“In the years long ago, long ago now, long ago,
We were loved by her who dooms us to this evil cruel woe:
Who with magic wand and words
Hath changed us into birds—
Snow-white swans to drift and drift for evermore
Homeless, weary, tempest-baffled hence from shore to shore.”
A silence followed this melancholy singing. Then at last Fionula spoke again.
“Tell us, O Aeifa, how long this doom is to be upon us, so that we may know when death shall come to take away our suffering?”
Then because in that day it was not honourable to refuse the truth when asked, Aeifa did as Fionula prayed of her.
“Better would it be for thee and thy brothers to know nothing and to hope much. But since thou hast asked this thing I will tell it: