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Updated: June 26, 2025
'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 Finola also put her trust in God, and they all fell into a deep slumber. When the children of Lir awoke, behold! the sun shone, and thereafter, until the three hundred years on the Western Sea were ended, neither wind nor wave nor rain nor frost did hurt to the four swans.
And when midnight came, the wind came on them with it, and the noise of the waves increased, and the lightning was flashing, and a rough storm came sweeping down; the way the children of Lir were scattered over the great sea, and the wideness of it set them astray, so that no one of them could know what way the others went.
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.
The Men of Dea said then it was a good thought he had, and that what he said was true. Messages and messengers were sent then from Bodb Dearg to the place Lir was, to say that if he had a mind to join with the Son of the Dagda and to acknowledge his lordship, he would give him a foster-child of his foster-children.
But lo! as they reached the door, the snow-white feathers of the four swans fell to the ground, and the children of Lir were delivered from their doom. For was not Decca the bride of Largnen, and the good Saint had he not come, and the chime of the Christ-bell was it not heard in the land? But aged and feeble were the children of Lir.
And Eve, the eldest of the fair maidens, was glad, and that day was she married to Lir, and after two weeks she left the palace by the Great Lake and drove with her husband to her new home. Happily dwelt Lir's household and merrily sped the months. Then were born unto Lir twin babes. The girl they called Finola, and her brother did they name Aed.
As they reached a gloomy pass, Eva whispered to her attendants, 'Kill, I pray you, these children of Lir, for their father careth not for me, because of his great love for them. Kill them, and great wealth shall be yours. But the attendants answered in horror, 'We will not kill them.
"Do you know who those riders are, sons of Lir?" said Fionnuala. "We do not," they said; "but it is likely they might be some troop of the Sons of the Gael, or of the Tuatha de Danaan." They moved over closer to the shore then, that they might know who they were, and when the riders saw them they came to meet them until they were able to hold talk together.
And Bove Derg said to his mighty chiefs, 'Great indeed is our grief, but in this dark hour shall Lir know our friendship. Ride forth, make known to him that Eva, my second fair foster-child, shall in time become his wedded wife and shall cherish his lone babes.
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