'A Bit of History'
Transcribed from the recording of the Queen’s visit to Frost Avenue Elementary School in Oihear Dubh on August 11. Printed as part of the Bureau for Public Education of the Winter Lands greater outreach program in cooperation with the Her Majesty’s Press Secretary. For additional copies, please call the Unseelie Publishing Group at 1-800-555-6789.
Tir na n’Og. as you should know by now is a land of the Fae. Now the Fae are called many things as a whole. Faerie, which is one of our most common name among humans comes from a time when we were called names such as the Fair Folk in hopes that it might not risk our wrath. Likewise we were called the Shining Ones, the Lords and Ladies, the Kindly Ones, the Gentry, and the Good Neighbors. As people have forgotten fear, such names have shortened, often becoming insulting. The little people. The folk. Fairy. But today I’m here to talk to you about history, so let us turn to the name many of you hear most in this city. Sídhe.
Now, I know the anglophi-english speaking students heard me say ‘shee’. The word is spelled s-í-d-h-e. The joy of celtic languages, my dears, be glad Welsh isn’t among the ones you’re expected to learn. I don’t even speak it well, but that’s another story. The story that matters is the one behind our name. Many say that we are called the sídhe, which comes from the word for hills, because we were said to have haunted the hills and cairns of dead kings and heros. This is not, completely, untrue. There are Wee Folk who have in the past and continue to live in those hills for their safety from the bane of iron. (Some humans call all the Fae the Wee Folk, not understanding the different races within our species.) The name goes back before Christians came to Éire and the other Celtic Isles.
Now, it goes back to a matter where the humans were unable to distinguish between Irish gods and the Fae. There is a certain amount of reason to this. It comes from when the children of Danu, who are the celtic gods, won their war with the children of Domnu. (The children of Domnu were to the children of Danu as we are to the Seelie.) Domnu, seeing her own children's defeat, cursed the children of Danu to live knowing it was their fate to fall and fade after their time of triumph. This was a reminder that immortality is no guarantee of strength or survival. Let yourself not be among the too many Fae who forget. This ability both to die as well as live nearly forever leaves little difference between the gods and the Fae as we were at the time. We were young, magic was rich in the land, and so we prospered. The gods, like all gods, survived by faith, ritual, deeds, and how their tales were spoken rather than the natural flows of power. It is a thin line, perhaps, but an important one.
Time passed and the world changed. Men learned the gifts of iron and the places where we might travel without encountering the bane iron were smaller and smaller. With time we learned ways to survive in a world where iron could not be avoided, but in that time we thought there would still be land enough to retreat to. No one would guess at the ability of humanity to take over the earth and its lands. The earth seemed much, much bigger in those days. Funny to think that many of you have never been there. Someday, perhaps. It is where we are all from. But I wander from the topic. When we turned to hills where humanity did not go, the gods also found themselves attacked.
There are two stories of how the gods fell. Your teachers will tell you the history of the battle that was waged and lost by the gods. It’s part of why you are here. But there also came the spread of the word of the one God and his Son to the celtic lands. As his word came, the children of Danu faded. From gods and powers some died and were reborn as humans. Others simply became lesser powers. Some retained some of what they once were, clinging to the hills that were their place of worship. Most were forgotten as anything more than stories. Because we fled to the same place we were given the name. Aes sídhe. People of the hills. Shortened with time to sídhe.
And so is the history of the name.
Tir na n’Og. as you should know by now is a land of the Fae. Now the Fae are called many things as a whole. Faerie, which is one of our most common name among humans comes from a time when we were called names such as the Fair Folk in hopes that it might not risk our wrath. Likewise we were called the Shining Ones, the Lords and Ladies, the Kindly Ones, the Gentry, and the Good Neighbors. As people have forgotten fear, such names have shortened, often becoming insulting. The little people. The folk. Fairy. But today I’m here to talk to you about history, so let us turn to the name many of you hear most in this city. Sídhe.
Now, I know the anglophi-english speaking students heard me say ‘shee’. The word is spelled s-í-d-h-e. The joy of celtic languages, my dears, be glad Welsh isn’t among the ones you’re expected to learn. I don’t even speak it well, but that’s another story. The story that matters is the one behind our name. Many say that we are called the sídhe, which comes from the word for hills, because we were said to have haunted the hills and cairns of dead kings and heros. This is not, completely, untrue. There are Wee Folk who have in the past and continue to live in those hills for their safety from the bane of iron. (Some humans call all the Fae the Wee Folk, not understanding the different races within our species.) The name goes back before Christians came to Éire and the other Celtic Isles.
Now, it goes back to a matter where the humans were unable to distinguish between Irish gods and the Fae. There is a certain amount of reason to this. It comes from when the children of Danu, who are the celtic gods, won their war with the children of Domnu. (The children of Domnu were to the children of Danu as we are to the Seelie.) Domnu, seeing her own children's defeat, cursed the children of Danu to live knowing it was their fate to fall and fade after their time of triumph. This was a reminder that immortality is no guarantee of strength or survival. Let yourself not be among the too many Fae who forget. This ability both to die as well as live nearly forever leaves little difference between the gods and the Fae as we were at the time. We were young, magic was rich in the land, and so we prospered. The gods, like all gods, survived by faith, ritual, deeds, and how their tales were spoken rather than the natural flows of power. It is a thin line, perhaps, but an important one.
Time passed and the world changed. Men learned the gifts of iron and the places where we might travel without encountering the bane iron were smaller and smaller. With time we learned ways to survive in a world where iron could not be avoided, but in that time we thought there would still be land enough to retreat to. No one would guess at the ability of humanity to take over the earth and its lands. The earth seemed much, much bigger in those days. Funny to think that many of you have never been there. Someday, perhaps. It is where we are all from. But I wander from the topic. When we turned to hills where humanity did not go, the gods also found themselves attacked.
There are two stories of how the gods fell. Your teachers will tell you the history of the battle that was waged and lost by the gods. It’s part of why you are here. But there also came the spread of the word of the one God and his Son to the celtic lands. As his word came, the children of Danu faded. From gods and powers some died and were reborn as humans. Others simply became lesser powers. Some retained some of what they once were, clinging to the hills that were their place of worship. Most were forgotten as anything more than stories. Because we fled to the same place we were given the name. Aes sídhe. People of the hills. Shortened with time to sídhe.
And so is the history of the name.