The Giants Causeway
The trips we have taken... and it's just the beginning. Last Saturday, after only a week in Ireland, we took a trip North and let me just say, it was beautiful. The area was green as well as bright and, on that trip, we went to a place called the "Giants Causeway". This geological site located on the Northern coast of Ireland as well as right across the sea in Scotland has a myth surrounding it. This myth was told by our lovely tour guide and involves giants, rocks, land-bridges, competition, and a little bit of love; but that story can be told in full another time. Recently I read the poem “Who Goes with Fergus?”, this poem speaks about the beauty of nature, it's an invitation and still holds onto myth when referring to the Red Branch Irish King. The poem goes like this:
And pierce the deep wood’s woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
Young man, life up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid,
And brood on hopes and fears no more.
And no more turn aside and brood
Upon Love’s bitter mystery;
For Fergus rules the brazen cars,
And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all disheveled wandering stars.
When I read this poem for the first time, I couldn’t help but think back to the Giants Causeway. The poem speaks about nature, its “deep wood’s”, its “level shore”, and my favorite, its “white breast”, which is exactly what I picture when the water hits the rocks at the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. In the giant's myth, the love spoken about comes from the wife of Ireland's giant. She's there to protect her husband even after he flaunted his strength to the giant across the way and put himself in a precarious situation. Another line in the poem, "Love's bitter mystery" can describe many things and in terms of the myth of the Giants Causeway maybe it's about the love the wife has for her husband. She protects him even after his actions brought the Scottish giant's wrath across the land bridge to Ireland.
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