Tochmarc Étaíne

Tochmarc Étaíne. Irish title of a narrative from the Mythological Cycle usually known in English as The Wooing of Étaín. Dating from perhaps the 8th or 9th centuries, mutilated and disconnected fragments of the story survive in the Yellow Book of Lecan [Lebor Buide Lecáin]. During the 1930s R. I. Best discovered long-missing pages, but the whole is still disconnected.I. First we learn of Étaín's discovery by Angus Óg, her involvement with Midir, and her magical transformations. After the Dagda wins the love of Boand, tricking her husband Elcmar (then lord of Brug na Bóinne [Newgrange]), they give birth to Angus Óg, god of poetry and future lord of Brug na Bóinne. The child is given in fosterage to Midir of Brí Léith [near Ardagh, Co. Longford]. Later, when Angus reaches maturity and has taken possession of Brug na Bóinne, Midir comes to visit him. While a guest, Midir claims to have suffered an injury and demands as compensation the fairest maiden in all of Ireland, Étaín, daughter of Ailill (3). Angus, with Dagda's aid, wins her for Midir by the Herculean task of clearing twelve plains, making twelve rivers, and delivering the equivalent of her weight in gold and silver.

Midir returns home with the prized Étaín but his first wife, Fuamnach, understandably jealous, strikes her with a magical rowan or quicken rod given by Bresal Etarláim and turns her into a pool of water. Through heat and evaporation the pool becomes first a worm and then a purple fly (in some versions butterfly) of wonderful size and beauty that fills the air with fragrance and sweet music. Midir knows the fly as Étaín, and she stays by him. Fuamnach also knows the fly's identity and so causes a wind to drive her out to the rocks and waves of the sea. Étaín endures this misery for seven years until one day she alights upon the breast of Angus. He then carries her for some time in a sunlit crystal cage, but as soon as Fuamnach learns of it, she drives Étaín away again. She flies as far as a rooftop in Ulster, after which she falls into a cup of the woman of the house, the wife of Étar (1) of Inber Cichmaine, an Ulster king. She swallows the fly, and Étaín is reborn as the daughter of Étar. Although Étaín does not sense it, 1,012 years have elapsed since the time of her birth as daughter of Ailill (3) to her birth in the house of Étar.II. In the second story 1,000 years have elapsed, the Tuatha Dé Danann have retired to their fairy mounds, and the mortal Milesians or Gaels now reign. Étaín is here married to the mortal ard rí [high king] Eochaid Airem, but her kindness almost leads her to betray him. When he becomes ard rí, the people refuse to pay Eochaid Airem tribute because he has no queen. As befits his station he seeks the most beautiful maiden in Ireland; his retainers find Étaín, daughter of Étar, for him, and he marries her. Alas, Eochaid's brother Ailill Anglonnach is so smitten with Étaín's beauty that he falls sick with love for her, but he is shamed to speak it and thus no one can cure him. Fachtna (1), Eochaid's chief physician, understands Ailill's distress and knows that only Étaín's love can cure it. Following his kingly duties, Eochaid leaves on a royal circuit of Ireland, leaving Étaín to attend to his dying brother; he asks that Ailill Anglonnach's grave be dug, lamentations be made for him, and that his cattle be slaughtered upon his death. Shortly after Eochaid departs Ailill Anglonnach confesses to Étaín the cause of his sickness. She responds that she is willing to heal him with her love, but not in her husband's residence; it would be better to tryst in a hilltop house outside the royal stronghold. But at the appointed hour a magical sleep comes upon Ailill, and an impostor in his likeness creeps into bed with Étaín. This occurs on three successive nights, by which time Étaín senses that she is not sleeping with Ailill, despite the love partner's appearance. She protests that it is not with him that she has made the tryst. The impostor then reveals himself to be Midir of Brí Léith, her husband from fairyland. He explains that he paid a great bride-price for her in gold and silver but that they have been parted by the jealousy of his first wife, Fuamnach. He has filled Ailill with longing for Étaín so that this meeting might be arranged. At last he asks Étaín to go away with him, but she refuses without the consent of her current husband, Eochaid Airem. When she returns to the stronghold Ailill is cured, and all rejoice that Étaín's honour has not been soiled by sleeping with her husband's brother.III. The third story follows shortly upon the second. Midir's unfulfilled desire for Étaín prompts him to use trickery against her husband, Eochaid Airem. On a lovely summer day, Eochaid looks down from the ramparts at Tara to see a warrior approaching; he wears purple and has long golden hair to his shoulders. Eochaid remarks that he does not know the stranger, but extends hospitality to him. The stranger says that he knows the identity of his host, and reveals himself as Midir of Brí Léith, challenging Eochaid to a game of fidchell on a silver board with golden playing pieces. In three successive matches Eochaid is the victor, exacting rich prizes from Midir, including fifty horses and the building of a causeway across a bog in Tethba. They agree that the winner may name the stakes in the fourth; and when Midir wins he asks to put his arms around Étaín and have a kiss from her. Eochaid is silent at first, but then agrees to grant the request in a month's time. On the appointed day Eochaid surrounds Tara with the armies and heroes of Ireland and secures the doors. Midir, appearing handsomer than ever, announces that Eochaid has given Étaín's very self to him, which makes her blush for shame. Eochaid sternly reminds him of the limits of the agreement and bids him take his embrace and kiss. Then, with his weapons in his left arm and Étaín clasped in his right, he rises up through the smoke-hole in the ceiling and flies away. The soldiers outside report seeing two swans disappear in the distance.

Eochaid and his men resolve to have Étaín back, even if it means destroying every sídh in Ireland. As Midir is thought to have flown to the sídh of Femen in the south, Eochaid goes there, without success, and so destroys many others, at last going on to Midir's residence at Brí Léith, in the centre of Ireland. Midir responds by producing fifty women (in some accounts sixty) all in the shape of Étaín so that no one can tell who is the true queen. Eochaid asserts that he will know Étaín by the elegance with which she pours a drink; he then chooses who he thinks is his wife by this test, and resumes married life with her. But it is not Étaín. Midir, having bound Eochaid to no further recriminations, tells him that the true Étaín was pregnant when they left Tara, and thus the woman is his own daughter, another ‘Étaín’; she should not be confused with yet another daughter, Étaín Óg (see also below). Horrified at his deception, Eochaid Airem lays waste to Brí Léith, rescues the true Étaín, his wife, and returns with her to Tara. The child of Eochaid's incestuous union is put out to die, but she is found and raised by a herdsman and his wife; once mature, she has the stateliness of her royal forebears and is celebrated for her fine embroidery. King Eterscél chooses her for his queen. Neither the ‘daughter’ Eochaid Airem chooses nor his (perhaps) incestuously begotten daughter are given names in the text. The suggestion that any child of Eochaid Airem should be mated with Eterscél conflicts with Togail Bruidne Da Derga [The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel], where Eterscél mates with Mes Buachalla, daughter of Eochaid Feidlech, a brother of Eochaid Airem, and stepdaughter of Étaín Óg, yet another daughter of the true Étaín. Both Étaín and Mes Buachalla are described as being the ‘mother’ of Conaire Mór; in each case Eterscél is the father. At this point, the narrative leads into Togail Bruidne Da Derga.

The standard text is by Osborn Bergin and R. I. Best , ‘Tochmarc Étaíne’, Ériu, 12 (1938), 137–96;
and in response, Rudolf Thurneysen , ‘Tochmarc Étaíne’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 22 (1941), 3–23;
Donnchadh Ó Corráin , ‘Tochmarc Étaíne’, in Irisleabhar Mhá Nuad (1962), 89–96;
Christian-J. Guyonvarc'h translated the story into French, ‘La Courtise d'Étain’, Celticum, 15 (1966), 283–327;
to which Françoise Le Roux added commentary, 328–75.
Imaginative treatments in English include Lady Gregory's ‘Midhir and Etain’, in Gods and Fighting Men (London, 1904);
Fiona MacLeod [pseud. of William Sharp], The Immortal Hour (published 1907), subsequently the basis of an opera of the same title by Rutland Boughton (1914);
Moirin Cheavasa , Midhir and Etain (Dublin, 1920);
and Patricia McDowell , Daughter of the Boyne (Dublin, 1992).
Motifs within the story may be classed as F68 (Otherworld journeys) and F392 (marvellous creatures).