Étaín- Celtic GodDeity"Echraide"

Marriage to Midir

Étaín was a woman of the Tuatha Dé Danann of such beauty that the god Midir of Brí Léith determined to take her as his wife. He enlisted Aengus Óg to pay the bride-price to her father, a payment that required clearing twelve plains, creating twelve rivers, and paying Étaín's weight in gold and silver. When the tasks were accomplished, Midir brought Étaín to his síd. But Midir already had a wife, Fúamnach, who could not bear his love for the newcomer. Fúamnach struck Étaín with a rowan wand and transformed her into a pool of water, then a worm, and finally into a beautiful purple fly with jewelled eyes whose humming was sweeter than harps. Fúamnach then raised a magical wind that blew Étaín away from Brí Léith, sending her tumbling across Ireland for years until she came to rest on Aengus Óg's cloak at Brú na Bóinne. Fúamnach raised another wind, and Étaín was blown for years more until she fell through the roofbeam of a hall in Ulster and dropped into a cup of wine. The lady of the house swallowed the fly and conceived.

Rebirth and the High King

Étaín was reborn as a mortal child, daughter of the Ulster champion Étar, with no memory of her former life. Word of her beauty reached Eochaid Airem, High King of Ireland, who married her and made her queen at Tara. But Midir had never stopped searching. He appeared at the royal court as a handsome stranger and played fidchell with Eochaid, losing the first games deliberately. Then he wagered for a kiss from the queen and won. When Midir came to claim his prize, the hall was barred and surrounded by armed men, but he kissed Étaín and the two rose through the smoke-hole as a pair of swans, circling Tara three times before flying to Brí Léith.

The Digging of the Síd

Eochaid would not accept the loss of his queen. He raised the armies of Ireland and marched on Brí Léith, ordering his men to dig into the fairy mound until they breached its halls. Midir sent out fifty women, all identical in appearance to Étaín, and challenged Eochaid to choose his wife. The king chose, but he chose wrongly. The woman he took was not Étaín but her daughter, conceived in the Otherworld. Étaín herself remained with Midir.