...and the Irish sang

My Fairytale on how the Irish learned to sing……….

There was a time when the written word was unknown to the people of the land. It was not a sad time, for the crops were good and the deer plentiful. The children were fat and clean, the women were strong and the men were brave. The weather was equally perfect and there was no longing for comfort.

The elders of the land were smart and knew that these times were special and they feared the tragedy of human finitude. They loved the land, their blessings and especially the children. The children were treated with the best of care and love. The children were especially bright and absorbed the teaching with vigor. The elders wanted to teach them the beauty of life and the wonders of love. The teachings were past down from one generation to another by word for there was no such things as letters, symbols or any written communication. The people were known for their memories and their verbal accuracy was better than any fading ink.

In a far away place on a sea of glass lived a powerful and jealous brute. The brute had a flock of flying eyes that he sent to spy on the people of the land. The eyes returned from their arduous flight and told the brute about the people’s abilities to record history with their detailed speech. The brute was jealous and had no love in him. He hated the children and the happiness in the land. He mounted his 40 legged tiger and leaped to the land. He chased the fathers and mothers into hiding, ate the elders that did not escape and cursed the children that they would never be able to talk again.

The brute was so drunk with accomplishment that he returned to his home and began hitting the flying eyes with the femurs of the eaten elders of the land. His aim was particularly skilled and before long only the best of the flying eyes were unsquashed. Those eyes began to cry and the tears drowned the 40 legged tiger. The eyes knew that the brute would be trapped without the tiger’s transport so they fled to the land. They asked the fathers of the land to help them stop crying. The fathers too were crying because their children could no longer speak. There was sadness in the land. The tears were flooding the land and soon the children started to drown. The mothers came from hiding and began to wail words of despair. The drowning children heard their mother’s voices and the older children began to emulate the wails and moans of their mothers. This was all that they could do, they could not speak.

The youngest of the children could not comprehend the sadness and their voices had no despair. The very young were full of innocence and glee. Their voices contained spirit and they began to sing. The eyes stopped crying to listen, the fathers stopped crying to listen, the mothers and the older children stopped crying to listen and soon the flooding tears began to rescind.

It was that day that the children discovered how to sing. The people of the land never spoke again for their hearts were full of song.