An Chraobh Airgid

Treasure

The Dagda’s Harp

Daur Dá Bláo · Cóir Cethairchuir

“Oak of two greens” and “four-angled music”: a harp with two names.

Open it on the full site There every name opens, and a web shows who is kin to whom.

When the Fomorians carried off the Dagda’s harper, the Dagda, Lugh and Ogma went after them, and found the harp hanging on the wall of the feasting-hall where Bres and his father Elatha sat. The Dagda had bound the music into it, so that not a note would sound until he called it out. He called it by its names, and it came off the wall to him, killing nine men on the way. Then he played the three strains, and the three of them walked out unharmed while the host slept.

In the tales

  • The Second Battle of Mag Tuired A beautiful king who gives nothing, a stranger with every art, an eye no army can face, and a harp that plays sorrow, laughter and sleep.

See also

  • Bres The beautiful king of the Tuatha Dé who gave nothing, son of a Fomorian king.
  • Elatha King of the Fomorians, and father of Bres.
  • The Fomorians Old enemies of the gods. In folklore, giants.
  • The Three Strains Sorrow, laughter and sleep: the three kinds of Irish music.

Sources

Medieval manuscript. Written down by Irish scholars between the eighth and seventeenth centuries.

Each tale above lists the sources it is retold from. Every source the site draws on is listed on the full site.