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Extra Credit Reading: A Wicked Stepmother and Swan-children

This week I chose to read the Celtic Fairy Tales (2) unit which included the story of "The Children of Lir." Here are the notes that I took while reading:


  • The five kings of Ireland met to decide who would be the king ofthem all.
  • King Lir thought it would be him but King Dearg was named instead.
  • King Lir didn’t yield to Dearg, but instead returned to his home.
  • Instead of letting the other kings kill him, Dearg sent King Lir his three daughters (or sisters?)
  • Lir chose the eldest who gave him four children and then died
  • Dearg send him Oifa, the first wife’s sister, and they were married
  • Oifa did not like Lir’s children because she was jealous of their father’s affection for them
  • Oifa tried to have them killed, but when that didn’t work she turned them into swans
  • After turning them into swans she goes to Dearg’s court and when he asks her where the children are she says the Lir was afraid to send them
  • Dearg sences that something is up and sends a messenger to Lir
  • Lir says the children are with Oifa, the messenger says Oifa said the children were with him
  • Lir knowns Oifa did something to the children
  • He goes to the lake where Oifa left the children-swans and speaks to them (Oifa let them keep their voices and put stipulations on how the curse could be undone)
  • The swan-children tell Lir how the curse can be undone
  • Lir goes to Dearg, tell him what his wife has done and turns her into a “air-demon”
  • The swan children leave for another land and while there get separated by a storm
  • They agree to meet at “the Rock of the Seals”
  • Once they met there they gathered together
  • Eventually when they returned to their home their father was dead and so was everyone that knew them
  • They went off to another isle where they lived until the stipulations upon which the curse would be undone were met, but at that point they were old and died.

The photo I chose is of an adult swan and some young because throughout the story the eldest child was taking care of the rest.

Bibliography 
More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
Photo Credit
Queensmere Swans 2012 / #4 by George Rex via Flickr

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