King Aedh Curucha had three daughters called Fair, Brown and Trembling.
Though the three sisters resembled each other to a large extent, Trembling was the most beautiful among all his daughters and for this reason Fair and Brown were both jealous of her.
Every weekend Fair and Brown went to the church with beautiful new dresses. They made sure the Trembling stayed at home and did all the cooking and work and she could not come to church on that day.
This went on for nearly seven years.
At the end of seventh year the prince of Omanya fell in love with Fair.
Once, on a Sunday, the woman handling the poultry in the castle came to Trembling. "Do you also want to go to church?"
Trembling shook her head unhappily. "How can I go to church? If Fair and Brown find me in the church they will kill me for going out of the house. And I have no good dresses to wear to the place.”
The woman smiled at Trembling. "I just wanted to know whether you would go if you could."
Trembling desperately wanted to go to a place and she nodded at the woman's question.
"What dress do you want?" The woman asked Trembling.
"A dress has white is snow and green shoes for my feet." Trembling replied immediately.
The woman had the cloak of darkness with her which could grant her any wish she wanted. She clipped a small portion of Trembling clothes and put on the cloak of darkness.
A few minutes later Trembling was stunned. Not only did the woman give her the most beautiful white dress and lovely green shoes, using the cloak of darkness, the woman had even pointed at a beautiful white mare at the entrance of the castle. The woman gave Trembling a golden saddle and a golden bridle to ride the white mare.
However the woman warned Trembling. "Do not cross the door of the church. And before the people get up after Mass you have to leave the place and come back home as soon as possible."
Trembling followed the instructions perfectly.
Everyone at the church wanted to know the identity of this beautiful woman.
But Trembling left the place before anyone could come any closer and see who she was.
When Fair and Brown came back from the church they could talk of nothing else other than the beautiful lady at the church.
They tried to get beautiful dresses just like the one that the lady at the church had worn but no matter how they tried they could not pull off the beauty of the woman in the church.
The next week Trembling with the help of the woman and the cloak of darkness had a black satin dress with red shoes. This time she had a black mare.
Trembling followed the same instructions this time too.
When Trembling came back from the church she immediately changed into her old rags.
This time too the woman handling the poultry had made dinner during Trembling's absence.
That was the reason that Fair and Brown could not make out that it was it had been Trembling at the church.
On the third Sunday people from even nearby kingdoms, kings, and princes also came to the church because the fame of the beautiful lady had spread far and wide.
This time Trembling wore a beautiful dress too. It was red from waist below and snow white above and her hat had three feathers of red white and green on it and the slippers were red on the toes white in between and green and the back. This time she drove a white mare with diamond shaped spots filled with blue and gold.
This time too according to the warning given to Trembling she did not cross the door of the church.
But considering that there were many kings and princes in the church, even the prince of Omanya was in the church waiting for the arrival of the beautiful lady.
This time when the beautiful lady was about to escape on her mare, the prince of Omanya tried to catch her.
But he could not catch her but he was able to take one of her shoes.
Fair and Brown had no idea about who the lady in the church was.
Meanwhile, the prince of Omanya wanted to find the woman and he searched all over the kingdom to find the girl whose feet fit inside the shoe.
He asked his people to get all the girls in the kingdom to try the shoe.
Despite all attempts from Fair and Brown to prove otherwise they found out that Trembling was the woman with the shoe.
At the same time Trembling was also able to get the other two beautiful dresses she had won the previous Sunday and everyone was sure that she was the beautiful lady coming to the church.
But Trembling’s problems were not over with this.
Myths and folklore of Ireland
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