THE CHILDREN OF LIR

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THE CHILDREN OF LIR

• IRISH LEGENDS

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• Long ago in Ireland there was a king named Lir.
• He had four children, a girl named Fionnuala and
  three sons, Aodh, Fiachra and Conn.
• They all live in a beautiful castle in the middle
  of a forest.

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• The childrens mother died and Lir married again,
  this time to the beautiful Aoife, daughter of
  King Bov the Red.

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• At first Aoife was kind to the children. As time
  went by, however, she saw that Lir loved them
  more than he loved her and she grew to hate them.

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• One warm summers day she took them to swim in
  the lake near the castle,Derravaragh. While the
  children splashed and played in the cool water,
  Aoife waved her magic wand, and changed them

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• into four snow-white swans.

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• This is the spell I lay upon you, she said.
  You will spend three hundred years on Lough
  Derravaragh, three hundred years on the Sea of
  Moyle and three hundred years on the Sea of
  Erris.

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• The spell will last until you hear the sound of a
  Christian bell. There are two things that I leave
  you, however your own voices and the gift of
  song.

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• When Lir passed by the lake, he was amazed to
  hear four swans call out his name. Fionnuala told
  him who they were.

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• Our cruel stepmother has changed us into swans
  and no one can save us, she cried. Lir was
  filled with grief and wept for his four lovely
  children.

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• When king Bob the Red heard the sad history, he
  changed his daughter into a large ugly moth.

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• Lir came to live beside the lake. He wished to be
  near his swan children and listen to the sweet
  singing.
• When Lir died the children were very sad.

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• After three years in Lake Derravaragh, the sawns
  flew to the Sea of Moyle.

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• Here it was cold and stormy. They were often
  hungry and tossed about by the strong waves. At
  night Fionnuala sheltered her brothers from the
  cold winds with her great white wings.

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• After three hundred years on the Sea of Moyle,
  they flew to the west coast of Ireland and came
  to rest on the waters of the Sea of Erris.

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• Again they suffered from rain and wind and storm.
  Slowly the long years went by and they waited for
  an end to their lovely life on the sea.

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• Then, one day in spring, the swans heard the
  ringing of a church bell.
• They were happy now, for soon they would be free
  of Aoifes wicked spell.

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• Fionnuala and her brothers looked at each other
  and saw that they were no longer swans.
• They danced and sang with delight.
• The children had been swans for exactely nine
  hundred years.

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• Fionnuala and her brothers decided to return to
  lake Derravaragh.
• The castle was still there as, beautiful as
  before.
• They lived happily.
• They played in the forest and swam in the lake,
  Fionnuala, Aodh, Fiachra and Conn, the Children
  of Lir.