The Children of Lir had a wonderful bright future ahead of them but it was robbed due to one woman's jealousy.
The Celtic myth of Ireland, The Children of Lir, is a bitter-sweet story of love, sadness, and loss.
Lir was so devastated by the death of his wife he became a hermit. Taking pity on him, King Badb Dearg invited Lir to his palace telling where Lir was given the choice of the king’s beautiful foster daughters. Lir chose to marry Aobh who was described as having the beauty of spring. Together they had four children, but Aobh died in childbirth leaving Lir to mourn, yet again. King Dearg offered another foster Daughter, Lir chose Aoife.
Aoife, however, was so jealous of the attention Lir gave to his children, that she dedicated herself to learning the art of the druids. After recovering from a long illness brought on by her obsession with the Children of Lir, Aoife went to visit her father Badb with the children in tow. Though, Aoife had other plans in mind for the children before their arrival.
Along the way, they stopped at a lake where Aoife told the children to play in the water. As they did, Aiofe used the magic of the druids to turn them into swans. They would have been killed if it were not for Fionnghuala, Lir’s only daughter who pleaded with her stepmother reminding her that they were her sister’s children. It was after this that Aiofe then cursed them to spend 300 years at that lake followed by 300 years at a river opening to a sea that was always stormy and another 300 years at another lake in the North. After those 900 years when a Prince of Connacht and a Princess and Mumhan married then they would be turned back to human form. However, because Aiofe still felt something for her sister the spell was incomplete. The children of Lir were able to keep their speech but were forced to sing sad laments during the night.
The 900 years that the children of Lir survived was not kind. They survived storms, extreme cold and very sad times. After the 900 years had ended they returned home expecting to find their father but instead found a deserted ruined castle. To their horror they learned that their people had long since been dead. Their sorrow was great, especially when they learned that the only one of their people that lived was Aoife because as her punishment for her crime she was transformed into a demon crow for the rest of time. It just so happened that a princess of Mumhan was to be married to a prince of Connacht. Once the prince and the princess were married a very old messenger, who knew of the swans shared the news. In front of his eyes they were transformed back into human form. However, they were not the beautiful young children they once were, they were old and worn. They asked the messenger to burry them so that they could face each other in a circle holding each other’s hands for eternity. Once he had finished burying them he saw four young beautiful children smiling before him. He blinked and they were gone.
