When Ireland was invaded by the Sons of Mil* (The Gaels or Celts), it began the retreat of the Tuatha Dé Danann to their Otherworld. Their three kings had been killed in battle, and so they chose Bodhbh Dearg as their new king. However King Lir was resentful that he had not been chosen. So to mend relations between them, Bodhbh gave him his foster daughter Aobh to marry. That marriage was fruitful producing a daughter and three sons. The eldest two were Fionnuala and Aed, but sadly Aobh died while giving birth to twins, Fiacra and Conn. Bodhbh felt sorry for Lir, and so he offered him another of his foster daughters, Aobh’s sister Aoife.
As time went by Aoife realised that Lir would never love her. He worshipped the children to the exclusion of his new wife. Aoife became so jealous that she consulted a druid who gave her a spell that changed the children into swans for nine hundred years. As punishment, King Bodhbh cast Aoife to the four winds, and they say, You can still hear her wailing on a windy night in Ireland.
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That is the story I was told as a child was, Aoife was a bad and jealous stepmother. She deserved eternal punishment. I didn’t question it. Then many years ago, having explored that myth at the Bard Summer School on Clare Island Co Mayo, I realised I was angry on her behalf. I felt the story wasn’t told in full. Her part was banished to the four winds, and that seemed more cruel than death. I remembered, the stepmother is always portrayed as bad, evil, and worthy of punishment.
The story of Aoife was the first of my retellings from the perspectives of the women in the Irish myths. It was because of Aoife that I went looking for the other women. Some who didn’t have names, and were someone’s mother or wife . My retelling of the story from her perspective can be found in my book SÍDH : Stories from the Women in Irish Mythology where I give her the voice she was never given, not to exonerate her, but to tell the whole of the story.
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