Aengus Og- Celtic GodDeity"The Young Son"

The Birth of the Young God

The Dagda desired Boann, wife of Elcmar, and devised a scheme to be with her. He sent Elcmar away on an errand to the king Bres and used his divine power to make the sun stand still, so that a single day lasted nine months. In that suspended day, Boann conceived and bore Aengus before her husband returned, unaware that any time had passed at all. To conceal the affair, the infant was sent away from Brú na Bóinne to be raised in secret.

Fosterage with Midir

Aengus was raised by Midir of Brí Léith, one of the lords of the Túatha Dé Danann. It was during his time at Brí Léith that Aengus first learned of his true parentage. A boy in a hurling game taunted him for having no known father or mother. Aengus confronted Midir, who revealed the truth: he was the son of the Dagda and Boann, and his birthright lay at the great síd mound of Brú na Bóinne. Midir himself accompanied Aengus to the Dagda to press the young god's claim, and the Dagda, recognising his son, acknowledged him before the Túatha Dé Danann.

Winning Brú na Bóinne

The tale De Gabáil in tSída describes how Aengus claimed his home. When the Túatha Dé Danann divided the síd mounds of Ireland among themselves after their retreat underground, Brú na Bóinne had been allotted to the Dagda. Aengus arrived and asked his father to let him stay for 'a day and a night.' The Dagda agreed. When the allotted time had passed and the Dagda asked for his home back, Aengus replied that all of time is composed of 'a day and a night,' one following the next in an endless chain, and therefore the Dagda had granted him the mound forever. The mound was the ancient passage tomb now known as Newgrange, whose inner chamber catches the winter solstice sunrise each year when a shaft of light penetrates the long corridor.

The Dream of Aengus

In the Aislinge Óenguso, Aengus was visited every night for a year by a woman he had never met. She appeared at his bedside playing a small harp, but whenever he reached for her, she vanished. He grew lovesick and wasted away, unable to eat or drink, pining for someone whose name he did not know. His physician Fergne recognised the illness as love-sickness.

His mother Boann searched all Ireland for the woman for a full year without success. His father the Dagda did the same, enlisting the aid of Bodb Dearg, king of the síd of Munster. After another year's searching, Bodb Dearg identified her: Caer Ibormeith, daughter of Ethal Anbúil of the síd of Uaman in Connacht.

The Winning of Caer Ibormeith

When Aengus travelled to Connacht, he found that winning Caer would not be simple. Her father Ethal Anbúil refused to give her up, saying that her power was greater than his own and that she could not be given against her will. Caer spent alternate years in human form and in the shape of a swan, and she could not be compelled by any force. Ailill and Medb of Connacht helped Aengus by destroying Ethal's síd and taking him prisoner until he revealed the secret: at each feast of Samhain, Caer and her hundred and fifty handmaidens gathered at Loch Bél Dracon, the Lake of the Dragon's Mouth, all in the form of swans linked by silver chains.

Aengus went to the lake at Samhain and saw the host of swans upon the water, each pair linked by a chain of silver, and Caer was the largest among them. He called to her by name, and she answered, saying she would come to him only if he joined her in the water. Aengus transformed himself into a swan and swam to her side. Together they circled the lake three times, their entwined song so piercingly beautiful that all who heard it fell into an enchanted sleep lasting three days and three nights. They flew together to Brú na Bóinne, still singing as they went. Four birds hovered always around Aengus's head after that: his kisses, transformed into songbirds.

The Wooing of Étaín

In the Tochmarc Étaíne, Aengus appears as the protector of the beautiful Étaín, who had been the second wife of his foster-father Midir. The jealous first wife Fúamnach, using druidic magic taught to her by the sorcerer Bresal Etarlam, struck Étaín with a rod of scarlet rowan and transformed her into a pool of water on the floor of the house. The pool became a worm, and the worm became a fly of extraordinary beauty and size, purple and shining, whose buzzing was sweeter than pipes and harps. When Aengus found Étaín in this form, he could not undo the transformation, but he built a glass bower for her filled with fragrant flowers and herbs whose scent nourished her, and he carried her with him wherever he went. Fúamnach learned of this and raised a magical wind that blew Étaín from the bower and out of Aengus's protection. The fly was tossed across Ireland for seven years, battered by storms, until she fell into a cup of wine and was swallowed by the wife of Étar, an Ulster chieftain. Étaín was reborn as a mortal woman a thousand years after her first birth, and eventually married the High King Eochaid Airem, leading to the events of Midir's quest to reclaim her. Aengus, learning of Fúamnach's treachery, pursued and killed her.

Diarmuid and Gráinne

Aengus served as foster-father to Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, the handsomest warrior of the Fianna. When Gráinne, betrothed to the ageing Fionn mac Cumhaill, placed Diarmuid under a geis to elope with her, the young warrior turned to Aengus for help. Throughout the long pursuit across Ireland, Aengus intervened repeatedly on the lovers' behalf. He spread his cloak of invisibility over them and carried them from danger when Fionn's warriors closed in. For sixteen years the pursuit continued, and Aengus never abandoned them.

When Diarmuid was finally lured to hunt the enchanted boar of Benn Gulbain and was mortally wounded by its poisoned bristles, Aengus arrived too late to save him. Fionn had the power to heal Diarmuid by carrying water in his cupped hands, but twice let the water slip through his fingers before it reached the dying man. Aengus carried Diarmuid's body back to Brú na Bóinne on a bier and, unable to restore him to true life, breathed a soul into the corpse each day so that he could still speak with his beloved foster-son.