The Swan-Woman of Óengus
Caer Ibormeith’s name means “yew berry.” She was under an enchantment that forced her to spend alternating years as a woman and as a swan, and neither she nor her father — Ethal Anbuail, an Otherworld lord of Connacht — could break it.
Óengus Mac Óg saw her in a dream before he ever met her and fell completely in love. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t function. He and his parents searched every Otherworld territory in Ireland for her. Bodb Derg finally located her at Loch Bél Dragon on the eve of Samhain, standing among 150 similarly enchanted girls chained in pairs — silver chains for the human pairs, gold chains for the swans.
Óengus went to the lake and called her name. She agreed to go with him — but on one condition. He had to come to her in her form. He could not ask her to change for him. He had to transform himself into a swan first.
He did. They flew together to Brú na Bóinne and their combined song put the surrounding country to sleep for three days.
That condition — come to me as I am — is what makes Óengus worth the name god of love. He transformed himself. She set the terms. He met them.
Key facts about Caer Ibormeith
- Names: Caer Ibormeith (“Yew Berry”)
- Rules over: No formal divine domain
- Weapons: Not recorded
- Animals: Swan
- Other Symbols: Yew berry; silver and gold chains at Loch Bél Dragon
- Parents: Ethal Anbuail (Otherworld lord of Connacht)
- Siblings: Not recorded
- Spouse: Óengus Mac Óg
- Children: Not recorded
- Greek equivalent: Psyche (the beloved whose own terms define the conditions of love)
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