Slieve Gullion, the highest point in County Armagh at 573 metres, has a small lake near its summit and two ancient burial cairns. In the tale known as The Hunt of Slieve Gullion, two sisters, Áine and Milucra, both desire the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill. Áine had sworn never to marry a man with grey hair. Milucra secretly put a spell on the lake so that anyone who swam in it would become old.
She tricked Fionn by asking him to fetch her golden ring from the water. He dived, found the ring and came out an old man with grey-white hair. His men, the Fianna, forced her to give him a restoring drink from her cornucopia, and his youth returned, but not the colour of his hair. That, the story says, is the origin of his name, Fionn, which means white. In some versions Milucra is revealed as the Cailleach Bhéara, an ancient hag goddess of weather and mountains.
The tale lives on in the landscape and in local warning. The lake is called Calliagh Birra's Lough, and a local saying holds that anyone who dares to swim in it will suffer the same fate as Fionn.
Comments