I am..... once again thinking about Donn and how death is framed not only as a "coming home" but as a show of hospitality both on the part of Donn, who welcomes us into his home, and on us and how we should be striving to live our lives in such a way as to be good guests in Donn's home. How the otherworld is a place where we are cared for, where the issues and suffering present in our world don't exist and all things in it are precious- and the implication therein that we too are precious to be welcomed into it.
Thinking about how Donn is such a perfect blend of ancestor veneration, notions of kinship, and hospitality. Donn is the first Milesian to die in Ireland, the first of the last invasion to die. He dies in an attempt to invade Ireland- he comes as a hostile figure and despite that is welcomed into the Tuatha, he is allowed dominion over his people and their descendants when they join him in death. He becomes the father-in-law of Gráinne, his son is fostered by Aengus Óg (and how incredible is it, that the son of an invader was fostered by the god most associated with love), his son is a mighty hero of the Fianna. He is welcomed by the Tuatha into the Otherworld, a world without sickness or fear, where the soil is made of gemstones, and everything is beautiful- he joins them in the magical world that they retreat to once defeated by the Milesians. He goes from a hostile invader, an unwelcome guest- to a member of the tribe, to being one of the divine.
Donn’s dominion over his descendants manifests in being the one to welcome them to the otherworld, of welcoming them into his home, of being their host. He who was a hostile guest, becomes a gracious host, accepting us into the otherworld, bringing us home to be amongst our ancestors, caring for us in a time of confusion and adjustment as our families curse the circumstances that took us from them and we adjust to eternity amongst the divine- to eternity in an undying land free from the suffering we knew in life. We are brought back into the family, into this state of being cared for by others because Donn chose, as his dying wish to have his descendants gather at his house, that he may see and be with them. How precious are we that the dying wish of a god was to have us gather in his house thousands and thousands of years before we were even born? That he wished for us to gather in his house, in that world of undying youth and beauty, together, as a family?
Does it not make you want to live your life in such a way as to be deserving of that level of hospitality? To make you want to be a good guest? If we receive that level of unconditional hospitality from our ancestor, from one of our gods, why should we not offer it to others? Death is a scary thing, and something we all must face, and Donn uses this transformation to welcome us home with open arms, into a place without suffering, where we can be free of pain- he welcomes us into a situation that is inherently comforting. He experienced it first, and now he is there to guide us through the adjustment. It’s an act of love, of kindness- and it’s something I at least, seek to repay in this world.
