#LegendaryWednesday: After Midir learned that his wife #Etain, whom he missed dearly, had been reborn, he persuaded her husband, Eochaid, the King of Tara, to wager a kiss from her lips in a game of Fidchell. Eochaid lost the game and also lost his wife when the kiss brought back her memories of her former life! #Celtic
Here`s the backstory: https://hear-me.social/@NeuKelte/115220599316076413

#WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday: Etain Echraide was transformed into a wonderful insect and forcibly driven away from her husband by his first wife Fuamach. The following happened afterwards:
`Giddy with sweetness, greedy for more, I leap from bloom to bloom, heedless of the darkening sky, and the wind which whips the trees into clumsy dance. Raindrops fall, hard and heavy, brushing the colour from my wings like dust. Bruised and battered, I realise the wind is no longer my friend, and I am buffeted before it without mercy.
Until kind Óengus takes me in. He builds me a crystal bower, where I rest and recover. He feeds me pollen and sugar, and I need do nothing more in return but shimmy my wings now and then for his pleasure. It feels good to be adored again.
But a wild creature needs its freedom. I exchange my crystal prison for air and sunlight, and journey where life takes me. Then one day, I hear a sound I have long missed, and I am lured by my longing.
A man is playing a harp, its light liquid notes falling through the air more silver than birdsong. Men and women gather to listen; they talk and laugh softly, and I am struck with the sharp pain of sudden loneliness. I perch on the rim of a goblet, but there is so much beauty around them, I am unnoticed.
When she lifts the vessel to her lips, I tumble into the swirling red depths. I desperately beat my wings, but they are immersed, trapped in the fluid as if it was glue. Unknowing, she swallows more than wine. I flutter my wings, and she feels those faint stirrings, for she places a hand softly over her belly.
I am Etain. Once I was Sidhe, then I was dealan-dhe. Now, from the dark, warm recesses of woman, I will be born mortal.` #Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
Here`s the backstory: https://hear-me.social/@NeuKelte/115220258205718955

#WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday: #Etain Echraide was transformed into a wonderful insect and forcibly driven away from her husband by his first wife Fuamach. This is what happened next:
`I am Etain. Once I was Sidhe, and a Queen, adored and admired. Now, I spread my wings, and they are beautiful, vibrant, shimmering. The wind catches them, takes me up into its arms, and I am airborne. Invisible lips blow me here, there, and I delight in my freedom, my weightlessness.
When I tire, I alight on a blossom. The petals are no match for me; they pale in my shadow, for I am a purple jewel carved from living flesh by an alien hand. The sun warms my body; I glitter in its light. I flutter my wings, and radiate bright ripples of colour and fierce joy.
But I am distracted. The flower hides a secret. Its scent draws me in, more powerful, more intoxicating than I ever experienced in my past incarnation. My wings fold as I feed on nectar sweeter than honey, more precious than the Gods’ ambrosia.` #Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack

#LegendaryWednesday: `The beautiful maiden Sadb, daughter of the great magician Bodb Derg, was turned into a deer by one of his magical enemies, Fear Doirche. Later the dark druid found that Sadb had managed to slip out of her deer form and had enjoyed many nights of pleasure with #Fionn Mac Cumhaill.` The villain `cast a darker spell upon her so that Sadb could never regain her womanly form. Heartbroken, she fled from her lover. Little more is heard of Sadb, who apparently lived out her years as a deer.`
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`
Drawing: @jimfitzpatrick
https://todon.eu/@NeuKelte/109348242959615011

The Butterfly Lovers is considered one of China’s four great folktales. Set in the Eastern Jin dynasty, it tells the tragic love story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Zhu was the only daughter of a wealthy family. Despite living in a time when women were not allowed to... #LegendaryWednesday 1/6

After being tricked into marrying the man she thought was Sigurd, Brunnhilde made it her life's work to ruin if not outright kill Sigurd. She destroys his marriage, turns his friend against him, and when all is done, ends herself. #legendarywednesday 🖼️: G Bussière

A mother drowns her children to spite her cheating husband and then drowns herself in grief: La Llorona is a well-known folk tale, but it may predate the colonial Spanish backdrop it usually has. An omen in the Florentine Codex alludes to her. #LegendaryWednesday 🖼: J. Muncy

#LegendaryWednesday: `The beech leaves were turning brown and crimson and gold when #Fionn mac Cumall, with some of the Fianna, left the Hill of Allen to hunt through the forests of Munster.` With that line the #Celtic story of „The Pursuit of The Gilla Decair“ begins.
Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Heroes_of_the_dawn/The_Pursuit_of_the_Gilla_Decair

#LegendaryWednesday: `By September the hedgerows are filled with sloes, and they add to the autumn colours of the hedgerow and field.` #Celtic
Source: https://blackthornandstone.com/2020/08/06/blackthorn-dark-mother-of-the-woods-crone-of-the-triple-goddess-witch-wood/