Myths

Detail 4

Detail 3

Myths

London loves me this I’m told

And besides I’m still not old

This Lear child’s been recalled

They want me back before I’m bald

Cause we lose our brightest soldiers

Across our borders , now under orders

To return from whence I came

Before I’m withered, old and lame

Like the children of King Lear

Ate nettles throughout the year

Spellbound to live as swans

Watching father’s final dawns

And when the monks’ bell tolled

Children nine hundred years old

Crumbled to dust, blew away,

Now more leave everyday

London loves me, this I’m told

And besides I’m still not old

Detail 2

The Children of Lir

Bodb Derg was elected king, much to the annoyance of Lir. To appease Lir, Bodb gave one of his daughters, Aoibh, to him in marriage. Aoibh bore Lir four children.

Aoibh died, and her children missed her terribly. Wanting to keep Lir happy, Bodb sent another of his daughters, Aoife, to marry Lir.

Jealous of the children's love for each other and for their father, Aoife plotted to get rid of the children. On a journey with the children to Bodb's house, she ordered her servant to kill them, but the servant refused. In anger, she tried to kill them herself, but did not have the courage. Instead, she used her magic to turn the children into swans. When Bodb heard of this, he transformed Aoife into an air demon for eternity.

The four suffered on the three lakes for 900 years, and then heard the bell. When they came back to the land a priest found them. The swans asked the priest to turn them back into humans, and he did, but since they were over 900 years old, they died and lived happily in heaven with their mother and father.