Irish Mythology: The Adventures of Nera

Our tale begins on Halloween night at Rath Cruachan with the Connachta warriors. The warriors hung two prisoners the night before and are now cooking dinner.

Their king, Ailill, declares that if any of them are brave enough to go outside and tie a wicker around the foot of one of the hanging corpses, he'll reward them with a golden sword.

Our story's fearless hero - a man called Nera - says he'll do it. He arms himself and goes outside, ready to complete the challenge. But when he ties the wicker around the foot of one of the lifeless prisoners, the corpse starts talking to him. Freaky, right? But I guess that's why the king made the dare - this sort of thing was considered commonplace on Samhain.

The dead man says that he was thirsty before he died, and he asks Nera to carry him to the closest house so he can get a drink. Nera does as the corpse asks, hauling him to the closest house, but when they get there, they find the house encircled by fire. They then travel to the next closest house, but that one is encircled by water.

Finally, they reach the third closest house, and it's there that the dead man drinks. He even spits out some water at the people living there, which kills them, and then Nera carries him back.

But as Nera returns to his people, he finds their fort on fire, and a group of fairy warriors hold the decapitated heads of his comrades. The warriors flee into their fairy mound, and Nera follows them.

Inside the mound, Nera meets the fairy king, who directs him to a fairy woman's house. "So long as you bring me firewood every day," the king says, "you can stay at the house."

Nera follows the king's directions, and eventually, the fairy woman tells Nera that King Ailill and the Connachta warriors weren't actually slaughtered; everything Nera saw was a vision that will only come to pass if King Ailill doesn't destroy the fairy mound by next Halloween.

The fairy woman tells Nera to go, to warn his people, and to send word before they attack the mound so that she and Nera's son (Nera has impreganated her at this point, because of course he has) can flee before the destruction occurs.

Nera leaves the mound and tells his people about everything that has happened to him, and about everything that will happen to them - that is, if they don't destroy the fairy mound before next Halloween.

In some versions of the story, King Ailill and the Connachta warriors attack the fairy mound right away. In others, they wait a long time to strike. But from everything I've read, Nera helps the fairy woman and their son escape before anything serious goes down.

I hope you enjoyed October 2024's favorite folktale!