The Tale of Oisín and Niamh

Last month, I finally fulfilled a year-long dream of mine and travelled to Dublin, Ireland. We spent most of our stay within the city itself, but on one day we booked a bus trip across the country all the way to the opposite side to visit the Cliffs of Moher and Galway. During the bus ride, our tour guide pointed out several points of interest and shared plenty of stories about Ireland. To my delight, one of those stories was about Tír na nÓg, which is considered to be the Celtic Otherworld. As readers of my books will know, I was heavily inspired by the Celtic notion of faeries and the world they live in, so much so that I chose the term Tír na nÓg to describe my interpretation of the faerie realm.

The story that we were told by our tour guide was the tale of Oisín and Niamh. Oisín was the son of the legendary Fionn Mac Cumhaill, the leader of the Fianna and a great warrior. Oisín and his father were hunting around the Ring of Kerry one day when they stopped to rest on a hillside. From there, they saw the most beautiful woman on a white horse approaching them. That woman was Niamh, who said she had come to earth to make Oisín her husband and bring him back to the Otherworld (i.e. Tír na nÓg). Although Oisín was sad to leave his father, he was enamored by Niamh, and so he got on her horse and they rode off to Tír na nÓg.

Oisín and Niamh spent many happy months together in Tír na nÓg, which is said to be a land of happiness where everyone lived forever. After a while, Oisín began to miss his homeland and his father, and so Niamh offered him her magical horse so that he could visit his family. However, she warned him not to get off the horse because once his feet touched the ground, he wouldn’t be able to return to Tír na nÓg.

So Oisín arrived in Ireland, but it wasn’t as he remembered. When he came across some men struggling to move a rock, he stopped and asked them about the Fianna. The men said that they had heard many great tales about Fionn and his mighty son Oisín, but all of that happened a very long time ago, and now they’re just stories. Oisín realized that time must have slowed down for him while he was in Tír na nÓg. He wanted to prove to the men that the tales were true by using his strength to move the rock. Still mounted on the horse, he tried to lean over to pick up the rock, but he slipped and fell off! As soon as he touched the ground, he aged 300 years. The horse ran off, and when it returned to Niamh, she knew she had lost Oisín, and she died soon after.

It’s a pretty tragic story and only one of many that warns of the dangers of Tír na nÓg. It might be a magical land where everyone lived forever, but visiting it is often a one-way ticket. I guess that’s also why I’m so fascinated by Tír na nÓg. While it might appear as a paradise, the land of the youth is treacherous, and one should always tread lightly.