[Illustration: I]
It happened that the five Kings of Ireland met to determine who should
have the head kingship over them, and King Lir of the Hill of the White
Field expected surely he would be elected. When the nobles went into
council together they chose for head king, Dearg, son of Daghda, because
his father had been so great a Druid and he was the eldest of his
father's sons. But Lir left the Assembly of the Kings and went home to
the Hill of the White Field. The other kings would have followed after
Lir to give him wounds of spear and wounds of sword for not yielding
obedience to the man to whom they had given the over-lordship. But Dearg
the king would not hear of it and said: "Rather let us bind him to us
by the bonds of kinship, so that peace may dwell in the land. Send over
to him for wife the choice of the three maidens of the fairest form and
best repute in Erin, the three daughters of Oilell of Aran, my own three
bosom-nurslings."
So the messengers brought word to Lir that Dearg the king would give him
a foster-child of his foster-children. Lir thought well of it, and set
out next day with fifty chariots from the Hill of the White Field. And
he came to the Lake of the Red Eye near Killaloe. And when Lir saw the
three daughters of Oilell, Dearg the king said to him: "Take thy choice
of the maidens, Lir." "I know not," said Lir, "which is the choicest of
them all; but the eldest of them is the noblest, it is she I had best
take." "If so," said Dearg the king, "Ove is the eldest, and she shall
be given to thee, if thou willest." So Lir and Ove were married and went
back to the Hill of the White Field.
And after this there came to them twins, a son and a daughter, and they
gave them for names Fingula and Aod. And two more sons came to them,
Fiachra and Conn. When they came Ove died, and Lir mourned bitterly for
her, and but for his great love for his children he would have died of
his grief. And Dearg the king grieved for Lir and sent to him and said:
"We grieve for Ove for thy sake; but, that our friendship may not be
rent asunder, I will give unto thee her sister, Oifa, for a wife." So
Lir agreed, and they were united, and he took her with him to his own
house. And at first Oifa felt affection and honour for the children of
Lir and her sister, and indeed every one who saw the four children could
not help giving them the love of his soul. Lir doted upon the children,
and they always slept in beds in front of their father, who used to rise
at early dawn every morning and lie down among his children. But
thereupon the dart of jealousy passed into Oifa on account of this and
she came to regard the children with hatred and enmity. One day her
chariot was yoked for her and she took with her the four children of Lir
in it. Fingula was not willing to go with her on the journey, for she
had dreamed a dream in the night warning her against Oifa: but she was
not to avoid her fate. And when the chariot came to the Lake of the
Oaks, Oifa said to the people: "Kill the four children of Lir and I will
give you your own reward of every kind in the world." But they refused
and told her it was an evil thought she had. Then she would have raised
a sword herself to kill and destroy the children, but her own womanhood
and her weakness prevented her; so she drove the children of Lir into
the lake to bathe, and they did as Oifa told them. As soon as they were
upon the lake she struck them with a Druid's wand of spells and wizardry
and put them into the forms of four beautiful, perfectly white swans,
and she sang this song over them:
"Out with you upon the wild waves, children of the king!
Henceforth your cries shall be with the flocks of birds."
And Fingula answered:
"Thou witch! we know thee by thy right name!
Thou mayest drive us from wave to wave,
But sometimes we shall rest on the headlands;
We shall receive relief, but thou punishment.
Though our bodies may be upon the lake,
Our minds at least shall fly homewards."
And again she spoke: "Assign an end for the ruin and woe which thou hast
brought upon us."
Oifa laughed and said: "Never shall ye be free until the woman from the
south be united to the man from the north, until Lairgnen of Connaught
wed Deoch of Munster; nor shall any have power to bring you out of these
forms. Nine hundred years shall you wander over the lakes and streams of
Erin. This only I will grant unto you: that you retain your own speech,
and there shall be no music in the world equal to yours, the plaintive
music you shall sing." This she said because repentance seized her for
the evil she had done.
And then she spake this lay:
"Away from me, ye children of Lir,
Henceforth the sport of the wild winds
Until Lairgnen and Deoch come together,
Until ye are on the north-west of Red Erin.
"A sword of treachery is through the heart of Lir,
Of Lir the mighty champion,
Yet though I have driven a sword.
My victory cuts me to the heart."
Then she turned her steeds and went on to the Hall of Dearg the king.
The nobles of the court asked her where were the children of Lir, and
Oifa said: "Lir will not trust them to Dearg the king." But Dearg
thought in his own mind that the woman had played some treachery upon
them, and he accordingly sent messengers to the Hall of the White Field.