The story of Patrick Thornhart and Margaret Saybrooke is of such legendary proportions that it cries out for a suitable musical environment - and one based on Celtic mythology, since Professor Thornhart is an Irish professor of literature and poetry. While there are countless traditional Celtic tunes that could be employed to describe their tale in song, the Irish rock/folk group Horslips, in their BOOK OF INVASIONS: A CELTIC SYMPHONY CD, have captured in one album the nuances of Patrick and Margaret’s instantaneous connection with its peril, romance, grief, and joy.

It is also a crash course in ancient Irish music and history. As A BOOK OF INVASIONS explains, in the ancient times when the Tuatha de Danann, known for their magical lore, ruled ancient Ireland, there were three principal categories of song, called "geantraí, goltrái, and suantrái—the joyous strain, the lamenting strain, and the sleep strain.
The first movement of THE BOOK OF INVASIONS, GEANTRAÍ--WHEN THE GODS WALKED THE EARTH, is the musical setting for the first and second battles of Magh Tuiredh where the Tuatha de Danann were triumphant over the Fir Bolg and Balor of the Evil Eye. (The forerunners of the Men of 21 and Carlo Hesser?) More information on these battles can be found in WOMEN IN CELTIC MYTH by Moyra Caldecott.

This leads into TROUBLE WITH A CAPITAL T with could easily have been Patrick’s theme song when he first came to Llanview:

THE ROCKS REMAIN is reminiscent of Patrick’s timeless love for Margaret expressed on her wedding day:

In SWORD OF LIGHT a portrait of Patrick’s tangled relationship with Blair is echoed:

In the 2ND MOVEMENT—GOLTRAÍ, THE PURSUIT OF DIARMID AND GRAINNE is the story of a love triangle of Diarmid, Grainne, and Fionn mac Cumhaill, whom Grainne is forced to marry against her will. Grainne elopes with Diarmid and their wanderings are filled with magic and adventure until one day Diarmid is mortally wounded by a magic boar. Fionn has the power to save him but, preferring revenge, lets Diarmid die. This is the possible forerunner to the romance of Tristan and Isolde—or does the triangle sound more like Dylan, Patrick, and Marty?—may Patrick and Margaret’s story not end this way as in THE WARM SWEET BREATH OF LOVE…

May their story have as its theme KING OF MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY:

As Patrick once told Margaret "It was rain that brought us together."

In the 3RD MOVEMENT—SUANTRAÍ/THE LIVING END, the Tuatha’s reign was ended when they were defeated by the Milesians—the sons of Mil--who may have come from Spain. The Tuatha managed to obtain concessions from them and the land was divided between them, with the Milesians (or Gaels) remaining overground and the Tuatha retreating undeground to live on as mystical, magical beings in the "hollow hill" or great burial mounds of ancient times.

In the introduction to Chapter 2 of the book THE FAIRY FAITH IN CELTIC COUNTRIES by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, first published in 1911, it is said "….all the banshees and all the human figures, white women, and so forth, who are seen in raths and moats and on hillsides, are the direct descendants, so to speak, of the Tuatha de Danann…of this there can be no doubt."

They sing of their fate in SIDEWAYS TO THE SUN:

THE BOOK OF INVASIONS ends with RIDE TO HELL--a chilling description of an entity who sounds alarmingly like Carlo Hesser:

May the story of Patrick and Margaret with these words from THE ROCKS REMAIN:

For more elaboration on the themes treated here, be sure to visit:

The Book of Invasions
Tristan and Isolt
Faerie Lore and Literature
Irish Mythology

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