Tonight’s story is one of the “Three Sorrows of Storytelling” in Ireland. A king called Lir had four children, and they were so loved that their new stepmother became jealous, and she turned them into swans.
Myths of Ireland · Part 4 · The Mythological Cycle · A2–B1
The Children of Lir
Part 4 of Myths of Ireland: the saddest of all Irish stories, the four children turned into swans by their jealous stepmother for nine hundred years. The past simple and time expressions (for 300 years, in the end), could / couldn’t for past ability, adjectives of feeling (jealous, lonely, cold), and telling a story in order, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
Swans? Forever?
SOPHIA
For nine hundred years. Three hundred on a lake, three hundred on a cold, stormy sea, and three hundred on the wild western ocean. But they kept their human voices, and they sang so beautifully that people came from everywhere to listen.
MARCOS
Nine hundred years? That’s a long time to be a bird.
Before you read
Ireland, in the time of the Tuatha Dé Danann
“The Children of Lir” (Oidheadh Chlainne Lir) is one of the “Three Sorrows of Storytelling”, three famous tragic tales of Ireland. It was written down in the late Middle Ages, but it is set in the time of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Lir was a lord of the Tuatha Dé Danann. His four children were Fionnuala, the eldest girl, Aodh, and the twins Fiachra and Conn.
Their mother died, and Lir married her sister Aoife. Aoife became jealous of the love that Lir had for his children. She took them to the lake of Derravaragh and, with a druid’s wand, turned them into swans. They could still speak and sing, but they couldn’t become human again for nine hundred years: three hundred on Lough Derravaragh, three hundred on the Sea of Moyle between Ireland and Scotland, and three hundred near the island of Inishglora in the west. As a punishment, Aoife was turned into a demon of the air.
In the end, the swans heard the bell of a Christian monk. When they came to land, they turned back into very old people. The monk baptised them before they died, and they were buried together, with Fionnuala holding her brothers as she had done on the cold sea. The story is still loved in Ireland, and a statue of the swans stands in the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin.
Love can survive even the longest winter.
The story
Retold for this lesson from Oidheadh Chlainne Lir (“The Tragic Story of the Children of Lir”).
Long ago, when the Tuatha Dé Danann ruled Ireland, there was a lord called Lir who had four children: a daughter, Fionnuala, and three sons, Aodh, Fiachra and Conn. Their mother died, and Lir was so sad that he married her sister, Aoife, so that the children would have a mother again. At first Aoife loved them. But Lir loved his children so much, and spent so much time with them, that jealousy grew in her heart like a dark cloud.
One day, Aoife took the children in her chariot to the lake of Derravaragh. While they were swimming, she touched them with a druid’s wand, and they turned into four white swans. “For three hundred years you will live on this lake,” she said, “three hundred years on the Sea of Moyle, and three hundred years on the western ocean. Only the sound of a bell will free you.” But she could not take away their voices, and they could still speak and sing. When her father, Bodb Derg, the king of the gods, found out what she had done, he turned Aoife into a demon of the air, and she flew away screaming.
For three hundred years the swans lived on the lake, and people came from all over Ireland to hear them sing. Then they flew north to the Sea of Moyle, where the water was cold and grey and the storms were terrible. Fionnuala kept her brothers warm under her wings, and on the worst nights they held on to a rock. After that, they flew to the wild western ocean, and lived there for three hundred more years. When they flew home at last to see their father’s house, they found only empty fields and broken walls. Everyone they had loved was gone.
One morning, on the little island of Inishglora, they heard a sound they had never heard before: the bell of a Christian monk. They came to land, and as the bell rang, their feathers fell away, and they became four very old, very thin people. The monk was kind to them. He baptised them, and they died peacefully, and they were buried in one grave, with Fionnuala holding her brothers, just as she had held them on the cold sea.
Read: the four swans
PHILO
Read the story. Who were the children? Why was Aoife jealous? Where did they live as swans, and for how long? How did the story end?
SOPHIA
Then answer Section A.
The past simple in a story
MARCOS
Aoife was jealous. She took the children to the lake. She turned them into swans. They sang beautifully. They didn’t forget their father.
SOPHIA
Regular: turn → turned, live → lived. Irregular: take → took, sing → sang, fly → flew, become → became, hear → heard. Negative: didn’t + verb.
Time expressions
DEMETRIA
They lived on the lake for three hundred years. After that, they flew to the sea. One day they heard a bell. In the end, they became human again.
SOPHIA
for + period (for 300 years), after that, then, one day, at last, in the end. In the end = finally; at the end of + noun: at the end of the story.
Could and couldn’t
PHILO
They could speak. They could sing. They couldn’t go home. They couldn’t become human.
SOPHIA
could / couldn’t + verb = ability in the past. Feeling words: jealous, lonely, cold, sad, brave, kind, homesick, beautiful. Fionnuala was brave: she kept her brothers warm under her wings.
Sophia’s comparison: Joseph and his brothers, and the swan of Cycnus
PHILO
Joseph’s brothers were jealous of their father’s love for him, and they sold him into Egypt. He was far from home for many years. But in the end, the family was together again, and Joseph wept. Jealousy breaks families; love brings them back.
SOPHIA
And we Greeks say that when Phaethon fell from the sky, his friend Cycnus mourned for him so much, swimming in the river to find him, that the gods turned him into a swan. Swans in our stories, too, are creatures of grief and song.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| took, sang, flew, became, heard | irregular past simple | She took them to the lake. |
| for + period, after that, one day, in the end | time expressions | They lived there for 300 years. |
| could / couldn’t + verb | past ability | They could sing. |
| jealous, lonely, brave, homesick | feeling words | Aoife was jealous. |
| in the end / at the end of | finally / the last part | In the end, they became human. |
Practice
Read the story for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · The story
Read the story and choose the best answer.
1. Why did Aoife turn the children into swans?
2. How long were they swans?
3. What could they still do?
4. Where did they spend the second three hundred years?
5. What did they hear at the end?
6. Who was the eldest child?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. Aoife jealous. (be)
8. She them to the lake. (take)
9. They lived there three hundred years.
10. They sing, but they couldn’t go home.
11. In the , they became human again.
12. One day they a bell. (hear)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “They singed beautifully.”
14. “They lived on the lake for three hundred years.”
15. “They couldn’t to go home.”
16. “In the end, they heard a bell.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Retell it. In pairs, retell the story in eight sentences, using the past simple, could / couldn’t and time expressions.
Discuss. 1. Why do you think this story is so loved in Ireland? 2. Was Aoife’s punishment fair? 3. Who in the story is the bravest?
Write (80–100 words). A letter from Fionnuala. Write a letter from Fionnuala to her father during the cold years on the Sea of Moyle.
Now play the gamebook: a jealous stepmother in Alexandria, four children, and a long road home.Play the gamebook →