The fairy woman who came for a prince — and the father who couldn’t stop her
The Adventure of Connla is one of the oldest and most delicate stories in the Cycle of Kings — a brief, perfect tale about a fairy woman who comes to the court of Conn of the Hundred Battles and offers his son Connla a place in the Otherworld. It is a story about desire and loss, about what the mortal world loses when someone chooses the immortal, and about how the Otherworld calls to the best of the living.
The Invisible Woman
Connla was standing with his father Conn on the Hill of Uisneach when a woman appeared — visible only to him. She told him that the Land of the Living was calling him: a beautiful country where there was no death, no sin, where the people lived in endless joy. She wanted him to come with her. Conn heard his son speaking to empty air and summoned his druid to drive the woman away. The druid’s spells hid her — but before she vanished she threw Connla an apple.
The Apple
Connla ate from the apple for a month and it did not diminish. While it lasted, he could eat nothing else and wanted nothing else. More than that — he could not stop thinking about the woman and the land she had described. He was between worlds: still in Ireland, but already half-gone. A month later she came back for him.
The Departure
This time Conn and his druids tried again to drive her away, but Connla spoke first. He told his father he was going. He stepped into the glass boat beside the woman and they sailed west across the sea. No one saw him again. Conn watched his son’s boat disappear and turned back to his kingdom. The best of what he had was gone into the western sea, and there was nothing to be done about it.
Key facts about Adventure of Connla
- Irish title: Echtra Conli / Adventure of Connla the Fair
- Connla: Son of Conn of the Hundred Battles; heir to the High Kingship
- The woman: An unnamed fairy woman from the Land of the Living — the Otherworld realm of eternal joy
- The apple: Fed Connla for a month without diminishing; made him unable to want any other food
- Conn’s response: Called his druid to repel the woman — twice; failed both times
- Connla’s choice: Chose to go willingly — stepped into the glass boat and sailed west
- The boat: A glass coracle — a recurring image for the vessel that carries mortals to the Otherworld
- One of the earliest: Among the oldest surviving prose tales in Irish — dated to around the 8th century
- Cycle: Cycle of Kings
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