Talk:Children of Lir
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[edit] The Ending
There's more than one version of the ending. They all center around the swans turning back to withered old people, but vary as to how and when. A somewhat shorter telling, for example, is that St Patrick himself happened upon the swans and performed a miracle. Probably late 19th-centuary church propaganda...there was a lot of it about. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.141.73.57 (talk • contribs) 01:15, 2005 May 6.
- In the version that I read growing up, the children were swans for about 900 years, and one day while they were in a lake outside a church, they heard a sound that they hadn't heard before (church bells). They started to turn back to humans (very old yes) and a priest who happened to be outside saw them, and quickly ran in to get some holy water which (if i remember correctly) helped them change back to humans faster. Then after all four of them became humans again, the priest let them stay in the church, and then that night they finally died. (yes, it was worded as a happy ending, that now thinking about it doesn't sound that happy...but i guess it's just after all that time spent as swans, together human again, they finally got some rest.
But yes, I do agree it does sound like a bit of church propaganda...but it's much happier than them being forever cursed as swans...Irish♣Pearl 21:52, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
