https://lithub.com/on-the-history-of-the-aes-sidhe-irelands-seductively-dangerous-fairies/
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“The aes sidhe were very clearly associated with the divine.”
“But there’s one way in which the aes sidhe were entirely separate from the elves, at least in these earlier periods: they had a homeland, the Otherworld.”
“Her home is truly beautiful, and for a year Bran and his men stay, with “no savor wanting to them,” enjoying the delights of paradise and having sex with all the Otherworld women.”
“But Brigid also appears throughout the early Irish myths as a member of the aes sidhe.”
“But in the Irish legends, both these dates are significant: November 1, as we’ve seen, was the date of Samhain, and today—February 1—was the date of Imbolc, the first day of spring.”
“What’s more, these Otherworlds had locations within the real human world: they were inside the burial mounds.”
“The story of The Adventure of Connlae, as with The Phantom’s Vision, likely dates to the eighth century AD, and describes how a beautiful aes sidhe woman approaches Connlae, tells him that she loves him, and asks him to go with her to her home—a realm in a burial mound, a place “without death, nor want, nor sin,” where they keep a “perpetual feast,” and where they can live in ageless, deathless joy for ever.”
“Taking that in the most literal possible way, the legends we have today were likely written in Irish monasteries.”
“But the Otherworlds were often enormously larger than the mounds themselves—sometimes the size of a giant palace, or a whole island—and while they were, occasionally, entered by stepping through the dark little doorway of a mound, at other times they were reached by walking through mists (like Conn), or sailing across oceans.”
“Unlike Connlae’s Otherworld guide, though, this woman doesn’t take Bran with her—instead, she leaves him with directions, and he sets sail with a crew of thirty men.”
“Nominally this was a Christian feast day of Saint Brigid, patron saint of poetry and lambing, who was said to have lived in Ireland in the late fifth century.”
“The text tells us that he lived, without drink, without food, until the end of a month, and he did not think any sustenance worth eating but the apple.”
“In eighth-century myths the aes sidhe are literally called the tribe of the gods.”
“Ireland was largely Christianized by the end of the seventh century (Patrick himself had already been and gone in the fifth), and by the time of the eighth century, when these myths were being written down, monasteries were the great cultural, artistic, and literary centers of the country: if you have a written text from eighth-century Ireland it’s unlikely to have come from anywhere but a monastery.”
“Reprinted by permission of Atria Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC.”
“In one legend called The Adventure of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon , for example, five sons of the king encounter a hideous old woman sitting by a well who tells them that in order to draw water they must kiss her.”
“And while Lugh might have conjured his Otherworld from his shadow, in most stories mortal heroes are taken to the Otherworld by female aes sidhe, who (despite the occasional mentions of some never-seen king) seem to be rulers of the Otherworld realms, which are often populated entirely by women.”
“These realms were not always open and accessible—it wasn’t just a case of sauntering into a mound and finding an Otherworld whenever you felt like it—sometimes you had to be invited, sometimes you needed to sail there, and sometimes you had to wait until the right time of year: the festival of Samhain (November 1) was a day when the mounds were especially likely to be open, and the aes sidhe abroad.”