The Story of Oisin

In the Celtic myth, the king of the mystical land of Tir na N-og is told that he will lose his power if his daugther marries, for then his son-in-law would become king. To destroy her changes of finding a husband, the king changes the hapless girl's head into the head of a pig. Advised by a Druid that she will regain her beauty if she can get a human named Oisin to marry her, the princess goes to Eire (Ireland), finds Oisin, and so moves him with her sad story that he consents to wed her. He goes to Tir Na N-og with the princess -now restored to her original beauty- and becomes ruler of the happy land where no one ever grows old. In time, Oisin yearns to see his homeland and his family again, even though his wife tells him that three hundred years have passed since he was there. Oising, warned to never let his foot touch the earth, travels back to Eire on his wife's white horse. Leaning from the saddle to see his father's gravestone, Oising slips from the srirrups and falls to the ground. Immediately, he becomes an aged and feeble old man and can never return to Tir Na N-og.