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Download the Article In FREESIDE EUROPE ONLINE ACADEMIC JOURNAL 2020/2 ISSUE www.freesideeurope.com Eszter György DOI 10.51313/Freeside-2020-2-4 CONSIDERING LIMINALITY AS A PASSAGE TO THE OTHERWORLD IN THE EARLY IRISH TALE AISLINGE ÓENGUSO AND OSCAR WILDE’S THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL Abstract An important piece of early Irish literary material, Óengus’ dream bears several similarities with Oscar Wilde’s The Fisherman and his Soul. It will be demonstrated that liminality (from limen meaning “threshold” in Latin), as epitomized by the presence of water in both tales, can be interpreted as a passage to the Otherworld. It is the liminal and otherworldly aspect of water that brings into existence the universal human aspiration towards the supernatural unification with the cosmos and the theme of all-encompassing love; recurrent topoi in Irish literature from the very beginnings until today. Furthermore, Wilde’s tale is not so much about the “devotional revolution” of religious transformation in a post-Famine Ireland, but an even more universal expression of a “revolutionary devotion”: the Fisherman’s unusual attachment to the forbidden. This supernatural yet human feeling of transition, “in- betweenness” or metaxy makes both tales operate in several dimensions across time and geographical space. Keywords: Óengus, Otherworld, liminality, metaxy, Fisherman ‘Ah! Happy they whose hearts can break And peace of pardon win! How else may man make straight his plan And cleanse his Soul from Sin? How else but through a broken heart May Lord Christ enter in?’ Aislinge Óenguso belongs to the remscéla (or introductory tales) to the Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), the latter relating the legendary fight between Queen Medb of Connacht and the warriors of Ulster for the Dunn Cúailnge (the Brown bull of Cooley). Although loosely related to the Táin, the tale’s crucial importance in early Irish literary material is indisputable. The story survives in a single vellum manuscript (MS Egerton 1782) written by members of the Ó Maolchonaire family (Ó Cathasaigh 1997: 431). The early Irish saga relating Óengus’ dream bears several similarities with Oscar Wilde’s most complex fairy 1 FREESIDE EUROPE ONLINE ACADEMIC JOURNAL 2020/2 ISSUE www.freesideeurope.com tale titled The Fisherman and his Soul. In this study, it will be demonstrated that liminality, as epitomized by the presence of water in both tales, can be interpreted as a passage to the Otherworld. Early Irish literature often deploys the theme of liminality (from the Latin term limen meaning “threshold”) in terms of “the state of being in between separate categories of space, time or identity” (Nagy cited by Bhrolcháin 2009: 57) as represented by borders and geographical landmarks such as mountains, rivers, lakes or even Ogham stones (Ní Bhrolcháin 2009:113). It will be argued that it is the liminal, otherworldly and purifying aspect of water that brings into existence the universal human aspiration towards the supernatural unification with the cosmos, and the theme of all-encompassing love; recurrent topoi in Irish literature from the very beginnings to the 20th century. Yearning for the harmony of the self and the theme of eternal love make these two stories operate in several dimensions across time and geographical space. Furthermore, it can be argued that The Fisherman and his Soul is not so much about the “devotional revolution” of religious transformation taking place in a post-Famine Ireland, but an even more universal expression of a “revolutionary devotion”; that is, the Fisherman’s unusual attachment to the forbidden. It is this supernatural yet human universal feeling that makes both tales bridge incredible gaps over time and space. In the Mythological Cycle of extant manuscripts from the body of early Irish literature, the Dagda (the ‘Good God’), his wife Bóann (the River Goddess) and their son, Óengus all belong to the otherworldly people of the Tuatha Dé. The divinization of the River Boyne (Bóann) in the early dindshenchas already suggests in itself the importance of liminality in the story of this family. The famous Ulster Cycle equally makes mention of Óengus and his supernatural family and generally considers the mystic landscape of the Boyne Valley as an otherworldly location (see photo illustration below, Fig. 1). Fig.1 The mystic landscape of Newgrange in the Bend of the Boyne 2 FREESIDE EUROPE ONLINE ACADEMIC JOURNAL 2020/2 ISSUE www.freesideeurope.com Aislinge Óenguso relates the story of Óengus, son of the Dagda, who falls in love with the beautiful supernatural woman Cáer Iborméith playing the harp each night beside his bed. After a long and persistent quest for his beloved, the hero’s love-sickness eventually gets verbalized and healed by the promise of eternal love in the mystic spheres of the Brú. The two lovers eventually change shape and turn into swans circling thrice around the lake and soaring into eternity. In this ingenious and concise reworking of the divine love topos, the notion of threshold (limen) and boundaries between dreams and reality, the conscious and the Freudian subconscious, reason and madness, health and sickness, wisdom and ignorance, the human and the supernatural are all remarkably present, and constitute the very essence and beauty of this tale. The division between these pairs of binary poles is epitomized by the presence of water in the tale. Not only is water (the River Boyne and the Loch Bél Dracon in Crotta Cliach (Ó Cathasaigh 1997: 436)) in itself a liminal space marking the boundary between the above-mentioned binary oppositions, but it is also a reflecting medium and a symbol of purity crucial to the story. Purity is also present in the white, subtle and vulnerable figure of the swan, which epitomizes the passage from the human to the supernatural in the tale, since Óengus’ beloved, Cáer Iborméith is able to transform into a swan and her magical power surpasses even her father’s. Unable to reveal the identity of the beautiful woman playing the unearthly music of the harp every night beside his bed (see Illustration by Ted Nasmith, Fig. 2 and 3), Óengus cannot cope with the situation he is confronted with and falls into a state of ‘stupor’ (‘socht’) (Ó Cathasaigh 1997: 434) and wasting sickness. As Calvert Watkins points out, the ‘socht’ is a ‘pathological state imposed impersonally from outside’ on someone (ibid. 434). The theme of the otherworldly woman taking initiative is also present in the figure of Macha in The Pangs of the Ulstermen, another introductory tale from the Ulster Cycle. The wasting away of the emaciated mortal lover is another key theme also present in The Wooing of Étaín. Óengus’ diagnosis is established due to the magical powers and prophetic skills of Fergne, the physician. However, the initial lack of verbalization by Óengus triggers his suffering and bodily decline, delaying the solution to his problem. Gray stresses the importance of the etymology in characters’ names. Óengus literally means ‘lone force’, while Cáer is reminiscent of the term ‘Caritas’ meaning spiritual love (Gray 2004: 23). According to the narratives of Plato’s Phaedrus and Phaedo (ibid. 23), only the soul can grasp the divine that the self yearns for desperately. The best way to strengthen one’s soul is ‘bodily denial and 3 FREESIDE EUROPE ONLINE ACADEMIC JOURNAL 2020/2 ISSUE www.freesideeurope.com fasting’ (ibid. 26), hence Óengus’ love-sickness. The term ‘cairdes’ is important because of its dual signification (Ó Cathasaigh 1997: 433). On the one hand, it refers to the sexual union between Óengus and Cáer as foreseen by Fergne, but it may also mean a ‘treaty of friendship’ as a hint at the relationship between the Dagdae, Ailill and Ethal, or even Óengus, Ailill and Medb, main characters of the Ulster Cycle. As for the latter, the last sentence of the tale was probably added later to the story and the link to the Táin is supposed to be an invention. Ailill, king of Connacht, and his wife, Medb help Óengus win his beloved Cáer, which is why Óengus accompanies them to the Cattle-raid of Cooley. “This is how the friendship between Ailill and Medb and the Macc Óc arose, and this is how Óengus took three hundred to the cattle raid of Cúailnge” (Gantz 1981: 112). Fig. 2 The Dream of Aengus by Ted Nasmith Fig. 3 Cáer flees suddenly by Ted Nasmith 4 FREESIDE EUROPE ONLINE ACADEMIC JOURNAL 2020/2 ISSUE www.freesideeurope.com While asleep, the boundaries between reality and dream, the conscious and the subconscious are rather blurred in Óengus’ story. As an early Irish dream-narrative, Óengus’ oneiric adventures reveal much about contemporary belief in the Otherworld. Many assert that the dreams of early Medieval Europeans “were not outlets for the libidinous id but entrees to other worlds and realities” (Bitel 1991: 39). I argue that both processes are in operation in this tale. Óengus’ dreams of Cáer Iborméith enable him to experience the supernatural, but also give way to his secret instincts, drives and yearnings. In Óengus’ dream, the passage to the Otherworld is catalyzed and fostered by the presence of water; a liminal space and a medium for purification. The protagonist eventually “finds his woman in a lake in the síd, which was the Irish word for both a burial mound and the Otherworld” (ibid. 43). It is also important to note that in secular literature, everyone had equal access to the Otherworld through dreams, whereas “in Christian literature, the clerical elite tried, albeit not completely successfully, to create boundaries and restrict access to the heavenly Otherworld of dreams” (ibid. 42). Nevertheless, it is to be stressed that in this example of secular dream-narratives, the hero is not an everyday mortal, but the son of the Dagda.
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