BEALTAINE AND THE OTHERWORLD: THE TALE OF CONNLA

By Michael McGuinness, Druid of the Fellowship

Bealtaine celebrates the bright bonfires of May, which healed and purified the livestock before they were led out into the fields for the summer grazing.

This holiday has always been associated with the Sidhe or the sioga, the fairy people of the hills referred to politely and euphemistically as “The Good People” and “The Gentry,” and widely known in such popular forms as the industrious and mischievous leprechaun, the terrifying bean sidhe and the shape-changing puca. In addition, The Gentry are also described by Irish poets and seers as the grandest people ever seen, tall, aristocratic and immortally young, superior to ordinary mortals in every way.

Who are these Good People? Some describe them as the old gods and goddesses of the Tuatha De Danann, who, starved of worship and offerings, have dwindled until now they are only several feet high. Some others thought of them as fallen angels, not good enough to be saved and yet not bad enough to be damned to hell.

They are said to live invisibly under the hills (sidhe or si) of Ireland, and also in an eternal paradise across the western ocean known variously as Tir na nOg (The Land of the Young), Tir na mBeo (The Land of the Living), Magh Mor (The Great Plain) or Magh Mell (The Plain of Pleasure).

According to traditional folklore, The Good People are said to “take” the bodies and souls of mortals they find beautiful or talented for their own purposes (especially at magical times of the year like Bealtaine). Sometimes The Gentry temporarily “take” musicians to teach them beautiful fairy music, or “borrow” athletes to help them win battles or hurling matches against their rivals. But other times, the fairies might take these interesting mortals to their palaces and transform them (by feeding them the “gentle” food of the sioga) into immortal entities like themselves, and keep them forever, not allowing them to return to their mortal lives.

People are often thought to travel to fairy kingdoms when ill or in a trance, and some believe that anyone who meditated on the Sidhe much during life would go to their world after death.

Stories of this phenomenon are as old as the Irish mythological tradition itself: great heroes such as Cuchullain and Fionn mac Cumhal spend time in the otherworld with the warriors and princesses of the sidhe, as well as simple folk caught walking out late at night at Samhain or Bealtaine, when the door between our everyday world and the shining Otherworld of the Shining Ones and the Ancestors is open the widest.

If given the choice, which world would we choose? Are they completely separate or can we build bridges between them? Perhaps an old story can help us with our decision, and help us begin the summer in hopes of abundance, enjoyment and gratitude.

CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN

Connla of the fiery red hair was the son of Conn of the Hundred Battles. One day as they were feasting with the court on the hill of Uisneach, Connla saw a beautiful maiden appear out of the mist, and although the king and all his company could hear the maiden’s voice, only young Connla could see her.

The maiden said to Connla, “I come from Tir na mBeo, the Land of the Living, where there is neither death nor sin. There the people of the Sidhe enjoy eternal pleasure with no strife.”

“Who do you speak with my son?” asked Conn in wonder, seeing Connla conversing with the mist.

“Connla speaks with a beautiful young maiden who loves him and bids him come to Magh Mell, the Plain of Pleasure. Come with me, Connla of the Fiery Hair; never shall your youth and beauty fade, and a fairy crown I will place upon your head.”

King Conn called to his druid, “We are attacked by a power beyond my strength! An unseen maiden has come and is using her magic to steal away my boy! Help me or he will be gone from us!”

The druid chanted magic spells, and the maiden was no longer heard. But before she vanished from Connla’s sight, she threw an apple to Connla.

For a whole month from that day, Connla spoke to no one and would eat or drink nothing, except the apple given him by the fairy maiden. But no matter how much he ate of it, the apple never got smaller and always remained whole. And all the while he yearned and longed for the beautiful magical maiden he had seen.

At the end of the month, Connla stood again with his father the king, and again he saw the maiden, invisible to all but him, come towards him, and again she spoke to him.

“You are a great prince indeed, Connla,” she said, “here among dying mortals, waiting for the day of your death. But now The Ever-Living Ones bid you come to Tir na nOg, the Land of the Young, for they have seen you among your people, and have fallen in love with your beautiful face and lovely words and brave deeds.”

When Conn the king heard the maiden's voice he called to his men aloud and said, “Summon again my Druid, for the magical maiden has returned!”

The maiden laughed and said, “Your druid has no power over us; we scatter his verse back to his lips.”

Then king Conn of the Hundred Battles, seeing his son Connla standing frozen and speechless, asked, “Is it to your liking what this woman tells you, my son?”

“It goes hard with me, father,” said Connla. “I love my own people above all things, but yet, I long for this maiden.”

When the maiden heard this, she answered, “Your longing to come with me is stronger than the waves of the ocean. Come with me now, and travel with me to the Plain of Delight. We will sail into the setting sun and arrive before nightfall at the Land of Promise, where you will endure neither age nor death.”

And when the woman had ended her song, Connla leapt away into her shining boat, and Conn the King and all his company saw him sailing far away through the mist, until their eyes could see them no more. Across the sea Connla went with the fairy maiden that day, and they have never come back again, and only the gods know where they have gone.

References:

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry by William Butler Yeats

The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wentz

Gods and Fighting Men by Lady Augusta Gregory

Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs