“Land of Youth” of the Beautiful Etain in Fairyland
The preliminary
events of the cycle are transacted in the “Land of Youth,” the
mystic country of the People of Dana after their dispossession by the
Children of Miled. Midir the Proud son of the Dagda, a Danaan prince
dwelling on Slieve Callary, had a wife named Fuamnach. After a while
he took to himself another bride, Etain, whose beauty and grace were
beyond compare, so that “as fair as Etain” became a proverbial
comparison for any beauty that exceeded all other standards. Fuamnach
therefore became jealous of her rival, and having by magic art
changed her into a butterfly, she raised a tempest that drove her
forth from the palace, and kept her for seven years buffeted hither
and thither throughout the length and breadth of Erin. At last,
however, a chance gust of wind blew her through a window of the fairy
palace of Angus on the Boyne. The immortals cannot be hidden from
each other, and Angus knew what she was. Unable to release her
altogether from the spell of Fuamnach, he made a sunny bower for her,
and planted round it all manner of choice and honey-laden flowers, on
which she lived as long as she was with him, while in the secrecy of
the night he restored her to her own form and enjoyed her love. In
time, however, her refuge was discovered by Fuamnach; again the magic
tempest descended upon her and drove her forth; and this time a
singular fate was hers. Blown into the palace of an Ulster chieftain
named Etar, she fell into the drinking-cup of Etar's wife just as the
latter was about to drink. She was swallowed in the draught, and in
due time, having passed into the womb of Etar's wife, she was born as
an apparently mortal child, and grew up to maidenhood knowing nothing
of her real nature and ancestry.
Fairyland, land of
youth, Danaan, Etain, beauty,
“as fair as
Etain” became a proverbial comparison for any beauty that exceeded
all other standards
