Irish Fairy Tales · Chapter
XV explained
Mongan and mac an Dáv encounter two clerics, Tibraidè and his clerk, on the road.
What happens
Mongan and mac an Dáv encounter two clerics, Tibraidè and his clerk, on the road. Mongan plays a trick on them, conjuring a river where there was none and causing the bridge to break, plunging the clerics into the water. Mongan then takes on the form of Tibraidè and transforms mac an Dáv into the clerk, and they proceed to meet the King of Leinster.
Themes in this chapter
The Supernatural and Faery
Mongan uses supernatural power to create an illusion of a river and transform himself and mac an Dáv, demonstrating faery magic.
Transformation and Identity
Mongan and mac an Dáv take on the forms of the clerics, highlighting themes of shape-shifting and assumed identity.
Characters to notice
- Mongan
Plays a trick on the clerics, transforming himself into Tibraidè and mac an Dáv into the clerk.
- Mac an Dáv
Travels with Mongan and is transformed into the clerk's shape.
- Tibraidè
A cleric, priest of Cell Camain, who is tricked by Mongan and falls into the river.
Key passages
““I never saw that kind of uniform before,” said mac an Dáv. “Even if you didn’t,” said Mongan, “there are plenty of them about. They are men that don’t believe in our gods,” said he.”
Mac an Dáv remarks on the unfamiliar clerical garb, and Mongan explains that these men are clerics who do not worship their gods.
Introduces the clerics as representatives of a different belief system.
“He looked at them hard for a minute, and then he waved his hand at them. The two priests stopped, and they stared straight in front of them, and then they looked at each other, and then they looked at the sky.”
Mongan concentrates and gestures, causing the priests to halt and become confused as their surroundings change.
Mongan's magical trick begins.
“For where there had been a road with hedges on each side and fields stretching beyond them, there was now no road, no hedge, no field; but there was a great broad river sweeping across their path; a mighty tumble of yellowy-brown waters, very swift, very savage; churning and billowing and jockeying among rough boulders and islands of stone.”
The landscape transforms into a violent, wide river where the road once was.
Description of the illusory river conjured by Mongan.
“Mongan then took on himself the form of Tibraidè and he turned mac an Dáv into the shape of the clerk.”
Mongan assumes the appearance of Tibraidè and transforms mac an Dáv to look like the clerk.
Mongan and mac an Dáv disguise themselves as the clerics.