Bard Mythologies

Daghdha and Aonghus

// July 30th, 2009 // Irish Myths

The father-figure of the Tuatha Dé Danann was Eochaidh Mór (literally ‘the great horseman’). He was better known as the Daghdha, an ancient name which meant ‘the good god’, because he was famous for his wisdom and generosity. His cauldron was never empty, and he loved to invite people to a feast. He was a big man, who walked ponderously and carried a great club with which he hit the earth so as to make the crops grow. Stupendously strong, he was a great builder of raths and forts. He was also a skilled musician on the harp, and if he had any fault it was his tendency to eat and drink too much.

The ‘great Daghdha’, as he was usually called, had his residence in  Brugh na Bóinne (the tumulus at Newgrange on the bank of the Boyne). It is said that he fell in love with the lady Bóinn, a mystical woman after whom the river is named. She was the wife of the water-deity Nuadhu, nicknamed ‘Ealcmhar’, who lived in the well at the source of the river. The Daghdha thought of a plan to gain her love unknown to her husband, and for that reason he asked Ealcmhar to go on a message for him which would take nine days. When Ealcmhar was away, the Daghdha used his massive strength to tie the sun in the sky so that it did not move for nine months, and in that time he became the lover of Bóinn, and she gave birth to a baby-boy before her husband returned.

The boy was called Aonghus, and the Daghdha secretly sent him to be fostered at Brí Léith (near Ardagh in Longford) by his brother Midhir. Thus Aonghus grew up, thinking that his uncle Midhir was his father. One day, however, he was playing so well in a hurling-match that a jealous boy told him that he was adopted. He questioned Midhir, who told him that his real father was the Daghdha at Newgrange. Then Aonghus thought up a plan. He went to the Daghdha and, knowing of his generosity, he asked the great man for use of his residence for one night and one day. The Daghdha agreed, and went on a journey so as not to be in the way. When he came back, however, Aonghus announced that he now owned the Brugh forever, because ‘all time is counted by a day following a night’. In this way was the Daghdha tricked out of his residence in the Brugh. He did not resent this too much, but went to live in a quieter place – the cairn on top of the Great Sugarloaf mountain in Wicklow.

Aonghus was said to have been the most handsome young man in Ireland, and was one of the most popular of all the Tuatha Dé Danann. He was a great friend of all  those in love, and it is said that he blew four kisses onto the wind, which became ‘four birds to charm the young people of Ireland’. Like his father, he was very wise, but there were three things of which he was ignorant. These were when, how, and where he would die – in other words, he was so full of youth and vigour that he never gave any thought to death.

One night he had a dream, in which he saw a beautiful maiden who came near to him and then disappeared. This happened every night for a whole year, and he fell deeply in love with her. The Daghdha searched Ireland for the maiden, and eventually found that her name was Caer, and that she was from Connacht. On each alternate year she was a girl in Connacht and a bird in Munster. Aonghus went to meet her when she was in the form of a beautiful white swan at the lake on top of the Galtee Mountains in Tipperary. She went to him, and he too became a swan. They then embraced each other and flew three times around the lake. They then went together to his palace on the Boyne, where they lived in great happiness.