Queens: F

[Fionnuala is Changed Into a Swan - 12K]

Fionnghuala, Fionnuala, Fenella, Finella, Finvola, Finola, Nuala (Fair-Shouldered One)
(pron. finn-noo-la) Daughter of King Lir: Sea with her brother Aed: Fire. Her mother Aebh: Soul died in childbirth giving birth to her twin brothers: Fiachra: Raven & Conn: Reed. They lived at their father’s palace Sidh Fionnachaidh: Hill of the White Plain, dressed in purple, drinking hazel-nut mead, & sleeping in feather beds until they were turned into white swans by their step-mother Aife: Radiant with a druid wand. They were cursed 300 years at the silvery shimmering Loch Dairbhreach: Darva Lake: Lake of the Oaks under the summer moon, 300 years on the Sruth na Maoile: Moyle Sea: Silver Sea between in the cold northern frost & snow on blue-tide saltwater, & 300 years at Irrus Domnann where they led a cold life with the sea freezing around them at one point. After 900 years they returned the place where Lir’s Palace was, but it was invisible from their sight, because they were destined for higher things than a return to the land of their youth.
Seeing only great mounds and nettles they flew to Inis Gluaire: Isle of Glora in Erris. All the birds of the country gathered near them on Loch na-n Ean: Lake of the Birds. They fed daily at the far parts of the country: Inis Geadh, Accuill where Eber Donn: Black Yew, son of Miled: Honey was buried, all the western islands of Connacht, & back to Inis Gluaire every night. They were chained together with silver chains, saying simple prayers the hermit Saint Mochaomhog: Trinity Egg taught them. Beira Deoch, Princess of Munster engaged to Laoghaire Mac Colman of Connacht desired them at her wedding and when they were ordered to sing, they turned into back into human form: nine hundred years old. The hermit seeing the Angel of Death would claim them, sprinkled them with holy water and life everlasting. Fionula asked they be laid in one grave, with Conn placed on her right hand and Fiachra on her left, and Aed before her face. So that with her wings she could shelter them as she had done upon the stormy Sea of Moyle. The hermit laid them to rest with a stone with their names written in Ogham

Finnuala is the youngest and fairest of the three daughters of the Wizard of the White Pine Wood. They take the form of white swans and shed their skins to bathe by the flowery and green banks of the river beyond the Sea of Storms. Fionn: White One stole her swan skin, told him his stepmother laid a geasa on him to find her father and gave her her swan skin back. As three swans they guarded him at night while he slept with their wings and led him through twilight path of oakwoods that is the Kingdom of Darkness to the Castle. She wed Fionn and went back to Ireland with him on a magic horse. (47, 54, 128)

[French Ministry of Education Site: Centre national de documentation pédagogique]