The Magical Well

Sometimes you find no definite well but a whole lot of interesting stories! Whilst browsing through the holy well entries for Bantry in the Schools’ Folklore Collection, as you do, I came across this extraordinary account.

Schools’ Folklore Collection

My Gaeilge being somewhat lacking, I sought help from a Gaeilgeoir and this is her translation:

The Magical Well

There is a well situated beside Donemark and the people of that place have a story about a fairy that would be seen in that place in the course of each night long ago. She asked everybody who saw her a question and if he didn’t answer the question she murdered him.
A lot of people fail(ed) and the people of the parish were afraid of the sprite. In the end, the queen of the place heard the story and she put out an announcement that she would marry the man who killed the fairy. She was a widow. She had a son also but he had been stolen when he was very young. He lived in the mountains and he had no knowledge of his people. He heard the story about the fairy and one night he set out to track it down. When the prince came, the fairy put this question to him. Something with four legs under him in the morning, two feet under him at mid-day and three feet under him in the afternoon. What is it? “The life of man” said the man “infants, grown people and old people.” He was right. With that, the fairy went away and a well arose out of the place where it had been. The queen and the prince got married But a couple of days afterwards she found out that it was her own son and she threw herself into the well. When the prince heard the story, he went mad (queer in the head) (232-234: 0281)

What does that remind you of? Of course – the Greek myth about the doomed hero Oedipus. A quick refresher: the Oracle at Delphi prophesied that the baby newly born to King Laius of Thebes would one day kill his father and marry his mother. Unimpressed, Laius ordered a servant to take the baby up to the mountainside and leave him. The baby’s ankles were pierced and tied so he would not be able to crawl, hence the name Oedipus which means swollen foot. The baby was rescued by a shepherd who eventually took him to the the childless King and Queen of Corinth who adopted him as their own.  Oedipus grew up but eventually someone told him they were not his real parents and he too set out to consult the Oracle. She informed him he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. He took this to mean the royal couple in Corinth and decided not to return home but to go to Thebes.

On the way Oedipus met a man driving a chariot and they quarrelled as to who had the right of way. Oedipus killed the man, not realising it was his own father (still with me?). Carrying on towards Thebes he encountered the the Sphinx who had been terrorising the local area, asking a riddle and killing anyone who didn’t answer correctly.

Oedipus knew the answer and the Sphinx hurled herself off the rock in rage and died. When Oedipus arrived in Thebes he was hailed as a hero and he married the queen who of course turned out to be his mother! To cut a long story short, It didn’t end well.

Back to Bantry: the question the Sphinx asked Oedipus was exactly the same one as the fairy asked the young man who had also been sent away at an early age and didn’t know his lineage. He too was rewarded in the same way as Oedipus with the Queen/his mother as his bride and neither had a happy ending. How on earth did this story get attached to a well in Bantry. And where was the well?

Although called the Magical Well, the entry is classified under holy wells in the Schools’ Folklore Collection. However, I could find no sign of any holy well in the Donemark area of Bantry and only one well on the 25 inch OS map (1913).

I decided to investigate there. The site is now off the main road to Glengarriff and up a sloped, private driveway. The original track marked on the map seems to have disappeared. The GPS pointed to a walled area off the drive but what was interesting was the gap that was left in the wall. I inquired at the house and the owner told me that yes, there had once been a well there and it had once served the local area with good clean water. He didn’t know of any particular holiness associated with it nor did he know of any stories but he had left the gap should the well be needed to be accessed, believing wells should never be covered up. We peered through the foliage and there did seem to be glints of water. Was this the well?

Donemark is an interesting area associated with another remarkable story for according to the Book of Invasions, the Lebor Gabála Érenn, this is where people first set foot in Ireland. The Annals of the Four Masters gives the exact date as in the age of the World 2242 and the first foot belonged to the granddaughter of Noah, Cessair!

She and her father Bith were refused entry onto the Ark so they built three ships and set sail for Ireland which was considered uncorrupted and free from sin. Two ships were lost on the journey but eventually Cessair plus three men and 50 women sailed up into Donemark in Bantry Bay.

Alas, all did not go well for Bith died shortly after arriving from old age, Ladra the pilot of the vessel died from an excess of women and the remaining man, Fionntan, terrified at the prospect of coping with all the women turned into a salmon. (He did live for another 5500 years and gained all the wisdom of the world though). Sadly the Flood seems to have eventually caught up with them and engulfed all the women. (Nb there are many different and complicated versions of this story!)

The name Donemark means Dún na mBárc – place of the boat and the event is remembered by this rather beautiful sculpture  Voyage of Stories made by artist Michael Ray in collaboration with the students. It can be seen in the National Learning Network grounds in Bantry.

Now is there any way I can connect all these stories together!

Many thanks to D for his information and to Finola Finlay for her translation.

Roaringwater Journal has a lively entry about Cessair here: First Foot