The Celtic Land of Youth
“O
fair-haired woman, will you come with me to the marvellous land, full
of music, where the hair is primrose-yellow and the body white as
snow?
There none speaks
of ‘mine’ or ‘thine’—white are the teeth and black the
brows; eyes flash with many-coloured lights, and the hue of the
foxglove is on every cheek.
Pleasant to the
eye are the plains of Erin, but they are a desert to the Great Plain.
Heady is the ale
of Erin, but the ale of the Great Plain is headier.
It is one of the
wonders of that land that youth does not change into age.
Smooth and sweet
are the streams that flow through it; mead and wine abound of every
kind; there men are all fair, without blemish; there women conceive
without sin.
We see around us
on every side, yet no man seeth us; the cloud of the sin of Adam
hides us from their observation.
“O lady, if thou wilt come to my
strong people, the purest of gold shall be on thy head—thy meat
shall be swine's flesh unsalted new milk and mead shall thou drink
with me there, O fair-haired woman.
I have given this remarkable lyric at length because,
though Christian and ascetic ideas are obviously discernible in it,
it represents on the whole the pagan and mythical conception of the
Land of Youth, the country of the Dead.
Etain, however, is
by no means ready to go away with a stranger and to desert the High
King for a man “without name or lineage.” Midir tells her who he
is, and all her own history of which, in her present incarnation, she
knows nothing; and he adds that it was one thousand and twelve years
from Etain's birth in the Land of Youth till she was born a mortal
child to the wife of Etar. Ultimately Etain agrees to return with
Midir to her ancient home, but only on condition that the king will
agree to their severance, and with this Midir has to be content for
the time.
Celtic, Land of
Youth,
represents on the
whole the pagan and mythical conception of the Land of Youth
