Niamh & Óisín

Óisín was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, and is a warrior of the fianna. His is the son of Fionn mac Cumhaill and of Sadhbh and is the narrator of much of the Fenian Cycle. His name literally means 'young deer' or fawn and the story is told that his mother, was turned into a deer by a druid, Fear Doirich. When Fionn was hunting he caught her but did not kill her, and she returned to human form. Fionn gave up hunting and fighting to settle down with Sadhbh, and she was soon pregnant, but the druid turned her back into a deer and she returned to the wild. 7 years later Fionn found her child, naked, on Benbulbin.

In Óisín in Tir na nÓg, his most famous adventure tale, he is visited by a fairy woman called Niamh Chinn Óir (Niamh of the Golden Hair or Head, who announces she loves him and takes him to Tir na nÓg (the land of young). Their union produces Óisín's famous son, Oscar, and a daughter, Plor na mBan (Flower of Women). After what seems to him to be 3 years Óisín decides to return to Ireland but 300 years have passed there. Niamh gives him her white horse, Embarr and warns him not to dismount because if his feet touch the ground, those 300 years will catch up with him and he will become old and withered. Óisín returns home and finds the hill of Almu, Fionn's home, abandoned and in despair. Later, while trying to help some men who were building a road in Gleann na Smól  lift a stone out of the way on to a wagon, his girth and he falls to the ground, becoming an old man just as Niamh had forewarned. The horse returns to Tir na nÓg.