld” (or worlds?), the pronunciation of Irish names and so much more. Any errors—in pronunciation, geography or mythology—are, of course, mine alone.

  I would also like to express my gratitude to the unnamed and unknown people who kept the stories of the ancient Celts alive through many centuries, and to Lady Augusta Gregory, who first pulled them into some kind of logical order and translated them into English, so that those of us who are not Irish scholars can enjoy them.

  Last but not least, a special thanks to all the students who attended my workshop during the 2008 White Pine Awards and helped brainstorm solutions to some tricky problems I had encountered with my work-in-progress, Shapeshifter. Their enthusiasm and creative ideas were a true inspiration and gave me the final push I needed to finish writing the book.

  Holly Bennett is the author of The Warrior’s Daughter and the Bonemender series. She is the editor-in-chief of Today’s Parent Special Editions. Born in Montreal, Holly now lives in Peterborough, Ontario, with her family.