Shape-shifting Lovers: Oenghus and Caer
Oenghus mac Oc was an Irish god of youth. He was the son of two
deities: the Daghdha and Boann, goddess of the river Boyne. But Boann
was married already when she became pregnant with Oenghus, and so they
enchanted the sun so that it neither rose nor set for nine months, until
the baby was born. Thus Oenghus was conceived and born on the same day,
and the illicit lovers managed to conceal their union from Boann’s
husband Nechtan.Given the circumstances surrounding his birth, it is not surprising that Oenghus became the patron god of star-crossed lovers. Indeed, he had his own love story: one night, he had a dream in which he saw a wonderfully beautiful girl and fell in love with her. When he woke, his passion was undimmed and he set out to discover who she was and how to find her.
Eventually Oenghus tracked her down to a lake where the girl lived with a bevy of other young women. Her name was Caer Ibormeith (‘Yew-Berry’). But Caer and her companions were under an enchantment. Every alternate year, at the Festival of Samhain on 1 November (the Celtic New Year), the girls were transformed into swans. Oenghus asked Caer’s father for her hand in marriage, but he refused.
Realising that the only way to win her was to wait until she was in swan-form, he went to the lake at Samhain and called her. When she came, he turned himself into a swan and both birds flew away, circling the lake three times and singing a spell as they flew, so that everyone below fell asleep and they could not be pursued. The lovers took up residence at Oenghus’ palace at Brugh na Bóinne and, it is to be hoped, lived happily ever after.
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