The queen who went riding and came home with more than she bargained for
The Wooing of Becfhola is a compact and unusual tale — part love story, part Otherworld adventure, part comedy of manners. It features Becfhola, wife of the High King Diarmait mac Aedo Sláine, who goes riding on a Sunday against her husband’s advice and ends up spending an extraordinary night in the Otherworld with a man who has been waiting for her specifically, while her husband waits at home wondering where she is.
The Ride
Diarmait warned Becfhola not to ride out — it was Sunday, and something about the day felt wrong. She went anyway. In a forest she met a young man of extraordinary beauty named Flann, who said that he had been waiting for her, that he had arranged the whole encounter, and that she should come with him to his realm. Becfhola — who had always found her royal husband somewhat lacking in poetry — went.
The Otherworld Night
Flann’s realm was an island in a lake, and to reach it Becfhola and Flann had to fight their way through the men who guarded it — three warriors who were also rivals for Flann’s kingship. Becfhola fought alongside Flann with considerable competence. The rivals were defeated. They spent the night on the island. In the morning, she returned to the mortal world.
The Return
When Becfhola got home, Diarmait had been waiting — but no time had seemed to pass. The Otherworld had held her in its different time, and she had returned at what felt like the same moment she had left, from his perspective. She was somewhat changed; he was suspicious. The tale ends with the ambiguity that marks so many Otherworld encounters: she came back, but she was not entirely the same person who had left.
Key facts about The Wooing of Becfhola
- Irish title: Tochmarc Becfhola (“The Wooing of Becfhola”)
- Becfhola: Wife of High King Diarmait mac Aedo Sláine
- Flann: An Otherworld king who had specifically arranged to meet Becfhola
- The island: Flann’s Otherworld realm — reached through a lake after fighting three rivals
- Becfhola’s role: Fought alongside Flann in the approach battle — an active participant, not a passive prize
- Time in the Otherworld: Felt like a night; from Diarmait’s perspective, almost no time passed
- Tone: Part love story, part adventure, part dry comedy of marital relations
- Cycle: Cycle of Kings
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