Lygeia: I was investigating some rumors of evil stirring in Eire earlier this
week, and I found there a story of love and jealousy turned very bad indeed.
Toban of West: Dear me, please do tell
Lygeia: One day several years ago, Finn went hunting in the forest near his
fortress, and around midday, he spotted a white doe so beautiful that for a
moment he thought he had stepped into a magical world. Finn chased the doe
well into the afternoon when he realized that the white doe always darted out
of range just as was drawing his bow, but never far enough to escape. It
occured to Finn that some magic was at work.
Toban of West: Magic u say, hmmmm
Lygeia: Finn decided to see what would happen if he turned away from the doe
and went home to his fortress. Sure enough, the white doe followed him home,
and Finn told his steward to give the doe shelter in the stabels. Finn went
to bed, but at midnight he awoke and into his room walk a beautiful furre.
He asked where she came from and she told him, “I am the white doe you
saw in the woods today. Fear Doirche, the dark enchanter, courted me but I
would not have him. One day when he came to me and I refused him again, he
struck me with his hazel staff and turned me into a white doe. A servant told
me that I must find shelter in Finn’s household to break the spell.”
Finn was touched by her story and welcomed her into his house. As the years
passed, they grew to love each other and in time they wed. One day, Finn was
called to defend his king in battle. Before leaving, he cautioned his steward
not to let his wife out of the fortress for she was with child and he did
not want any harm to come to her. Seven days passed and Finn returned as he
said he would, but his wife was gone.
Toban of West gasps
Lygeia: On the sixth day, a man cloaked to look like Finn appeared and before
she could flee, the stranger struck Finn’s wife with a hazel staff and turned
her again into a white doe, then he drove her back into the forest. For six
years, Finn searched for the white doe in the forest and along the coast,
but never did he find her.
When I arrived at his fortress, Finn was preparing to set out again and I
went with him. It was not long before we cam upon a small child crying beneath
a tree. Thru his tears, the child told us of a white doe that fed and kept
him warm in the winter, but that a stranger came and hit the doe with a staff
and she disappeared. Finn despaired of ever seeing his wife again and took
his child in his arms and returned to his fortress, but I continued deeper
into the forest where I eventually came to a dark grotto and there found the
white doe, penned in by blackthorn and fettered with willow strands.
There beside her stood Fear Doirche and he raised his hazel staff at seeing
me, calling down great magic. The sky flashed with blackness and the ground
belched forth a freezing wind. For a moment, I thought I was lost, but as I
looked at the white doe, I knew that Fear held no power to drown my faith,
and suddenly a golden light which cast no shadow filled the grotto and Fear
shrank away and was turned into a small stone.
The doe was restored to her true form and reunited with her child and Finn;
and Fear was cast into a laughing stream where his hardness is worn away by
the water’s joyful flow.