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Aibell
Оглавление(Also Aoibheall or Aeval.) The Irish fairy queen of north Munster, County Clare, part of the Tuatha de Danann, and guardian spirit of the O’Brien clan. Her name probably derives from the Gaelic aoibh, meaning “beauty,” or the proto-Celtic Oibel-a, literally meaning “burning fire.” She lived at Craig Liath (Gray Rock), where she held a midnight court to determine if husbands were satisfying their wives’ sexual needs. If found to be lacking, the man in question would be ordered to overcome his prudishness. The lover of Dubhlainn Ua Artigan, a young warrior from Munster, Aibell played a magic harp and it was said that whoever heard its music would not live long afterward. She appears in many works of Irish literature, including the eighteenth-century comic poem Cúirt an Mheáin Oíche, or “Midnight Court,” by Brian Merriman.