Beannachtaí na Samhna!
The Blessings of Samhain to All!
As Samhain starts a new season in the Celtic calendar, I thought this would be a good time to initiate a blog on my Stage Pagan website. For those unfamiliar with my site, it is so named because, as a playwright, I take Ancient Greek and Celtic myths and legends and reengineer them to address social justice concerns for contemporary audiences. So this will not be a “pagan” blog, per se. Spiritually, I consider myself a Secular Huminist with Naturalistic Pagan leanings, and that subject could come up in my posts. However, this blog will address whatever topic is on my mind at the moment.
As it is Samhain, on this initial blog post, I’ve included a scene from my play, Niam at the Burial Mound, which provides a sequel to W.B. Yeats’ epic poem, The Wanderings of Oisin. In Yeats’ work, the ancient Irish warrior, Oisin, travels to Tir na n’Og, the Land of Youth, with the immortal fairy Niam and lives there happily with her for three hundred years, not realizing how much time has passed. He becomes homesick and returns to Ireland for a short visit but accidently touches the ground of that mortal realm again and instantly becomes an old man. He meets Bishop Patrick, who tries to convert him to Christianity. Oisin refuses to give up the Old Ways and is condemned to Hell by Patrick. He dies shortly afterward, and his body is placed in the burial mound at Kildare. In my play, Niam returns to Ireland and goes to the burial mound just before dusk on Samhain. She waits for the Phantom Queen, Morrigan, to fling open the doors that separate the Realms of the Living and the Dead in the hopes of seeing her lost love again. There, she encounters Mother Brigid, the founder of the Abbey at Kildare, who guesses the supernatural being’s identity.
The Mother Brigid of my play is not meant to be a realistic interpretation of the Irish Saint Brigid. As a matter of fact, there is contention among Irish scholars as to whether an actual Saint Brigid truly existed at all or if she is a Christian adaptation of the Pagan godde Brigid. That is not a debate that I wish to enter; I am a playwright, not a historian. `Rather, the Mother Brigid of my play is meant to represent a certain type of contemporary Christian who harbors a distain for those who walk different spiritual paths. And, of course, not all contemporary Christians are like that. In contrast, Sister Buanann, another character in my play, is representative of Christians who wish for all people to live together in harmony and center their attention on what we all have in common rather than on how we differ in beliefs. Personally, I think we need more people like Buanann in society today!
As the scene below opens, the drums of Morrigan have begun to sound, signaling the doors between the realms are about to open. I hope you enjoy this scene from Act II of Niam at the Burial Mound.—and, if you do, be sure to check out scenes and monologues from some of my other plays at www.StagePagan.com!
Niam at the Burial Mound
By
Justy DeForest
Characters:
Brigid: Founder and Mother of the Abbey of Kildare, mid 50s.
Buanann: Nun at the Abbey of Kildare, in her 70s.
Niam: Fairy of Tir na N’Og. Ageless, but appears to be in her 20s.
Setting: Before the Burial Mound of Kildare, at dusk on October 31, 500 CE.
(Suddenly, the Sound of Drums rise from the Burial Mound, which starts to shake.)
BRIGID
It starts again?!
NIAM
The sun has set! The Realms of the Living and the Dead are now aligned!
(BUANANN’s voice is heard from Off-Stage Right.)
BUANANN
Brigid! Mother Brigid!
BRIGID
Buanann?!
(BUANANN enters from Stage Right. She, too, hears the Drums and sees the Burial Mound shaking.)
BUANANN
(Struck by wonder) Are they the Drums of Morrigan I hear?!
NIAM
You understand, Dear Crone!
BUANANN
(Joyfully) The Passing of Time and of the Old Ways has not silenced them!
BRIGID
Shall we never break free of this pagan demon of War and Death!
BUANANN
Steady, Brigid! Our Christian God, Yahweh, was once considered a God of War…in the Canaanite Pantheon!
BRIGID
You dare compare the two!
BUANANN
And on Easter morn, Christ rose and exited a burial mound not unlike this one.
BRIGID
Did the Morrigan open that mound, too?
BUANANN
And on Pentecost, the Holy Ghost inspired the Apostles to go forth and spread the message of a Grand Resurrection that will take place at the End of Time—when Life Eternal shall defeat Death, Itself!
BRIGID
What are you saying, Buanann? That the Morrigan and the Holy Ghost are one?
BUANANN
What if this annual resurrection at Kildare does but foreshadow that Grand Resurrection that is to come?!
BRIGID
The mere suggestion is heresy!
BUANANN
And if heresy be true? What if all deities that people have worshipped at different times and in different places with a litany of names and a variety of faces, are, in reality, the same deity?—the same trinity, acknowledging the constant spiral of Life, Death, and Rebirth?
BRIGID
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…
BUANANN
…to Christians. But Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva to Hindus.
NIAM
And Badb, Macha, and Némain!—the three aspects of The Morrigan! Oh, Brigid, can it be true that we worship the same Divine Spirit after all?!
BRIGID
I will not listen to this! We have given up the Old Ways for the New!
BUANANN
Sweet Niam, what motives brought you here tonight?
NIAM
Faith that Morrigan will open the portal…Hope of seeing Oisin again… And greatest of all, the love I bear Oisin. A love that has never waned, but waxes always like the high tide upon my heart.
BUANANN
(To BRIGID) Faith, Hope, and Love!—There’s another trinity for you, Brigid! Which of these fiendish enemies will you war against first?
(Pause as BRIGID regains her composure in order to save face)
BRIGID
(With dignity) The mind plays tricks as the wheel of the year turns, and the warmth of nurturing summer passes to the cold of neglectful winter. On this night of all nights, as the season changes to bitter, the Ancient Burial Mound does seem to quake.—But from nothing more than our own fear of the hardships that lie ahead. The Mound seems to wake.—But it awakens only the fanciful tales of Old that reside in the recesses of our memories.—Dear Buanann, we cannot truly believe this maid who stands before us tonight is Niam, a fairy who traveled across the sea on horseback! Neither can we believe that the Morrigan exists.—If a formidable lady who bore that name once did, well, she was no more than a mortal like ourselves, deified over time by the overactive imaginations of superstitious folk. Either way, she has no power to wake the dead tonight. And no pious Christian can accept that the unrepentant pagan, Oisin, could possibly break free of those very real chains in the depth of Hell that blessed Patrick has condemned his soul to wear. No! These pagan facts are mere fiction! A tale to tell around the fire on a long winter’s night.
BUANANN
(Playing along) And if these particulars do but make up only a tale, are we not are free to make its ending be as we wish? —without bringing down condemnation upon ourselves? Can we not allow Niam to be reunited with her Oisin this night?— As a story is only a story?
BRIGID
(Nods) As a story is only a story. (To NIAM) Thank you for your entertainments tonight, Good Maid. You are quite the bard! No doubt your troupe of drummers is positioned behind the Mound. We shall part now, lest their reveal spoil the illusion. Come, Sister Buanann. Let us return to the convent… And let our minds be distracted no longer by pagan fantasy.
BUANANN
(Smiles) Of course not, Mother. It is the year 500, after all!
(BUANANN exits Stage Right. BRIGID follows slowly. She looks back and smiles at NIAM before exiting Stage Right. NIAM smiles back.)
NIAM
May the New Ways lead you to your joy, Brigid, as the Old Ways lead me to mine.
© Justy DeForest 2019
