Queens: F

[Fionnuala is Changed Into a Swan - 12K]

Fionnghuala, Fionnuala, Fenella, Finella, Finvola, Finola, Nuala (Fair-Shouldered One, White Blossom) Fingal, Fiongalla, Fionnghuala (Fair Cheek)
(Pron. finn-noo-whawl-ah, finn-noo-la, noo-whal-ah) Daughter of King Lir: Sea with brother Aed-Aodh: Fire, as beautiful as sunshine in blossomed branches. Her mother Aebh: Soul died in childbirth giving birth to her twin brothers: Fiachra: Raven Knowledge & Conn: Reed. They lived at their father’s palace Sidh Fionnachaidh: Hill of the White Field, dressed in purple with golden crowns red in the firelight, drinking hazel-nut mead in golden cups, & sleeping in feather beds. Each had a white horse & 2 hounds whiter than snow to hunt silver-horned white stags. Their step-mother Aife: Radiant took them in a chariot to Loch Dairbhreach: Darva Lake: Lake of the Oaks [Westmeath]. She made them bathe in the lake & when they were coming out of the water she struck them with a druid wand of enchantment & turned them into 4 white swans. Aife told Fionnuala the enchantment would end when a king from the North wed a queen from the South; a druid with a shaven crown came over the seas; & the hearing of a small prayer bell. Conn told his father at the lakeshore they could not cross the threshold of the palace as they had the hearts of wild swans. They had only the voices of the children he knew. Lir calls them The White Children of My Heart.
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-green tide saltwater, described as flowing between Ireland & Scotland. Dark storm-winds separating them & calling to one another without hope of an answer until they can meet at Carraig-na-Ron: The Rock of the Seals where Fionula shelters them with her wings & 300 years at the Bay of Erris: Irrus Domnann: The Abyss, the Western Sea that has no bounds but the sky, 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 of unroofed green raths: stone circle wombs and forests of nettles they flew to Inis Gluaire: Isle of Glora in Erris, the Glory Isle of Brandan the Saint. 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 bright white-silver chains, saying simple prayers the hermit Saint Mochaomhog-Saint MacHowg: Trinity Egg taught them. Beira Deoch, Princess of Munster engaged to Laoghaire Mac Colman: Snow son of Dove of Connacht desired them at her wedding and when they were ordered to sing, they turned into back into human form: 900 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 3 daughters of the Wizard of the White Pine Wood. They [Finnuala: White Cheek, Gilveen White Moon, Fedelm: 9 Times Beautiful] 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 3 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. (11, 39, 47, 128, 150)

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