#etain and midir

[stingrayextraordinaire]

Aesthetic Moodboards // “Fairytale” by Enya

O woman, if you come to my proud folk, a crown of gold shall be upon your head. Honey, wine, ale, fresh milk, and drink you shall have with me there, O fair lady.

[forfeda-project]

THE LIVES OF ÉTAÍN

This piece depicts the themes and symbols around the character of Étaín from Tochmarc Étaíne and her various transformations throughout the tale. The two faces depict Étaín's two incarnations a thousand years apart, flanked by suns and moons to represent that "all time is made up of days and nights." The swan and fly represent Étaín's two animal forms, while the cup and pitcher represent the cup of the wife of Étar, and Étaín's skill at serving drink, by which Eochaid seeks to recognize her. Finally, the vegetation and swirling billows on the outside of the frame symbolize the "fragrant and wonderous herbs" of Aengus's crystal sun-bower, and Fuamnach's magical winds.  This was my submission to the late Ralph Kenna's EÍRÍ art project through the Irish Post in 2022, based on the prompt of Evoking Ireland's Resiliant Female Icons. The Wooing of Étaín is one of my favorite Irish myths, and I've always wanted to take a crack at representing some of the themes of the story. Hello everyone, it's been quite a while! I've been on a bit of an impromptu hiatus due to general life stuff and a bit of artistic burnout in the last year or so, but I've got a few works in progress that I'm hoping will help get me back into the swing of things!

[stairnaheireann]

Midir and Etáin

A bronze representation of the mythical figures Midir and Etain taking flight swan-like by Eamonn O’Doherty at Ardagh Heritage and Creativity Centre. Midir was a king of the Tuatha de Dannan; proud, handsome and regal. His wife was called Fuamnach, and was his equal in every way. She too was tall and proud, and she was herself the daughter of a king. She was a good wife to Midir, she looked…

[stygian-library]

Etain and Midir, illustration by Stephen Reid for T.W. Rolleston's The High Deeds of Finn

[brunette-historians-history]

AILILL

Ailill was the brother of Eochaidh, a High King of Ireland, who fell in love with his brother's wife, Etain, who was actually a goddess, one of the Tuatha De Danann. Etain had been the second wife of the proud and handsome god Midir, who lived under a mound in the middle of Ireland. She had been rebor as a human as punishment for her great jealousy of Midir's first wife, Fuamnach. When High King Eochaidh was looking for a bride himself, he heard reports that described Etain as the fairest maiden in Ireland. So he brought the beautiful former goddess back to his palace at Tara, the capital.

There Eochaidh and Etain enjoyed a happy married life. Ailill, however, gradually succumbed to a terrible wasting disease because of his unrequited passion for the new queen.

Etain was steadfast in her love for Eochaidh, but she also felt sorry for ailing Ailill and eventually promised to satisfy his desire as the only means of saving his life. It was arranged that they should meet secretly in a house outside Tara. However, Ailill never came because he fell into an enchanted sleep.

[tarotbroad]

It's time to reclaim myself and leave the betrayal in the past - Elopement of Skill + Courtship of Battle (Celtic Wisdom)

Elopement of Skill (aka 8 of Wands) shows the reclamation of Etain by Midir. In Irish legend, Etain is the second wife of Midir. His jealous first wife changes her into a fly and after some mishaps she is swallowed by Etar and reborn as her daughter. Midir realizes she is his true love reborn and pursues her despite the fact that she is married to another. Despite all efforts to stop him, Midir…

[k00283030]

Movement: Artist Research

Éamonn O’Doherty

(1939-2011)

🔗Background

Eamonn O'Doherty is best known for his large-scale public sculptures, thirty of which stand in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

He is also a painter, printmaker and photographer and has won major awards for painting at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, the Claremorris Open, and Arnott's National Portrait Competition and in 2006, was awarded the Connor/Moran prize for sculpture at the annual R.H.A. exhibition.

Éamonn O’Doherty - Movement

I became captivated by O’Doherty’s work when I began researching Irish sculpture and legends.

I first came across his piece “Midir & Etain”, a 12 X 4ft bronze sculpture located in Ardagh Heritage Centre. The piece is a representation of the Mythical figures Midir & Etain taking flight swan like. The pose suggests nothing less than the most majestic movement taking place. The artist truly captivates his audience and tells a story with this piece.

After some more research, I discovered another piece by O’Doherty Known as “The Great Hunger Memorial” located at Mackey Park in Ardsley, New York. The Monuments sculptor described the memorial as comprising of three related elements.

1. Five members of an irish family group

2. The deserted shell of the homestead they were forced to leave due to famine.

3.Refers to potato blight- an overturned basket from which potatoes, as they spill onto the ground, metamorphose into skulls.

🔗Midir & Etain (bronze sculpture)

🔗The Great Hunger Memorial

[place-holder-for-witty-username]

I love irish mythology because our cultural epic, The Táin Bó Chuailghne, like the irish equivalent of the Oddessy or Illiad, is literally the most petty ridiculous drama ever.

Queen Maeve of Connacht starts a giant war involving ALL the gods and heros because on her wedding night her and her new husband got distracted in the middle of sex by a stupid argument over who has the most cool stuff and she's too petty to let him win.

And the men of ulster mistreated a random poor pregnant peasant (say it 3 times fast) woman by making her run in a race even though shes massively preggers but oopsies oh no that was actually the great and powerful Goddess Macha guess what now ye are fucked and she curses them so that in Ulster's greatest hour of need they will all get period cramps and labour pains.

But! Warrior Queen Maeve (spoiler alert) loses the war because at the last moment pf the epic battle between her and her arch foe the great demigod hero Cú Chulainn she gets her period early and has to run off to the woods because this version was transcribed by christian monks and for some unknown reason they may have had slight internal biases towards powerful warrior queens kicking ass in epic showdown battles.

Not to mention the other magical shenanigans and nonsense involving a very goth version of snow white which ends in bloodshed all around (deirdre of the sorrows), how many unhinged wizards there are or the fact that people can't stop turning into assorted animals for reasons and the sheer amount of WTF going on in whatever the hell Etain and Midir had going on. because whose love life should involve that much shawshank redemption: swan edition, reincarnation via accidentally drinking dead purple flies in wine, kidnapping and heated to the death board games.

Not to mention how in irish mythology theres a king with dokeys ears who keeps Killing his hairdressers and gets outed as a furry/catboy by a talking harp who is PISSED.

[birdsofrhiannon]

Midir and Etain

[mitheredbymidir]

Restore the Balance

Midir regularly comes into conversations between Annette and myself. Well he has occupied our minds for quite a while and it is difficult to forget him when you live at the foot of Brí Leith.

Today she was recommending I watch a programme, which I intend to later seeing as it is a miserable wet day and I've no interest in housework.

Apparently "Kiss the Ground" led Annette to the conclusion that basically

"Climate Change started with Midir showing Eochaidh the plough"

Of course I had to revert to my role as Midir's advocate, a role I reluctantly found being thrust upon me when we attended the Bard Summer School on Clare Island in 2018, now stored in the memory collection of "The time before Covid."

" Well he didn't want to show him the plough did he? Eochaidh spied on him. So it's on Eochaidh not Midir, can't be blaming Midir he just wants to have everything balanced." says I.

To which the wise sage Annette replied

" Yeah, just shows humans can't stay in balance!"

Now that I've opened the curtain and let you have a glimpse of the rambling conversations we amuse ourselves with daily this is what we are so fondly reflecting on:

In "The wooing of Etain" Eochaidh gave extremely difficult tasks to Midir as his forfeits for losing at chess:

" A causeway over Móin Lámraige. a wood over Bréifne, without difficulty. a clearing of stones from the hillocks of great Meath and rushes over Tethba. "

These were impossible tasks to a human but Midir being extraordinary was able to do them, his ability didn't stop him complaining though, and he also gave a warning :

" ‘Thou layest too much upon me,’ said Midir. ‘I do not indeed,’ said Eochaid. ‘Then do thou grant me a request and a boon. As far as thou holdest sway let no man or woman be out of doors until sunrise to-morrow.’ ‘It shall be done,’ said Eochaid. No one had ever trodden that bog before. "

And therein rests my case, we humans were warned by a godly figure not to watch how he performed his task of laying the road in the bog so what was to come after is our fault not his and he cannot be blamed for Climate Change. It is on us.

Eochaidh being a curious cat decided that he had to find out how this otherworldly person could do what he did and sent his steward out to watch.

" The steward went into the bog. It seemed to him as though all the men in the world from sunrise to sunset had come to the bog. They all made one mound of their clothes, and Midir went up on that mound. Into the bottom of the causeway they kept putting a forest with its trunks and roots, Midir standing and urging on the host on every side. One would think that below him all the men of the world were raising a tumult. After that, clay and gravel and stones are placed upon the bog."

So that explains where Doire Mór (big oak forest , townland Derrymore) went and also how Ardagh Mountain became a hill 😉. Into the bog at Corlea they went to make a road on the whim of a King.

And here we get to the crux of Annette's first remark:

" Now until that night the men of Ireland used to put the strain on the foreheads of oxen, (but) it was seen that the folk of the elfmounds were putting it on their shoulders. Eochaid did the same, hence he is called Eochaid Airem i.e. ploughman, for he was the first of the men of Ireland to put a yoke upon the necks of oxen."

Our destructive path to Climate Change began the day we ploughed the land which led to all the other destructive paths we took such as industrialisation, using fossil fuels, plastics, nuclear and chemicals etc etc. In other words curiosity killed the cat.

Midir describes the process rather well here:

‘Put in hand, throw in hand, excellent oxen, in the hours after sundown; overhard is the exaction; none knoweth whose is the gain, whose the loss, from the causeway over Móin Lámraige.’

With everything we create we destroy something else, when will we learn this I wonder? Not until the end? I like to think we are learning it rapidly and hopefully not too late. On my own tiny patch of the world just by stopping the mowing of our lawn brought back wildflowers, wild grasses, grasshoppers, crickets, pygmy shrews, frogs and newts just to name a few that I noticed. Imagine if we stopped turning the sod on a grand scale!

Anyway, to continue the story, Midir saw the spy and decided to teach Eochaidh a lesson. He and his left defects in the road that they built which is one of the reasons we consider it to be connected to the road at Corlea which lasted about 10 years and was built around about the time there was a King Eochaidh around these there parts.

Midir wasn't finished with Eochaidh, nor us, and continued to warn us :

" While they were speaking they saw Midir coming towards them, his loins girt and an evil look on him. Eochaid was afraid, but bade him welcome. ‘Tis for that we have come,’ said Midir. ‘It is fierce and unreasonable of thee to lay such hardship and infliction upon me. I would have wrought something else to please thee, but my mind is inflamed against thee.’ ‘Thou shalt not get wrath in return for thy rage, thy mind shall be set at ease,’ said Eochaid. ‘It shall be accepted then,’ said Midir; ‘Shall we play at chess?’ "

And the game continues.

Note: All the quotes, other than Annette's and my conversation, are from part 3 of The Wooing of Etain, https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T300012/text003.html

Some good books on not turning the sod include The Last Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, The Garden Awakening by Mary Reynolds, Wilding by Isabella Tree and Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life by George Monbiot. There are probably plenty more but that is a start and if you really want to find the knowledge you can always read up about Midir, his motto isn't "Restore the balance" for no reason. 😉

[officialinfinitia]

DJ, t-posing in the doorway: Greetings parental figure

Etain, not looking up from her third coffee of the morning: Good morning problem child

[lepetitdragonvert]

Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race by T. W. Rolleston

Thomas Y. Crowell Company

New York

1909

Artist : Stephen Raid

MIDIR AND ETAIN

[dianasson]

Fair Lady, will you come with me To a wonder-land of harmony Hair shines with a primrose glow Body smooth and white as snow. There, is neither mine nor yours, Teeth bright white, dark the brows. The eye’s delight our populace Each cheek bears a foxglove blush The heather’s bloom on every neck Eyes shine blue as blackbirds’ eggs, Though you love to gaze on Ireland It palls after visiting the Great Land. Though sweet you deem your Irish beer Our mirthful mead is sweeter far. It is a wonder, truth be told, Young do not die there before old. The land flows with streams, both warm and sweet The best of wine, the choicest mead. Mark the flawless folk therein, conception without rape or sin. While we watch your people teem, We walk among you, still unseen. Dark the tragedy of Eden That keeps our countless people hidden. Woman, join my noble folk Your head shall bear a crown of gold Pools of milk, mead, ale and wine We shall drink there, my Bé Find.                                                                              A Bé Find, in rega lim  i dtír n-ingnad hi fil rind? Is barr sobairce folt and; Is dath snechtai [& for] corp [slim /] co [fh]ind. Is and nád bí muí ná taí, gela dét and; dubai [a] braí; is lí súla lín ar slúag is dath sion and cech grúad Is corcur maige [/ muighi] cech muin; Is lí súla ugae luin; cid caín déicsiu Maige Fáil annam íar n-gnáis Maige Máir. Cid [mesc /] caín lib coirm Inse Fáil is mescu coirm Tíre Máir. amra tíre tír as-biur; ní tét oac and ré siun. Srotha téithmilsi tar tír, rogu de mid ocus fhín, doíni delgnaidi cen on combart cen peccad, cen chol. Ad-chiam cách for cach leith, ocus níconn-acci nech teimel imorbais Ádaim dodon-aircheil ar áraim A ben, día rís mo thúaith tind is barr óir bias fort [chind] [muc úr/] mil fín, laith, lemnacht la lind rot-bía lim and, a Bé Find.

​from Tochmarc Étaíne, “The Wooing of Étaín”, ed. Osborne Bergin and R. I. Best  Poetic translation by Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody with Story Archaeology - an amazing podcast of conversations about Irish Mythology! A beautiful 9th century poem in which Midir is revealing to Étaín the land she comes from, and asking that she return with him to her rightful place among the Sídhe. 

[stairnaheireann]

Midir and Etáin

A bronze representation of the mythical figures Midir and Etain taking flight swan-like by Eamonn O’Doherty at Ardagh Heritage and Creativity Centre. Midir was a king of the Tuatha de Dannan; proud, handsome and regal. His wife was called Fuamnach, and was his equal in every way. She too was tall and proud, and she was herself the daughter of a king. She was a good wife to Midir, she looked…

[incorrect-tuatha]

On my way to steal your girl.

Midir, probably.

[worldofcelts]

Be Find, will you come with me to a wondrous land where there is music? Hair is like the blooming primrose there; smooth bodies are the color of snow. There, there is neither mine nor yours; bright are teeth, dark are brows. A delight to the eye the number of our hosts, the colour of foxglove every cheek. The color of the plain-pink every neck, a delight to the eye blackbirds' eggs; though fair to the eye Mag Fail, it is a desert next to Mag Mar. Intoxicating the ale of Inis Fail; more intoxicating by far that of Tir Mar. A wonderful land that I describe: youth does not precede age. Warm, sweet dreams throughout the land, your choice of mead and wine. A distinguished people, without blemish, conceived without sin or crime. We see everyone everywhere, and no one sees us: the darkness of Adam's sin prevents our being discerned. Woman, if you come to my bright people, you will have a crown of gold for your head; honey, wine, fresh milk to drink you will have with me there, Be find.

Midir to Etaine, “The Wooing of Etaine”