Histoire Irlande

        The Children of Lîr          17/12/202

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Table of Contents

I-        Introduction        1

II-        Information on the topic        2

A)        The Story        2

B)        The moral        3

C)        How was it created        3

III-        Current situation / comparison with France        3

IV-        Opinion and personal reflection        4

A)        General conclusion        4

B)        Charles        5

C)        Noé        5

1. Introduction

Ireland is a country with Myths and Legends, whose stories, tells the existence of Leprechauns or Kings and Queens of Ireland. The Irish mythology is present nowadays in the all countryside of Ireland. Each characters and creature have his history and they stays among us with old monuments like stones circle or castle. The Children of Lîr is a story of the Irish Celtic mythology. Its tells the story of four young Lîr’s children turn into Swan by a spell of their jealous step-mother. They are doomed into this form during nine hundred years. When they come back into very old humans, they die together of old-age.  We chose this topic because we like myths or legends story, and we want to know if there is differences between Irish and French. The report will examine the story, the moral it give us, also how was it create. In addition a comparison with France will also be offered.

1. Information on the topic

1. The Story

There are several versions with a different end, we decided to take the best known

Long ago there was a king called Lir. He lived in a castle with his wife and four beautiful children Fionnula, Aodh, Conn and Fiachra. Lir’s wife died and they all missed her very much. The king saw that his children were very sad and needed a mother, so he decided to marry again. Dearg, the High King, sent Aoife, his daughter, to be Lir’s new wife. Aoife was beautiful but she was not the kind-hearted person that Lir thought she was. At first Aoife loved the children, but soon she started to grow jealous of them. She knew that Lir loved them more that he loved her. She wanted the kings love all for herself so she planned to get rid of the children. 

One summer day, Aoife took the children swimming in Lough Derravaragh, while the children played, Aoife pulled out a druid's magic wand and cast a terrible spell on them. There was a flash of light and the children left. Four snow-white swans remained. One of the swans opened its beak and spoke in Fionnula's voice. Aoife tells them that she cast a spell on them. They were swans for nine hundred years as they spent three hundred years in this lake, three hundred in the Moyle Sea, and three hundred in the waters of Inish Glora. It is only the sound of the Christian church bell that can break the spell. 

When the children did not return home that evening, the king went to pick them up by the lake. But he only saw four swans. To his astonishment, one of the swans cries out. It was Fionnula. She told him what Aoife had done to them. Lir returned to his castle and begged Aoife to reverse the spell, but Aoife refused. Lir became very angry and banished her from his kingdom. Lir spends all of his time by the lake talking to his children and listening to their songs. When Lir got old and died, the children were very sad.

After three hundred years, they settled on the Moyle Sea between Ireland and Scotland. It was very cold and stormy at sea. When the time came, they flew to Inis Glora, the swans were already old and tired. Life was easier on the island, it was hotter and there was plenty of food. Then one morning, they heard the sound they were waiting for. It was the sound of a Christian church bell. They swam to shore. Outside the church where the bells rang, there was a monk named Caomhog. He was stunned when he saw the four swans transform into four old men in front of him. Fionnuala hugged her brothers, they were happy to be human again. They were now 900 years old. Caomhog heard their sad story and baptized them shortly after his death in old age. He buried them in a grave. He knew that the children of Lir were now with their father and mother.

1. The moral

This Irish story has not lost its meaning even today as it is still alive in the place names and tells things that are also true today. Human emotions such as love and hate, happiness and unhappiness, jealousy and generosity concern both the past, the present and the future. This is the reason why this myth also has a moral that different people can still relate to today. The moral of this myth is of course unique to each reader, but one of the things this myth seems to tell us is that we should not give in to selfish desires at the expense of someone else's happiness.

1. How was it created

The only manuscripts preserving this tale date from the 17th and 18th centuries. It may have been written by a sixteenth century monk from oral tales. The tale serves as an allegory of the Christianization of Ireland, children being freed from pagan magic through the advent of Christianity. Some authors have also compared this story to the English occupation of Ireland, including the massacres of Cromwell in the seventeenth century, Ireland would be the child badly treated by the monstrous stepmom : England

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