The three daughters of King Aedh Curucha - Part 2

The kings and princess who had come to the church saw how beautiful Trembling was in real life. They were astounded and after some thinking all of them were furious with the Prince of Omanya. All of them challenged the prince of Omanya to a fight. They said that the prince could marry Trembling only after he won the fight against them.

On the first day the king of Lochlm fought against the Prince of Omanya. The two royals fought for nine hours until finally the king of Lochlm decided that the prince of Omanya was stronger than him and he gave up the fight. 

Over the next few days the king and princess of other kingdoms also fought with the prince of Omanya all of them lost the fight.

Nobody in Omanya - royal or otherwise - wanted to fight the prince. 

So finally after having defeated all the contenders from the other kingdoms the prince of Omanya married Trembling.

Trembling and the prince were very happy with each other a year after their marriage a handsome strong son was born to them. 

The whole kingdom rejoiced. 

At this time the prince of Omanya sent for the eldest sister Fair to come and spend time with Trembling just after childbirth. 

Fair was still jealous of Trembling but nobody knew about this. 

One day when the two sisters were walking along the beach, Fair realized that no one in the castle knew that the two of them had come here because the prince of Omanya had gone hunting. Trembling had not told anyone in the castle about her outing to the beach with her sister. 

Fair pushed her sister into the waters. 

A huge enchanted whale came and swallowed Trembling at that time.

In the castle the prince of Omanya returned from hunting and he was suspicious that the woman in his castle was not his wife. 

But Fair and Trembling resembled each other so he was not sure. 

He kept his magic sword near the bed, because he knew that if the woman near him was his wife then the sword would remain warm in the morning. 

On the other hand, Trembling was washed up on the beach by the enchanted whale but because she was under the enchantment of the whale she could not move from there. 

One of the cowboys of the castle came to the beach at that particular time Trembling called the cowboy. "Tell the prince of Omanya that an enchanted whale has swallowed his wife, Trembling. The whale shall throw me up three times and no more. The whale had thrown me up first today. Tell the Prince that if he has to save me he has to come before the whale swallows me for the fourth time because after that I will never be seen again. The only way to break this enchantment is with a silver bullet."

The cowboy was surprised and looked at Trembling. "Why don't you go and tell the prince this yourself?" 

"The enchantment of the whale prevents me from leaving this beach or even talking to my husband. So you are the only one who can help me!" Trembling told the cowboy anxiously.

The cowboy agreed.

In the morning the prince of Omanya was sure that the woman who had come back to the castle from the beach was not his wife. However he did not know what had happened to his wife or who could give him answers.

Before the cowboy could come and meet the prince the elder sister Fair intercepted the cowboy. 

She gave him a sleeping draught and the cowboy fell asleep in the castle unaware of anything around him.

The next day the cowboy went to the beach. 

When the whale threw her up Trembling she was shocked when she heard the sad looking cowboy. "A lady in the castle gave me a sleeping draught. After that I do not remember anything."

"When you go to the castle today," Trembling told the cowboy even more anxiously, "Do not accept anything and go straight to the prince and tell him all that you know."

This time too Fair was waiting for the cowboy. 

But the cowboy was smart and he avoided all the offerings of Fair and went straight to the prince of Omanya and told him everything. 

The prince of Omanya went to the beach with the silver bullet. 

He was able to break the enchantment of the whale on his wife. 

As soon as the enchantment was broken, Trembling was able to speak and she could be with her husband.

Fair was punished for her deeds. 

In time Trembling gave birth to a daughter. 

Meanwhile the prince and Trembling sent the cowboy to school and trained him as one of their own children.

When they were of proper age, the cowboy and the princes' daughter married each other and they also lived happily ever after, just like Trembling and the prince.

Adapted from Myths and folklore of Ireland

The three daughters of King Aedh Curucha - Part 1

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