Background:
The Gobán Saor was a famous craftsman of Irish legend, being a rather more homely version of the smith god Giobhnú. He was as famous for his quick witted responses as he was for his great skill. He had no airs or graces about himself, always creating objects of beauty and craftsmanship, no matter how little the person was able to pay him for the work, but he hated any sign of meanness. Many of the stories of the Gobán are about outwitting people who try to cheat him out of a fair payment. As a craftsman he had such skill, finesse, deftness and accuracy that he could hammer a nail into a high beam by tossing both nail and hammer into the air. He could fashion a throwing spear while you counted to five, and shape a spearhead with three strokes of a hammer.

Stories of the Gobán:
While building a monastery for a group of monks the monks demanded that he lower his price. To force him to agree they removed the ladder from the tower he was working on, trapping him. The Gobán started to remove stones from the structure and toss them on the ground, jovially saying that it was as good a way to reach the ground as any. The monks swiftly returned the ladder, and paid him in full.

The Gobán and his son built a fort of a foreign king that was of such exquisite quality that the king grew jealous. He decided to kill them so that his fort would go unrivalled. One look at the king, and the Gobán sussed out his intention. He told the king that he could not complete the work without his “crooked and more crooked”, a tool he had left at home. Unwilling to let them go, the King sent his son to fetch it, not realising that the name of this implement was actually a coded message for Gobán’s wife. She held the king’s son, and ransomed him for her own husband and son.

On their way home they came across a group of carpenters who were desperately trying to figure out how to build a bridge without pegs, dowels or nails, as had been demanded by their king. “Sure let’s see if we can figure out a way to help” the Gobán said to them, and proceeded to build a sturdy bridge, cleverly using its own weight as a means of holding it together, so it became stronger the more weight was put on it. The carpenters were impressed, but grumbled a bit that he was more able than they at their own trade.

They stopped at a house where there lived two sisters. The Gobán advised them to keep the head of an old lady by the hob, to warm themselves with their work in the morning, and to take a sheepskin to the market and come home with the skin and its worth. One of them dug up a skull, then burnt her carded wool to keep herself warm, then made a fool of herself by asking for the price of the sheepskin without handing it over. The other sister fetched in an old, destitute lady to sit by her fire, wormed herself by her industriousness, and sold the wool from the sheepskin, while keeping the skin. The Gobán, impressed by her wit, asked her to marry his son.

Conclusion:
Helpful, jovial and always generous. The trait the Gobán finds hardest to forgive is meanness, and the trait he likes best is to see the same quickness of wit he has himself. This smartness gives him an air of brightness and an irrepressible twinkle in his eye.

Background:
Etain (Eadaoin) was a maiden of the Tuatha de Dannan, renowned for her beauty, who fell in love with Midir of the seven-pointed spear. Unfortunately for her, Midir’s wife took exception to this, and Etain had to endure terrible hardship.

Stories of Etain:
Etain met Midir while he was staying with his foster-son, Aengus Óg, the god of love. Midir was wounded, losing an eye while under Aengus’ protection, and this was such a blow to his status that even after his eye was restored, he demanded that Aengus make it up to him. Now, being the god of love, Aengus made it up to Midir by introducing him to the beautiful Etain. The two began a passionate love affair, and all was well with them until the time came for Midir to return home. Midir was already married, to Fuamnach, a powerful woman and his equal in every way. She had raised children and foster-children with him, and was deeply insulted when he brought this strange woman home with him. She took her anger out on Etain, turning her into a shower of rain, which fell in a puddle and condensed into a jewelled fly. However, to Fuamnach’s surprise, the fly Etain did not leave Midir, and his love for her did not diminish. The sound of her wings was sweet music to him, and the fly perched on his shoulder wherever he went.

Fuamnach then sent a storm to blow Etain away. Aengus managed to rescue her for a short time, but the storm found her again, and Etain was blown and battered about for time out of mind. At last, she was blown in through the window of a mortal king’s hall and fell into the goblet of the king’s wife, who swallowed the fly Etain, and became pregnant at that instant. Born again as a mortal woman, Etain grew up with no memory of her past life, though her appearance was the same. When the High King of Ireland, Eochaid Airem, asked for her hand in marriage, she agreed, and was a loyal and good wife to him. At last, Midir found her. He had been searching for her for thousands of years, and begged her to run away with him, but Etain refused to break faith with her mortal husband, demanding that Midir get Eochaid’s permission before she so much as kissed him. Midir managed to trick King Eochaid into giving him permission to kiss and embrace his wife, but Eochaid spent a whole month training and equipping his army to prevent Midir from claiming this prize. This was no obstacle to a man of the Tuatha de Dannan, and Midir simply appeared in the king’s hall next to Etain on the appointed day. When he kissed her, Etain’s memories of him returned, and the two of them vanished from the king’s hall to live their immortal life together.

Conclusion:
Etain was faced with terrible hardship, but held onto her essential self, and her love for Midir, through her transformation into a fly. Her integrity and strong sense of values come through in the story when she refuses the beguilement of her faery lover, and insists on keeping faith with her husband. But love wins out, and she follows her heart in the end.

Background:
Bran son of Febal was the High King of Ireland who one day was visited by the Queen of the Island of Women, one of the three times fifty Islands of the Otherworld, in the seas West of Ireland. Enraptured, he set sail through the seas of the Otherworld to find her.

Stories of Bran: 
One day, while out walking near Tara, King Bran heard beautiful music, but he could not figure out where it was coming from. No matter which way he turned, it always seemed to be coming from just behind him. Lulled by the lovely sound, he fell asleep and dreamed of a beautiful woman, holding a sliver branch and singing to him of a perfect place, an Island of Women, where there was no death, or war or conflict, and where she was Queen. When he woke, he found the silver branch in his hand, and brought it with him to Tara. That evening, at the feast, the faery woman appeared again, this time in front of the whole company. She retrieved her silver branch, and asked Bran to sail across the sea to find her.

Bran set out at once, accompanied by his three foster-brothers, who brought nine men each with them. When their ship was underway, Bran met Mananan Mac Lir, riding on his white horse, on his way to Ireland to father King Mongan. Mananan spoke to Bran of another way of perceiving, and told him that the waves Bran saw were grassy plains to Mananan’s eyes, with chariots racing to and fro over them. Along with this other way of seeing, Mananan gave Bran back the silver branch, as a token of his new perception.

Bran and his men came first to the Island of Joy, where the people all gaped and laughed without speaking. One of Bran’s men went to investigate, but lost his wits as soon as he set foot on the island, gaping and laughing mindlessly with all the others. After this experience, they were wary when they reached the Island of Women, but the Queen threw a magic ball of yarn to Bran, which stuck to his hand when he caught it, forcing them to land. Bran and his men lived in bliss and ease on the Island of Women for an unknown time, but one man, Neachtain, was homesick, and begged to go back to Ireland. Eventually, Bran agreed. The Queen gave him directions back to Ireland, and gave him the magic ball of yarn so he could retrieve his man from the Island of Joy.

But when at last Bran and his men came back to Ireland, they found the coastline changed, forests gone, and all the people small and grey. Calling to shore, they found that no one knew who they were, save one very old storyteller, who remembered an ancient king called Bran. Neachtain, overcome by homesickness, leaped from the ship to the shore, but turned to dust as soon as he landed. Realizing they could never go home, Bran wrote down an account of his adventures on stone tablets and tossed them to the people on the shore, and then he turned his ship around and sailed back to the islands of the Otherworld. And his adventures from that time are unknown.

Conclusion: 
Spontaneous and imaginative, Bran leaped at the invitation to explore the Otherworld. His encounter with Mananan shows his ability to see things from an unconventional perspective.