カー・イボルメイス

アイルランド神話では、カー・イボルメイス（Caer Ibormeith）はコナハトのシド・ウアムインのエタル・アヌバァル王子の娘である。 1年以上続いたオェングスの夢では、カー・イボルメイスがベッドの横に立っていたが、手を伸ばすと消えてしまうのだった。彼女はサムハインのたびに、日没から1日だけ人間の姿になり、その後は白鳥に戻り、その姿で1年間過ごし、次のサムハインで再び人間の姿になるのである。

オェングスは夢の中でこの少女を探して竜の口の湖に行き、150人の少女が二人一組で鎖につながれているのを見つけた。その中に彼の少女カー・イボルメイスもいた。

Óengus went in search for this girl in his dreams at the lake of the Dragon's Mouth and found 150 girls chained in pairs, his girl Caer Ibormeith, among them. Óengus was told he could marry Caer if he could identify her in her swan form. He chose correctly and with that Óengus turned himself into a swan and they flew away together, to the Brú na Bóinne/palace on the River Boyne near Slane, which was his long standing place of residence. The pair sang beautiful music as they went, that put all listeners throughout Ireland asleep for three days and nights. Caer would marry with Óengus of the Tuatha de Dannan, and, amongst other things, become foster-mother of Diarmuid.

The story of Fionnuala and the other children of Lir shares the motif of transformation into swans, as swans and the associated cranes ("grús") share Irish mythological reverence due to, especially in the latter case, being equally at home in flight, on land, and in water, which made it an especially magical creature able to transition to other worlds. Moreover, as the tall Crane stands upright when on land, it was associated with shape-shifting, back into human form.

References

• Jeffrey Gantz. 1982. Early Irish Myths and Sagas. Penguin.