Cuirt an Mheán Oíche—The Midnight Court
le/by
Brian Merriman

Síle Ní Eidhir
(Unknown)

I heard this song many years ago. I have no idea of its provenance. But it has many of the elements of the aisling—meeting the beautiful young woman, perhaps in a dream; asking her if she was a Greek goddess; being told that she wasn’t, rather Síle Ní Eidhir, although in this instance she seems to be a love interest rather than the incarnation of Ireland.

It was by the banks of a clear-flowing stream*
That first I accosted that comely young dame
And in great confusion I did ask her name
Are you Ora or Flora or the famed Queen of Tyre
She answered, I’m neither, I’m Síle Ní Eidhir

Go, rhyming rogue, let your flocks roam in peace
You won’t find among them that famed golden fleece
The tresses of Helen, that Goddess of Greece
Have harked round your heart in a web of desire
Be off to your spéir-bhean, said Síle Ní Eidhir

May the sufferings of Sisyphus** fall to my share
And may I the sufferings of Tantalus*** bear
To the dark land of Hades may my sould fall in air
Without linnet in song or an ode on the lyre
If ever I prove false to you Síle Ní Eidhir

Oh had I the wealth of the Orient store
All the gems of Peru and the Mexican ore
Or the hand of a Midas to mould o’er and o’er
Bright bracelets of gold and of flaming sapphire
I would robe you in splendour, my Síle Ní Eidhir.

* Pronounced “strame” by the singer

** Sisyphus was the legendary king of Corinth, in mythology, who was doomed to perpetually manhandle a boulder up a mountainside in Tartarus—the bottomless pit below Hades—only to have it roll back down every time.

*** Tantalus from Greek mythology Tantalos—Mythical King of Phriygia and son of Zeus and the nymph Pluto. He was condemned for revealing the secrets of the Gods, to stand up to his chin in water, which perceptually shrunk away when he attempted to quench his thirst. He had branches of fruit hanging above him which always evaded his grasp. From him, we get the verb tantalise—to tease or torment by holding out some desirable object and continually disappointing by keeping it out of reach.

Return to the Introduction to the Midnight Court