Aengus

Aengus (also Aengus Óg, "young Aengus") is a son of the Dagda and Boann, goddess of the River Boyne — a union the Dagda arranges by sending Boann's husband Elcmar away and magically suspending the sun for nine months so that Aengus is conceived and born in a single day. He is associated above all with love, youth, and poetic inspiration, and is often depicted with birds circling his head, representing kisses turned into birds. The best-known story about Aengus involves how he acquires his home at Newgrange (Brú na Bóinne) — not by force, but by trickery. The dwelling belongs to his father, the Dagda, but Aengus asks to stay there for "a day and a night," a phrase that in Irish carries the sense of "all time," since day and night together account for every hour there is. The Dagda grants the request without realizing its scope, and Aengus never leaves, taking the dwelling permanently through the same kind of clever wordplay that recurs throughout the mythological cycle. In another well-known tale, the *Aislinge Óenguso* (The Dream of Aengus), he falls in love with a woman, Caer Ibormeith, who appears to him only in dreams. After a long search, he discovers she alternates between human and swan form each Samhain, and to be with her he transforms into a swan himself — the two are said to fly together singing music so beautiful it puts listeners to sleep for three days and nights. Aengus also plays a role in the Diarmuid and Gráinne tale of the Fenian Cycle, as Diarmuid's foster father, intervening to protect him during the lovers' flight from Fionn mac Cumhaill.