VISITING THE CELTIC OTHERWORLD

(For older children or teens and their parents.)

The Story of Cormac Mac Airt

(By Eva Gordon, FoDLA Religious Education Coordinator – Retold from Joseph Jacobs, More Celtic Fairy Tales, originally told in the Book of Leinster)

Long ago, Cormac Mac Airt, grandson of Conn of the Hundred Battles, was High King of Ireland, and ruled at Tara. One day, a stranger came to his court, carrying a magical apple branch with nine silver apples. The branch made sweet music that made people forget all their pain and sorrows whenever they heard it. Cormac wanted the branch, and agreed to pay whatever price was asked. The stranger asked for the king’s wife, son and daughter in exchange for it, and Cormac had to accept the bargain.

Even with hearing the sweet, soothing music of the apple branch, after a year passed, Cormac missed his family, and went in search of them. As he traveled, a magical mist arose, and he arrived in an unfamiliar plain. He saw three strange sights. First, workers were making a roof of feathers for a house, but the feathers kept scattering each time they went to gather more. Second, a young man was dragging trees one by one to a fire, and the fire kept going out as each tree was burnt up. Third, he saw three wells with a head on each one. One head had two streams flowing into its mouth and one flowing out; the second head had one stream flowing in and another flowing out; the third had three streams flowing out of its mouth.

Further on, he met a regal couple who invited him to stay the night. The man offered a great wild boar for the meal. In order for the meat to be cooked a story had to be told for each quarter of the boar. The man of the house told of his magic pig that would come back to life after each time it was cooked and eaten, and the first quarter was cooked. The woman told of her magical cows that gave unending milk, and the second quarter was cooked. Cormac then told of the things that he had seen, and the third quarter was cooked. He also told of how the stranger had brought to him the apple branch and how he had lost his wife and children. The last quarter of the boar was cooked, and the king’s family was brought out to be reunited with him, amid great joy. The stranger put off his disguise and was revealed to be Manannán Mac Lir, Lord of the Sidhe. The woman with him was his wife Fand, the Pearl of the Ocean.

Manannán then explained the meaning of the strange sights that Cormac had seen on his journey. The men building the roof of feathers were like people who leave their home to seek their fortune, but return to find all has been spent and lost, and keep going on that way uselessly. The man with the fire was like one who worked for others and never got to enjoy the fruit of his own labor. The three well-heads are like three types of men: those that give freely when they get freely, those that give freely when they get little, and those who get much and give little—and they are the worst kind of men!

Manannán gave Cormac three gifts: a tablecloth that would give all sorts of delicious foods, a magic cup that would split into four pieces when a false story was told to it, but would rejoin when a true story was told, and finally, the apple branch of healing music. Cormac and his family ate their meal and went to sleep in that place. When they awoke the next morning, they were back in the Court of Tara, but the three gifts were still with them: the table cloth, the cup and the Apple Branch.

………………………………………………………………………………………

It is clear that Cormac and his family had visited the Otherworld, guided by Manannán Mac Lir. Manannán is known in many of the Celtic lands as a God of the Sea, King of the Sidhe (the Fair Folk), and as a guide to the Otherworld, and maker of mists. The place visited by Cormac was strange and filled with wonders; he learned several important lessons there, and magical gifts and food appeared. Amid all the strangeness, the highest value was placed on truth, generosity and on inspiration (the Apple Branch).

According to tradition, among the lands of the Otherworld, there is often plenty of food and drink. The magical pig is slaughtered, roasted, eaten and reborn the next morning. Feasting and sport, music, magical objects, white animals with red ears, and other strange sights are common. There is no sickness or aging. Order, wisdom, generosity, truth prevail. Time runs at a different pace there than it does in the everyday world, and many tales end with the traveler returning to their homeland hundreds of years later, though it only seemed as if a few days had passed.

Different traditions place the Otherworld undersea, on islands across the western sea, or under Sidhe (or Fairy)-mounds, underground, or on the other side of a veil of mist. The Otherworld seems to exist in parallel with our own ordinary world.

There are many stories of people wandering into the Otherworld by entering Sidhe (Fairy) mounds, caves (for example, the Cave of Cruachan (“KROO-khawn”) in Co. Roscommon, former seat of Queen Maeve), and in ancient stone circles. Other tales tell of sea-voyages leading to strange lands of the Otherworld—for example, the story of Oisin (pronounced “O-SHEEN”, the Voyage of Bran the Blessed, and later, the Voyage of St. Brendan. Messages from the Otherworld were received in trance or dream, as in the Tarbh-féis (“TARV-faysh”) or Bull-feast in ancient Ireland, when the name of the next King was sought. Contact with Otherworld beings has been traditionally said to be easiest at the quarter-day festivals of the year, especially at Samhain and Bealtaine. In many tales, mortals are led or invited by a guide from the Otherworld, such as Mannanán Mac Lír, or his daughter Niamh (“Neev”), as in the story of Oisín

Here are some Otherworld place-names:

Tir na nÓg (“TEER nan Og”--Land of Youth), Tir na mBan (“TEER-na-MAN”--Land of Women), , Tir na mBeo (“TEER na-MYO”--Land of the Living), Eamhon Abhlach (“AY-von AW-lakh”--Land of Apples), Magh Mell (“moy MELL”--Pleasant Plain Plain of Honey /), Hy Brasil (Island of Beauty), Teach nDuinn (“CHAKH NOON”--House of Donn, where the feast of the Dead is held).

What does the Otherworld mean to us?

Over 100 years ago, Scottish folklore scholar John Gregorson Campbell collected many stories and traditional beliefs from Gaelic speaking people in the Highlands, and published Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (now re-published as The Gaelic Otherworld). He proposed 3 separate types of Otherworld in the Lore of the Gaels:

1- The Otherworld of spirits, ghosts and Second Sight—abode of the Dead, the Ancestors.

2- The “Religious” Otherworld, influenced by Protestant, Christian beliefs, dealing with witchcraft and the devil . This is not part of the world view of Fodla, but we should be aware that other people may see the Otherworld in this way.

3- The “Secular” Otherworld, of Fairies, magic, and mythical creatures. Along with the Ancestors’ Otherworld, this idea comes close to the view that many modern Pagans have of the Otherworld. That is, it can be seen as the home of the Gods and Goddesses, and the source of Imbas --inspiration for poetry, music, art, and creative thought.

Whether you think of the Otherworld as a place beyond this world, or within our own mind, Samhain is an especially good time to read about and think about it.

Some Recommended Reading:

More Celtic Fairy Tales collected by Joseph Jacobs, Dover Publications, New York

Briggs, Katherine, An Encyclopedia of Fairies. Random House, Inc., New York, 1976. A catalog of many Otherworldly people and creatures, illustrated.

Fleming, Fergus, Husain, Shadrukh, Littleton, C. Scott, and Malcor, Linda A., Heroes of the Dawn: Celtic Myth. Duncan Band Publishers, New York, 1996. Richly illustrated, with chapters on the Otherworld and on fantastic voyages.

Campbell, John Robertson, ed. by Ronald Black, The Gaelic Otherworld , Birlinn Limited, Edinburgh, 2005 (originally published 1900). A very interesting collection of Scottish Otherworld and Fairy folklore, for ambitious readers!