Wandering Aengus is a myth about Aengus who has a dream about a lovely girl. He searches in vain for her (one version is that he passes out dreams to others as he wanders) and starts to waste away.
His parents eventually discover the source of his problem and start a search for the girl. They find her but she is in the form of a bird ensnared in a trap.
Aengus goes to her and promises to protect her. Aengus and his love take the form of swans, swim around the pond three times to break the spell and live happily ever after.
This is a condensed version of the myth. It takes many twists and turns in the actual telling. W.B. Yeats captured some of the sense of Aengus in his poem entitled “The Song of Wandering Aengus” which I’ve reprinted below.
The Song of Wandering Aengus
W.B. Yeats (1865-1939).
I WENT out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
In 1962 Judy Collins released a folk song entitled “Golden Apples in the Sun” which is Yeats poem with a different title set to music. The Judy Collins song is still available from a variety of sources. Follow this link to hear it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygQGVG8yHoE
