The Wind Among the ReedsYeats, W. B. (William Butler)
General
The Wind Among the Reeds
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)
English poetry -- Irish authors
I have made the Seven Lights, the constellation of the Bear, lament for
the theft of the Rose, and I have made the Dragon, the constellation
Draco, the guardian of the Rose, because these constellations move about
the pole of the heavens, the ancient Tree of Life in many countries, and
are often associated with the Tree of Life in mythology. It is this Tree
of Life that I have put into the 'Song of Mongan' under its common Irish
form of a hazel; and, because it had sometimes the stars for fruit, I
have hung upon it 'the Crooked Plough' and the 'Pilot' star, as
Gaelic-speaking Irishmen sometimes call the Bear and the North star. I
have made it an axle-tree in 'Aedh hears the Cry of the Sedge,' for this
was another ancient way of representing it.
THE HOST OF THE AIR.
Some writers distinguish between the Sluagh Gaoith, the host of the air,
and Sluagh Sidhe, the host of the Sidhe, and describe the host of the
air as of a peculiar malignancy. Dr. Joyce says, 'of all the different
kinds of goblins ... air demons were most dreaded by the people. They
lived among clouds, and mists, and rocks, and hated the human race with
the utmost malignity.' A very old Arann charm, which contains the words
'Send God, by his strength, between us and the host of the Sidhe,
between us and the host of the air,' seems also to distinguish among
them. I am inclined, however, to think that the distinction came in with
Christianity and its belief about the prince of the air, for the host of
the Sidhe, as I have already explained, are closely associated with the
wind.
They are said to steal brides just after their marriage, and sometimes
in a blast of wind. A man in Galway says, 'At Aughanish there were two
couples came to the shore to be married, and one of the newly married
women was in the boat with the priest, and they going back to the
island; and a sudden blast of wind came, and the priest said some
blessed words that were able to save himself, but the girl was swept.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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