The following story recounts the mythical history of Ireland. But the notable aspect of this story is Tuan mac Carill, himself -- the teller of the history. He has lived an unseasonably long life by means of a series of metamorphoses -- when he grows old in one body, he returns to a cave and awakes in a new body: from man, to stag, to boar, etc. until in the form of a fish he is eaten by a queen and is born as a man again retaining the full memory of his many transformations. Cormac’s Glossary lists the word, tuirgin, as possibly being a technical term for these transformations.

The story was edited and translated by Kuno Meyer and published in The Voyage of Bran mac Febel to the Land of Promise.

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Thinking about the caged feeling I sometimes get I remembered a favorite old story of mine. I’ll start by introducing the Merrow directly quoting Yeats’s introduction to the material.( Read more... )