Aisling is a fictional character from The Secret of Kells. She is voiced by Christen Mooney.
Aisling
is a fairy-like creature with magical abilities. She has lived for
hundreds of years. She changes forms, but switches primarily between
wolf and girl. An unspecified amount of time ago, Crom Cruach killed the
rest of her people. Aisling lived alone in the forest surrounding
Kells, until Brendan entered the forest in search of ingredients for
ink. She watched him from a hidden place, but as Wolves attacked
Brendan, she called them back and talked with the boy. She agreed to
show him where he could find what he was looking for, but made him
promise that he and Pangur Ban, the cat who accompanied him, would never
again enter the forest. Aisling led Brendan to the top of a huge old
oak tree, where she told him her name. On the way back she lost Brendan
accidentally, finding him near Crom Cruach's dwelling. Despite her
warnings not to speak his name, Brendan called Crom several times, still
believing that he was not real, which resulted in branches of darkness
emerging from the open entrance of the cave. Aisling pushed against a
statue standing beside the entrance, making it collapse and block the
cave.
Later, when Abbot Cellach locked Brendan
into his room, Aisling turned Pangur Ban into a spirit-like creature to
slip through the keyhole into the tower and free Brendan, which she used
a magical song to do. After breaking Brendan out of his room, the pair
retreat to the forest where Brendan explains to Aisling why he was
locked up. He says that he must retrieve Crom's other eye. A desperate
Aisling begs him not to go, saying that Crom will kill him just as he
killed her mother and her people. However, Brendan assures Aisling that
it is necessary for completing the book, and that without the eye it
will be impossible.
The two then go to Crom's cave where Aisling seemingly sacrifices herself so that Brendan can get in, telling him to complete the book and "turn darkness into light." Later, when Brendan returns to where he last saw her, all he finds is his cape and flowers sprouting out of the ground. Aisling was not seen afterwards except in her wolf form, when she saves both Brendan and Brother Aidan from the Vikings.
Years later, she help guides an adult Brendan back to Kells, seemingly happy that he'd returned. She is not seen again for the reminder of the film.
Centuries later, she makes a brief cameo appearance in Song of the Sea, when Ben and Saoirse board a bus full of Trick-O'-Treaters. Aisling could be seen siting on the left side. She doesn't seem to have aged at all since the time of Kells.
Aisling is a fairy-like creature, a member of the now destroyed Tuatha Dé Danann, living in the woods outside of Kells. She is a protector of the forest, and doesn't like unwelcome guests. Her exact age is uncertain, but she is hundreds of years old.
