Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



age goes to Ireland and fights with his father, 

 because it was supposed that neither male nor 

 female cuckoo took any heed of their off- 

 spring and therefore the latter must approach 

 its real parents as a total stranger. 



Another, more poetic, tale of Cuchullaind 

 represents the cuckoo as the bringer of spring. 

 Along with other heroes he goes to the Isle 

 of Man — an island named after Mananan of 

 the Sea, a god of the under-world of waters, 

 like Mana in the Kalevala — and storms a 

 city in which dwells the beautiful Blathmaid 

 " Blossom." He loves Blathmaid and she 

 loves him, but King Curoi, a wizard of Kerry, 

 takes her from him as his share in the spoils 

 — as Agamemnon took Briseis away from 

 Achilleus — and carries her off to his for- 

 tress in the southwest of Ireland, leaving 

 Cuchullaind bound and shorn of his long 

 hair. 



The lovers communicate ; the sign for 

 Cuchullaind to attack the fortress and carry 



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