Béal Beo: The Cylinder Project - Síóg sa bhfarraige Béal Beo
Síóg sa bhfarraige Speaker: Anna Ní Mhurchú (aged 17), of Dún Ibhir, Achill, Co. Mayo. Collector: Pádraig Ó Moghráin, Irish Folklore Commission, 24 April 1952. Duration: 2:47" to 6:56", cylinder. References: Ediphone_072, NFC 1229:606-7, NFC 1290: 285.
A fisherman who casts his knife into the sea is later taken under the waves to retrieve it from a fairy woman in which it is stuck. Recorded from Anna Ní Mhurchú of Dún Ibhir, Achill, Co. Mayo in 1952.
Síóg sa bhfarraige Update Required
Chuaigh trí ... triúr fear amach ag iascaireacht, lá. Bhí siad... Ní raibh siad fad amuigh ... i bhfad amuigh nó go bhfaca siad...éisc...ag snámh timpeall an bhád. Bhí siad amuigh uair an chloig, agus bhí siad ag dearcadh ar an...ar an liamhán, agus ... dúirt fear amháin acu ... dúirt sé leis an fear eile scian a chaitheamh ar an líon, agus thóg an fear an scian amach as a phóca, agus chaith sé amach san fharraige é, agus ní raibh sé i bhfad ina dhiaidh sin go raibh an t-uisce lán d'fhuil. Bhí go maith is ní raibh go holc, ach d'imigh an triúr abhaile an oíche sin, agus timpeall... timpeall a haon déag a chlog, nó mar sin, chuala an fear a chaith an scian gleo thart ar an teach, agus d'éirigh sé agus chuaigh sé go dtí an doras, agus céard a bhí ann, ach fear agus é ar mhuin capall bán. Labhair an fear leis, agus dúirt sé: 'Bhí tusa ag iascaireacht inniu, agus chaith tú scian, agus caithfidh tú a theacht liomsa anois, agus an scian sin a tharraingt.' 'Tá go maith!' arsa an fear, agus chuaigh sé suas ar an chapall leis, agus nuair a bhí siad ag gabháil ar an bhealach, dúirt an fear ... fear an chapaill bháin leis: 'Nuair a rachas tusa go dtí an teach seo, abair le... ná ith rud ar bith a bhéarfas siad dhuibh...duit.' Bhí siad ag imeacht agus tháinig siad go dtí an fharraige, agus shiúil an capall faoin fharraige go dtáinig sí go dtí teach mór, agus bhuail siad ar an doras, agus d'oscail bean an doras. Agus nuair a chuaigh an fear isteach, bhí bean ina seasamh ag an tine agus bhí an scian sáití i mhullach a cinn. Chuaigh an fear isteach agus [tharraing sé] an scian, agus... Bhí sé... Dúirt an...na daoiní bhí istigh leis, tae a ól, nó rud eicínt a ithe, agus dúirt sé nach n-itheadh sé é. Chuaigh sé amach aríst, agus chuaigh sé suas ar an capall leis an fear...le fear an chapaill bháin, agus d'imigh siad abhaile. Nuair a bhí siad ag gabháil abhaile, dúirt an fear leis gan a dhul amach ag iascaireacht choíche. Chuaigh an ... bhí an fear ansin ar feadh cúpla bliain, ach chuaigh sé go dtí Meiriceá. Tháinig sé abhaile, deich mbliain ina dhiaidh sin agus dúirt... Tráthnóna amháin, bhí sé ag an teach agus bhí sé ag dearcadh amach ar an bhfarraige, agus dúirt sé leis féin go rachadh sé amach ag iascaireacht. Chuaigh sé amach i mbád, agus ní fhaca ná ní chuala duine ar bith rud ar bith faoi ó shin amach.
A Fairy in the Sea
Three men went out fishing one day. They weren't long out when they saw fish swimming around the boat... They were out about an hour and they were looking at the net, and one of the men said to another to throw his knife at the net, and the man took his knife out of his pocket and he threw it out into the sea, and it wasn't long after that before the water was full of blood. That was all very well, but the three [of them] went home that night, and about eleven o'clock, or about then, the man who threw the knife heard a noise outside the house, and he got up and went to the door, and who was there but a man on the back of a white horse. The man spoke to him, and he said: 'You were fishing today, and you threw a knife, and you must come with me now and pull out that knife.' 'Very well!' said the man, and he went up onto the horse behind him, and as they were going on their way, the man on the white horse said to him: 'When you go to this house, do not eat anything that they give you.' They were travelling on and they came to the sea, and the horse walked under the sea until she came to a big house, and they knocked on the door, and a woman opened the door. And when the man went in, there was a woman standing by the fire and there was a knife stuck in the top of her head. The man went in and he pulled out the knife. The people inside said to him to drink tea, or eat something, and he said he wouldn't eat it. He went out again, and he went up on the horse with the man of the white horse. When they were going home, the man said to him never to go out fishing again. The man went to America for a few years. He came home, ten years later, and he said one evening, he was at the house and he was looking out at the sea, and he said to himself he would go out fishing. He went out in a boat, and nobody saw or heard anything about him since.
Mícheál Ó Murch�, An Seanphobal, Co. Waterford, pictured recording on the ediphone machine in 1935.