Attempt not to Vomit

I hadn’t seen my godfather in some years, he refers to his having gone missing as having “taken my turn” or “a bad turn” but the long and short of it is that I hadn’t seen him in a very long time. In the last three months or so, we’ve attended the same book club, and it’s been good to get to know him again.

Around midnight, John and I stood in the kitchen while I made the tea, and he asked some questions about things that had changed while he was gone. He noticed the old horseshoe on one wall, still flecked with the dried earth my sister had found it in, and explained to me a great many of the reasons it was considered lucky to own them, but not to have bought them.

I’m hazy on the details, but it seemed something to which a considerable amount of reading had been dedicated. There was an awful lot of discussion of the efficacy of “cold iron” in defence against the supernatural, not least of which against fairies.

One of the stranger pieces of Irish myth and legend around is the idea that a person might be replaced at birth by fairies (síog), who steal the child away. The fairies leave behind a changeling (síofra) that mimics the child’s appearance, but is generally a sickly thing and afairly malign influence altogether. I vaguely remember, in my youth, being told that the síofra was usually a fairie that was weak and on death’s door, but sadly there are all kinds of bits and pieces I only half-remember. I know there were supposed to be ways of revealing the síofra, but not what they were. Usually you could tell because the child would suddenly gain the ability to speak and I think the trick to getting your own child back was throwing the síofra in the fire…

Amid all this talk of fay strangeness, John had wandered over and inspected the horseshoe. We sat to tea and started to talk about books we’d been reading. Moments later, he produced from his rucksack an enormous meal he had obtained “from the Krishnas,” which he and the brother ate throughout the talk of fairies. Afterwards, he brought out a cake in a box.

The only reason I’m not concerned is because the horseshoe should have kept a fairy away.

P.S. I’m sure pieces of this are mixed up, I’m out of touch on my myth & legend. If anyone can recommend any books, I’ve only really read the Táin (wonderful as it is) and most of this comes from talks with my granddad.