Nick

There was an ancient king of Ireland who had his hair cut once a year and kept his barber imprisoned to prevent him telling everyone the king had horses' ears. I have been struggling to remember the king's name.
Who was he? And does anyone know more about this myth?

okamido

Available on Amazon.

okamido

Here is a link if anyone would like to read it for free. I had never heard of the story before but I must say that I enjoyed it.

http://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/lfic/lfic069.htm

rory-c

hmmm, different to the story i know and grew up with.

I used to live in West Cork, (South West Ireland) near a town called Skibbereen. My family still live there.

Anyways there's a beautiful lake called Lough Ine and on this lake is a small island. On the island is O'Driscoll castle which is where the king who had asses ears was said to have lived.

The story goes that he killed every barber that cut his hair and threw them in the lake so his secret was safe. One day a barber threw the cut hair into the lake. The hair fell to the bottom of the lake and later a reed grew from it.

When a musician from the castle was sitting by the lake, he fashioned a whistle out of the reed. As he played the whistle all that could be heard was "the king has asses ears! the king has asses ears!" and so the secret was out!



thats the island, you can make out the remains of the castle, its covered in deep green.

when we were kids we used to row out there, when we were bigger kids we swam

robbielynne

Thanks for sharing that....nice story and one that I have never heard...

Duchess

Interesting! I've never heard this before either.

Cormac Ó Comhraí

Labhraidh Loingseach was his name in irish

stormbringerr

thanks for the link okamido.