Celtic tales have been collected in modern times in a greater number than those of any nation. This has been due largely to the work of J. F. Campbell. Celtic tales are unusual in that they have been collected while the custom of story-telling is yet flourishing among the Folk. They are therefore of great literary and imaginative interest. They are especially valuable as the oldest of the European tales.
The Irish tale of "Connla and the Fairy Maiden" has been traced to a date earlier than the fifth century and therefore ranks as the oldest tale of modern Europe. So it seems that this singular Fairy Maiden retains the character of a Water Goddess and dweller of the Tir Nan Óg, the lsle of the Eternal Youth, and certainly this Connla is not the same character featured in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, the son of the Ulster champion Cú Chulainn and the Scottish warrior woman Aífe.
CONNLA
of the Fiery Hair was son of Conn of the Hundred Fights. One day as he
stood by the side of his father on the height of Usna, he saw a maiden
clad in strange attire coming towards him.
"Whence comest thou, maiden?" said Connla.
"I come from the Plains of the Ever Living," she said, "there where
there is neither death nor sin. There we keep holiday alway, nor need we
help from any in our joy. And in all our pleasure we have no strife.
And because we have our homes in the round green hills, men call us the
Hill Folk."
The king and ail with him wondered much to hear a voice when they saw no one. For save Connla alone, none saw the Fairy Maiden.
"To whom art thou talking, my son? " said Conn the king.
Then the maiden answered, "Connla speaks to a young, fair maid, whom
neither death nor old age awaits. I love Connla, and now I call him away
to the Plain of Pleasure, Moy Mell, where Boadag is king for aye, nor has there been complaint or
sorrow in that land since he has held the kingship.
Oh, come with me,
Connla of the Fiery Hair, ruddy as the dawn with thy tawny skin. A fairy
crown awaits thee to grace thy comely face and royal form. Come, and
never shall thy comeliness fade, nor thy youth, till the last awful day
of judgment."
The king in fear at what the maiden said, which he heard though he could not see her, called aloud to his Druid, Coran by name.
"Oh, Coran of the many spells," he said, " and of the cunning magic, I
call upon thy aid. A task is upon me too great for all my skill and
wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized the kingship. A maiden
unseen has met us, and by her power would take from me my dear, my
comely son. If thou help not, he will be taken from thy king by woman's
wiles and witchery."
Then Coran the Druid stood forth and chanted his spells towards the
spot where the maiden's voice had been heard. And none heard her voice
again, nor could Connla see her longer. Only as she vanished before the
Druid's mighty spell, she threw an apple to Connla.
For a whole month from that day Connla would take nothing, either to
eat or to drink, save only from that apple. But as he ate it grew again
and always kept whole. And all the while there grew within him a mighty
yearning and longing after the maiden he had seen.
But when the last day of the month of waiting came, Connla stood by
the side of the king his father on the Plain of Arcomin, and again he
saw the maiden come towards him, and again she spoke to him.
"Tis a glorious place, forsooth, that Connla holds among shortlived
mortals awaiting the day of death. But now the folk of life, the
ever-living ones, beg and bid thee come to Moy Mell, the Plain of
Pleasure, for they have learnt to know thee, seeing thee in thy home
among thy dear ones. When Conn the king heard the maiden's voice he called to his men aloud and said:
"Summon swift my Druid Coran, for I see she has again this day the power of speech."
Then the maiden said " Oh, mighty Conn, fighter of a hundred fights,
the Druid's power is little loved; it has little honour in the mighty
land, peopled with so many of the upright. When the Law will come, it
will do away with the Druid's magic spells that come from the lips of
the false black demon."
Then Conn the king observed that since the maiden came Connla his son
spoke to none that spake to him. So Conn of the hundred fights said to
him, "Is it to thy mind what the woman says, my son?"
"’Tis hard upon me," then said Connla; "I love my own folk above all
things; but yet, but yet a longing seizes me for the maiden."
When the maiden heard this, she answered and said "The ocean is not
so strong as the waves of thy longing. Come with me in my curragh, the
gleaming, straight-gliding crystal canoe. Soon we can reach Boadag's
realm. I see the bright sun sink, yet far as it is, we can reach it
before dark. There is, too, another land worthy of thy journey, a land
joyous to all that seek it. Only wives and maidens dwell there. If thou
wilt, we can seek it and live there alone together in joy."
When the maiden ceased to speak, Connla of the Fiery Hair rushed away
from them and sprang into the curragh, the gleaming, straight-gliding
crystal canoe. And then they all, king and court, saw it glide away over
the bright sea towards the setting sun. Away and away, till eye could
see it no longer, and Connla and the Fairy Maiden went their way on the
sea, and were no more seen, nor did any know where they came.
Related Source:
"Celtic Fairy Tales" by Joseph Jacobs. Illustrations by John D. Batten [1892]
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