THE SCENE: This medieval parable about a man who tried to blow out a temple’s sacred fire could have been pulled straight out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
THE TEXT: At Kildare an archer of the household of earl Richard crossed over the hedge and blew upon Brigid’s fire. He jumped back immediately, and went mad. Whoever he met, he blew upon [their] face and said: “See! That is how I blew on Brigid’s fire.”
And so he rant through all the houses of the whole settlement, and wherever he saw a fire he blew upon it using the same words. Eventually he was caught and bound by his companions, but asked to be brought to the nearest water. As soon as he was brought there, his mouth was so parched that he drank so much that, while still in their hands, he burst in the middle and died.
– The History and Topography of Ireland, Gerald of Wales, 12th Century AD
