Celtic Mythology

The Island of Many Wonders

"Delightful is the land beyond all dreams

Fairer than ought thine eyes have ever seen.

There all the year the fruit is on the tree

And all the year the bloom is on the flower.

There with wild honey drip the forest trees,

The stores of wine and mead never fail,

Nor pain nor sickness knows the dweller there,

Death and decay come near him never more... "

In 'The People of the Mounds' I looked at the fairy kings and queens of both Ireland and Scotland who are dwellers in the 'Hollow Hills', those hidden Otherworld duns into which the Tuatha De Danaan retreated after their defeat by the sons of Mil.

But not all the Gods went 'underground'. Some amongst them chose to make their homes in the mystical islands that lie over the Western sea, beyond the ninth wave, where no mortals save the chosen few may follow.

Yet there is a deep yearning within the Celtic soul to reach these islands. For some this is only ever a dreamland, to remain far removed from their waking lives until the day comes when they must pass through the Great Gateway.

But there are those among us who still walk in these lands, in the shadow of the Immortals, just as the legends recount of brave men and women who journeyed there long ago. For these lands are timeless - they are as close, or as far, as you can imagine them to be. The storytellers of old were masters of their art. In weaving the legends to life they were able to transcend the boundaries of this temporal world, allowing the invisible dimensions to become as real to us as any other.

There are many tales of strange islands in the Western seas that mysteriously appear from time to time and then disappear. In Highland folklore there exists beyond the boundaries of this world a mythical island called "an t-Eilean Uaine an iomall an Domhan Toir", the green island at the extremity of the world, or simply "Innis Uaine". It is a floating, shifting island which lies beneath the waves of the sea, but occasionally rises to the surface and can be sighted off the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland. According to legend, if any piece of stone or lump of earth from this world had ever been thrown or taken onto the island, the enchantment would immediately be broken and the island would sink to the bottom of the sea.

The journey to this island could not take place by any ordinary means, for it could only be reached by magic and with the aid of an Otherworld ally. In the tales of 'The Son of the King of Ireland' (Campbell, 1891, Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition) our hero reached the island with the help of a mermaid who gave him safe passage there on her back. They had to travel through a sea of mist and the lad was given strict instructions not to turn his head nor be distracted by anything, but to keep in mind at all times where he was going, for great dangers lay in this sea of mist.

In the twelfth century, Giraldus Cambrensis mentioned an island which appeared west of Ireland, while Martin in his 'Description of the Western Isles' (1665) referred to an island ninety miles south west of Islay. This would seem to be the legendary Hy Breasil, which has been found plotted on old maps and from which the explorers to the New World took the name of Brazil.

The existence of islands such as these is a concept that is deeply embedded in the Celtic tradition. They signify the Celtic Elysium, an Earthly paradise without death, sickness or sorrow. It is known by many names - Avallon to the Britons, Emhain Abhlach to the Gaels. It is also known as Magh Mell, the Happy Plain, Tir nan Og, the Land of Youth, and Tir nam Beo, the Land of the Living, for it is the living who travel there. The island is usually inhabited by a beneficent woman, who welcomes the traveller, knowing him by name. In the popular tales of 'The Lad of the Skin Coverings' the boy is the son of the lady of the Green Isle. Everything on the island is magical - water restores to life; its apples can cure, transform or render immortal; it is perpetual summer and the trees are always laden with fruit.

In the legend of Bran, son of Febal, a sidhe woman tells him that there are "three times fifty far islands in the ocean to the west, and every one of them twice or three times more than Ireland". It is obvious that the sidhe woman is not referring to the physical size of the islands, for many of them are little more than rocky outcrops in the Atlantic. Yet of the legends of the Immrama, or wonder voyages, that have survived, we find the most graphic and detailed descriptions of journeys made to these islands. From the Book of the Dun Cow (circa 1100) comes The Voyage of Maeldun, a fantastic journey in which 31 strange islands are visited, and the adventures that take place on them are described. We encounter the island of the great birds, the island of the giant horses, the island of the wondrous beast, the island of the giant cattle, the island of the glass bridge, the island of the miraculous fountain and many others. Edited and translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes for the Revue Celtique in 1888, and now reprinted in Rolleston's 'Celtic Myths and Legends', it is worth taking the trouble to read this wonderful tale, for it is a comprehensive bardic teaching of the stages through which the Celtic spirit passes on its journey to the Summerlands.

It would be impossible to point out on a map where such fantastic islands as these are to be found, for clearly the voyage is one of dimension, of crossing the boundaries between many worlds contained within a multi-dimensional cosmos (the quantum physicists are now discovering the reality of these other dimensions). Where is this Otherworld? To ask this is to miss the point entirely, for a world that goes beyond the boundaries of our ordinary, perceived reality cannot be analysed, explained or defined within the limitations of 'rational common sense'. The Otherworld defies both Time and Space, which is why they are referred to as 'wonder voyages'. The native person who hears these stories of incredible feats, strange creatures and colourful lands, does not ask if such tales are 'true' or 'not true', for they do not think in such a defined, linear manner. Neither did our ancestors.

In the legend of Oissin in the Land of Youth, we are shown how time can be so different in these lands. Oissin, homesick for his friends and the dearly loved land of Ireland, returns to find that three hundred years have since elapsed, and the tales of the Fianna have passed into legend. We find a similar incident in the voyage of Bran, who returns to the shores of Ireland to discover that his own voyage has long been recounted in folk tales.

The sidhe can often cause mortals to lose their bearings, known as being 'led astray'. Yet it is during this period of wandering seemingly aimlessly that you are most likely to stumble upon an entrance into the Otherworld. The strange paradox is that in Celtic folk tales it is exactly when you are going nowhere that you arrive at your destination. In the wonder voyages, it is when the travellers have lost their course on the seas that they arrive at the wondrous islands.

Some of the islands do, however, exist as such in this world. Off the coast of Mayo, on the tiny island of Innis Glora, lives the 'Lonely Crane of Inniskea', guarding a sacred well which is said to be one of the great wonders of the world. The mythical Isle of Falga, the stronghold of the god Midir, is said to be the Isle of Man. Here it was that Midir kept three magical cows, a cauldron and the "three cranes of churlishness and denial". Manannan is also associated with this island; local tales say that he was the first inhabitant who kept invaders away by magically concealing the island in mist. The use of mist occurs frequently in folk tales to shield a place from unwanted intrusion, or to lead the unwary traveller astray. The sidhe realms are governed by different rules entirely. It is customary to be required to make a bargain of some kind for your safe passage to and from the island, and you must honour these bargains.

The Skellig rocks are also important in Celtic mythology, for it was off the Dingle coast that Donn, son of Mil, is said to have drowned. Until recent times pilgrimages were made to these islands and offerings left for the House of Donn and those on their way to the Land of Youth.

Sometimes real countries are mentioned in the legends, but which are clearly euphemisms for Otherworld islands. In the quest of the Sons of Turenn, a magical pig skin was sought from 'the king of Greece'; a magical spear from 'the king of Persia', two horses and a chariot from 'the king of Sicily' and many other magical items from different lands. However, the three brothers needed a special kind of boat for their journey - they took the Ocean Sweeper, the magical curragh of the god Manannan, which travelled over both land and sea alike, and thus could steer them through the Otherworld lands.

One of the most famous immramma is the seventh century poem of the Voyage of Bran, son of Febal (translated by Kuno Meyer in 1895). It describes how the Irish king Bran journeys in his boat to Manannan's lands. As he was walking near his palace one day, he heard sweet music which lulled him to sleep. On waking, he discovered a branch of silver with apple blossom on it at his side. A strange woman comes then, and sings to him of the wonders and delights of the worlds beyond the sea. The next day Bran sets sail with twenty seven followers. After two days and two nights he meets Manannan riding in his chariot across the sea. He tells Bran he will reach the Land of Women before sunset.

Their first arrival was to the Island of Joy where a large crowd of people were all laughing aloud. Before long they reach the Land of Women, where one woman says:

"Come hither on land, O Bran son of Febal. Welcome is your coming." She throws a ball of thread out to the boat and with this she pulls the boat ashore. They go into a large house, where food is always plentiful. It seemed as though only a year had passed in the world they had left. Nevertheless, they decide to head for home. However, the woman warns them (just as Niamh warned Oissin) not to let their feet touch the ground. When they reach the shores of Ireland, they remain out in the boat, but Bran tells the people gathered on the shore of his lineage, and they in turn tell him that the voyages of Bran are recounted in their legends. One man then crosses to the shore, but as he touches land he crumbles into a heap of ashes. As for Bran himself, he sets off again and we do not know of his voyages after that.

Some of the travellers do return safely to this world in order to relate their experiences. A geis was laid upon Art, son of Conn, by Becuma from the Land of Promise. He must search for Delbchaem of the Fair Shape, daughter of Morgan, who dwells on an isle in the sea. He travels in a coracle from island to island until he arrives at a strange isle full of apple trees and birds and beautiful women who dwell in a house with a crystal bower thatched with bird feathers. This is the Land of Wonders, in which he is given a splendid mantle by a woman there, who warns him of the perils that face him ahead on his quest for the maiden:

"There is a great dark ocean between you, and deadly and hostile is the way there" (Rees, Celtic Heritage). She describes the path in detail. He crosses a sea full of monsters, a forest where evil hags lurk, an icy mountain, a forked glen full of toads, a mountain full of lions and a narrow bridge. He overcomes the doorkeeper of the stronghold where Delbchaem is housed and takes her back to Tara.

Tadg, son of Cian, also went to the Land of the Ever Living Ones and came back again. Some of the islands that Tadg and his company visited, of giant sheep and strange birds, bear remarkable resemblances to those that are described in the voyage of Maeldun. On this voyage Tadg is taken to see three great duns, one of white marble, of the royal line of the kings of Ireland, one of walls of gold where they meet Cessair, she who has knowledge of the history of the world, and a third dun of silver walls, for the kings who are yet to rule Ireland. On leaving the island they look back to discover that it has become hidden from sight by a Druid mist.

It is interesting to note that the wife of Tadg was taken away by 'foreigners' to these lands, which prompted Tadg to travel to them. Her name is Liban, the sister of Fand, wife of Manannan mac Lir. Once again we see how the Otherworld woman is instrumental in initiating a voyage that transcends the worlds.

[(c) Dalriada Celtic Heritage Trust]

[Author: L. MacDonald DALRIADA MAGAZINE 1993]

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