Tochmarc Étaíne

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Tochmarc Étaíne (Irish for The Wooing of Étaín) is an Early Irish story in the Mythological Cycle of Early Irish literature, preserved in the Yellow Book of Lecan, Lebor na hUidre, and other manuscripts.

Among the episodes in Tochmarc Étaíne are:
PART I

• the conception of Aengus by the Dagda and Boand, wife of Elcmar
• Aengus's fosterage by Midir of Brí Léith, and their outwitting of Elcmar for the possession of Brug na Boinne
• Midir's desire for Étaín, and the tasks which her father imposes upon him before they are wed
• the jealousy of Fuamnach, Midir's first wife, against Étaín, which causes her to transform Étaín into a fly
• the sufferings and wanderings of Étaín in insect form until she is swallowed by the wife of Étar and reborn as Étaín daughter of Étar

PART II

• the marriage of Étaín daughter of Étar to Eochaid Airem, high king of Ireland
• Étaín's adulterous relationship with Eochaidh's brother Ailill Ánguba, in which it is not Ailill but a disguised Midir who trysts with her and convinces her to return with him to Brí Léith if he can win her from Eochaid

PART III

• Midir's games of fidchell with Eochaid, the last of which he wins and demands his arms around Étaín and a kiss from her
• Midir and Étaín's escape in the form of swans, Eochaid's failure to pick out Étaín from among fifty identical women, and his marriage instead to his own daughter by Étaín
• the expulsion of Eochaid's daughter and the granddaughter she bears him, and Eochaid's own ignominious end

[edit] See also

• Full text of Tochmarc Étaíne at CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts) (ed. and trans. Osborn Bergin and R. I. Best).