_Sources._--Abridged from the text and translation published by the
Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language in 1883. This merely
follows the text and version given by Professor O'Curry in _Atlantis_,
iv. He used three Dublin MSS., none of them, however, of earlier date
than the eighteenth century. Dr. Joyce gives a free paraphrase in his
_Old Celtic Romances_.
_Parallels._--For "Jealous Stepmother," see the bibliographical
references in the list of incidents at the end of my paper on the
"Science of Folk-tales" in the _Transactions of the Folk-lore Congress_,
_sub voce_. Add Miss Roalfe Cox in _Folk-lore Journal_, vii. app. 37;
also the same list _sub voce_ "Swan Maiden Transformation." In modern
Irish literature Griffin has included the tale in his _Tales of the
Jury-room_, and Tom Moore's "Song of Fiounala" beginning "Silent, O
Moyle" is founded upon it.
_Remarks._--The "Fate of the Children of Lir" is always referred to
along with "The Story of Deirdre" (_cf._ the _Celtic Fairy Tales_, ix.),
and the "Children of Tuireann" as one of the Three Sorrowful Tales of
Erin. But there is no evidence of equal antiquity to the other two
stories, of which one is as old as the eleventh century. From the
interspersed verse O'Curry concluded, however, that the story was at
least of considerable antiquity, and the references to the unknown Saint
Mochaomhog confirm his impression. The Hill of the White Field is near
Newton Hannton, in the county of Armagh. The Lake of the Red Eye is
Lough Derg, in the Shannon above Killaloe.
Fingula is Fair Shoulder. The tradition that swans are inviolable is
still extant in Ireland. A man named Connor Griffin killed eleven swans:
he had previously been a prosperous man, and shortly afterwards his son
was drowned in the Shannon, his goods were lost, and his wife died
(_Children of Lir_, Dublin edit., note, p. 87). In County Mayo it is
believed that the souls of pure virgins are after death enshrined in the
forms of swans; if anybody injures them, it is thought he will die
within a year (Walter's _Natural History of the Birds of Ireland_, pp.
94-5). Mr. Gomme concludes from this that the swan was at one time a
British totem (_Arch. Rev._, iii. 226-7).
At first sight the tale seems little more than an argument against the
Bill for Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister, but the plaintive lays
of Fingula, the touching detail of the swans flying over the desolate
hill and White Field, give a touch of Celtic glamour to the whole story.
There is probably also a deep religious significance implied in the fact
that the wicked Aunt Stepmother's spell is broken when the transformed
Children of Lir come across the first Christian they meet.