The Autumn landfall for these birds is in County Donegal. From here, the birds disperse to sites widely distributed throughout Ireland. There is a certain grace and beauty encapsulated in the flight of the swan unmatched by other species of the bird kingdom. Although awkward in take-off, which usually requires a longstretch of water or land to act as a ‘runway’, once in flight the swan comes into its own. In the skies over Newgrange, at least for some months of the year, the swan is king. Great swan of the heavens 2 THE LEGEND OF AONGHUS AND CAER: One of the most striking swan legends linked with Newgrange is the story of the romance of Aonghus and Caer. Aonghus was a mythical chieftain of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who were the principal race of the otherworld – the gods – in ancient Irish mythology. Aonghus resided at Brú na Bóinne – the tumulus of Newgrange – and was often referred to as ‘Aonghus an Bhroga’. His father was the Daghdha, the ‘good god’, a principal diety of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and his mother was Bóinn, or Bóann, the goddess of the River Boyne, which gets its name from her. |
Cygnus the swan over Newgrange, from a painting by Richard Moore | The story tells how Aonghus fell madly in love with a maiden who visited him while he slept. She visited him in his dreams for a year, and all this time he could not touch her because she would disappear. His mother Bóann searched Ireland for the maiden, but was unable to find her after a year of searching. Aonghus enlisted the help of his father, the Daghdha, who in turn sought out Bodhbh, who was the Tuatha Dé Danann king of Munster. Bodhbh revealed that the maiden was Caer Iobharmhéith, and brought Aonghus to meether at Loch Béal Dragan (Dragon's Mouth) in Tipperary. Bodhbh explained how Caer was from Sídh Uamhain, an ‘otherworld residence’ in Connacht. Caer’s father revealed to the Daghdha that his daughter went in the forms of a bird and a girl on alternate years. The story, as related by Dr. Daithi O hOgain, continues: At the following Samhain (November) she would be a bird at Loch Béal Dragan, and the Daghdha instructed Aonghus to go there and call her to him. He did so, and found her in the shape of a beautiful white swan, in the company of thrice fifty others. She went to him, and he too became a swan, and they embraced each other and flew three times around the lake. |
They then flew together to Brugh na Bóinne and put the dwellers of that place to sleep with their beautiful singing. Caer remained with Aonghus in the Brugh after that. So here we had an ancient story relating directly to swans and to Newgrange. The fact that Caer was from an ‘otherworld residence’ was intriguing, given that there is a constellation in the night sky called Cygnus, The Swan. A residence in a world other than our own might place the character in an astral context. Unfortunately, no firm date can be put on the origin of this story. The same applies to many of the ancient legends, which were only written down in Christian times, having survived until that time by word of mouth. Therefore even though the legend mentions Newgrange, and also swans, we cannot say whether this story comes from the distant epoch of neolithic Ireland. |
GODS FROM THE SKY: The gods themselves were a mythical race, who according to later versions of the story lived on earth, “some say in the north, others in the “southern isles of the world”.” But the earliest account tells us that the Tuatha de Danann, gods of the Gaels, “came from the sky.” We became further intrigued on reading these accounts. There it was in black and white – the gods of the ancient legends had a heavenly origin, and the story of Aonghus’ passion for the maiden Caer related how she was from an ‘otherworld residence’. |
A photograph of Cygnus (viewed on its side) and the beautiful star fields around it. |
NEWGRANGE AND THE CROSS: It was the presence of the Whooper Swans near Newgrange which put us on the scent of the mystery. This, coupled with the cryptically intuitive swan mythology, had us convinced we were onto something important. The language of astronomy, albeit hidden or disguised by time, was, we felt, integrated within the foundations of neolithic society in Ireland. We began by comparing the shape of Cygnus with that of the ground plans of the Newgrange. The conformity between Cygnus and Newgrange was perhaps not as precise as we would have wished, but nevertheless there were some striking comparisons to be made. With the main star Deneb placed in the northern recess and the central star of the Cygnus crucifix, named Sadr, placed near the centre of the Newgrange chamber, all of the other stars fit the shape nicely with the exception of one. That star was Gienah (Epsilon e Cygni), which was a little bit further left than the centre of the western recess. Despite this inconsistency, there were other factors which led us to the belief that the passage may have been constructed in the shape of Cygnus. Besides, we were prepared to accept that inconsistencies like this could be excused in such a grand exercise. |
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Great swan of the heavens 
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