Hello and welcome. My name is Rachel Nic Aoidh and welcome to the first part of our five part series on Animals. Throughout this series we will explore different kinds of animals that have shown up throughout Irish Mythology and the significance of their stories. This week, we will be starting with swans.
The Swan, which is known as the ‘Eala’ as Gaeilge, is best known for its mystical beauty and its majestic grace. Oftentimes, they have links to the Aos Sí, (the otherworld) whose realm was reached in many different ways including through mists, lakes, caves, mounds and much more. The Celtic gods, in all their supernatural ability, roamed within these realms. By association, the Swan had a status linked to Celtic festivals such as Samhain and Beltane.
Throughout Celtic mythology, there have been many myths and legends that feature swans. They have appeared a number of times throughout Irish Folklore.
One of the most known stories in Irish Mythology that swans appear in would be the Children of Lir. If you haven't heard of the Children of Lir before, here is some background.
Lir was a Sea God. Lir married to Aodh and together, they had four children: Fionnula, their daughter, and three sons, Aodh, Fiachra and Conn. When their mother died, Aodh’s sister Aoife remarried to Lir, thus becoming the stepmother to the children. Aoife loved Lir very much and in the beginning, she loved the children as much. But as time went on, she became jealous of the time Lir spent with his children instead of her. In spite, she cast a spell on them that turned them into swans for 900 years: 300 on Lough Derravaragh, 300 on the Sea of Moyle and 300 on the isle of Inis Glora. Despite being stuck as swans, their father stayed with them for as many years as he could, always loving them.
The swan also appears in the story of Cú Chulainn, the legendary Irish mythological warrior. In the tale of the Scandinavian Princess Derbforgaill who fell in love with Cú Chulainn, she transformed herself and her maidens into swans to be able to travel and be near him. Cú Chulainn, not realising who it was, threw a stone at one of the swans and the bird fell to the ground. She transformed back into human form and it was Derbforgaill. Cú Chulainn saved her life by taking the stone from her side and sucking some of her blood, but by doing so he was unable to marry her anymore.
Another story from Irish folklore than swans have appeared in is the story of The Dream of Aengus. Aengus was the son of the Dagda and Boann.
In the Dream of Aengus, the young man saw a woman in his dreams whose name was Caer Ibormeith, the Celtic Goddess of Sleep and Dreams. Aengus fell in love with her immediately. With this love, he set out to find Caer and he discovered that she was more than a dream, but instead a real person who had been placed under a spell. The spell was that her and her sisters would be transformed into swans every second Samhain and would remain that way until the following Samhain.
In this story, Aengus found her at a Lough known as the Loch of The Dragon’s Mouth, which is now thought to be Lough Muskry in the Galtee Mountains. When Aengus arrived, he found not one swan, but 150 of them. He had to choose which one was Caer from amongst them. Ultimately, he chose correctly and then turned into a swan himself.
It is said that they both flew away together to the fortress of Brigh na Boinne, singing beautiful music that put all of its listeners to sleep for three days and nights.
All of these stories have one thing connecting them all, and that is that love is apart of them all. In the Children of Lir, we see Lir spent as much time as possible with his children in swan form, because he loved them more than Aoife could ever know. In the story of Cú Chulainn, Derbforgaill turned herself into a swan because of her love for Cú Chulainn, and in the story of Aengus and Caer, they both came together as swans in their love. In all these Celtic legends, this beautiful bird holds a special place in these stories.
This was our story on Swans, join us next week for our next story.
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