The Fate of the Children of Lir belongs formally to the so-called
mythological cycle, the personages of which are the Tuatha de Danann.
The Irish annalists of the 10th-11th centuries described these as
members of one of the races which possessed Ireland in pre-Christian
times before the coming of the Milesians. But even in the most strongly
euhemerised accounts the mythic nature of these beings is apparent, and
most modern scholars are agreed that they are in fact the members of a
Pagan Irish Pantheon. They live on to this very day in Irish folk-belief
as chiefs and rulers of the fairies.
The MS. evidence for some of the stories concerning the Tuatha de Danann
is as old as that for the oldest heroic cycle (the Ultonian of Conchobar
and Cuchulainn). But the Tuatha de Danann legends have retained
throughout Irish literature greater plasticity and vitality than those
of the Ultonian cycle, and many stories are not older in their present
state than the 14th and 15th centuries. This is probably the case with
the present story. The oldest known MS. only goes back to 1718, but this
and the MS. of 1721, used by O'Curry for his edition, are certainly
copied from much older MSS.
The interesting question for storiologists is whether the themes of the
story--the swan-metamorphosis consequent upon the stepmother's jealousy,
and the protecting role assigned to the sister--are of old native or of
recent imported nature. In support of the first hypothesis, it may be
noted that the theme of stepmotherly jealousy was current in Ireland in
the 10th century at the latest, as it is woven into the saga of the
Destruction of Daderga's Fort (see my article "_Folk-lore_," ii.). The
final episode of the sudden aging of the miraculously long-lived swans
is also genuinely Irish, but its true significance is obscured in our
story in a way that sufficiently demonstrates the late and secondary
character of the text. The idea is that the dwellers in Faery, whether
fairy-folk or mortals penetrating thither, enjoy perpetual life,
forfeited by the latter the moment they return to this earth. As
children of the Tuatha de Danann, Fionngula and her brothers are
deathless, and the episode as it stands in our text results from a
contamination of the original form of the story in which the
swan-metamorphosis was annulled under certain conditions (the removal of
the chains), when the original shape was resumed, and the familiar story
of the mortal returning from Faery after hundreds of years, which he
deems to be but a short space of time, shrinking into dust the moment he
touches earth.
There is a well-known Continental folk-tale--the "Seven Swans" (or
Ravens)--of which we possess several mediaeval (12th to 13th century)
versions, all connected with the romance of the "Swan Knight." M. Gaston
Paris has studied the whole story group (_Romania_, xix. 314, &c.) with
the following results: The folk-tale of the seven swans had originally
nothing to do with the saga of the swan-knight. The connection apparent
in the 12th century texts is artificial; the swans owe their
shape-shifting capacity to the superhuman nature of their mother; this
trait has been almost effaced even in the oldest versions. The
distinguishing mark of the swans in all the versions is the possession
of silver or gold chains, which are what may be called metamorphosis
tokens; it follows from this that the contamination of the two
story-types ("Seven Swans" and "Swan Knight") must be older than the
oldest version of the first story, as these chains can only be derived
from the one with which in the Swan Knight saga the swan draws the
knight back.
In _Romania_ (xxi. 62, _seq._) M. Ferd. Lot examines the question in the
light of our tale. He points out that it indicates clearly the
superhuman nature of the mother, and that as the silver chains figure in
the story, they cannot be due in the Continental versions to
contamination with the Swan Knight saga, as M. Gaston Paris imagines. M.
Lot evidently inclines to look upon them as talismans, the abandonment
of which was the original cause of the metamorphosis, and the handling
of which at the end brings about the change back to human shape. He
points out that these chains form an essential part of the gear of
beings appearing in bird guise (especially if they belong to Faery);
thus in the 10th-century "Sickbed of Cuchulainn" the goddesses Fand and
Liban appear as two swans united by a golden chain; in the 8th to 9th
century Conception of Cuchulainn, Dechtire, the mother of the hero by
the god Lug, appears with her companions in the guise of many-hued birds
linked together by chains of silver (or red gold in one version). The
MS. evidence for these tales reaches back to the early 11th century.
Curiously enough, M. Lot has not cited the closest parallel to our tale
from old Irish literature, and one which is certainly connected with it
in some measure, the fine story called the "Dream of Angus." A story of
this title is cited in the epic catalogue of the Book of Leinster (which
dates back to the early 11th century) as one of the introductory stories
to the Tain bo Cuailgne. This assumed its present shape substantially
between 650 and 750. The introductory stories had originally no
connection with it, and were invented or re-shaped in the 8th to 10th
centuries, after the Tain had taken undisputed place as the leading
Irish epic. The tale may therefore be ascribed provisionally to the 9th
century, if we can only be sure that the existing version, preserved in
a single MS. of the 15th century, is a faithful copy of the original.
There need be no doubt as to this. The text is due to a Christian
scribe, and, like nearly all portions of the mythological cycle, betrays
signs of Christian influence, though not of Christian remodelling. Such
influence is, however, far more likely to have exerted itself in the
first stage of the written existence of these tales, when the memory of
organised paganism was still tenacious, than later, when the tales had
become subject-matter for the play of free poetic fancy. The story,
printed and translated by Dr. E. Muller, _Rev. Celt._, iv. 342, &c., is
as follows: Angus (the chief wizard of the Tuatha de Danann) is visited
in sleep by a maiden whose beauty throws him into love sickness. The
whole of Ireland is scoured to find her; the Dagda is appealed to in
vain. At length, Bodb, fairy king of Munster, finds her at Loch bel
Dracon (this is not the only trace of the impression which the story of
Bel and the Dragon made upon the Irish mind). She lives there with 150
swans; one year they are in swan shape the next in human shape. They
appear as white birds with silvery chains and golden caps around their
heads. Angus changes himself into a swan to be with her, and it is
recorded of the music they made that "people fell asleep for three days
and three nights." The soporific power of music is that which is chiefly
commended in old Irish literature.
I think it is obvious that the writer of our story was familiar with
this and other legends in which swan-maids encircled with gold and
silver chains appear, and that we may fairly draw the following
conclusions from the preceding facts: There existed an Irish folk-tale
of a king with two wives, one a water or sea fairy, whose children
derive from her the capacity of shape-shifting dependent upon certain
talismans; jealousy impels the human wife to tamper with these
talismans, and the children are condemned to remain in their animal
form. This folk-tale was, probably at some time in the 14th or 15th
century, arbitrarily fitted into the _cadre_ of the Tuatha de Danann
cycle, and entirely re-fashioned in a spirit of pious edification by a
man who was in his way a great and admirable artist. The origin and
nature of the story, all the elements of which are genuinely national,
assured for it wide and lasting popularity. The evolution of the Irish
folk-tale is in no way dependent upon that of the Continental folk-tale
of the Seven Swans, but it is possible that the Celtic presentiment of
the chain-girdled swans may have influenced it as well as the Swan
Knight Romance.