Aoife (wife of Lir)

Role: wife of Lir · First appears: The Gods · The Fate of the Children of Lir · Part 1

After Aobh died, Bodb Dearg offered her sister Aoife to Lir as a wife. The daughter of Oilell of Aran and one of Bodb Dearg’s nurselings, Aoife married Lir and came to his home. She showed honour and affection for her sister’s children, Fionnuala, Aodh (son of Lir), Fiachra (son of Lir) and Conn (son of Lir).

One day at Loch Dairbhreach, Aoife struck the four children with a Druid rod and changed them into swans. She cursed them to remain in bird shapes through three hundred years at each of three waters, until the Woman from the South and the Man from the North came together. Then repentance came on her: she restored their speech and gave them sweet music, while their sense and nobility remained. Later she went to Bodb Dearg’s palace without the children and falsely said that Lir would not trust him with them.