Faery Places

Tír na mBan (Land of Women, Land of Virtues) Tír na Maidheann (Land of the Maidens, Isle of Women)

...To him the wall That sunders ghosts and shadow-casting men Became a crystal, and he saw them through it, And heard their voices talk behind the wall, And learnt their elemental secrets, powers And forces; often o’er the sun’s bright eye Drew the vast eyelid of an inky cloud, And lashed it at the base with slanting storm; Or in the noon of mist and driving rain, When the lake whitened and the pinewood roared, And the cairned mountain was a shadow, sunned The world to peace again: here was the man. And so by force they dragged him to the King. And then he taught the King to charm the Queen In such-wise, that no man could see her more, Nor saw she save the King, who wrought the charm, Coming and going, and she lay as dead, And lost all use of life: but when the King Made proffer of the league of golden mines, The province with a hundred miles of coast, The palace and the princess, that old man Went back to his old wild, and lived on grass, And vanished, and his book came down to me.
– Tennyson: Idylls of the King.

(pron. TEER nah MAY-dehn) Island-world in the midst of the sea ruled by Ragnailt: The Lady of the Lake, daughter of the King of the Land of Life, and Balor Mac Buanainech: Death Ground (pron. BAH-lor) King of the Fomorian: Those Under the Sea Giants. It is a sunless land. Her crystal castle is at the bottom of the lake of Pas-du-Houx. Another portal is Dozmary Pool, Bodhmin Moor, Devon, Cornwall. Balor, son of the goddess Don: Abyss, has one eye in the back of his head that was poisoned when he looked into the fire of the Fomori: Those from Under the Sea Druids. His eye takes four men to lift, opens only on the battlefield, and kills anyone who looks at it. He lives in a castle of smooth glass, wears a crystal crown that contains black liquid, carries a load of deerskins on his back and can be seen with an iron club. His 12 white-mouthed sons include Bress Sreng: Beautiful Moon Embroiderer, the second moon & Elotha: Raven Knowledge conceived with the Tuátha Goddess Eri: Snowdrop in a silver boat at the house of Maeth Sceni. He imprisoned his daughter Eithne: Sweet Nutmeat Princess in a crystal tower, the north star. He brought the Queen away by force and she put him under geasa, that he couldn’t break, never to ask her to marry him until she could find a champion to fight him in single combat. Oisín: Little Fawn took him on and cut off his head. Oisín buried him in a deep and wide grave with a cairn placed on a stone tablet engraved in Ogham letters. Balor was killed again in the Cath Maige Tuired: Grain Harvest Plain of Frost by his grandson Lugh Mac Eithne: Raven Son of Seed after he killed Macha: Fertile Plain and Solar Yew. Balor: Beímean (Living Center) Ysbaddaden Pencawr (Hawthorn Head Hill) Panawr Pen Bagad (Leader of the Host)

Gawain fell in love with the Queen. Lancelot: White Foundling was taken there as a baby. The White Sword of Light is in an iron closet guarded in the house of the Big Women of Dhiurradh [Isle of Dhiurradh.] There are seven of them who brighten silver and gold and Ian Direach went for the sword. He was told to bring them a horse from the King of Ireland. The Sword was originally caught by Balor when Nuada: Solar Yew, Wielder of the White Light hurled it into the abyss. Balor brought it to the black lake in the middle of his country. Whoever tastes the black water will forget everything they knew. The sword stayed stuck in the lake for a while until it was pulled out by the Sons of Tuireann. [Worlds List] (6, 133, 150)