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Updated: May 27, 2025
With bowed white heads did the Dedannan host listen to Finola's chant, and when the music ceased and only sobs broke the stillness, the four swans spread their wings, and, soaring high, paused but for one short moment to gaze on the kneeling forms of Lir and Bove Derg.
And when it was known throughout the Dedannan host that peace reigned between these mighty chiefs, brave men and fair women and little children rejoiced, and nowhere were there happier hearts than in the Green Isle of Erin. Time passed, and Lir still dwelt with Bove Derg in his palace by the Great Lake.
And Bove Derg loved them well-nigh as did Lir himself. Ofttimes would he come to see them, and ofttimes were they brought to his palace by the Great Lake. And through all the Green Isle, where dwelt the Dedannan people, there also was spread the fame of the beauty of the children of Lir. Time crept on, and Finola was a maid of twelve summers.
Dark indeed was all, and darker yet as the children of Lir remembered the still waters of Lake Darvra and the fond Dedannan host on its peaceful shores. Here the sighing of the wind among the reeds no longer soothed their sorrow, but the roar of the breaking surf struck fresh terror in their souls.
Of their life on the sea of Moyle she told, of the dreary rains and blustering winds, of the giant waves and the roaring thunder, of the black frost, and of their own poor battered and wounded bodies. Of their loneliness of soul, of that she could not speak. 'But tell us, she went on, 'tell us of our father, Lir. Lives he still, and Bove Derg, and our dear Dedannan friends?
'Know, O Lir, said Finola, 'that we are thy children, changed by the wicked magic of our step-mother into four white swans. When Lir and the Dedannan people heard these words, they wept aloud. Still spake the swan-maiden.
And forth did the five chiefs wander, that the Dedannan folk might freely say to whom they would most gladly do homage as King. Not far did they roam, for soon there arose a great cry, 'Bove Derg is King. Bove Derg is King. And all were glad, save Lir. But Lir was angry, and he left the plain where the Dedannan people were, taking leave of none, and doing Bove Derg no reverence.
'Speak, said Finola to her brothers, 'speak, and say if these be not our own Dedannan folk. And Aed and Fiacra and Conn strained their eyes, and Aed answered, 'It seemeth, dear sister, to me, that it is indeed our own people. As the horsemen drew nearer and saw the four swans, each man shouted in the Gaelic tongue, 'Behold the children of Lir!
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