WEBVTT

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In a typical hero's journey,

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the protagonist sets out on an adventure,

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undergoes great change,

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and returns in triumph 
to their point of origin.

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But in the Irish genre of myth
known as Eachtrai,

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the journey to the other world
ends in a point of no return.

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While there are many different versions
of the otherworld in Irish mythology,

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the most well-known example occurs
in the story of Oisin.

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Oisin was the son of Fionn mac Cumhall,
the leader of a group of pagan warriors

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known as the Fianna.

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As Oisin rode with his companions one day,

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he was visited by 
the immortal princess Niamh.

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The two fell instantly in love

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and Niamh put Oisin onto her white horse

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and rode with him 
to the edge of the Irish sea.

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As they made for the horizon,
the riders sunk into a golden haze.

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They came to the shores of
the gleaming kingdom called Tír na nÓg.

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This was the home of the Tuatha Dé Danann,
the people who ruled Ancient Ireland

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long before Oisin's time.

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From the point of his arrival,
Oisin's every need was met.

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He married Niamh in a grand ceremony
and was welcomed into her family.

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When he wished to hear music,
his ears filled with bewitching tones.

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When he hungered, golden plates
appeared laden with fragrant food.

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He admired scenes of great beauty,
and colors that he had no name for.

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All around him, the land and the people
existed in a state of unmoving perfection.

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But what Oisin didn't know was that
Tír na nÓg was the land of youth,

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in which time stood still
and the people never aged.

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In his new home, Oisin continued
to hunt and explore as he had in Ireland.

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But in the land of youth, he possessed
a strange, new invincibility.

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At the end of each day of adventuring,

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Oisin's wounds magically healed themselves
as he slept in Niamh's arms.

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Although glory and pleasure
came easily to Oisin in the land of youth,

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he missed the Fianna
and the adventures they had in Ireland.

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After three years in Tír na nÓg, he
was struck by a deep yearning for home.

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Before he embarked on his journey back,
Niamh warned him

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that he must not alight from his horse
to touch the earth with his own feet.

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When Oisin reached the shores of Ireland,

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it felt as if a shadow 
had fallen over the world.

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On the hill where his father's palace lay,
he saw only a ruin strewn with weeds.

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His calls for his friends and family
echoed from derelict walls.

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Horrified, Oisin rode until he came upon
a group of peasants working in the fields.

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They were struggling to remove 
a boulder from their land,

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and forgetting Niamh's warning,

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Oisin leapt from his horse and rolled it
away with his superhuman strength.

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The crowd's cheers soon
turned into shrieks.

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In place of the youth was an old man
whose beard swept the ground

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and whose legs buckled under him.

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He cried out for Finn and the Fianna,

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but the people only recognized these names
from the distant past of 300 years before.

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Time had betrayed Oisin

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and his return to mortal lands
had aged him irreversibly.

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Throughout Irish folklore,

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sightings of the land of youth
have been reported in the depths of wells,

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on the brink of the horizon,

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or in the gloom of caves.

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But those who know the tale of Oisin
tell of another vision,

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that of a shining princess carried upon
the distant waves by a white horse,

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still hoping for the return 
of her doomed love.