Éadaoin – Seacht Snaidhm na Seirce - Diarmuid Johnson

Is é scéal Éadaoine scéal mór grá na Sean-Ghaeilge, scéal nár mhair ach ina bhlúirí, blúirí i Leabhar na hUidhre, blúirí i Leabhar Buí Leacan. Tá an –ábhar sin ar fad fite in aon scéal amháin ag Diarmuid Johnson ionas gur sean-eipic nua atá againn atá inchurtha le scéal Héilin na Traí, nó le scéal Tristan agus Iosóid.

Bean de shliocht éanlaith an tsí í Éadaoin. Í scéal i measc na neamhbhuan abhus, seal i measc na mbuan i mBrí Léith. Is í ba bhanchéile d’Éochaidh Rí na Teamhrach. Ach is do mhidir a thig sí grá a croí, do Mhidhir an tsí, Midhir Bhrí Léith, Midhir na háille agus na mbriathra meala.

Agus cén t-iontas an t-ainm ‘Éadaoin’ urithi? Bhí bean eile in éad léi : Fuamnach, an chéad bhanchéile a bhí ag Midhir. Fuamnach na draíochta, Fuamnach na gangaide : le trí bhuille dá slaitín caorthainn, rinne sí féileacán d’Éadaoin gur dhíbhir thar teorainn agus thar toinn í go ceann cian aimsire.

The story of Éadaoin is our age old Irish love story, a story that has survived in fragments found in The Book of the Dun Cow and in The Yellow Book of Leacan. Diarmuid Johnson has combined all these various fragments and knitted them into a whole while filling in the gaps and more to the forgotten story — to create a new old epic comparable to Helen of Troy or the story of Tristan and Isold.

Éadaoin is a bird-woman of the Fairy People, spending time here amongst mortals, spending time amongst the immortals in the fairy palace of Brí Léith. She was the wife of Eochaidh King of Tara, but Midhir was her true love, Midhir of the Sí, Midhir of Brí Léith, the handsome and sweet-spoken Midhir.

Éadaoin had a rival, Fuamnach, Midhir's first wife. Fuamnach the sorceress, Fuamnach the jealous rival: with three strokes of her hazel rod, she turned Éadaoin into a butterfly and banished her over land and sea for many a long year.

This is a story about the loneliness of women. A woman left without either husband or lover. And as she was of the race of immortals, her loneliness is everlasting. An old tale under a new guise, a contemporary old theme, a great tragedy about the seven binding knots of love.