One of the few mortal men to be invited to the enchanted faerie island of Ti Nan Og was Oisin (Isheen), sonof Finn, chief of the legendary Fenian warriors of Ireland. The Fenians were out hunting one day when a lady of great beauty approached them. She was Niamh of the Golden Hair, daughter of Manannan and she chose Oisin from amongst them to be her lover. She bade him mount up behind her on her faerie steed and they rode over the land tothe sea and them across the tops of the waves towards the enchanted land of Tir Nan Og 'the most delightful cuntry to be found of greatest repute under the sun'. They saw wondrous sights as they journeyed. Faerie palaces appeared on the surface of the sea. At one of these Niamh asked Oisin toset free a Tuatha de Danan damsel who was a prisoner of a Fomor; one of the demons of the deep sea. Oisin fought the Fomor and set the girl free.
Soon they reached the Land of the Young and Oisin remained there with his love for three hundred years before he rmembered hsi home and the Fenians and had a sudden yearning to see them again. He asked leave to visit his homeland. Niamh furnished him with a faerie steed for the journey but warned Oisin at all costs not to let his feet touch earthly soil. Oisin gave his word to take care and swiftly reached Ireland. However he found all had changed from the land he remembered. Finn and the Fenians had become a legend of the past. The Battle of Gabhra had been fought and St. Patrick had converted the land. Even the men seemed different, smaller, almost dwarflike compared to the men he remembered. Oisin noticed three of them trying vainly to lift a great stone. He stooped to lift it for them with one hand but as he did so his golden saddle-girth faerie horse vanished and Oisin was transformed into an ancient blind old man.
A number of ballads recount how St. Patrick found Oisin stranded on earthly soil in his hopeless old age and took him into his house. The saint did his best to convert Oisin to Christianity, describing the wonders of the Heaven that could be his if only he would repent. But Oisin replied that he could not conceive of a Heaven that would not be proud to receive the Fenians if they wished to enter it or a God who would not be honored to count Finn amongst his friends. If however this was the case, what was the point of an eternal life with no hunting or wooing of beautiful wonem? He would prefer to go to the Hell where, according to St. Patrick, his Fenian comrades lay in anguish, and die as he had lived.
--- Faeries --- Brian Froud and Alan Lee
 |
 |
 |
