Irish stories. PLEASE HELP!!

lauraoaktree

ive recently dropped to pass irish and for honours, we need to know the 5 stories, but not the storyline in much dept. can anybody give me the basic storylines (in eng) so that i can answer the q's about wjat happens between two certain points in the story??? please im so lost at the moment
tanks a mil

Vikings

I'd help you but I forget most of the storyline from all the stories, I know clann lir is about swans if that helps.

Cherry_Pie

If you were doing honors Im going out on a limb and saying you should prob know the story!!!

lauraoaktree

i know the general jist of them, but not an exact timeline of events

Cherry_Pie

DId you try Skoool.ie??

lauraoaktree

i cant get onto the site i dono y

luckat

What are the five stories called, and who are they by?

If the Clann Lir story is the traditional one, it's about a widowed king, who remarries a woman called Aoife. At first she loves his four children, but gradually she becomes uncontrollably jealous.

Finally she gets a sorcerer to put a spell on the kids (or does so herself, not sure), and brings them to, I think, Lough Derravara, where she turns them into swans. But then she regrets what she's done.

She can't undo the powerful spell, but what she can do is limit its power. So she gives them three gifts: they will retain their human voices so they can sing; they will be released after three hundred years, and every hundred years they'll be able to move to a new lake.

So King Lir's daughter (by the way, some think that Shakespeare's King Lear borrows from this story in some way), Fionnuala minds her little brothers, Conn, Connla and...ummm.... and they live through snowy winters and blazing summers, singing.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Lir has found out what happened and sent Aoife from him, or maybe killed her, can't remember.

The first hundred years the four swans are on Lough Derravara, the next hundred somewhere else ... then last hundred they're on the Moyle. Finally they're released by the sound of the bells of St Patrick, and turn from swans into gaunt old men and women, and are converted. (Methinks I hear the rattling of a monkish agenda in this particular section of the transcription of the story.)

If you do a google on "children of lir" you'll find a more accurate version of this story.

lauraoaktree

tanks alot

lauraoaktree

this the storyline????? anything ive to add in??

Long ago there lived a king called Lir. He lived with his wife and four children: Fionnuala, Aodh, Fiachra and Conn. They lived in a castle in the middle of a forest. When Lir's wife died they were all very sad. After a few years Lir got married again. He married a jealous wife called Aoife.
Aoife thought that Lir loved his children more than he loved her. Aoife hated the children. Soon she thought of a plan to get rid of the children.
One summer's day Aoife took the children to swim in a lake near the castle. The children were really happy to be playing in the water. Suddenly Aoife took out a magic wand. There was a flash of light and the children were nowhere to be seen. All there was to be seen was four beautiful swans, with their feathers as white as snow.
Aoife said, "I have put you under a spell. You will be swans for nine hundred years," she cackled. "You will spend three hundred years in Lough Derravaragh, three hundred years in the Sea of Moyle and three hundred years in the waters of Inish Glora," Aoife said. She also said, "You will remain swans for nine hundred years until you hear the ring of a Christian bell."
She went back to the castle and told Lir that his children had drowned. Lir was so sad he started crying. He rushed down to the lake and saw no children. He saw only four beautiful swans.
One of them spoke to him. It was Fionnuala who spoke to him. She told him what Aoife had done to them. Lir got very angry and turned Aoife into an ugly moth. When Lir died the children were very sad. When the time came they moved to the Sea of Moyle.
Soon the time came for their final journey. When they reached Inish Glora they were very tired. Early one morning they heard the sound of a Christian bell. They were so happy that they were human again. The monk (some even say it was St. Patrick himself) sprinkled holy water on them and then Fionnuala put her arms around her brothers and then the four of them fell on the ground. The monk buried them in one grave. That night he dreamed he saw four swans flying up through the clouds. He knew the children of Lir were with their mother and father.

pingu_girl

god i hate clann lir! our teacher gave us great notes for all the storeys and peoms but guess what? i cant find them! im screwed unless gafa of an lasair choille comes up.any place else have notes on em exept skool.ie i just looked at em horrible

rosa

Amuigh Liom Féin-
Its about a young boy who experiences freedom for the first time when his mother goes off for the day and leaves him with his granda, who's going senile or something. He tells him to bring in the cows i think.
So off he goes, with his dog for company. He goes to the well and builds a boat out of leaves which he then "sails" in the water. He mentions that his grandad once saw a lepreachaun at the well and thinks this is pretty cool.
Then along comes Máire Bhán..........................................................
This apparently is the turning point in the story. MB is some sort of local mad woman. The little lad listens patientlyto her ramblings. She mentions his Uncail Máirtín, and warns him not to turn out like him. I think she calls him (Máirtín) a "buachaill báire" or words to that effect. Apparently he left her years ago or something.
The boy returns home, his ma gives out to him for going off but is relieved that he's ok.
He asks about his uncle and his mother fobs him off with "tá tú ró-óg"
I think the grandad might say something about Máirtin going to England. Maybe MB said it though, or i might have imagined it.....
Three basic themes:
the innocence of the child and how he sees the world
the similarity between the grandad, who is losing his mind, and the child they share a common active imagination.
Traits of bealoideas (folklore)

Shyster

remember if you're talking about the character of the father his name's LEAR not LIR

luckat

http://www.skool.ie/homeworkzone_sc.asp?id=2642

I hadn't any problem getting into skool.ie, which has summaries in English of each story. Interesting stuff. (That's the exact page, above.)

Oh, it's a pity that you're so un-engaged with your studies that you're having to take this route! Learning should be a pleasure!

As Padraig Pearse wrote sometime early in the last century, when he was founding a school, St Enda's, based on Montessori principles: "...there has been and there is no freedom in Irish education: no freedom for the child, no freedom for the teacher, no freedom for the school".

chillywilly

luckat wrote:

http://www.skool.ie/homeworkzone_sc.asp?id=2642

I hadn't any problem getting into skool.ie, which has summaries in English of each story. Interesting stuff. (That's the exact page, above.)

Oh, it's a pity that you're so un-engaged with your studies that you're having to take this route! Learning should be a pleasure!

As Padraig Pearse wrote sometime early in the last century, when he was founding a school, St Enda's, based on Montessori principles: "...there has been and there is no freedom in Irish education: no freedom for the child, no freedom for the teacher, no freedom for the school".

where are the english summaries? i cant see them on the link!

luckat

Click on the stories, a stór, and then go to each individual story.

Here, will you take a look at this for me, by the way: I'm interested in people's reaction - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=266067

randomfella

sexist bitch is my reaction. give the man a break.