Aengus and Caer Ibormeith

(Celtic Mythology)


A lovely maiden, fair of face
And silent, ghostly form
Doth snuck into Aengus’s room
Until unrequited love hath born.
He dreamt of her nightly –
In dreams he wished to stay –
And rued the sun’s dawning
With the passing of every day.
Illness took hold of the man
And throughout body and mind did spread
Until a power physician was summoned
In fear he’d soon be dead.

A search was called –
Looking high, looking low –
But years did pass without avail
While Aengus’s love did grow.
Finally love and luck, it seems,
Met to quench his lonely thirst.
But travel to Loch Bel Dracon
Was the journey to make first.
Upon the quiet, rocky shores,
Aengus did find silver maidens fair
Surrounding his love, Caer Ibormeith,
Whose visage at his heart did tear.

Trying to secure her for our hero,
His people did plead in vain.
So upon the lands came a shower of blood
To help quell his eternal pain.
Her father begged for sweet mercy,
His anguish echoing in his word.
He could not promise the fair maiden
For on even years, she doth become a bird.
So upon the next year, taking great haste,
Aengus traveled to win the girl’s heart.
The pair of swans sealed their love with a swim
And vowed never again to part.