That’s Irish

Thalia and Jini have come to an agreement. Jini will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day if Thalia will celebrate Diwali with Jini. Sounds like a good bargain to me. Jini has already been anglicized into recognizing Christmas. Well, there are gifts involved. Why not another holy day? However, I think Thalia gets the better part of the deal. Diwali goes on for five days.

We’ve had our sumptuous meal of leek soup, corned beef and cabbage (which Jini skipped), and colcannon, ending with shortbread cookies. We, including Mellisa, have settled into the study for Thalia’s reading of an Irish tale.

“The King of Erin and the Queen of The Lonesome Island,” Thalia announces. She holds a copy of Jeremiah Curtin’s Myth and Folk-lore of Ireland.

The King of Erin, out hunting, spotted and gave chase to a black pig, which ran into the ocean, and yet, the king followed, barely surviving. He found shelter in a castle where all his needs were invisibly attended to. During the next two days, the king tried to leave the castle but traveled all day to find himself at the castle door by evening.

On the third evening, his hostess revealed herself and explained that she was the black pig that lured him to the castle. She and her two sisters remained under an enchantment that will be broken by their son that the King of Erin and she, the Queen of The Lonesome Island, will have between them. In the morning, she will let him return to his kingdom.

The son was born, and the queen raised him, teaching him her magical arts of wisdom and war.

Years later, the queen sent her son to defend her “friend,” the King of Erin—the son not knowing he was his father—against the King of Spain and his army. Single-handedly, the son destroyed the army and the king.

The king’s rightful but deceitful queen convinced him that their champion was their eldest son, drugged the true champion, and threw him into the river. Washed out to sea, he was rescued, and he returned to The Lonesome Island.

The son of the King of Spain, now the new king, soon attacked again to avenge his father’s death, and the Queen of The Lonesome Island sent her son again.

Things fall out similarly as before, but the deceitful queen’s new ruse was the claim that she was dying and only water from the well at Tubber Tintye could cure her. Taking the deceitful queen’s two sons with him, he set out on his next adventure.

Aided by the two sisters of the Queen of The Lonesome Island, also under enchantment, they instructed him on the deadly obstacles facing him, at which the cowardly brothers found excuses not to follow him. With the help of a lean, shaggy little horse, which addressed him as the son of the King of Erin, revealing the son’s true identity, he was carried over a burning river, through poisonous trees, and into a castle where all the monsters, giants, warriors, and other castle inhabitants had fallen into a seven-year sleep. He passed through the twelve chambers of the maids-in-waiting and into that of the Queen of Tabber Tintye, in whose chamber was the well of the healing water.

He lingered there for six days with the sleeping queen. He left with the healing water, leaving behind a letter explaining that he was the son of the King of Erin. After his departure, back through the poisonous trees and over the burning river, and at the horse’s request, he killed and quartered the beast, touching the pieces with a druid’s wand, turning it all back into the four princes that had formed the horse.

Seven years later, the Tubber Tintye Queen woke up to find she had a six-year-old son. She and her army descended on the King of Erin’s kingdom, intent on finding out which of his sons was the father of her child. The test was who could ride her gray steed. The cowardly sons died in the attempt. The true son succeeded. The deceitful queen was consigned to the flames, the King of Erin married the Queen of The Lonesome Island, their son married the Queen of Tubber Tintye, and all remaining enchantments were dissolved.

“Oh, wow, so that’s Irish,” says Jini.

Yup, that’s Irish.

Fairy Tale of the Month: March 2025 The King of Erin and the Queen of The Lonesome Island – Part Two

Talking Animals

“But why,” Jini frowns a bit, “would a king go chasing after a pig and follow it into the sea? Seems rather unking-like.”

“Oh,” Melissa answers, “pigs have a special place in Irish lore. There are quite a few legends involving pigs. For example, The Boar of Ben Gulbain. This involves the death of the hero Diarmuid of the famous Irish warriors called the Fianna. He was the son of Donn and Cochrain, both of the Fianna clan. Donn had a falling out with the rest of the Fianna, and Diarmuid became a foster child of Aengus, one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who were divinities of a sort.

“Donn’s wife then had another child, but not by one of the Fianna. Donn killed the child, but a magician turned it into a wild boar with the prediction that the half-brothers would kill each other.

“In an attempt to save his foster son, Aengus put a geas—a kind of Irish curse—on Diarmuid that he should never hunt a pig.

“Skipping Diarmuid’s interesting history, I come to the end. Fionn, King of the Fianna was not too fond of Diarmuid, who stole his would-be bride, Gráinne, from him. Thus he failed to protect Diarmuid from the wild boar—Diarmuid’s half-brother—who had killed a number of Fionn’s men. As predicted, the half-brothers kill each other.”

“That’s so Irish!” Thalia giggles.

Jini appears disconcerted. “Isn’t that gratuitous violence?”

“Not if you’re Irish,” I say with a smile.

“In early times,” Melissa continues, “the Irish were a warrior culture. However, the Christians arrived in the fifth century and tamed them. In the ninth century, the Vikings arrived and had them for breakfast.”

“I think you are oversimplifying,” I state. Melissa only grins at me.

“Ok, so what about this talking horse?”

I admire Jini’s unrelenting curiosity.

“Horses, like pigs, have their role in Irish stories.” Melissa temples her fingers and nods her head toward them. “There are only a few animals with the power of speech in the Irish tales. Even pigs, in pig form, don’t talk. Horses talk. Eagles, bulls, and foxes talk. Now that I think about it, that might be all, except when there is a convocation of animals, or only animals are talking to other animals. There are no talking ducks, or chickens, or bears. Enchanted Nordic bears talk, of course. Did you know there are no bears in Ireland? No snakes. No bears.”

Melissa pauses to collect her thoughts. I think the Guinness I poured for her might have loosened her tongue.

“Let me go off-the-wall,” she says. “I have a personal theory. Talking animals have something to do with transportation.”

“What?” I say. “Explain.”

She gives me another grin and takes a sip of her stout. “Think about it. All the talking animals in the Irish tales can be ridden. Even the fox, magically, can carry heroes on its tail. Eagles often fly heroes about. Bulls are usually carrying young women, shades of the abduction of Europa.

“A little off my topic, while there are no talking snakes in Irish tales—no surprise—but neither are there talking snakes in any European tales that I know of, despite there being a talking serpent in the Bible. Talking snakes in Eastern tales are not unusual.”

I notice Johannes napping on his window seat. “What about talking cats? Puss in Boots, and all that?”

“Not Irish. That is more French and German,” she says.

“Oh, right.”

Johannes stirs but does not speak.

Fairy Tale of the Month: March 2025 The King of Erin and the Queen of The Lonesome Island – Part Three

Three Queens

“We are not getting to the core of this story.” Thalia snaps the book closed. “There are three queens. Three’s a crowd.”

“Not to mention half-brothers.” Jini rests her forehead on her hand in puzzlement.

“Let’s start with the Queen of The Lonesome Island.” Melissa takes another sip of Guinness. “She provided the inciting incident, the luring of the king of Erin to her castle and entrapping him there until he did her bidding. Making love to a beautiful woman, I don’t think was all that hard for him.”

She pauses for a second. “Men are not that good at thinking about consequences, but I will not go there.”

I wonder about her former husband, to whom she has made reference, and I will ignore Thalia’s and Jini’s perplexed stares.

Melissa continues. “Their son, destined to lift the curse on her and her two sisters through his actions, does so. What is not clear in the story is the nature of the curse. Nor is the origin of the curse given to us.”

“Oh, yeah.” Thalia’s eyes widen. “You know, I didn’t even notice that. The curse is lifted, but nothing changes. The Queen of The Lonesome Island is still the queen, and her sisters are still her sisters.”

“What about the enchantment of the little shaggy horse?” asks Jini, in whose lap Johannes has crept to have his ears scratched.

“That’s not a device I have seen before,” I can’t help saying. “Four princes enchanted into one entity? Strange. And they appear to be four random princes, and, again, the origin of their enchantment is not given.

“I have also noticed, in this tale, as in many others, enchanted beings also possess magic themselves. Enchanted fishes are always granting wishes.”

“Granting wishes like fishes.” Thalia tests out a rhyme. Jini giggles.

“Then there is the Queen of Tubber Tintye,” Melissa states. Oh, but she is holding court tonight. “There appears to be an undeclared curse on her as well. I think a seven-year sleep would not be voluntary.

“If they are under enchantment, its origin, again, is not stated. In the end, by her actions, any remaining enchantments are dissolved.

“The fall guys in this tale are the first wife of the King of Erin and their two sons, who were ruled by deceit and cowardliness. In fairy-tale terms, they deserved their punishment.

“However, setting all that aside, this is a women’s tale.”

Thalia and Jini brighten at the thought, and Melissa goes on. “There are three queens, three kings, and three mature princes. I will discount the shaggy horse and infant prince, who played a small role.

“The queens call the shots. The King of Erin does not control his situation. The kings of Spain are destroyed by the hero at his mother’s bidding. The hero goes to Tubber Tintye at the deceitful queen’s request. The Queen of Tubber Tintye sorted things out in the end, to the death of the two brothers and their mother. Most of the men are killed off.”

Thalia and Jini nod in agreement.

“But now, my dears,” Melissa smiles broadly, “I have gifts for you two from the nixie.”

The girls are all ears.

“Not because it is Saint Patrick’s Day, but rather because Ostara is upon us. The nixie wishes you to have these.”

Melissa hands each of them a small packet that appears to me to be made of oak leaves. The leaves crumble as the girls open them. Inside are pendants of highly delicate filigree in the shape of aspen leaves on chains of the same material in a loose braid.

Admiration shines from Thalia’s eyes. “What are they made of? Something between silver and gold.”

Jini’s eyes hold disbelief, but she speaks the truth. “Moonbeams.”

Your thoughts?

PS. Revisit https://chaztales.net/2024/07/28/fairy-tale-of-the-month-july-2024-the-girl-fish-part-one/