Samhain in the Myths

Before you read

Tara, Crúachan and the fairy mounds, on the eve of winter

Samhain (pronounced roughly SOW-in), on the night of 31 October and the day of 1 November, was one of the four great festivals of the old Irish year, with Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasa. In the medieval tales it is the time of the great assembly at Tara, when the high king feasted with the kings of Ireland, and the night when the sídhe, the fairy mounds, opened. A remarkable number of the most important events in Irish mythology are said to have taken place at Samhain: battles, deaths of kings, meetings with gods, and journeys into the Otherworld.

In “The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn”, the fairy musician Aillén mac Midgna came out of his mound every Samhain for twenty-three years, played such sweet music on his harp that every warrior at Tara fell asleep, and then burned the royal hall with his fiery breath. The young Fionn stayed awake by pressing the point of a magic spear against his forehead, so that the pain kept him from sleep, and killed Aillén. In “The Adventure of Nera”, a young man of Connacht, dared by his king on Samhain night, went out alone, entered the fairy mound of Crúachan, and lived there with a fairy wife, returning to warn the king of a vision of destruction. In “The Dream of Aengus”, the god Aengus could only win his beloved, Caer, at Samhain, when she took the shape of a swan, and he too became a swan to fly away with her.

A note of caution. Many popular claims about Samhain, that it was “the Celtic New Year”, that the Celts lit bonfires to scare away the dead, or that Halloween costumes come directly from druid rituals, go beyond the evidence. The medieval texts were written by Christian monks centuries after the pagan period, and some later customs were added or reinterpreted. What the texts clearly show is that Samhain was the great boundary of the year, a time of assembly, feasting and danger, when the Otherworld came close.

At the edges of things, between seasons and between worlds, we see most clearly.

The story

Retold for this lesson from “The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn” (Macgnímartha Finn), with “The Adventure of Nera” and “The Dream of Aengus”.

Every year, when the Feast of Samhain came round and the kings of Ireland gathered at Tara, the people of the royal hall grew quiet and afraid. For twenty-three years, on that one night, a figure had come out of the fairy mound of Finnachad: Aillén mac Midgna, the burner. He carried a silver harp, and as he came near the hall he played it, and the music was so sweet and so strange that every warrior, every guard, every king, closed his eyes and fell asleep. Then Aillén breathed out a stream of fire, and the great hall of Tara burned to the ground. And every year it was built again, and every year it burned.

In the twenty-fourth year, a young man stood up in the hall. It was Fionn, the son of Cumhall, who had come to Tara to claim his father’s place among the Fianna. “If I save Tara from the burner,” he asked the high king, “will you give me my inheritance?” The king agreed. An old warrior who had served Fionn’s father came to him secretly with a spear wrapped in leather. “This spear is poisoned with a magic so fierce,” he said, “that if you press its point against your forehead, the pain will keep you awake through any music in the world.”

That night, as the mist rose on the hill of Tara, Fionn stood alone outside the hall, the spear in his hand. He heard the harp, faint at first, then sweeter and closer. His eyes grew heavy, his knees began to bend, and the music seemed to be inside his head. Then he pressed the point of the spear against his forehead. The pain burned like fire, and his eyes opened wide. Aillén breathed out his flame, and Fionn caught it in his cloak, and it fell into the earth. Aillén fled back towards his mound, but Fionn ran after him, threw the spear, and killed him at the entrance of the hill.

In the morning, the kings of Ireland woke to find the hall of Tara standing, unburned, for the first time in twenty-three years, and the head of Aillén on a pole outside its doors. The high king kept his promise, and Fionn was given the leadership of the Fianna. That, the old storytellers said, is how Fionn began. Never again did the burner come to Tara.

Talk and write

Discussion and writing

Myth or evidence? In groups, find three popular claims about Halloween or Samhain and classify them: supported by the old texts, possible, or modern invention. Use careful language.

Discuss. 1. Why do so many cultures have a night when the dead or the spirits come close? 2. Does it matter if a tradition is not as old as people think? 3. How is Halloween today connected to, and different from, Samhain in the tales?

Write (220–260 words, C1). Samhain: the night of open doors. Write an article explaining Samhain in the old tales, using participle clauses, inversion and careful claims.