Emain Ablach- Celtic LocationLocation · Realm"Island of Apples"

The Orchards

Apple trees bear fruit and blossom at once on Emain Ablach. No winter touches its shores. The air smells of apple blossom and honey, and birds of brilliant plumage sing in the branches. In the Immram Brain, the Otherworld woman who summons Bran describes silver land and crystal streams, a world so vivid it overwhelms mortal sight. Those who eat the fruit never hunger, never age, and never sicken.

In the Echtrae Chonnlai, an Otherworld woman gives the mortal Connla a single apple. It sustains him for a month without diminishing. Each bite deepens his longing for the island until he finally sails west to find it.

The Silver Branch

A branch of silver hung with golden or white apples grew in the orchards of Emain Ablach. When shaken, it produced music of unearthly sweetness that erased all sorrow and lulled listeners into sleep. It also served as a summons: whoever carried it had received an invitation from the Otherworld.

In the Echtrae Chonnlai, the Otherworld woman offers Connla such a branch. In the Immram Brain, the branch falls into Bran's hand before the woman herself appears, a sign and a call.

Manannán's Island

Manannán mac Lir ruled Emain Ablach. He rode the waves in his chariot as though they were meadows, and his cloak of mist could hide entire islands from mortal sight. His wife Fand dwelt with him there, though she did not always stay.

Fand fell in love with Cú Chulainn and invited him to the island. He came, fought her enemies, and became her lover. The crisis is told in the Serglige Con Culainn. When Emer, Cú Chulainn's wife, arrived with a band of women armed with knives, Fand was moved by her devotion and agreed to return to Manannán. The sea god appeared and shook his cloak between Fand and Cú Chulainn so that they would never see each other again. The druids gave both Cú Chulainn and Emer a drink of forgetfulness so they would not remember the Otherworld.

The Voyage of Bran

A woman from the Otherworld appeared to Bran mac Febail while he walked alone near his fort and sang fifty quatrains describing the wonders across the sea. She described an island without grief, without death, without sickness.

Bran and twenty-seven companions sailed west. On the open water they met Manannán riding his chariot across the waves. Where Bran saw surf, Manannán saw a flowering plain. Where salmon leaped, Manannán saw calves and lambs gamboling across green fields. They lived in the same world but perceived different ones.

Bran and his men reached the Island of Women, where they dwelt in timeless happiness, each man paired with a woman, feasting without satiety. But homesickness gripped one of the company, Nechtan, who insisted on returning to Ireland. The Otherworld woman warned them not to touch Irish soil. When they reached the shore, people gathered on the beach, unable to recognize them. The voyagers called out Bran's name, and the people replied that Bran mac Febail was known only from ancient stories. Nechtan leaped from the boat. The instant he touched land, centuries fell upon him and he crumbled to ash. Bran recounted his story to those on the shore, wrote it in ogham, then sailed away and was never seen again.

The Adventure of Connla

Connla, son of Conn of the Hundred Battles, was standing beside his father on the Hill of Uisneach when a beautiful woman appeared, visible only to him. She spoke of a land without death or sin, where the people lived in perpetual youth. Conn, alarmed by his son's conversation with an invisible being, summoned his druid Corán to banish her voice. The druid's chanting drove the woman away, but before she vanished she threw Connla an apple.

For a month, Connla ate nothing but that single apple, which never diminished. Each bite deepened his longing for the woman and the island she had described. When she returned, standing on the shore in her crystal boat, Connla leaped aboard without a word to his father or his people and sailed west. Neither he nor the boat was ever seen in Ireland again.