Listen to a mythological account of how the Irish got their language, and their freckles, as spoken in fluent Irish (with English subtitles) by YouTube user Feardia and read the humorous transcript below.
Taken from the Auricept na n’Eces, the pre-Christian history of the origins of the Irish people and their language.
The Origin of the Irish Language
When the Gods saw the sons of Adam were building a great tower in the city of Ur in the land of babylon.
They said, “behold, they are become like us, let us go down and destroy their great tower and confuse their languages so that they will forget who they are”.
The Gaels, who had been down in Babylon at that time, were third in the line when then new languages were being handed out by the Gods, and they were given that most beautiful language, which is the language we know today as Gaeilge. Perfect in syntax and in tonality.
“Where are ye from, lads?” said one of the Gods.
“We are from the land of the Gael, a small island in the far west at the edge of the great ocean where once stood fair Atlantis.”
“Ah,” said the God, “you will never see the stars in the Heavens, and you will soon forget us.
“The God thought for a moment, “Behold, I will draw on you a map of the Universe, so that you will remember us in the dark nights when you cannot see the stars because of the mist which covers your small island.” And, with that he threw out his hand over the Gael and sprinkled a fine dust over them which left them covered in freckles- ‘briciní’ which in Irish means ‘little stars’.
“At the end of time, when the last of the Gaels are gathered on the Hill at Uisneach, which will be the last hill standing in Ireland at that time, you will form a complete map of the entire universe, and in that moment, you will remember everything.”
And that is how the Gael got the language, and the freckles.
