LULIFAE - THE FIRST LEGEND OF ERIN

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young witch. Her hair was very soft, her broom was of silk and lace, and when she skudded across the face of the moon, she was like a leaf blown on the gale.

She could sometimes be found down by the water, and often when the moon was full she would peer into the lake, searching the hidden light that hovered just beneath the shimmering surface.

"Help me", she would whisper to the water, and the water would move aside and show her the truth. The truth of things unseen.

Now there was a young man who lived in a village nearby, and he loved the young witch, for though she was fae, she was fair as any mortal maid. Often he would come down by the river or the lake hunting for her, but each time the water would whisper a warning and she would flee, out across the water or up into the greenwood span, and he would catch just a glimpse of her back, the toss of her hair, and a sweet fae smile flashed over her shoulders, escaping where he could not follow.

The young man was kind-hearted but kind-hearted men may be cruel when the heat of passion is high in them, so he looked for a way to come upon her unawares, to trap her and make her his.

That day he took his stick and dog and drove his flock of goats down into the water. Their cloven feet churned up the lake bed and the bright water became brown, and that night when Lulifae knelt by the lake to search for the reflection of the moon, she saw nothing but mud.

Then the boy came on her unawares and seized her by the arm.

“Love me,” he demanded, “Be my wife, live in my house, cook and clean and mend, and I will worship you every day and bring you everything you could wish for.”

“I cannot,” she said. “Let me go, for if the moon sets, the ways will close and I will lose my magic.” But though she struggled, she did not struggle hard for the boy was handsome and full of fire, and despite herself, she did desire him.

“I cannot let you go.” Said the boy. “I love you too much and I must make you mine.”

“Let me fly,” said the fae, for the moon was setting and with it her magic was waining, and she felt the shadow gates closing and the ways becoming tangled and thick.

But the boy would not for his blood was hot. He kept ahold of her until the daybreak and he tamed her and took her back to his hut in the village, and so she became his wife.

No more did she skud across the face of the moon. The broomstick of silk and lace rested in the corner, except when it was needed to sweep cobwebs from the door or ashes from the grate.

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And so she lived there in the village, amongst the mud and the chickens. The other wives shunned her for she was not one of them, but she did not mind for at night the moon kept her company through the window and though she could not hear it through the glass, she knew it sang to her.

Now the boy went out each day to drive the flocks and over time his holdings and his dominion grew. Each night, as he came home, he was careful to drive the goats down to the lake, and the stamping of their feet would lift the mud, so that when Lulifae came there beneath the moon to draw water for dinner, she would see nothing there in the depths, and would not be guided home.

But each night, when he returned from his labours, he was unsatisfied. “Why are you not happy,” he asked his wife. “Have I not given you everything a woman could dream of? A house? Fine clothes? Comfort and security and a place to dwell?”

Then he would give her a gift from the town, and she would smile, for in truth she did care for the boy. She liked his hearth and his comfortable ways. She liked the house in the village and the security of the flocks, but the moon still called to her and it was not her life.

Now the king of that land was warlike, as kings are wont to be, and it came to pass one day that the kingdom was beset by armies. Soldiers tramped through the fields, thick as ants on the ground. They seized the crops and ate the livestock. They killed the men and they did not spare the women. Lulifae and the boy were quick and clever, and the soldiers never caught them, but the flocks were taken and there was no food.

Now the boy had no goats to tramp the water in the evening and he grew desperate. He beat the water with his fists, but the water laughed at him, and when Lulifae came down to drink, she saw the moon shining on the water and remembered who she was.

With a glad heart and light steps, she tripped back up the hill to the house, shook the cobwebs from her broom, and sailed up and up into the evening air.

The boy called to her, but she laughed at him. “I will not live with you, she called down. I will not bake your bread or draw your water. I will not sleep in your bed, but I will love you nonetheless.”

The boy ran back and forth, unable to reach her, but she paid him no heed and flew up and up until she saw the whole of the kingdom, and saw the great weight of armies poised in the North to crush it with spears and swords, blades and heavy shafted arrows.

Then she saw the boy running around far below, and she pitied him. She sailed down low and swooped over his head.

“Come with me,” she called. “Come away and we will fly free together.”

“Come down,” he called back. “Pull me up.”

She was afraid of him, for she thought perhaps he would take her broom from her and break it, but she saw the armies approaching and saw how helpless and small he was before them, so she flew down anyway.

“Take my hand,” she called to him. But he was too heavy. He hung from the broom and she could not pull him up, no matter how she tried.

Then the armies of the North came up over the hill and swept down over the valley. He let her go and she went sailing up above it all, dodging arrows and axes. The men took the boy, and broke him in pieces beneath the wheels of their chariots and the iron-shod hooves of their steeds, and his blood ran into the lake and turned it red, and she flew up and watched it all, until all the armies had passed away and the village lay silent and ruined.

It is a true story, and though the kingdom is now dust and the lights in the lake are gone, Lulifae still rides there on the wind, calling for her love and looking for the way home.