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diff --git a/14749-0.txt b/14749-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d2cf12 --- /dev/null +++ b/14749-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7397 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14749 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original lovely illustrations. + See 14749-h.htm or 14749-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/7/4/14749/14749-h/14749-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/7/4/14749/14749-h.zip) + + + + + +THE HIGH DEEDS OF FINN + +AND OTHER BARDIC ROMANCES OF ANCIENT IRELAND + +by + +T. W. ROLLESTON + +With an Introduction by Stopford A. Brooke, M.A. LL.D. + +And with Sixteen Illustrations by Stephen Reid + +New York +Thomas Y. Crowell & Company +Publishers + + + + + + + +AR +CRAOIBH CONNARTHA NA GAEDHILGE +I NGLEANN FHAIDHLE BRONNAIM AN LEABHAR SEO: +BEANNACHT AGUS BUAIDH +LIBHSE GO DEO + + + + + +Preface + + +The romantic tales here retold for the English reader belong neither +to the category of folk-lore nor of myth, although most of them +contain elements of both. They belong, like the tales of Cuchulain, +which have been similarly presented by Miss Hull,[1] to the bardic +literature of ancient Ireland, a literature written with an artistic +purpose by men who possessed in the highest degree the native culture +of their land and time. The aim with which these men wrote is also +that which has been adopted by their present interpreter. I have not +tried, in this volume, to offer to the scholar materials for the study +of Celtic myth or folk-lore. My aim, however I may have fulfilled it, +has been artistic, not scientific. I have tried, while carefully +preserving the main outline of each story, to treat it exactly as the +ancient bard treated his own material, or as Tennyson treated the +stories of the MORT D'ARTHUR, that is to say, to present it as a fresh +work of poetic imagination. In some cases, as in the story of the +Children of Lir, or that of mac Datho's Boar, or the enchanting tale +of King Iubdan and King Fergus, I have done little more than retell +the bardic legend with merely a little compression; but in others a +certain amount of reshaping has seemed desirable. The object in all +cases has been the same, to bring out as clearly as possible for +modern readers the beauty and interest which are either manifest or +implicit in the Gaelic original. + + [1] CUCHULAIN, THE HOUND OF ULSTER. By Eleanor Hull. + +For stories which are only found in MSS. written in the older forms of +the language, I have been largely indebted to the translations +published by various scholars. Chief among these (so far as the +present work is concerned) must be named Mr Standish Hayes +O'Grady--whose wonderful treasure-house of Gaelic legend, SILVA +GADELICA, can never be mentioned by the student of these matters +without an expression of admiration and of gratitude; Mr A.H. Leahy, +author of HEROIC ROMANCES OF IRELAND; Dr Whitly Stokes, Professor Kuno +Meyer, and M. d'Arbois de Jubainville, whose invaluable CYCLE +MYTHOLOGIQUE IRLANDAIS has been much in my hands, both in the original +and in the excellent English translation of Mr R.I. Best. Particulars +of the source of each story will be found in the Notes on the Sources +at the end of this volume. In the same place will also be found a +pronouncing-index of proper names. I have endeavoured, in the text, to +avoid or to modify any names which in their original form would baffle +the English reader, but there remain some on the pronunciation of +which he may be glad to have a little light. + +The two most conspicuous figures in ancient Irish legend are +Cuchulain, who lived--if he has any historical reality--in the reign +of Conor mac Nessa immediately before the Christian era, and Finn son +of Cumhal, who appears in literature as the captain of a kind of +military order devoted to the service of the High King of Ireland +during the third century A.D. Miss Hull's volume has been named after +Cuchulain, and it is appropriate that mine should bear the name of +Finn, as it is mainly devoted to his period; though, as will be seen, +several stories belonging to other cycles of legend, which did not +fall within the scope of Miss Hull's work, have been included here.[2] +All the tales have been arranged roughly in chronological order. This +does not mean according to the date of their composition, which in +most cases is quite indiscoverable, and still less, according to the +dates of the MSS. in which they are contained. The order is given by +the position, in real or mythical history, of the events they deal +with. Of course it is not practicable to dovetail them into one +another with perfect accuracy. Where a story, like that of the +Children of Lir, extends over nearly a thousand years, beginning with +the mythical People of Dana and ending in the period of Christian +monasticism, one can only decide on its place by considering where it +will throw most light on those which come nearest to it. In this, as +in the selection and treatment of the tales, there is of course room +for much difference of opinion. I can only ask the critic to believe +that nothing has been done in the framing of this collection of Gaelic +romances without the consideration and care which the value of the +material demands and which the writer's love of it has inspired. + +T.W. ROLLESTON + + [2] There is one important tale of the Finn cycle, the _Pursuit + of Dermot and Grania_, which I have not included. I have + omitted it, partly because it presents the character of Finn in + a light inconsistent with what is said of him elsewhere, and + partly because it has in it a certain sinister and depressing + element which renders it unsuitable for a collection intended + largely for the young. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + INTRODUCTION + + COIS NA TEINEADH + + + BARDIC ROMANCES + + I. THE STORY OF THE CHILDREN OF LIR + + II. THE QUEST OF THE SONS OF TURENN + + III. THE SECRET OF LABRA + + IV. KING IUBDAN AND KING FERGUS + + V. THE CARVING OF MAC DATHO'S BOAR + + VI. THE VENGEANCE OF MESGEDRA + + VII. THE STORY OF ETAIN AND MIDIR + + VIII. HOW ETHNE QUITTED FAIRYLAND + + + THE HIGH DEEDS OF FINN + + IX. THE BOYHOOD OF FINN MAC CUMHAL + + X. THE COMING OF FINN + + XI. FINN'S CHIEF MEN + + XII. THE TALE OF VIVIONN THE GIANTESS + + XIII. THE CHASE OF THE GILLA DACAR + + XIV. THE BIRTH OF OISÍN + + XV. OISÍN IN THE LAND OF YOUTH + + + THE HISTORY OF KING CORMAC + + XVI. 1. THE BIRTH OF CORMAC + + 2. THE JUDGMENT OF CORMAC + + 3. THE MARRIAGE OF KING CORMAC + + 4. THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE KING + + 5. CORMAC SETS UP THE FIRST MILL IN ERINN + + 6. A PLEASANT STORY OF CORMAC'S BREHON + + 7. THE JUDGMENT CONCERNING CORMAC'S SWORD + + 8. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CORMAC + + 9. DESCRIPTION OF CORMAC + + 10. DEATH AND BURIAL OF CORMAC + + + NOTES ON THE SOURCES + + PRONOUNCING INDEX + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "FINN HEARD FAR OFF THE FIRST NOTES OF THE FAIRY HARP" (Frontispiece) + + "THERE SAT THE THREE MAIDENS WITH THE QUEEN" + + "THEY MADE AN ENCAMPMENT AND THE SWANS SANG TO THEM" + + "BEAR US SWIFTLY, BOAT OF MANANAN, TO THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES" + + "THERE DWELT THE RED-HAIRED OCEAN-NYMPHS" + + "THEY ALL TROOPED OUT, LORDS AND LADIES, TO VIEW THE WEE MAN" + + "FERGUS GOES DOWN INTO THE LAKE" + + "A MIGHTY SHOUT OF EXULTATION AROSE FROM THE ULSTERMEN" + + "THEY ROSE UP IN THE AIR" + + "SHE HEARD HER OWN NAME CALLED AGAIN AND AGAIN" + + "AND THAT NIGHT THERE WAS FEASTING AND JOY IN THE LONELY HUT" + + "THEY RAN HIM BY HILL AND PLAIN" + + "DERMOT TOOK THE HORN AND WOULD HAVE FILLED IT" + + "'FOLLOW ME NOW TO THE HILL OF ALLEN'" + + "THEY RODE UP TO A STATELY PALACE" + + "THE WHITE STEED HAD VANISHED FROM THEIR EYES LIKE A WREATH OF MIST" + + + + +Introduction + + +Many years have passed by since, delivering the Inaugural Lecture of +the Irish Literary Society in London, I advocated as one of its chief +aims the recasting into modern form and in literary English of the old +Irish legends, preserving the atmosphere of the original tales as much +as possible, but clearing them from repetitions, redundant +expressions, idioms interesting in Irish but repellent in English, +and, above all, from absurdities, such as the sensational fancy of the +later editors and bards added to the simplicities of the original +tales. + +Long before I spoke of this, it had been done by P.W. Joyce in his OLD +CELTIC ROMANCES, and by Standish O'Grady for the whole story of +Cuchulain, but in this case with so large an imitation of the Homeric +manner that the Celtic spirit of the story was in danger of being +lost. This was the fault I had to find with that inspiring book,[3] +but it was a fault which had its own attraction. + + [3] I gave this book--_The History of Ireland_ (HEROIC + PERIOD)--to Burne-Jones in order to interest him in Irish myth + and legend. "I'll try and read it," he said. A week afterwards + he came and said--"It is a new world of thought and pleasure + you have opened to me. I knew nothing of this, and life is + quite enlarged. But now, I want to see all the originals. Where + can I get them?" + +I have only spoken of prose writing above. But in poetry (and in +Poetry well fitted to the tales), this work had already been done +nobly, and with a fine Celtic splendour of feeling and expression, by +Sir Samuel Ferguson. + +Since then, a number of writers have translated into literary English +a host of the Irish tales, and have done this with a just reverence +for their originals. Being, in nearly every case, Irish themselves, +they have tried, with varying success, to make their readers realize +the wild scenery of Ireland, her vital union with the sea and the +great ocean to the West, those changing dramatic skies, that mystic +weather, the wizard woods and streams which form the constant +background of these stories; nor have they failed to allure their +listeners to breathe the spiritual air of Ireland, to feel its +pathetic, heroic, imaginative thrill. + +They have largely succeeded in their effort. The Irish bardic tales +have now become a part of English literature and belong not only to +grown up persons interested in early poetry, in mythology and +folk-customs, but to the children of Ireland and England. Our new +imaginative stories are now told in nurseries, listened to at evening +when the children assemble in the fire-light to hear tales from their +parents, and eagerly read by boys at school. A fresh world of +story-telling has been opened to the imagination of the young. + +This could not have been done in the right way if it had not been for +the previous work of Celtic scholars in Ireland, and particularly on +the Continent, in France and Germany. Having mastered medieval Irish, +they have translated with careful accuracy many of the ancient tales, +omitting and changing nothing; they have edited them critically, +collating and comparing them with one another, and with other forms of +the same stories. We have now in English, French, and German the exact +representation of the originals with exhaustive commentaries. + +When this necessary work was finished--and it was absolutely +necessary--it had two important results on all work of the kind Mr +Rolleston has performed in this book--on the imaginative recasting and +modernizing of the ancient tales. First, it made it lawful and easy +for the modern artist--in sculpture, painting, poetry, or imaginative +prose--to use the stories as he pleased in order to give pleasure to +the modern world. It made it lawful because he could reply to those +who objected that what he produced was not the real thing--"The real +thing exists; you will find it, when you wish to see it, accurately +and closely translated by critical and competent scholars. I refer you +to the originals in the notes to this book. I have found the materials +of my stories in these originals; and it is quite lawful for me, now +that they have been reverently preserved, to use them as I please for +the purpose of giving pleasure to the modern world--to make out of +them fresh imaginative work, as the medieval writers did out of the +original stories of Arthur and his men." This is the defence any +re-caster of the ancient tales might make of the _lawfulness_ of his +work, and it is a just defence; having, above all, this use--that it +leaves the imagination of the modern artist free, yet within +recognized and ruling limits, to play in and around his subject. + +One of those limits is the preservation, in any remodelling of the +tales, of the Celtic atmosphere. To tell the Irish stories in the +manner of Homer or Apuleius, in the manner of the Norse sagas, or in +the manner of Malory, would be to lose their very nature, their soul, +their nationality. We should no longer understand the men and women +who fought and loved in Ireland, and whose characters were moulded by +Irish surroundings, customs, thoughts, and passions. We should not see +or feel the landscape of Ireland or its skies, the streams, the woods, +the animals and birds, the mountain solitudes, as we feel and see +them in the original tales. We should not hear, as we hear in their +first form, the stormy seas between Scotland and Antrim, or the great +waves which roar on the western isles, and beat on cliffs which still +belong to another world than ours. The genius of Ireland would desert +our work. + +And it would be a vast pity to lose the Irish atmosphere in the +telling of the Irish tales, because it is unique; not only distinct +from that of the stories of other races, but from that of the other +branches of the Celtic race. It differs from the atmosphere of the +stories of Wales, of Brittany, of the Highlands and islands of +Scotland. It is more purely Celtic, less mixed than any of them. A +hundred touches in feeling, in ways of thought, in sensitiveness to +beauty, in war and voyaging, and in ideals of life, separate it from +that of the other Celtic races. + +It is owing to the careful, accurate, and critical work of continental +and Irish scholars on the manuscript materials of Irish Law, History, +Bardic Tales, and Poetry; on customs, dress, furniture, architecture, +ornament, on hunting and sailing; on the manners of men and women in +war and peace, that the modern re-teller of the Irish tales is enabled +to conserve the Irish atmosphere. And this conservation of the special +Irish atmosphere is the second result which the work of the critical +scholars has established. If the re-writer of the tales does not use +the immense materials made ready to his hand for illustration, +expansion, ornament and description in such a way that Ireland, and +only Ireland, lives in his work from line to line, he is greatly to be +blamed. + +Mr Rolleston has fulfilled these conditions with the skill and the +feeling of an artist. He has clung closely to his originals with an +affectionate regard for their ancientry, their ardour and their +distinction, and yet has, within this limit, used and modified them +with a pleasant freedom. His love of Ireland has instilled into his +representation of these tales a passion akin to that which gave them +birth. We feel, as we read, how deep his sympathy has been with their +intensity, their love of wild nature, their desire for beauty, their +interest in humanity and in character, their savagery and their +tenderness, their fairy magic and strange imaginations that suddenly +surprise and charm. Whenever anything lovely emerges in the tale, he +does not draw attention to it, but touches it with so artistic a +pencil that its loveliness is enhanced. And he has put into English +verse the Irish poems scattered through the tales with the skill and +the temper of a poet. I hope his book will win what it deserves--the +glad appreciation of old and young in England, and the gratitude of +Ireland. + +The stories told in this book belong to three distinct cycles of Irish +story-telling. The first are mythological, and are concerned with the +early races that are fabled to have dwelt and fought in Ireland Among +these the Tuatha De Danaan were the final conquerors, and held the +land for two hundred years They were, it is supposed, of the Celtic +stock, but they were not the ancestors of the present Irish. These +were the Milesians (Irish, Scots or Gaelic who, conquering the Tuatha +De Danaan, ruled Ireland till they were overcome by the English.) The +stories which have to do with the Tuatha De Danaan are mythical and of +a great antiquity concerning men and women, the wisest and the best of +whom became gods, and who appear as divine beings in the cycle of +tales which follow after them They were always at war with a fierce +and savage people called Fomorians, whom they finally defeated and the +strife between them may mythically represent the ancient war between +the good and evil principles in the world. + +In the next cycle we draw nearer to history, and are in the world not +of myth but of legend. It is possible that some true history may be +hidden underneath its sagas, that some of its personages may be +historical, but we cannot tell. The events are supposed to occur about +the time of the birth of Christ, and seventeen hundred years after +those of the mythical period. This is the cycle which collects its +wars and sorrows and splendours around the dominating figure of +Cuchulain, and is called the Heroic or the Red Branch or the Ultonian +cycle. Several sagas tell of the birth, the life, and the death of +Cuchulain, and among them is the longest and the most important--the +Táin--the _Cattle Raid of Cooley_. + +Others are concerned with the great King Conor mac Nessa, and the most +known and beautiful of these is the sorrowful tale of Deirdré. There +are many others of the various heroes and noble women who belonged to +the courts of Conor and of his enemy Queen Maev of Connaght. The +_Carving of mac Datho's Boar_, the story of _Etain and Midir_, and the +_Vengeance of Mesgedra_, contained in this book belong to these +miscellaneous tales unconnected with the main saga of Cuchulain. + +The second cycle is linked to the first, not by history or race, but +by the fact that the great personages in the first have now become the +gods who intervene in the affairs of the wars and heroes of the +second. They take part in them as the gods do in the Iliad and the +Odyssey. Lugh, the Long-Handed, the great Counsellor of the Tuatha De +Danaan, is now a god, and is the real father of Cuchulain, heals him +of his wounds in the Battle of the Ford, warns him of his coming +death, and receives him into the immortal land. The Morrigan, who +descends from the first cycle, is now the goddess of war, and is at +first the enemy and afterwards the lover of Cuchulain. Angus, The +Dagda, Mananan the sea-god, enter not only into the sagas of the +second cycle, but into those of the third, of the cycle of Finn. And +all along to the very end of the stories, and down indeed to the +present day, the Tuatha De Danaan appear in various forms, slowly +lessening in dignity and power, until they end in the fairy folk in +whom the Irish peasants still believe. They are alive and still +powerful in the third--the Fenian--cycle of stories, some of which are +contained and adorned in this book. In their continued presence is the +only connexion which exists between the three cycles. No personages of +the first save these of the gods appear in the Heroic cycle, none of +the Heroic cycle appears in the Fenian cycle. Seventeen hundred years, +according to Irish annalists, separate the first from the second, more +than two hundred years separate the second from the beginning of the +third. + +The third cycle is called Fenian because its legends tell, for the +most part, of the great deeds of the Féni or Fianna, who were the +militia employed by the High King to support his supremacy, to keep +Ireland in order, to defend the country from foreign invasion. They +were, it seems, finally organized by Cormac mac Art, 227 A.D.(?) the +grandson of Conn the Hundred Fighter. But they had loosely existed +before in the time of Conn and his son Art, and like all mercenary +bodies of this kind were sometimes at war with the kings who employed +them. Finally, at the battle of Gowra, they and their power were quite +destroyed. Long before this destruction, they were led in the reign +of Cormac by Finn the son of Cumhal, and it is around Finn and Oisín +the son of Finn, that most of the romances of the Fenian cycle are +gathered. Others which tell of the battles and deeds of Conn and Art +and Cormac and Cairbre of the Liffey, Cormac's son, are more or less +linked on to the Fenians. On the whole, Finn and his warriors, each of +a distinct character, warlike skill and renown, are the main +personages of the cycle, and though Finn is not the greatest warrior, +he is their head and master because he is the wisest; and this +masterdom by knowledge is for the first time an element in Irish +stories. + +If the tales of the first cycle are mythological and of the second +heroic, these are romantic. The gods have lost their dreadful, even +their savage character, and have become the Fairies, full often of +gentleness, grace, and humour. The mysterious dwelling places of the +gods in the sea, in unknown lands, in the wandering air, are now in +palaces under the green hills of Ireland, or by the banks of swift +clear rivers, like the palace of Angus near the Boyne, or across the +seas in Tir-na-n-Óg, the land of immortal youth, whither Niam brings +Oisín to live with her in love, as Morgan le Fay brought Ogier the +Dane to her fairyland. The land of the Immortals in the heroic cycle, +to which, in the story of _Etain and Midir_ in this book, Midir brings +back Etain after she has sojourned for a time on earth, is quite +different in conception from the Land of Youth over the far seas where +delightfulness of life and love is perfect. This, in its conception of +an unknown world where is immortal youth, where stormless skies, happy +hunting, strange adventure, gentle manners dwell, where love is free +and time is unmarked, is pure romance. So are the adventures of Finn +against enchanters, as in the story of the _Birth of Oisín_, of +_Dermot in the Country under the Seas_, in the story of the _Pursuit +of the Gilla Dacar_, of the wild love-tale of _Dermot and Grania_, +flying for many years over all Ireland from the wrath of Finn, and of +a host of other tales of enchantments and battle, and love, and +hunting, and feasts, and discoveries, and journeys, invasions, +courtships, and solemn mournings. No doubt the romantic atmosphere has +been deepened in these tales by additions made to them by successive +generations of bardic singers and storytellers, but for all that the +original elements in the stories are romantic as they are not in the +previous cycles. + +Again, these Fenian tales are more popular than the others. Douglas +Hyde has dwelt on this distinction. "For 1200 years at least, they +have been," he says, "intimately bound up with the thought and +feelings of the whole Gaelic race in Ireland and Scotland." Even at +the present day new forms are given to the tales in the cottage homes +of Ireland. And it is no wonder. The mysterious giant forms of the +mythological period, removed by divinity from the sympathy of men; the +vast heroic figures of Cuchulain and his fellows and foes, their close +relation to supernatural beings and their doings, are far apart from +the more natural humanity of Cormac and Finn, of Dermot and Goll, of +Oisín and Oscar, of Keelta, and last of Conan, the coward, boaster and +venomous tongue, whom all the Fenians mocked and yet endured. They are +a very human band of fighting men, and though many of them, like Oisín +and Finn and Dermot, have adventures in fairyland, they preserve in +these their ordinary human nature. The Connacht peasant has no +difficulty in following Finn into the cave of Slieve Cullinn, where +the witch turned him into a withered old man, for the village where he +lives has traditions of the same kind; the love affairs of Finn, of +Dermot and Grania, and of many others, are quite in harmony with a +hundred stories, and with the temper, of Irish lovers. A closer, a +simpler humanity than that of the other cycles pervades the Fenian +cycle, a greater chivalry, a greater courtesy, and a greater +tenderness. We have left the primeval savagery behind, the +multitudinous slaughtering, the crude passions of the earlier men and +women; we are nearer to civilization, nearer to the common temper and +character of the Irish people. No one can doubt this who will compare +the _Vengeance of Mesgedra_ with the _Chase of the Gilla Dacar_. + +The elaborate courtesy with which Finn and his chief warriors receive +all comers, as in the story of Vivionn the giantess, is quite new, +even medieval in its chivalry; so is the elaborate code of honour; so +also is, on the whole, the treatment of women and their relation to +men. How far this resemblance to medieval romance has been intruded +into the stories--(there are some in which there is not a trace of +it)--by the after editors and re-editors of the tales, I cannot tell, +but however that may be, their presence in the Fenian cycle is plain; +and this brings the stories into a kindlier and more pleasurable +atmosphere for modern readers than that which broods in thunderous +skies and fierce light over dreadful passions and battles thick and +bloody in the previous cycles. We are in a gentler world. + +Another more modern romantic element in the Fenian legends is the +delight in hunting, and that more affectionate relation of men to +animals which always marks an advance in civilization. Hunting, as in +medieval romance, is one of the chief pleasures of the Fenians. Six +months of the year they passed in the open, getting to know every part +of the country they had to defend, and hunting through the great woods +and over the hills for their daily food and their daily delight. The +story of the _Chase of the Gilla Dacar_ tells, at its beginning, of a +great hunting and of Finn's men listening with joy to the cries of the +hunters and the loud chiding of the dogs; and many tales celebrate the +following of the stag and the wild boar from early dawn to the +evening. Then Finn's two great hounds, Bran and Sceolaun, are loved by +Finn and his men as if they were dear friends; and they, when their +master is in danger or under enchantment wail like human beings for +his loss or pain. It is true Cuchulain's horses weep tears of blood +when he goes forth to his last battle, foreknowing his death; but they +are immortal steeds and have divine knowledge of fate. The dogs of +Finn are only dogs, and the relation between him and them is a natural +relation, quite unlike the relation between Cuchulain and the horses +which draw his chariot. Yet Finn's dogs are not quite as other dogs. +They have something of a human soul in them. They know that in the +milk-white fawn they pursue there is an enchanted maiden, and they +defend her from the other hounds till Finn arrives. And it is told of +them that sometimes, when the moon is high, they rise from their +graves and meet and hunt together, and speak of ancient days. The +supernatural has lessened since the heroic cycle. But it is still +there in the Fenian. + +Again, the Fenian cycle of tales is more influenced by Christianity +than the others are. The mythological cycle is not only fully pagan, +it is primeval. It has the vastness, the savagery, the relentlessness +of nature-myths, and what beauty there is in it is akin to terror. +Gentleness is unknown. There is only one exception to this, so far as +I know, and that is in the story of _The Children of Lir_. It is +plain, however, that the Christian ending of that sorrowful story is a +later addition to it. It is remarkably well done, and most tenderly. I +believe that the artist who did it imported into the rest of the tale +the exquisite tenderness which fills it, and yet with so much +reverence for his original that he did not make the body of the story +Christian. He kept the definite Christian element to the very end, but +he filled the whole with its tender atmosphere. + +No Christianity and very little gentleness intrude into the heroic +cycle. The story of Christ once touches it, but he who put it in did +not lose the pagan atmosphere, or the wild fierceness of the manners +of the time. How it was done may be read in this book at the end of +the story of the _Vengeance of Mesgedra_. Very late in the redaction +of these stories a Christian tag was also added to the tale of the +death of Cuchulain, but it was very badly done. + +When we come to the Fenian cycle there is a well-defined borderland +between them and Christianity. The bulk of the stories is plainly +pagan; their originals were frankly so. But the temper of their +composers is more civilized than that of those who conceived the tales +of the previous cycles; the manners, as I have already said, of their +personages are gentler, more chivalrous; and their atmosphere is so +much nearer to that of Christianity, that the new Christian elements +would find themselves more at home in them than in the terrible +vengeance of Lugh, the savage brutality of Conor to Deirdré, or the +raging slaughterings of Cuchulain. So much was this the case that a +story was skilfully invented which linked in imagination the Fenian +cycle to a Christianized Ireland. This story--_Oisín in the Land of +Youth_--is contained in this book. Oisín, or Ossian, the son of Finn, +in an enchanted story, lives for 300 years, always young, with his +love in Tir-na-n-Óg, and finds on his return, when he becomes a +withered old man, St Patrick and Christianity in Ireland. He tells to +Patrick many tales of the Fenian wars and loves and glories, and in +the course of them paganism and Christianity are contrasted and +intermingled. A certain sympathy with the pagan ideas of honour and +courage and love enters into the talk of Patrick and the monks, and +softens their pious austerity. On the other hand, the Fenian legends +are gentled and influenced by the Christian elements, in spite of the +scorn with which Oisín treats the rigid condemnation of his companions +and of Finn to the Christian hell, and the ascetic and unwarlike life +of the monks.[4] There was evidently in the Fenian cycle of +story-telling a transition period in which the bards ran Christianity +and paganism in and out of one another, and mingled the atmosphere of +both, and to that period the last editing of the story of _Lir and his +Children_ may be referred. A lovely story in this book, put into fine +form by Mr Rolleston, is as it were an image of this transition +time--the story or _How Ethne quitted Fairyland_. It takes us back to +the most ancient cycle, for it tells of the great gods Angus and +Mananan, and then of how they became, after their conquest by the race +who live in the second cycle, the invisible dwellers in a Fairy +country of their own during the Fenian period, and, afterwards, when +Patrick and the monks had overcome paganism. Thus it mingles together +elements from all the periods. The mention of the great caldron and +the swine which always renew their food is purely mythological. The +cows which come from the Holy Land are Christian. Ethne herself is +born in the house of a pagan god who has become a Fairy King, but +loses her fairy nature and becomes human; and the reason given for +this is an interesting piece of psychology which would never have +occurred to a pagan world. She herself is a transition maiden, and, +suddenly finding herself outside the fairy world and lost, happens on +a monastery and dies on the breast of St Patrick. But she dies because +of the wild wailing for her loss of the fairy-host, whom she can hear +but cannot see, calling to her out of the darkened sky to come back to +her home. And in her sorrow and the battle in her between the love of +Christ and of Faerie, she dies. That is a symbol, not intended as such +by its conceiver, but all the more significant, of the transition +time. Short as it is, few tales, perhaps, are more deeply charged with +spiritual meaning. + + [4] I speak here of the better known of the two versions of + this encounter of the pagan with the Christian spirit. There + are others in which the reconciliation is carried still + further. One example is to be found in the _Colloquy of the + Ancients_ (SILVA GADELICA). Here Finn and his companions are + explicitly pronounced to be saved by their natural virtues, and + the relations of the Church and the Fenian warriors are most + friendly. + +Independent of these three cycles, but often touching them here and +there, and borrowing from them, there are a number of miscellaneous +tales which range from the earliest times till the coming of the +Danes. The most celebrated of these are the _Storming of the Hostel_ +with the death of Conary the High King of Ireland, and the story of +the Boru tribute. Two examples of these miscellaneous tales of a high +antiquity are contained in this book--_King Iubdan and King Fergus_ +and _Etain and Midir_. Both of them have great charm and +delightfulness. + +Finally, the manner in which these tales grew into form must be +remembered when we read them. At first, they were not written down, +but recited in hall and with a harp's accompaniment by the various +bardic story-tellers who were attached to the court of the chieftain, +or wandered singing and reciting from court to court. Each bard, if he +was a creator, filled up the original framework of the tale with +ornaments of his own, or added new events or personages to the tale, +or mixed it up with other related tales, or made new tales altogether +attached to the main personages of the original tale--episodes in +their lives into which the bardic fancy wandered. If these new forms +of the tales or episodes were imaginatively true to the characters +round which they were conceived and to the atmosphere of the time, +they were taken up by other bards and became often separate tales, or +if a great number attached themselves to one hero, they finally formed +themselves into one heroic story, such as that which is gathered round +Cuchulain, which, as it stands, is only narrative, but might in time +have become epical. Indeed, the Táin approaches, though at some +distance, an epic. In this way that mingling of elements out of the +three cycles into a single Saga took place. + +Then when Christianity came, the Irish who always, Christians or not, +loved their race and its stories, would not let them go. They took +them and suffused them with a Christian tenderness, even a Christian +forgiveness. Or they inserted Christian endings, while they left the +rest of the stories as pagan as before. Later on, while the stories +were still learned by the bards and recited, they were written down, +and somewhat spoiled by a luxurious use of ornamental adjectives, and +by the weak, roving and uninventive fancy of men and monks aspiring to +literature but incapable of reaching it. + +However, in spite of all this intermingling and of the different forms +of the same story, it is possible for an intelligent and sensitive +criticism, well informed in comparative mythology and folklore, to +isolate what is very old in these tales from that which is less old, +and that in turn from that which is still less old, and that from what +is partly historical, medieval or modern. This has been done, with +endless controversy, by those excellent German, French, and Irish +scholars who have, with a thirsty pleasure, recreated the ancient +literature of Ireland, and given her once more a literary name among +the nations--a name which, having risen again, will not lose but +increase its brightness. + + * * * * * + +As to the stories themselves, they have certain well-marked +characteristics, and in dwelling on these, I shall chiefly refer, for +illustration, to the stories in this book. Some of these +characteristic elements belong to almost all mythological tales, and +arise from human imagination, in separated lands, working in the same +or in a similar way on the doings of Nature, and impersonating them. +The form, however, in which these original ideas are cast is, in each +people, modified and varied by the animal life, the climate, the +configuration of the country, the nearness of mountain ranges and of +the sea, the existence of wide forests or vast plains, of swift rivers +and great inland waters. + +The earliest tales of Ireland are crowded with the sea that wrapt the +island in its arms; and on the west and north the sea was the mighty +and mysterious Ocean, in whose far infinities lay for the Irish the +land of Immortal Youth. Between its shining shores and Ireland, +strange islands--dwelt in by dreadful or by fair and gracious +creatures, whose wonders Maeldun and Brendan visited--lay like jewels +on the green and sapphire waters. Out of this vast ocean emerged also +their fiercest enemies. Thither, beyond these islands into the +Unknown, over the waves on a fairy steed, went Oisín with Niam; +thither, in after years, sailed St Brendan, till it seemed he touched +America. In the ocean depths were fair cities and well-grassed lands +and cattle, which voyagers saw through water thin and clear. There, +too, Brian, one of the sons of Turenn, descended in his water-dress +and his crystal helmet, and found high-bosomed maidens weaving in a +shining hall. Into the land beneath the wave, Mananan, the proud god +of the sea brought Dermot and Finn and the Fianna to help him in his +wars, as is told in the story of the _Gilla Dacar_. On these western +seas, near the land, Lir's daughters, singing and floating, passed +three hundred years. On other seas, in the storm and in the freezing +sleet that trouble the dark waves of Moyle, between Antrim and the +Scottish isles, they spent another three centuries. Half the story of +the Sons of Usnach has to do with the crossing of seas and with the +coast. Even Cuchulain, who is a land hero, in one of the versions of +his death, dies fighting the sea-waves. The sound, the restlessness, +the calm, the savour and the infinite of the sea, live in a host of +these stories; and to cap all, the sea itself and Mananan its god +sympathise with the fates of Erin. When great trouble threatens +Ireland, or one of her heroes is near death, there are three huge +waves which, at three different points, rise, roaring, out of the +ocean, and roll, flooding every creek and bay and cave and river round +the whole coast with tidings of sorrow and doom. Later on, in the +Fenian tales, the sea is not so prominent. Finn and his clan are more +concerned with the land. Their work, their hunting and adventures +carry them over the mountains and plains, through the forests, and by +the lakes and rivers. In the stories there is scarcely any part of +Ireland which is not linked, almost geographically, with its scenery. +Even the ancient gods have retired from the coast to live in the +pleasant green hills or by the wooded shores of the great lakes or in +hearing of the soft murmur of the rivers. This business of the sea, +this varied aspect of the land, crept into the imagination of the +Irish, and were used by them to embroider and adorn their poems and +tales. They do not care as much for the doings of the sky. There does +not seem to be any supreme god of the heaven in their mythology. +Neither the sun nor the moon are specially worshipped. There are +sun-heroes like Lugh, but no isolated sun-god. The great beauty of the +cloud-tragedies of storm, the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, so +dramatic in Ireland, or the magnificence of the starry heavens, are +scarcely celebrated. But the Irish folk have heard the sound of the +wind in the tree-tops and marked its cold swiftness over the moor, and +watched with fear or love the mists of ocean and the bewilderment of +the storm-driven snow and the sweet falling of the dew. These are +fully celebrated. + +These great and small aspects of Nature are not only celebrated, they +are loved. One cannot read the stories in this book without feeling +that the people who conceived and made them observed Nature and her +ways with a careful affection, which seems to be more developed in the +Celtic folk than elsewhere in modern Europe. There is nothing which +resembles it in Teutonic story-telling. In the story of _The Children +of Lir_, though there is no set description of scenery, we feel the +spirit of the landscape by the lake where Lir listened for three +hundred years to the sweet songs of his children. And, as we read of +their future fate, we are filled with the solitude and mystery, the +ruthlessness and beauty of the ocean. Even its gentleness on quiet +days enters from the tale into our imagination. Then, too, the +mountain-glory and the mountain-gloom are again and again +imaginatively described and loved. The windings and recesses, the +darkness and brightness of the woods and the glades therein, enchant +the Fenians even when they are in mortal danger. And the waters of the +great lakes, the deep pools of the rivers, the rippling shallows, the +green banks, the brown rushing of the torrents, are all alive in the +prose and song of Ireland. How deep was the Irish love of these +delightful things is plain from their belief that "the place of the +revealing of poetry was always by the margin of water." And the Salmon +of Knowledge, the eating of which gave Finn his pre-eminence, swam in +a green pool, still and deep, over which hung a rowan tree that shed +its red berries on the stream. Lovely were the places whence Art and +Knowledge came. + +Then, as to all good landscape lovers, the beasts, birds, and insects +of Nature were dear to these ancient people. One of the things Finn +most cared for was not only his hounds, but the "blackbird singing on +Letterlee"; and his song, on page 114, in the praise of May, tells us +how keen was his observant eye for animal life and how much it +delighted him. The same minute realisation of natural objects is +illustrated in this book when King Iubdan explains to the servant the +different characteristics of the trees of the forest, and the mystic +elements that abide in them. It was a habit, even of Teutonic poets, +to tell of the various trees and their uses in verse, and Spenser and +Drayton have both done it in later times. But few of them have added, +as the Irish story does, a spiritual element to their description, and +made us think of malign or beneficent elements attached to them. The +woodbine, and this is a strange fancy, is the king of the woods. The +rowan is the tree of the magicians, and its berries are for poets. The +bramble is inimical to man, the alder is full of witchcraft, and the +elder is the wood of the horses of the fairies. Into every tree a +spiritual power is infused; and the good lords of the forest are loved +of men and birds and bees. + +Thus the Irish love of nature led them to spiritualise, in another way +than mythical, certain things in nature, and afterwards to humanise, +up to a certain point, the noble implements wrought by human skill out +of natural materials. And this is another element in all these +stories, as it is in the folk-lore also of other lands. In the tale of +the Sons of Turenn, the stones of the wayside tell to Lugh the story +of the death of his father Kian, and the boat of Mananan, indwelt by a +spirit, flies hither and thither over the seas, obeying the commands, +even the thought, of its steersman. The soul of some famed spears is +so hot for slaughter that, when it is not being used in battle, its +point must stand in a bath of blood or of drowsy herbs, lest it +should slay the host. The swords murmur and hiss and cry out for the +battle; the shield of the hero hums louder and louder, vibrating for +the encouragement of the warrior. Even the wheels of Cuchulain's +chariot roar as they whirl into the fight. This partial life given to +the weapons of war is not specially Celtic. Indeed, it is more common +in Teutonic than in Celtic legend, and it seems probable that it was +owing to the Norsemen that it was established in the Hero tales of +Ireland. + +This addition of life, or of some of the powers of life, to tree and +well and boulder-stone, to river and lake and hill, and sword and +spear, is common to all mythologies, but the special character of each +nation or tribe modifies the form of the life-imputing stories. In +Ireland the tree, the stream were not dwelt in by a separate living +being, as in Grecian story; the half-living powers they had were given +to them from without, by the gods, the demons, the fairies; and in the +case of the weapons, the powers they had of act or sound arose from +the impassioned thoughts and fierce emotions of their forger or their +wielder, which, being intense, were magically transferred to them. The +Celtic nature is too fond of reality, too impatient of illusion, to +believe in an actual living spirit in inanimate things. At least, that +is the case in the stories of the Hero and the Fenian Cycles.[5] + + [5] Everything, on the contrary, in the Mythological Cycle is + gifted with life, all the doings and things of nature are + represented as the work of living creatures; but it is quite + possible that those in Ireland who made these myths were not + Celts at all. + +What the Irish of the Heroic, and still more of the Fenian Cycle, did +make in their imagination was a world, outside of themselves, of +living spiritual beings, in whose actuality they fully believed, and +in whom a great number of them still believe. A nation, if I may use +this term, dwelt under the sea. Another dwelt in the far island of the +ocean, the Isle of the Ever-Young. Another dwelt in the land, in the +green hills and by the streams of Ireland; and these were the ancient +gods who had now lost their dominion over the country, but lived on, +with all their courtiers and warriors and beautiful women in a country +underground. As time went on, their powers were dwarfed, and they +became small of size, less beautiful, and in our modern times are less +inclined to enter into the lives of men and women. But the Irish +peasant still sees them flitting by his path in the evening light, or +dancing on the meadow round the grassy mound, singing and playing +strange melodies; or mourns for the child they have carried away to +live with them and forget her people, or watches with fear his +dreaming daughter who has been touched by them, and is never again +quite a child of this earth, or quite of the common race of man. + +These were the invisible lands and peoples of the Irish imagination; +and they live in and out of many of the stories. Cuchulain is lured +into a fairy-land, and lives for more than a year in love with Fand, +Mananan's wife. Into another fairy-land, through zones of mist, +Cormac, as is told here, was lured by Mananan, who now has left the +sea to play on the land. Oisín, as I have already said, flies with +Niam over the sea to the island of Eternal Youth. Etain, out of the +immortal land, is born into an Irish girl and reclaimed and carried +back to her native shore by Midir, a prince of the Fairy Host. Ethne, +whose story also is here, has lived for all her youth in the court of +Angus, deep in the hill beside the rushing of the Boyne. + +These stories are but a few out of a great number of the loves and +wars between the men and women of the human and the fairy races. +Curiously enough, as the stories become less ancient, the relations +between men and the fairies are more real, more close, even more +affectionate. Finn and the Fianna seem to be almost in daily +companionship with the fairy host--much nearer to them than the men of +the Heroic Cycle are to the gods. They interchange love and music and +battle and adventure with one another. They are, for the most part, +excellent friends; and their intercourse suffers from no doubt. It is +as real as the intercourse between Welsh and English on the +Borderland. + +There was nothing illusive, nothing merely imaginary, in these fairy +worlds for the Irish hero or the Irish people. They believed the lands +to be as real as their own, and the indwellers of fairyland to have +like passions with themselves. Finn is not a bit surprised when +Vivionn the giantess sits beside him on the hill, or Fergus when King +Iubdan stands on his hand; or St Patrick when Ethne, out of fairyland, +dies on his breast, or when he sees, at his spell, Cuchulain, dead +some nine hundred years, come forth out of the dark gates of Sheol, +high in his chariot, grasping his deadly spear, driven as of old by +his well-loved charioteer, drawn by the immortal steeds through the +mist, and finally talking of his deeds and claiming a place in the +Christian heaven--a place that Patrick yields to him. The invisible +worlds lived, loved, and thought around this visible world, and were, +it seems, closer and more real to the Celtic than to other races. + +But it was not only these agreeable and lovely folk in pleasant +habitations whom the Irish made, but also spirits of another sort, of +lesser powers and those chiefly malignant, having no fixed +dwelling-place, homeless in the air and drifting with it, embodying +the venomous and deadly elements of the earth and the angers and +cruelty of the sea, and the hypocrisy of them all--demons, some of +whom, like the stepmother of the children of Lir, have been changed +from men or women because of wicked doings, but the most part born of +the evil in Nature herself. They do what harm they can to innocent +folk; they enter into, support, and direct--like Macbeth's +witches--the evil thoughts of men; they rejoice in the battle, in the +wounds and pain and death of men; they shriek and scream and laugh +around the head of the hero when he goes forth, like Cuchulain, to an +unwearied slaughter of men. They make the blight, the deadly mist, the +cruel tempest. To deceive is their pleasure; to discourage, to baffle, +to ruin the hero is their happiness. Some of them are monsters of +terrific aspect who abide in lakes or in desolate rocks, as the +terrible tri-formed horse whom Fergus mac Leda conquered and by whom +he died. + +Naturally, as a link between these supernatural worlds and the natural +world, there arose a body of men and women in Irish legend who, by +years of study, gained a knowledge of, and power over, the +supernatural beings, and used these powers for hurt to the enemies of +their kingdom, or for help to their own people. Some were wise, +learned, and statesmanlike, and used their powers for good. These were +the high Druids, and every king had a band of them at his court and in +his wars. They practiced what the Middle Ages called white magic. +Others were wizards, magicians, witches, who, like the children of +Cailitin, the foes of Cuchulain, or the three mutilated women whom +Maev educated in evil craft to do evil to her foes, or the dread band +that deceived Cuchulain into his last ride of death, practised black +magic--evil, and the ministers of evil. Magic, and the doing of it, +runs through the whole of Irish story-telling, and not only into pagan +but also into Christian legend; for it was easy to change the old gods +into devils, to keep the demonic creatures as demons, to replace the +wise Druids by the priests and saints, and the wizards by the heretics +who gave themselves to sorcery. Thus the ancient supernaturalism of +the Irish has continued, with modern modifications, to the present +day. The body of thought is much the same as it was in the days of +Conor and Finn; the clothing is a bit different. + +Another characteristic of the stories, especially in the mythological +period, is the barbaric brutality which appears in them. Curiously +mingled with this, in direct contrast, is their tenderness. These +extreme contrasts are common in the Celtic nature. A Gael, whether of +Ireland or the Western Isles, will pass in a short time from the +wildest spirits, dancing and singing and drinking, into deep and grim +depression--the child of the present, whether in love or war; and in +the tales of Ireland there is a similar contrast between their +brutality and their tenderness. The sudden fierce jealousy and the +pitiless cruelty of their stepmother to the children of Lir is set +over against the exquisite tenderness of Fionnuala, which pervades the +story like an air from heaven. The noble tenderness of Deirdre, of +Naisi and his brothers, in life and death, to one another, is lovelier +in contrast with the savage and treacherous revenge of Conor. The +great pitifulness of Cuchulain's fight with his dear friend Ferdia, +whom he is compelled to slay; the crowning tenderness of Emer's +recollective love in song before she dies on Cuchulain's dead body, +are in full contrast with the savage hard-heartedness and cruelties of +Maev, and with the ruthless slaughters Cuchulain made of his foes, out +of which he seems often to pass, as it were, in a moment, into +tenderness and gracious speech. Even Finn, false for once to his +constant courtesy, revenges himself on Dermot so pitilessly that both +his son and grandson cry shame upon him. + +Of course this barbaric cruelty is common to all early periods in +every nation; and, whenever fierce passion is aroused, to civilised +nations also. What is remarkable in the Irish tales is the +contemporary tenderness. The Vikings were as savage as the Irish, but +the savagery is not mingled with the Irish tenderness. At last, when +we pass from the Hero Cycle into the Cycle of Finn, there is scarcely +any of the ancient brutality to be found in the host of romantic +stories which gather round the chivalry of the Fenians. + +There are other characteristics of these old tales on which I must +dwell. The first is the extra-ordinary love of colour. This is not a +characteristic of the early German, English or Scandinavian poems and +tales. Its remarkable presence in Scottish poetry, at a time when it +is scarcely to be found in English literature, I have traced elsewhere +to the large admixture of Celtic blood in the Lowlands of Scotland. In +early Irish work it is to be found everywhere. In descriptions of +Nature, which chiefly appear in the Fenian Cycle and in Christian +times, colour is not as much dwelt on as we should expect, for nowhere +that I have seen is it more delicate and varied than under the Irish +atmosphere. Yet, again and again, the amber colour of the streams as +they come from the boglands, and the crimson and gold of the +sunsetting, and the changing green of the trees, and the blue as it +varies and settles down on the mountains when they go to their rest, +and the green crystal of the sea in calm and the dark purple of it in +storm, and the white foam of the waves when they grow black in the +squall, and the brown of the moors, and the yellow and rose and +crimson of the flowers, and many another interchanging of colour, are +seen and spoken of as if it were a common thing always to dwell on +colour. This literary custom I do not find in any other Western +literature. It is even more remarkable in the descriptions of the +dress and weapons of the warriors and kings. They blaze with colour; +and as gold was plentiful in Ireland in those far-off days, yellow and +red are continually flashing in and out of the blue and green and rich +purple of their dress. The women are dressed in as rich colours as the +men. When Eochy met Etain by the spring of pure water, as told in this +book, she must have flashed in the sunlight like a great jewel. Then, +the halls where they met and the houses of the kings are represented +as glorious with colour, painted in rich patterns, hung with woven +cloths dyed deep with crimson and blue and green and yellow. The +common things in use, eating and drinking implements, the bags they +carry, the bed-clothing, the chess-men, the tables, are embroidered or +chased or set with red carbuncles or white stones or with interlacing +of gold. Colour is everywhere and everywhere loved. And where colour +is loved the arts flourish, as the decorative arts flourished in +Ireland. + +Lastly, on this matter, the Irish tale-tellers, even to the present +day, dwell with persistence on the colour of the human body as a +special loveliness, and with as much love of it as any Venetian when +he painted it. And they did this with a comparison of its colour to +the colours they observed in Nature, so that the colour of one was +harmonised with the colour of the other. I might quote many such +descriptions of the appearance of the warriors--they are +multitudinous--but the picture of Etain is enough to illustrate what I +say--"Her hair before she loosed it was done in two long tresses, +yellow like the flower of the waterflag in summer or like red gold. +Her hands were white as the snow of a single night, and her eyes as +blue as the dark hyacinth, and her lips red as the berries of the +rowan-tree, and her body as white as the foam of the sea-waves. The +radiance of the moon was in her face and the light of wooing in her +eyes." So much for the Irish love of colour.[6] + + [6] I give one example of the way colour was laid on to animals + just for the pleasure of it. "And the eagle and cranes were red + with green heads, and their eggs were pure crimson and blue"; + and deep in the wood the travellers found "strange birds with + white bodies and purple heads and golden beaks," and afterwards + three great birds, "one blue and his head crimson, and another + crimson and his head green, and another speckled and his head + gold." + +Their love of music was equally great; and was also connected with +Nature. "The sound of the flowing of streams," said one of their +bardic clan, "is sweeter than any music of men." "The harp of the +woods is playing music," said another. In Finn's Song to May, the +waterfall is singing a welcome to the pool below, the loudness of +music is around the hill, and in the green fields the stream is +singing. The blackbird, the cuckoo, the heron and the lark are the +musicians of the world. When Finn asks his men what music they thought +the best, each says his say, but Oisín answers, "The music of the +woods is sweetest to me, the sound of the wind and of the blackbird, +and the cuckoo and the soft silence of the heron." And Finn himself, +when asked what was his most beloved music, said first that it was +"the sharp whistling of the wind as it went through the uplifted +spears of the seven battalions of the Fianna," and this was fitting +for a hero to say. But when the poet in him spoke, he said his music +was the crying of the sea-gull, and the noise of the waves, and the +voice of the cuckoo when summer was at hand, and the washing of the +sea against the shore, and of the tide when it met the river of the +White Trout, and of the wind rushing through the cloud. And many other +sayings of the same kind this charming and poetic folk has said +concerning those sweet, strong sounds in Nature out of which the music +of men was born. + +Again, there is not much music in the Mythological Tales. Lugh, it is +true, is a great harper, and the harp of the Dagda, into which he has +bound his music, plays a music at whose sound all men laugh, and +another so that all men weep, and another so enthralling that all fall +asleep; and these three kinds of music are heard through all the +Cycles of Tales. Yet when the old gods of the mythology became the +Sidhe,[7] the Fairy Host, they--having left their barbaric life +behind--became great musicians. In every green hill where the tribes +of fairy-land lived, sweet, wonderful music was heard all day--such +music that no man could hear but he would leave all other music to +listen to it, which "had in it sorrows that man has never felt, and +joys for which man has no name, and it seemed as if he who heard it +might break from time into eternity and be one of the immortals." And +when Finn and his people lived, they, being in great harmony and union +with the Sidhe, heard in many adventures with them their lovely music, +and it became their own. Indeed, Finn, who had twelve musicians, had +as their chief one of the Fairy Host who came to dwell with him, a +little man who played airs so divine that all weariness and sorrow +fled away. And from him Finn's musicians learnt a more enchanted art +than they had known before. And so it came to pass that as in every +fairy dwelling there was this divine art, so in every palace and +chieftain's hall, and in every farm, there were harpers harping on +their harps, and all the land was full of sweet sounds and +airs--shaping in music, imaginative war, and sorrows, and joys, and +aspiration. Nor has their music failed. Still in the west and south of +Ireland, the peasant, returning home, hears, as the evening falls from +the haunted hills, airs unknown before, or at midnight a wild +triumphant song from the Fairy Host rushing by, or wakes with a dream +melody in his heart. And these are played and sung next day to the +folk sitting round the fire. Many who heard these mystic sounds became +themselves the makers of melodies, and went about the land singing and +making and playing from village to village and cabin to cabin, till +the unwritten songs of Ireland were as numerous as they were various. +Moore collected a hundred and twenty of them, but of late more than +five hundred he knew not of have been secured from the people and from +manuscripts for the pleasure of the world. And in them lives on the +spirit of the Fianna, and the mystery of the Fairy Host, and the long +sorrow and the fleeting joy of the wild weather in the heart of the +Irish race. + + [7] This word is pronounced Shee, and means "the folk of the + fairy mounds." + +As to the poetry of Ireland, that other Art which is illustrated in +this book, so fully has it been dwelt on by many scholars and critics +that it needs not be touched here other than lightly and briefly. The +honour and dignity of the art of poetry goes back in Irish mythology +to a dim antiquity. The ancient myth said that the nine hazels of +wisdom grew round a deep spring beneath the sea, and the hazels were +the hazels of inspiration and of poetry--so early in Ireland were +inspiration and poetry made identical with wisdom. Seven streams of +wisdom flowed from that fountain-head, and when they had fed the world +returned to it again. And all the art-makers of mankind, and of all +arts, have drunk of their waters. Five salmon in the spring ate of the +hazel nuts, and some haunted the rivers of Ireland; and whosoever, +like Finn, tasted the flesh of these immortal fish, was possessed of +the wisdom which is inspiration and poetry. Such was the ancient Irish +conception of the art of poetry. + +It is always an art which grows slowly into any excellence, and it +needs for such growth a quieter life than the Irish lived for many +centuries. Poems appear but rarely in the mythological or heroic +cycles, and are loosely scattered among the prose of the bardic tales. +A few are of war, but they are chiefly dirges like the Song of Emer +over the dead body of Cuchulain, or that of Deirdre over +Naisi--pathetic wailings for lost love. There is an abrupt and pitiful +pain in the brief songs of Fionnuala, but I fancy these were made and +inserted in Christian times. Poetry was more at home among the Fianna. +The conditions of life were easier; there was more leisure and more +romance. And the other arts, which stimulate poetry, were more widely +practised than in the earlier ages. Finn's Song to May, here +translated, is of a good type, frank and observant, with a fresh air +in it, and a fresh pleasure in its writing. I have no doubt that at +this time began the lyric poetry of Ireland, and it reached, under +Christian influences, a level of good, I can scarcely say excellent, +work, at a time when no other lyrical poetry in any vernacular existed +in Europe or the Islands. It was religious, mystic, and chiefly +pathetic--prayers, hymns, dirges, regrets in exile, occasional stories +of the saints whose legendary acts were mixed with pagan elements, and +most of these were adorned with illustrations drawn from natural +beauty or from the doings of birds and beasts--a great affection for +whom is prominent in the Celtic nature. The Irish poets sent this +lyric impulse into Iceland, Wales, and Scotland, and from Scotland +into England; and the rise of English vernacular poetry instead of +Latin in the seventh and eighth centuries is due to the impulse given +by the Irish monasteries at Whitby and elsewhere in Northumbria. The +first rude lyric songs of Cædmon were probably modelled on the hymns +of Colman. + +One would think that poetry, which arose so early in a nation's life, +would have developed fully. But this was not the case in Ireland. No +narrative, dramatic, didactic, or epic poetry of any importance arose, +and many questions and answers might be made concerning this curious +restriction of development. The most probable solution of this problem +is that there was never enough peace in Ireland or continuity of +national existence or unity, to allow of a continuous development of +any one of the arts into all its forms. Irish poetry never advanced +beyond the lyric. In that form it lasted all through the centuries; it +lasts still at the present day, and Douglas Hyde has proved how much +charm belongs to it in his book on the _Love Songs of Connacht_. + +It has had a long, long history; it has passed through many phases; it +has sung of love and sorrow, of national wars and hopes, of Ireland +herself as the Queen of Sorrow, of exile regrets from alien shores, of +rebellion, of hatred of England, of political strife, in ballads sung +in the streets, of a thousand issues of daily life and death--but of +world-wide affairs, of great passions and duties and fates evolving in +epic or clashing in drama, of continuous human lives in narrative +(except in prose), of the social life of cities or of philosophic +thought enshrined in stately verse, it has not sung. What it may do in +the future, if Irish again becomes a tongue of literature in lofty +poetry, lies on the knees of the gods. I wish it well, but such a +development seems now too late. The Irish genius, if it is to speak in +drama, in narrative poetry or in an epic, must speak, if it is to +influence or to charm the world beyond the Irish shore, in a +world-language like English, and of international as well as of Irish +humanity. + +These elements on which I have dwelt seem to me the most distinctive, +the most Irish, in the Tales in this book. There are many others on +which a more minute analysis might exercise itself, phases of feeling +concerning war or love or friendship or honour or the passions, but +these are not specially Irish. They belong to common human nature, and +have their close analogies in other mythologies, in other Folk-tales, +in other Sagas. I need not touch them here. But there is one element +in all the Irish tales which I have not yet mentioned, and it brings +all the others within its own circumference, and suffuses them with +its own atmosphere. It is the love of Ireland, of the land itself for +its own sake--a mystic, spiritual imaginative passion which in the +soul of the dweller in the country is a constant joy, and in the heart +of the exile is a sick yearning for return. There are not many direct +expressions of this in the stories; but it underlies the whole of +them, and it is also in the air they breathe. But now and again it +does find clear expression, and in each of the cycles we have +discussed. When the sons of Turenn are returning, wounded to death, +from the Hill of Mochaen, they felt but one desire. "Let us but see," +said Iuchar and Iucharba to their brother Brian, "the land of Erin +again, the hills round Telltown, and the dewy plain of Bregia and the +quiet waters of the Boyne and our father's Dún thereby, and healing +will come to us; or if death come, we can endure it after that." Then +Brian raised them up; and they saw that they were now near by under +Ben Edar; and at the strand of the Bull they came to land. That is +from the Mythological Cycle. + +In the Heroic Cycle it appears in the longing cry for return to +Ireland of Naisi and his brothers, which drives them out of Alba to +their death; but otherwise it is rarely expressed. In the Fenian Cycle +it exists, not in any clear words, but in a general delight in the +rivers, lakes, woods, valleys, plains, and mountains of Ireland. Every +description of them, and of life among them, is done with a loving, +observant touch; and moreover, the veil of magic charm is thrown over +all the land by the creation in it of the life and indwelling of the +fairy host. The Fianna loved their country well. + +When Christianity came, this deep-set sentiment did not lessen. It +grew even stronger, and in exile it became a passion. It is +illustrated by the songs of deep regret and affection Columba made in +Iona, from whose rocky shores he looked day after day towards the west +while the mists rose over Ireland. One little story of great beauty +enshrines his passion. One morning he called to his side one of his +monks, and said, "Go to the margin of the sea on the western side of +our isle; and there, coming from the north of Ireland, you will see a +voyaging crane, very weary and beaten by the storms, and it will fall +at your feet on the beach. Lift it up with pity and carry it to the +hut, nourish it for three days, and when it is refreshed and strong +again it will care no more to stay with us in exile, but to fly back +to sweet Ireland, the dear country where it was born. I charge you +thus, for it comes from the land where I was born myself." And when +his servant returned, having done as he was ordered, Columba said, +"May God bless you, my son. Since you have well cared for our exiled +guest, you will see it return to its own land in three days." And so +it was. It rose, sought its path for a moment through the sky, and +took flight on a steady wing for Ireland. The spirit of that story has +never died in the soul of the Irish and in their poetry up to the +present day. + +Lastly, as we read these stories, even in a modern dress, an +impression of great ancientry is made upon us, so much so that some +scholars have tried to turn Finn into a mythical hero--but if he be as +old as that implies, of how great an age must be the clearly mythic +tales which gather round the Tuatha de Danaan? However this may be, +the impression of ancientry is deep and agreeable. All myths in any +nation are, of course, of a high antiquity, but as they treat of the +beginning of things, they mingle an impression of youth with one of +age. This is very pleasant to the imagination, and especially so if +the myths, as in Ireland, have some poetic beauty or strangeness, as +in the myth I have referred to--of the deep spring of clear water and +the nine hazels of wisdom that encompass it. This mingling of the +beauty of youth and the honour of ancientry runs through all the Irish +tales. Youth and the love of it, of its beauty and strength, adorn and +vitalize their grey antiquity. But where, in their narrative, the +hero's youth is over and the sword weak in his hand, and the passion +less in his and his sweetheart's blood, life is represented as +scarcely worth the living. The famed men and women die young--the sons +of Turenn, Cuchulain, Conall, Dermot, Emer, Deirdre, Naisi, Oscar. +Oisín has three hundred years of youth in that far land in the +invention of which the Irish embodied their admiration of love and +youth. His old age, when sudden feebleness overwhelms him, is made by +the bardic clan as miserable, as desolate as his youth was joyous. +Again, Finn lives to be an old man, but the immortal was in him, and +either he has been born again in several re-incarnations (for the +Irish held from time to time the doctrine of the transmigration of +souls), or he sleeps, like Barbarossa, in a secret cavern, with all +his men around him, and beside him the mighty horn of the Fianna, +which, when the day of fate and freedom comes, will awaken with three +loud blasts the heroes and send them forth to victory. Old as she is, +Ireland does not grow old, for she has never reached her maturity. Her +full existence is before her, not behind her. And when she reaches it +her ancientry and all its tales will be dearer to her than they have +been in the past. They will be an inspiring national asset. In them +and in their strange admixture of different and successive periods of +customs, thoughts and emotions (caused by the continuous editing and +re-editing of them, first in oral recitation and then at the hands of +scribes), Ireland will see the record of her history, not the history +of external facts, but of her soul as it grew into consciousness of +personality; as it established in itself love of law, of moral right, +of religion, of chivalry, of courtesy in war and daily life; as it +rejoiced, and above all, as it suffered and was constant, in suffering +and oppression, to its national ideals. + +It seems as if, once at least, this aspect of the tales of Ireland was +seen by men of old, for there is a story which tells that heaven +itself desired their remembrance, and that we should be diverted and +inspired by them. In itself it is a record of the gentleness of Irish +Christianity to Irish heathendom, and of its love of the heroic past. +For one day when Patrick and his clerks were singing the Mass at the +Rath of the Red Ridge, where Finn was wont to be, he saw Keelta, a +chief of the Fianna, draw near with his companions, and Keelta's huge +hounds were with him. They were men so tall and great that fear fell +on the clerks, but Patrick met with and asked their chieftain's name. +"I am Keelta," he answered, "son of Ronan of the Fianna." "Was it not +a good lord you were with," said Patrick, "Finn, son of Cumhal?" And +Keelta said, "If the brown leaves falling in the wood were gold, if +the waves of the sea were silver, Finn would have given them all +away." "What was it kept you through your lifetime?" said Patrick. +"Truth that was in our hearts, and strength in our hands, and +fulfilment in our tongues," said Keelta. Then Patrick gave them food +and drink and good treatment, and talked with them. And in the morning +the two angels who guarded him came to him, and he asked them if it +were any harm before God, King of heaven and earth, that he should +listen to the stories of the Fianna. And the angels answered, "Holy +Clerk, these old fighting men do not remember more than a third of +their tales by reason of the forgetfulness of age, but whatever they +tell write it down on the boards of the poets and in the words of the +poets, for it will be a diversion to the companies and the high people +of the latter times to listen to them."[8] So spoke the angels, and +Patrick did as he bade them, and the stories are in the world to this +day. + + [8] This is quoted with a few omissions, from Lady Gregory's + delightful version, in her _Book of Saints and Wonders_, of an + episode in _The Colloquy of the Ancients_ (Silva Gadelica). + +STOPFORD A. BROOKE + +ST PATRICK'S DAY, 1910 + + + + +COIS NA TEINEADH + +(_By the Fireside._) + + + Where glows the Irish hearth with peat + There lives a subtle spell-- + The faint blue smoke, the gentle heat, + The moorland odours, tell + + Of long roads running through a red + Untamed unfurrowed land, + With curlews keening overhead, + And streams on either hand; + + Black turf-banks crowned with whispering sedge, + And black bog-pools below; + While dry stone wall or ragged hedge + Leads on, to meet the glow + + From cottage doors, that lure us in + From rainy Western skies, + To seek the friendly warmth within, + The simple talk and wise; + + Or tales of magic, love and arms + From days when princes met + To listen to the lay that charms + The Connacht peasant yet. + + There Honour shines through passions dire, + There beauty blends with mirth-- + Wild hearts, ye never did aspire + Wholly for things of earth! + + Cold, cold this thousand years--yet still + On many a time-stained page + Your pride, your truth, your dauntless will, + Burn on from age to age. + + And still around the fires of peat + Live on the ancient days; + There still do living lips repeat + The old and deathless lays. + + And when the wavering wreaths ascend, + Blue in the evening air, + The soul of Ireland seems to bend + Above her children there. + + + + +BARDIC ROMANCES + +CHAPTER I + +The Story of the Children of Lir + + +Long ago there dwelt in Ireland the race called by the name of De +Danaan, or People of the Goddess Dana. They were a folk who delighted +in beauty and gaiety, and in fighting and feasting, and loved to go +gloriously apparelled, and to have their weapons and household vessels +adorned with jewels and gold. They were also skilled in magic arts, +and their harpers could make music so enchanting that a man who heard +it would fight, or love, or sleep, or forget all earthly things, as +they who touched the strings might will him to do. In later times the +Danaans had to dispute the sovranty of Ireland with another race, the +Children of Miled, whom men call the Milesians, and after much +fighting they were vanquished. Then, by their sorceries and +enchantments, when they could not prevail against the invaders, they +made themselves invisible, and they have dwelt ever since in the Fairy +Mounds and raths of Ireland, where their shining palaces are hidden +from mortal eyes. They are now called the Shee, or Fairy Folk of +Erinn, and the faint strains of unearthly music that may be heard at +times by those who wander at night near to their haunts come from the +harpers and pipers who play for the People of Dana at their revels in +the bright world underground. + +At the time when the tale begins, the People of Dana were still the +lords of Ireland, for the Milesians had not yet come. They were +divided it is said, into many families and clans; and it seemed good +to them that their chiefs should assemble together, and choose one to +be king and ruler over the whole people. So they met in a great +assembly for this purpose, and found that five of the greatest lords +all desired the sovranty of Erin. These five were Bóv the Red, and +Ilbrech of Assaroe, and Lir from the Hill of the White Field, which is +on Slieve Fuad in Armagh; and Midir the Proud, who dwelt at Slieve +Callary in Longford; and Angus of Brugh na Boyna, which is now +Newgrange on the river Boyne, where his mighty mound is still to be +seen. All the Danaan lords saving these five went into council +together, and their decision was to give the sovranty to Bóv the Red, +partly because he was the eldest, partly because his father was the +Dagda, mightiest of the Danaans, and partly because he was himself the +most deserving of the five. + +All were content with this, save only Lir, who thought himself the +fittest for royal rule; so he went away from the assembly in anger, +taking leave of no one. When this became known, the Danaan lords would +have pursued Lir, to burn his palace and inflict punishment and +wounding on himself for refusing obedience and fealty to him whom the +assembly had chosen to reign over them. But Bóv the Red forbade them, +for he would not have war among the Danaans; and he said, "I am none +the less King of the People of Dana because this man will not do +homage to me." + +Thus it went on for a long time. But at last a great misfortune befell +Lir, for his wife fell ill, and after three nights she died. Sorely +did Lir grieve for this, and he fell into a great dejection of spirit, +for his wife was very dear to him and was much thought of by all folk, +so that her death was counted one of the great events of that time. + +Now Bóv the Red came ere long to hear of it, and he said, "If Lir +would choose to have my help and friendship now, I can serve him well, +for his wife is no longer living, and I have three maidens, daughters +of a friend, in fosterage with me, namely, Eva and Aoife[9] and Elva, +and there are none fairer and of better name in Erin; one of these he +might take to wife." And the lords of the Danaans heard what he said, +and answered that it was true and well bethought. So messengers were +sent to Lir, to say that if he were willing to yield the sovranty to +Bóv the Red, he might make alliance with him and wed one of his +foster-children. To Lir, having been thus gently entreated, it seemed +good to end the feud, and he agreed to the marriage. So the following +day he set out with a train of fifty chariots from the Hill of the +White Field and journeyed straight for the palace of Bóv the Red, +which was by Lough Derg on the river Shannon. + + [9] Pronounced Eefa. + +Arriving there, he found about him nothing but joy and glad faces, for +the renewal of amity and concord; and his people were welcomed, and +well entreated, and handsomely entertained for the night. + +[Illustration: "There sat the three maidens with the Queen"] + +And there sat the three maidens on the same couch with the Danaan +Queen, and Bóv the Red bade Lir choose which one he would have to +wife. + +"The maidens are all fair and noble," said Lir, "but the eldest is +first in consideration and honour, and it is she that I will take, if +she be willing." + +"The eldest is Eva," said Bóv the Red, "and she will wed thee if it be +pleasing to thee." "It is pleasing," said Lir, and the pair were +wedded the same night. Lir abode for fourteen days in the palace of +Bóv the Red, and then departed with his bride, to make a great +wedding-feast among his own people. + +In due time after this Eva, wife of Lir, bore him two fair children at +a birth, a daughter and a son. The daughter's name was called +Fionnuala of the Fair Shoulder, and the son's name was Hugh. And +again she bore him two sons, Fiachra and Conn; and at their birth she +died. At this Lir was sorely grieved and afflicted, and but for the +great love he bore to his four children he would gladly have died too. + +When the folk at the palace of Bóv the Red heard that, they also were +sorely grieved at the death of their foster-child, and they lamented +her with keening and with weeping. Bóv the Red said, "We grieve for +this maiden on account of the good man we gave her to, and for his +friendship and fellowship; howbeit our friendship shall not be +sundered, for we shall give him to wife her sister, namely Aoife." + +Word of this was brought to Lir, and he went once more to Lough Derg +to the palace of Bóv the Red and there he took to wife Aoife, the fair +and wise, and brought her to his own home. And Aoife held the children +of Lir and of her sister in honour and affection; for indeed no one +could behold these four children without giving them the love of his +soul. + +For love of them, too, came Bóv the Red often to the house of Lir, and +he would take them to his own house at times and let them spend a +while there, and then to their own home again. All of the People of +Dana who came visiting and feasting to Lir had joy and delight in the +children, for their beauty and gentleness; and the love of their +father for them was exceeding great, so that he would rise very early +every morning to lie down among them and play with them. + +Only, alas! a fire of jealousy began to burn at last in the breast of +Aoife, and hatred and bitter ill-will grew in her mind towards the +children of Lir. And she feigned an illness, and lay under it for the +most of a year, meditating a black and evil deed. At last she said +that a journey from home might recover her, and she bade her chariot +be yoked and set out, taking with her the four children. Fionnuala was +sorely unwilling to go with her on that journey, for she had a +misgiving, and a prevision of treachery and of kin-slaying against her +in the mind of Aoife. Yet she was not able to avoid the mischief that +was destined for her. + +So Aoife journeyed away from the Hill of the White Field, and when she +had come some way she spoke to her people and said, "Kill me, I pray +ye, the four children of Lir, who have taken the love of their father +from me, and ye may ask of me what reward ye will." "Not so," said +they, "by us they shall never be killed; it is an evil deed that you +have thought of, and evil it is but to have spoken of it." + +When they would not consent to her will, she drew a sword and would +have slain the children herself, but her womanhood overcame her and +she could not. So they journeyed on westward till they came to the +shores of Loch Derryvaragh, and there they made a halt and the horses +were outspanned. Aoife bade the children bathe and swim in the lake, +and they did so. Then Aoife by Druid spells and witchcraft put upon +each of the children the form of a pure white swan, and she cried to +them:-- + + "Out on the lake with you, children of Lir! + Cry with the water-fowl over the mere! + Breed and seed of you ne'er shall I see; + Woeful the tale to your friends shall be." + +Then the four swans turned their faces towards the woman, and +Fionnuala spoke to her and said, "Evil is thy deed, Aoife, to destroy +us thus without a cause, and think not that thou shalt escape +punishment for it. Assign us even some period to the ruin and +destruction that thou hast brought upon us." + +"I shall do that," said Aoife, "and it is this: in your present forms +shall ye abide, and none shall release you till the woman of the South +be mated with the man of the North. Three hundred years shall ye be +upon the waters of Derryvaragh, and three hundred upon the Straits of +Moyle between Erinn and Alba,[10] and three hundred in the seas by +Erris and Inishglory, and then shall the enchantment have an end." + + [10] Scotland. Inishglory is an island in the Bay of Erris, on + the Mayo coast. + +Upon this, Aoife was smitten with repentance, and she said, "Since I +may not henceforth undo what has been done, I give you this, that ye +shall keep your human speech, and ye shall sing a sad music such as no +music in the world can equal, and ye shall have your reason and your +human will, that the bird-shape may not wholly destroy you." Then she +became as one possessed, and cried wildly like a prophetess in her +trance:-- + + "Ye with the white faces! Ye with the stammering + Gaelic on your tongues! + Soft was your nurture in the King's house-- + Now shall ye know the buffeting wind! + Nine hundred years upon the tide. + + "The heart of Lir shall bleed! + None of his victories shall stead him now! + Woe to me that I shall hear his groan, + Woe that I have deserved his wrath!" + +Then they caught and yoked her horses, and Aoife went on her way till +she reached the palace of Bóv the Red. Here she and her folk were +welcomed and entertained, and Bóv the Red inquired of her why she had +not brought with her the children of Lir. + +"I brought them not," she replied, "because Lir loves thee not, and he +fears that if he sends his children to thee, thou wouldst capture them +and hold them for hostages." + +"That is strange," said Bóv the Red, "for I love those children as if +they were my own." And his mind misgave him that some treachery had +been wrought; and he sent messengers privily northwards to the Hill of +the White Field. "For what have ye come?" asked Lir. "Even to bring +your children to Bóv the Red," said they. "Did they not reach you with +Aoife?" said Lir. "Nay," said the messengers, "but Aoife said you +would not permit them to go with her." + +Then fear and trouble came upon Lir, for he surmised that Aoife had +wrought evil upon the children. So his horses were yoked and he set +out upon his road south-westward, until he reached the shores of Loch +Derryvaragh. But as he passed by that water, Fionnuala saw the train +of horsemen and chariots, and she cried to her brothers to come near +to the shore, "for," said she, "these can only be the company of our +father who have come to follow and seek for us." + +Lir, by the margin of the lake, saw the four swans and heard them +talking with human voices, and he halted and spoke to them. Then said +Fionnuala: "Know, O Lir, that we are thy four children, and that she +who has wrought this ruin upon us is thy wife and our mother's sister, +through the bitterness of her jealousy." Lir was glad to know that +they were at least living, and he said, "Is it possible to put your +own forms upon you again?" "It is not possible," said Fionnuala, "for +all the men on earth could not release us until the woman of the South +be mated with the man of the North." Then Lir and his people cried +aloud in grief and lamentation, and Lir entreated the swans to come on +land and abide with him since they had their human reason and speech. +But Fionnuala said, "That may not be, for we may not company with men +any longer, but abide on the waters of Erinn nine hundred years. But +we have still our Gaelic speech, and moreover we have the gift of +uttering sad music, so that no man who hears it thinks aught worth in +the world save to listen to that music for ever. Do you abide by the +shore for this night and we shall sing to you." + +So Lir and his people listened all night to the singing of the swans, +nor could they move nor speak till morning, for all the high sorrows +of the world were in that music, and it plunged them in dreams that +could not be uttered. + +Next day Lir took leave of his children and went on to the palace of +Bóv the Red. Bóv reproached him that he had not brought with him his +children. "Woe is me," said Lir, "it was not I that would not bring +them; but Aoife there, your own foster-child and their mother's +sister, put upon them the forms of four snow-white swans, and there +they are on the Loch of Derryvaragh for all men to see; but they have +kept still their reason and their human voice and their Gaelic." + +Bóv the Red started when he heard this, and he knew that what Lir had +said was true. Fiercely he turned to Aoife, and said, "This treachery +will be worse, Aoife, for you than for them, for they shall be +released in the end of time, but thy punishment shall be for ever." +Then he smote her with a druid wand and she became a Demon of the Air, +and flew shrieking from the hall, and in that form she abides to this +day. + +[Illustration: "They made an encampment and the swans sang to them"] + +As for Bóv the Red, he came with his nobles and attendants to the +shores of Loch Derryvaragh, and there they made an encampment, and the +swans conversed with them and sang to them. And as the thing became +known, other tribes and clans of the People of Dana would also come +from every part of Erinn and stay awhile to listen to the swans and +depart again to their homes; and most of all came their own friends +and fellow-pupils from the Hill of the White Field. No such music as +theirs, say the historians of ancient times, ever was heard in Erinn, +for foes who heard it were at peace, and men stricken with pain or +sickness felt their ills no more; and the memory of it remained with +them when they went away, so that a great peace and sweetness and +gentleness was in the land of Erinn for those three hundred years that +the swans abode in the waters of Derryvaragh. + +But one day Fionnuala said to her brethren, "Do ye know, my dear +ones, that the end of our time here is come, all but this night only?" +Then great sorrow and distress overcame them, for in the converse with +their father and kinsfolk and friends they had half forgotten that +they were no longer men, and they loved their home on Loch +Derryvaragh, and feared the angry waves of the cold northern sea. But +early next day they came to the lough-side to speak with Bóv the Red +and with their father, and to bid them farewell, and Fionnuala sang to +them her last lament. Then the four swans rose in the air and flew +northward till they were seen no more, and great was the grief among +those they left behind; and Bóv the Red let it be proclaimed +throughout the length and breadth of Erin that no man should +henceforth presume to kill a swan, lest it might chance to be one of +the children of Lir. + +Far different was the dwelling-place which the swans now came to, from +that which they had known on Loch Derryvaragh. On either side of them, +to north and south, stretched a wide coast far as the eye could see, +beset with black rocks and great precipices, and by it ran fiercely +the salt, bitter tides of an ever-angry sea, cold, grey, and misty; +and their hearts sank to behold it and to think that there they must +abide for three hundred years. + +Ere long, one night, there came a thick murky tempest upon them, and +Fionnuala said, "In this black and violent night, my brothers, we may +be driven apart from each other; let us therefore appoint a +meeting-place where we may come together again when the tempest is +overpast." And they settled to meet at the Seal Rock, for this rock +they had now all learned to know. + +By midnight the hurricane descended upon the Straits of Moyle, and the +waves roared upon the coast with a deafening noise, and thunder +bellowed from the sky, and lightning was all the light they had. The +swans were driven apart by the violence of the storm, and when at last +the wind fell and the seas grew calm once more, Fionnuala found +herself alone upon the ocean-tide not far from the Seal Rock. And thus +she made her lament:-- + + "Woe is me to be yet alive! + My wings are frozen to my sides. + Wellnigh has the tempest shattered my heart, + And my comely Hugh parted from me! + + "O my beloved ones, my Three, + Who slept under the shelter of my feathers, + Shall you and I ever meet again + Until the dead rise to life? + + "Where is Fiachra, where is Hugh? + Where is my fair Conn? + Shall I henceforth bear my part alone? + Woe is me for this disastrous night!" + +Fionnuala remained upon the Seal Rock until the morrow morn, watching +the tossing waters in all directions around her, until at last she saw +Conn coming towards her, and his head drooping and feathers drenched +and disarrayed. Joyfully did the sister welcome him; and ere long, +behold, Fiachra also approaching them, cold and wet and faint, and the +speech was frozen in him that not a word he spake could be understood. +So Fionnuala put her wings about him, and said, "If but Hugh came now, +how happy should we be!" + +In no long time after that they saw Hugh also approaching them across +the sea, and his head was dry and his feathers fair and unruffled, for +he had found shelter from the gale. Fionnuala put him under her +breast, and Conn under her right wing and Fiachra under her left, and +covered them wholly with her feathers. "O children," she said to them, +"evil though ye think this night to have been, many such a one shall +we know from this time forward." + +So there the swans continued, suffering cold and misery upon the tides +of Moyle; and one while they would be upon the coast of Alba and +another upon the coast of Erinn, but the waters they might not leave. +At length there came upon them a night of bitter cold and snow such +as they had never felt before, and Fionnuala sang this lament:-- + + "Evil is this life. + The cold of this night, + The thickness of the snow, + The sharpness of the wind-- + + "How long have they lain together, + Under my soft wings, + The waves beating upon us, + Conn and Hugh and Fiachra? + + "Aoife has doomed us, + Us, the four of us, + To-night to this misery-- + Evil is this life." + +Thus for a long time they suffered, till at length there came upon the +Straits of Moyle a night of January so piercing cold that the like of +it had never been felt. And the swans were gathered together upon the +Seal Rock. The waters froze into ice around them, and each of them +became frozen in his place, so that their feet and feathers clung to +the rock; and when the day came and they strove to leave the place, +the skin of their feet and the feathers of their breasts clove to the +rock, they came naked and wounded away. + +"Woe is me, O children of Lir," said Fionnuala, "we are now indeed in +evil case, for we cannot endure the salt water, yet we may not be away +from it; and if the salt water gets into our sores we shall perish of +it." And thus she sang:-- + + "To-night we are full of keening; + No plumage to cover our bodies; + And cold to our tender feet + Are the rough rocks all awash. + + "Cruel to us was Aoife, + Who played her magic upon us, + And drove us out to the ocean, + Four wonderful, snow-white swans. + + "Our bath is the frothing brine + In the bay by red rocks guarded, + For mead at our father's table + We drink of the salt blue sea. + + "Three sons and a single daughter-- + In clefts of the cold rocks dwelling, + The hard rocks, cruel to mortals. + --We are full of keening to-night." + +So they went forth again upon the Straits of Moyle, and the brine was +grievously sharp and bitter to them, but they could not escape it nor +shelter themselves from it. Thus they were, till at last their +feathers grew again and their sores were healed. + +On one day it happened that they came to the mouth of the river Bann +in the north of Erinn, and there they perceived a fair host of +horsemen riding on white steeds and coming steadily onward from the +south-west "Do ye know who yon riders are, children of Lir?" asked +Fionnuala. "We know not," said they, "but it is like they are some +party of the People of Dana." Then they moved to the margin of the +land, and the company they had seen came down to meet them; and +behold, it was Hugh and Fergus, the two sons of Bóv the Red, and their +nobles and attendants with them, who had long been seeking for the +swans along the coast of the Straits of Moyle. + +Most lovingly and joyfully did they greet each other and the swans +inquired concerning their father Lir, and Bóv the Red, and the rest of +their kinsfolk. + +"They are well," said the Danaans; "and at this time they are all +assembled together in the palace of your father at the Hill of the +White Field, where they are holding the Festival of the Age of +Youth.[11] They are happy and gay and have no weariness or trouble, +save that you are not among them, and that they have not known where +you were since you left them at Lough Derryvaragh." + + [11] A magic banquet which had the effect of preserving for + ever the youth of the People of Dana. + +"That is not the tale of our lives," said Fionnuala. + +After that the company of the Danaans departed and brought word of the +swans to Bóv the Red and to Lir, who were rejoiced to hear that they +were living, "for," said they, "the children shall obtain relief in +the end of time." And the swans went back to the tides of Moyle and +abode there till their time to be in that place had expired. + +When that day had come, Fionnuala declared it to them, and they rose +up wheeling in the air, and flew westward across Ireland till they +came to the Bay of Erris, and there they abode as was ordained. Here +it happened that among those of mortal MEN whose dwellings bordered on +the bay was a young man of gentle blood, by name Evric, who having +heard the singing of the swans came down to speak with them, and +became their friend. After that he would often come to hear their +music, for it was very sweet to him; and he loved them greatly, and +they him. All their story they told him, and he it was who set it +down in order, even as it is here narrated. + +Much hardship did they suffer from cold and tempest in the waters of +the Western Sea, yet not so much as they had to bear by the coasts of +the ever-stormy Moyle, and they knew that the day of redemption was +now drawing near. In the end of the time Fionnuala said, "Brothers, +let us fly to the Hill of the White Field, and see how Lir our father +and his household are faring." So they arose and set forward on their +airy journey until they reached the Hill of the White Field, and thus +it was that they found the place: namely, desolate and thorny before +them, with nought but green mounds where once were the palaces and +homes of their kin, and forests of nettles growing over them, and +never a house nor a hearth. And the four drew closely together and +lamented aloud at that sight, for they knew that old times and things +had passed away in Erinn, and they were lonely in a land of strangers, +where no man lived who could recognise them when they came to their +human shapes again. They knew not that Lir and their kin of the People +of Dana yet dwelt invisible in the bright world within the Fairy +Mounds, for their eyes were holden that they should not see, since +other things were destined for them than to join the Danaan folk and +be of the company of the immortal Shee. + +So they went back again to the Western Sea until the holy Patrick +came into Ireland and preached the Faith of the One God and of the +Christ. But a man of Patrick's men, namely the Saint Mochaovóg,[12] +came to the Island of Inishglory in Erris Bay, and there built himself +a little church of stone, and spent his life in preaching to the folk +and in prayer. The first night he came to the island the swans heard +the sound of his bell ringing at matins on the following morn, and +they leaped in terror, and the three brethren left Fionnuala and fled +away. Fionnuala cried to them, "What ails you, beloved brothers?" "We +know not," said they, "but we have heard a thin and dreadful voice, +and we cannot tell what it is." "That is the voice of the bell of +Mochaovóg," said Fionnuala, "and it is that bell which shall deliver +us and drive away our pains, according to the will of God." + + [12] Pronounced Mo-chweev-ogue. + +Then the brethren came back and hearkened to the chanting of the +cleric until matins were performed. "Let us chant our music now," said +Fionnuala. So they began, and chanted a solemn, slow, sweet, fairy +song in adoration of the High King of Heaven and of Earth. + +Mochaovóg heard that, and wondered, and when he saw the swans he spoke +to them and inquired them. They told him they were the children of +Lir. "Praised be God for that," said Mochaovóg. "Surely it is for your +sakes that I have come to this island above every other island that is +in Erinn. Come to land now, and trust in me that your salvation and +release are at hand." + +So they came to land, and dwelt with Mochaovóg in his own house, and +there they kept the canonical hours with him and heard mass. And +Mochaovóg caused a good craftsman to make chains of silver for the +swans, and put one chain between Fionnuala and Hugh and another +between Conn and Fiachra; and they were a joy and solace of mind to +the Saint, and their own woe and pain seemed to them dim and far off +as a dream. + +Now at this time it happened that the King of Connacht was Lairgnen, +son of Colman, and he was betrothed to Deoca, daughter of the King of +Munster. And so it was that when Deoca came northward to be wedded to +Lairgnen she heard the tale of the swans and of their singing, and she +prayed the king that he would obtain them for her, for she longed to +possess them. But Lairgnen would not ask them of Mochaovóg. Then Deoca +set out homeward again, and vowed that she would never return to +Lairgnen till she had the swans; and she came as far as the church of +Dalua, which is now called Kildaloe, in Clare. Then Lairgnen sent +messengers for the birds to Mochaovóg, but he would not give them up. + +At this Lairgnen was very wroth, and he went himself to Mochaovóg, and +he found the cleric and the four birds at the altar. But Lairgnen +seized upon the birds by their silver chains, two in each hand dragged +them away to the place where Deoca was; and Mochaovóg followed them. +But when they came to Deoca and she had laid her hands upon the +birds, behold, their covering of feathers fell off and in their places +were three shrunken and feeble old men and one lean and withered old +woman, fleshless and bloodless from extreme old age. And Lairgnen was +struck with amazement and fear, and went out from that place. + +Then Fionnuala said to Mochaovóg, "Come now and baptize us quickly, +for our end is near. And if you are grieved at parting from us, know +that also to us it is a grief. Do thou make our grave when we are +dead, and place Conn at my right side and Fiachra at my left, and Hugh +before my face, for thus they were wont to be when I sheltered them on +many a winter night by the tides of Moyle." + +So Mochaovóg baptized the three brethren and their sister; and shortly +afterwards they found peace and death, and they were buried even as +Fionnuala had said. And over their tomb a stone was raised, and their +names and lineage graved on it in branching Ogham[13]; and lamentation +and prayers were made for them, and their souls won to heaven. + + [13] See p. 133, _note_. + +But Mochaovóg was sorrowful, and grieved after them so long as he +lived on earth. + + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The Quest of the Sons of Turenn + + +Long ago, when the people of Dana yet held lordship in Erinn, they +were sorely afflicted by hordes of sea-rovers named Fomorians who used +to harry the country and carry off youths and maidens into captivity. +They also imposed cruel and extortionate taxes upon the people, for +every kneading trough, and every quern for grinding corn, and every +flagstone for baking bread had to pay its tax. And an ounce of gold +was paid as a poll-tax for every man, and if any man would not or +could not pay, his nose was cut off. Under this tyranny the whole +country groaned, but they had none who was able to band them together +and to lead them in battle against their oppressors. + +Now before this it happened that one of the lords of the Danaans named +Kian had married with Ethlinn, daughter of Balor, a princess of the +Fomorians. They had a son named Lugh Lamfada, or Lugh of the Long Arm, +who grew up into a youth of surpassing beauty and strength. And if his +body was noble and mighty, no less so was his mind, for lordship and +authority grew to him by the gift of the Immortals, and whatever he +purposed that would he perform, whatever it might cost in time or +toil, in tears or in blood. Now this Lugh was not brought up in Erinn +but in a far-off isle of the western sea, where the sea-god Mananan +and the other Immortals nurtured and taught him, and made him fit +alike for warfare or for sovranty, when his day should come to work +their will on earth. Hither in due time came the report of the +grievous and dishonouring oppression wrought by the Fomorians upon the +people of Dana, and that report was heard by Lugh. Then Lugh said to +his tutors "It were a worthy deed to rescue my father and the people +of Erinn from this tyranny; let me go thither and attempt it." And +they said to him, "Go, and blessing and victory be with thee." So Lugh +armed himself and mounted his fairy steed, and called his friends and +foster-brothers about him, and across the bright and heaving surface +of the waters they rode like the wind, until they took land in Erinn. + +Now the chiefs of the Danaan folk were assembled upon the Hill of +Usnach, which is upon the western side of Tara in Meath, in order to +meet there the stewards of the Fomorians and to pay them their +tribute. As they awaited the arrival of the Fomorians they became +aware of a company on horseback, coming from the west, before whom +rode a young man who seemed to command them all, and whose countenance +was as radiant as the sun upon a dry summer's day, so that the Danaans +could scarcely gaze upon it. He rode upon a white horse and was armed +with a sword, and on his head was a helmet set with precious stones. +The Danaan folk welcomed him as he came among them, and asked him of +his name and his business among them. As they were thus talking +another band drew near, numbering nine times nine persons, who were +the stewards of the Fomorians coming to demand their tribute. They +were men of a fierce and swarthy countenance, and as they came +haughtily and arrogantly forward, the Danaans all rose up to do them +honour. Then Lugh said: + +"Why do ye rise up before that grim and ill-looking band and not +before us?" + +Said the King of Erinn, "We needs must do so, for if they saw but a +child of a month old sitting down when they came near they would hold +it cause enough to attack and slay us." + +"I am greatly minded to slay them," said Lugh; and he repeated it, +"very greatly minded." + +"That would be bad for us," said the King, "for our death and +destruction would surely follow." + +"Ye are too long under oppression," said Lugh, and gave the word for +onset. So he and his comrades rushed upon the Fomorians, and in a +moment the hillside rang with blows and with the shouting of warriors. +In no long time all of the Fomorians were slain save nine men, and +these were taken alive and brought before Lugh. + +"Ye also should be slain," said Lugh, "but that I am minded to send +you as ambassadors to your King. Tell him that he may seek homage and +tribute where he will henceforth, but Ireland will pay him none for +ever." + +Then the Fomorians went northwards away, and the people of Dana made +them ready for war, and made Lugh their captain and war-lord, for the +sight of his face heartened them, and made them strong, and they +marvelled that they had endured their slavery so long. + +In the meantime word was brought to Balor of the Mighty Blows, King of +the Fomorians, and to his queen Kethlinn of the Twisted Teeth, of the +shame and destruction that had been done to their stewards, and they +assembled a great host of the sea-rovers and manned their war-ships, +and the Northern Sea was white with the foam of their oarblades as +they swept down upon the shores of Erinn. And Balor commanded them, +saying, "When ye have utterly destroyed and subdued the people of +Dana, then make fast your ships with cables to the land of Erinn, and +tow it here to the north of us into the region of ice and snow, and it +shall trouble us no longer." So the host of Balor took land by the +Falls of Dara[14] and began plundering and devastating the province of +Connacht. + + [14] Ballysodare = the Town of the Falls of Dara, in Co. Sligo. + +Then Lugh sent messengers abroad to bring his host together, and +among them was his own father, Kian, son of Canta. And as Kian went +northwards on his errand to rouse the Ulster men, and was now come to +the plain of Murthemny near by Dundealga,[15] he saw three warriors +armed and riding across the plain. Now these three were the sons of +Turenn, by name Brian and Iuchar and Iucharba. And there was an +ancient blood-feud between the house of Canta and the house of Turenn, +so that they never met without bloodshed. + + [15] Dundalk. + +Then Kian thought to himself, "If my brothers Cu and Kethan were here +there might be a pretty fight, but as they are three to one I would do +better to fly." Now there was a herd of wild swine near by; and Kian +changed himself by druidic sorceries into a wild pig and fell to +rooting up the earth along with the others. + +When the sons of Turenn came up to the herd, Brian said, "Brothers, +did ye see the warrior wh' just now was journeying across the plain?" + +"We saw him," said they. + +"What is become of him?" said Brian. + +"Truly, we cannot tell," said the brothers. + +"It is good watch ye keep in time of war!" said Brian; "but I know +what has taken him out of our sight, for he struck himself with a +magic wand, and changed himself into the form of one of yonder swine, +and he is rooting the earth among them now. Wherefore," said Brian, "I +deem that he is no friend to us." + +"If so, we have no help for it," said they, "for the herd belongs to +some man of the Danaans; and even if we set to and begin to kill the +swine, the pig of druidism might be the very one to escape." + +"Have ye learned so little in your place of studies," said Brian, +"that ye cannot distinguish a druidic beast from a natural beast?" And +with that he smote his two brothers with a magic wand, and changed +them into two slender, fleet hounds, and they darted in among the +herd. Then all the herd scattered and fled, but the hounds separated +the druidic pig and chased it towards a wood where Brian awaited it. +As it passed, Brian flung his spear, and it pierced the chest of the +pig and brought it down. The pig screamed, "Evil have you done to cast +at me." + +Brian said, "That hath the sound of human speech!" + +"I am in truth a man," said the pig, "and I am Kian, son of Canta, and +I pray you show me mercy." + +"That will we," said Iuchar and Iucharba, "and sorry are we for what +has happened." + +"Nay," said Brian, "but I swear by the Wind and the Sun that if thou +hadst seven lives I would take them all." + +"Grant me a favour then," said Kian. + +"We shall grant it," said Brian. + +"Let me," said Kian, "return into my own form that I may die in the +shape of a man." + +"I had liefer kill a man than a pig," said Brian. Then Kian became a +man again and stood before them, the blood trickling from his breast. + +"I have outwitted you now," cried he, "for if ye had killed a pig ye +would have paid a pig's eric,[16] but now ye shall pay the eric of a +man. Never was greater eric in the land of Erinn than that which ye +shall pay; and I swear that the very weapons with which ye slay me +shall tell the tale to the avenger of blood." + + [16] Blood-fine. + +"Then you shall be slain with no weapons at all," said Brian; and they +picked up the stones on the Plain of Murthemny and rained them upon +him till he was all one wound, and he died. So they buried him as +deep as the height of a man, and went their way to join the host of +Lugh. + +When the host was assembled, Lugh led them into Connacht and smote the +Fomorians and drove them to their ships, but of this the tale tells +not here. But when the fight was done, Lugh asked of his comrades if +they had seen his father in the fight and how it fared with him. They +said they had not seen him. Then Lugh made search among the dead, and +they found not Kian there. "Were Kian alive he would be here," said +Lugh, "and I swear by the Wind and the Sun that I will not eat or +drink till I know what has befallen him." + +On their return the Danaan host passed by the Plain of Murthemny, and +when they came near the place of the murder the stones cried aloud to +Lugh. And Lugh listened, and they told him of the deed of the sons of +Turenn. Then Lugh searched for the place of a new grave, and when he +had found it he caused it to be dug, and the body of his father was +raised up, and Lugh saw that it was but a litter of wounds. And he +cried out: "O wicked and horrible deed!" and he kissed his father and +said, "I am sick from this sight, my eyes are blind from it, my ears +are deaf from it, my heart stands still from it. Ye gods that I adore, +why was I not here when this crime was done? a man of the children of +Dana slain by his fellows." And he lamented long and bitterly. Then +Kian was again laid in his grave, and a mound was heaped over it and a +pillar-stone set thereon and his name written in Ogham, and a dirge +was sung for him. + +After that Lugh departed to Tara, to the Court of the High King, and +he charged his people to say nothing of what had happened until he +himself had made it known. + +When he reached Tara with his victorious host the King placed Lugh at +his own right hand before all the princes and lords of the Danaan +folk. Lugh looked round about him, and saw the sons of Turenn sitting +among the assembly; and they were among the best and strongest and the +handsomest of those who were present at that time; nor had any borne +themselves better in the fight with the sea-rovers. Then Lugh asked of +the King that the chain of silence might be shaken; and the assembly +heard it, and gave their attention to Lugh. And Lugh said: + +"O King, and ye princes of the People of Dana, I ask what vengeance +would each of you exact upon a man who had foully murdered your +father?" + +Then they were all astonished, and the King answered and said: + +"Surely it is not the father of Lugh Lamfada who has thus been slain?" + +"Thou hast said it," said Lugh, "and those who did the deed are +listening to me now, and know it better than I." + +The King said, "Not in one day would I slay the murderer of my father, +but I would tear from him a limb day by day till he were dead." + +And so spake all the lords of the Danaans, and the Sons of Turenn +among the rest. + +"They have sentenced themselves, the murderers of my father," said +Lugh. "Nevertheless I shall accept an eric from them, and if they will +pay it, it shall be well; but if not, I shall not break the peace of +the King's Assembly and of his sanctuary, but let them beware how they +leave the Hall Tara until they have made me satisfaction." + +"Had I slain your father," said the High King, "glad should I be to +have an eric accepted for his blood." + +Then the Sons of Turenn whispered among themselves. "It is to us that +Lugh is speaking," said Iuchar and Iucharba, "let us confess and have +the eric assessed upon us, for he has got knowledge of our deed." + +"Nay," said Brian, "but he may be seeking for an open confession, and +then perchance he would not accept an eric." + +But the two brethren said to Brian, "Do thou confess because thou art +the eldest, or if thou do not, then we shall." + +So Brian, son of Turenn, rose up and said to Lugh: "It is to us thou +hast spoken, Lugh, since thou knowest there is enmity of old time +between our houses; and if thou wilt have it that we have slain thy +father, then declare our eric and we shall pay it." + +"I will take an eric from you," said Lugh, "and if it seem too great, +I will remit a portion of it." + +"Declare it, then," said the Sons of Turenn. + +"This it is," said Lugh. + +"Three apples. + +"The skin of a pig. + +"A spear. + +"Two steeds and a chariot. + +"Seven swine. + +"A whelp of a dog. + +"A cooking spit. + +"Three shouts on a hill." + +"We would not consider heavy hundreds or thousands of these things," +said the Sons of Turenn, "but we misdoubt thou hast some secret +purpose against us." + +"I deem it no small eric," said Lugh, "and I call to witness the High +King and lords of the Danaans that I shall ask no more; and do ye on +your side give me guarantees for the fulfilment of it." + +So the High King and the lords of the Danaans entered into bonds with +Lugh and with the Sons of Turenn that the eric should be paid and +should wipe out the blood of Kian. + +"Now," said Lugh, "it is better for me to give you fuller knowledge of +the eric. The three apples that I have demanded of you are the apples +that grow in the garden of the Hesperides, in the east of the world, +and none but these will do. Thus it is with them: they are the colour +of bright gold, and as large as the head of a month-old child; the +taste of them is like honey; if he who eats them has any running sore +or evil disease it is healed by them; they may be eaten and eaten and +never be less. I doubt, O young heroes, if ye will get these apples, +for those who guard them know well an ancient prophecy that one day +three knights from the western world would come to attempt them. + +"As for the skin of the pig, that is a treasure of Tuish, the King of +Greece. If it be laid upon a wounded man it will make him whole and +well, if only it overtake the breath of life in him. And do ye know +what is the spear that I demanded?" + +"We do not," said they. + +"It is the poisoned spear of Peisear, the King of Persia, and so +fierce is the spirit of war in it that it must be kept in a pot of +soporific herbs or it would fly out raging for death. And do ye know +what are the two horses and the chariot ye must get?" + +"We do not know," said they. + +"The steeds and the chariot belong to Dobar, King of Sicily. They are +magic steeds and can go indifferently over land and sea, nor can they +be killed by any weapon unless they be torn in pieces and their bones +cannot be found. And the seven pigs are the swine of Asal, King of the +Golden Pillars, which may be slain and eaten every night and the next +morning they are alive again. + +"And the hound-whelp I asked of you is the whelp of the King of +Iorroway, that can catch and slay any beast in the world; hard it is +to get possession of that whelp. + +"The cooking spit is one of the spits that the fairy women of the +Island of Finchory have in their kitchen. + +"And the hill on which ye must give three shouts is the hill where +dwells Mochaen in the north of Lochlann. Now Mochaen and his sons have +it as a sacred ordinance that they permit not any man to raise a shout +upon their hill. With him it was that my father was trained to arms, +and if I forgave ye his death, yet would Mochaen not forgive it. + +"And now ye know the eric which ye have to pay for the slaying of +Kian, son of Canta." + +Astonishment and despair overcame the Sons of Turenn when they learned +the meaning of the eric of Lugh, and they went home to tell the +tidings to their father. + +"This is an evil tale," said Turenn; "I doubt but death and doom shall +come from your seeking of that eric, and it is but right they should. +Yet it may be that ye shall obtain the eric if Lugh or Mananan will +help you to it. Go now to Lugh, and ask him for the loan of the fairy +steed of Mananan, which was given him to ride over the sea into Erinn. +He will refuse you, for he will say that the steed is but lent to him +and he may not make a loan of a loan. Then ask him for the loan of +Ocean Sweeper, which is the magic boat of Mananan, and that he must +give, for it is a sacred ordinance with Lugh not to refuse a second +petition." + +So they went to Lugh, and it all fell out as Turenn had told them, and +they went back to Turenn. + +"Ye have done something towards the eric," said Turenn, "but not much. +Yet Lugh would be well pleased that ye brought him whatever might +serve him when the Fomorians come to the battle again, and well +pleased would he be that ye might get your death in bringing it. Go +now, my sons, and blessing and victory be with you." + +Then the Sons of Turenn went down to the harbour on the Boyne river +where the Boat of Mananan was, and Ethne their sister with them. And +when they reached the place, Ethne broke into lamentations and +weeping; but Brian said, "Weep not, dear sister, but let us go forth +gaily to great deeds. Better a hundred deaths in the quest of honour +than to live and die as cowards and sluggards." But Ethne said, "ye +are banished from Erinn--never was there a sadder deed." Then they +put forth from the river-mouth of the Boyne and soon the fair coasts +of Erinn faded out of sight. "And now," said they among themselves, +"what course shall we steer?" + +[Illustration: "'Bear us swiftly, Boat of Mananan, to the Garden of +the Hesperides'"] + +"No need to steer the Boat of Mananan," said Brian; and he whispered +to the Boat, "Bear us swiftly, Boat of Mananan, to the Garden of the +Hesperides"; and the spirit of the Boat heard him and it leaped +eagerly forward, lifting and dipping over the rollers and throwing up +an arch of spray each side of its bows wherein sat a rainbow when the +sun shone upon it; and so in no long time they drew nigh to the coast +where was the far-famed garden of the Golden Apples. + +"And now, how shall we set about the capture of the apples?" said +Brian. + +"Draw sword and fight for them," said Iuchar and Iucharba, "and if we +are the stronger, we shall win them, and if not, we shall fall, as +fall we surely must ere the eric for Kian be paid." + +"Nay," said Brian, "but whether we live or die, let not men say of us +that we went blind and headlong to our tasks, but rather that we made +the head help the hand, and that we deserved to win even though we +lost. Now my counsel is that we approach the garden in the shape of +three hawks, strong of wing, and that we hover about until the Wardens +of the Tree have spent all their darts and javelins in casting at us, +and then let us swoop down suddenly and bear off each of us an apple +if we may." + +So it was agreed; and Brian struck himself and each of the brothers +with a druid wand, and they became three beautiful, fierce, and +strong-winged hawks. When the Wardens perceived them, they shouted and +threw showers of arrows and darts at them, but the hawks evaded all of +these until the missiles were spent, and then seized each an apple in +his talons. But Brian seized two, for he took one in his beak as well. +Then they flew as swiftly as they might to the shore where they had +left their boat. Now the King of that garden had three fair daughters, +to whom the apples and the garden were very dear, and he transformed +the maidens into three griffins, who pursued the hawks. And the +griffins threw darts of fire, as it were lightning, at the hawks. + +"Brian!" then cried Iuchar and his brother, "we are being burnt by +these darts--we are lost unless we can escape them." + +On this, Brian changed himself and his brethren into three swans, and +they plunged into the sea, and the burning darts were quenched. Then +the griffins gave over the chase, and the Sons of Turenn made for +their boat, and they embarked with the four apples. Thus their first +quest was ended. + +After that they resolved to seek the pigskin from the King of Greece, +and they debated how they should come before him. "Let us," said +Brian, "assume the character and garb of poets and men of learning, +for such are wont to come from Ireland and to travel foreign lands, +and in that character shall the Greeks receive us best, for such men +have honour among them." "It is well said," replied the brothers, "yet +we have no poems in our heads, and how to compose one we know not." + +Howbeit they dressed their hair in the fashion of the poets of Erinn, +and went up to the palace of Tuish the King. The doorkeeper asked of +them who they were, and what was their business. + +"We are bards from Ireland," they said, "and we have come with a poem +to the King." + +"Let them be admitted," said the King, when the doorkeeper brought him +that tale; "they have doubtless come thus far to seek a powerful +patron." + +So Brian and Iuchar and Iucharba came in and were made welcome, and +were entertained, and then the minstrels of the King of Greece chanted +the lays of that country before them. After that came the turn of the +stranger bards, and Brian asked his brethren if they had anything to +recite. + +"We have not," said they; "we know but one art--to take what we want +by the strong hand if we may, and if we may not, to die fighting." + +"That is a difficult art too," said Brian; "let us see how we thrive +with the poetry." + +So he rose up and recited this lay:-- + + "Mighty is thy fame, O King, + Towering like a giant oak; + For my song I ask no thing + Save a pigskin for a cloak. + + "When a neighbour with his friend + Quarrels, they are ear to ear; + Who on us their store shall spend + Shall be richer than they were. + + "Armies of the storming wind-- + Raging seas, the sword's fell stroke-- + Thou hast nothing to my mind + Save thy pigskin for a cloak." + +"That is a very good poem," said the King, "but one word of its +meaning I do not understand." + +"I will interpret it for you," said Brian:-- + + "Mighty is thy fame, O King, + Towering like a giant oak." + +"That is to say, as the oak surpasses all the other trees of the +forest, so do you surpass all the kings of the world in goodness, in +nobleness, and in liberality. + + "A pigskin for a cloak." + +"That is the skin of the pig of Tuish which I would fain receive as +the reward for my lay." + + "When a neighbour with his friend + Quarrels, they are ear to ear." + +"That is to signify that you and I shall be about each other's ears +over the skin, unless you are willing to give it to me. Such is the +sense of my poem," said Brian, son of Turenn. + +"I would praise your poem more," said the King, "if there were not so +much about my pigskin in it. Little sense have you, O man of poetry, +to make that request of me, for not to all the poets, scholars, and +lords of the world would I give that skin of my own free will. But +what I will do is this--I will give the full of that skin of red gold +thrice over in reward for your poem." + +"Thanks be to you," said Brian, "for that. I knew that I asked too +much, but I knew also thou wouldst redeem the skin amply and +generously. And now let the gold be duly measured out in it, for +greedy am I, and I will not abate an ounce of it." + +The servants of the King were then sent with Brian and his brothers to +the King's treasure-chamber to measure out the gold. As they did so, +Brian suddenly snatched the skin from the hands of him who held it, +and swiftly wrapped it round his body. Then the three brothers drew +sword and made for the door, and a great fight arose in the King's +palace. But they hewed and thrust manfully on every side of them, and +though sorely wounded they fought their way through and escaped to +the shore, and drove their boat out to sea, when the skin of the magic +pig quickly made them whole and sound again. And thus the second quest +of the Sons of Turenn had its end. + +"Let us now," said Brian, "go to seek the spear of the King of +Persia." + +"In what manner of guise shall we go before the King of Persia?" said +his brothers. + +"As we did before the King of Greece," said Brian. + +"That guise served us well with the King of Greece," replied they; +"nevertheless, O Brian, this business of professing to be poets, when +we are but swordsmen, is painful to us." + +However, they dressed their hair in the manner of poets and went up +boldly to the palace of King Peisear of Persia, saying, as before, +that they were wandering bards from Ireland who had a poem to recite +before the King; and as they passed through the courtyard they marked +the spear drowsing in its pot of sleepy herbs. They were made welcome, +and after listening to the lays of the King's minstrel, Brian rose and +sang:-- + + "'Tis little Peisear cares for spears, + Since armies, when his face they see, + All overcome with panic fears + Without a wound they turn and flee. + + "The Yew is monarch of the wood, + No other tree disputes its claim. + The shining shaft in venom stewed + Flies fiercely forth to kill and maim." + +"'Tis a very good poem," said the King, "but, O bard from Erinn, I do +not understand your reference to my spear." + +"It is merely this," replied Brian, "that I would like your spear as a +reward for my poem." + +Then the King stared at Brian, and his beard bristled with anger, and +he said, "Never was a greater reward paid for any poem than not to +adjudge you guilty of instant death for your request." + +Then Brian flung at the king the fourth golden apple which he had +taken from the Garden of the Hesperides, and it dashed out his brains. +Immediately the brothers all drew sword and made for the courtyard. +Here they seized the magic spear, and with it and with their swords +they fought their way clear, not without many wounds, and escaped to +their boat. And thus ended the third quest of the Sons of Turenn. + +Now having come safely and victoriously through so many straits and +perils, they began to be merry and hoped that all the eric might yet +be paid. So they sailed away with high hearts to the Island of Sicily, +to get the two horses and the chariot of the King, and the Boat of +Mananan bore them swiftly and well. + +Having arrived here, they debated among themselves as to how they +should proceed; and they agreed to present themselves as Irish +mercenary soldiers--for such were wont in those days to take service +with foreign kings--until they should learn where the horses and the +chariot were kept, and how they should come at them. Then they went +forward, and found the King and his lords in the palace garden taking +the air. + +The Sons of Turenn then paid homage to him, and he asked them of their +business. + +"We are Irish mercenary soldiers," they said, "seeking our wages from +the kings of the world." "Are ye willing to take service with me?" +said the King. "We are," said they, "and to that end are we come." + +Then their contract of military service was made, and they remained at +the King's court for a month and a fortnight, and did not in all that +time come to see the steeds or the chariot. At last Brian said, + +"Things are going ill with us, my brethren, in that we know no more at +this day of the steeds or of the chariot than when we first arrived at +this place." + +"What shall we do, then?" said they. + +"Let us do this," said Brian. "Let us gird on our arms and all our +marching array, and tell the King that we shall quit his service +unless he show us the chariot." + +And so they did; and the King said, "To-morrow shall be a gathering +and parade of all my host, and the chariot shall be there, and ye +shall see it if ye have a mind." + +So the next day the steeds were yoked and the chariot was driven round +a great plain before the King and his lords. Now these steeds could +run as well on sea as on dry land, and they were swifter than the +winds of March. As the chariot came round the second time, Brian and +his brothers seized the horses' heads, and Brian took the charioteer +by the foot and flung him out over the rail, and they all leaped into +the chariot and drove away. Such was the swiftness of their driving +that they were out of sight ere the King and his men knew rightly +what had befallen. And thus ended the fourth quest of the Sons of +Turenn. + +Next they betook themselves to the court of Asal, King of the Golden +Pillars, to get the seven swine which might be eaten every night and +they would be whole and well on the morrow morn. + +But it had now been noised about every country that three young heroes +from Erinn were plundering the kings of the world of their treasures +in payment of a mighty eric; and when they arrived at the Land of the +Golden Pillars they found the harbour guarded and a strait watch kept, +that no one who might resemble the Sons of Turenn should enter. + +But Asal the King came to the harbour-mouth and spoke with the heroes, +for he was desirous to see those who had done the great deeds that he +had heard of. He asked them if it were true that they had done such +things, and why. Then Brian told him the story of the mighty eric +which had been laid upon them, and what they had done and suffered in +fulfilling it. "Why," said King Asal, "have ye now come to my +country?" + +"For the seven swine," said Brian, "to take them with us as a part of +that eric." + +"How do you mean to get them?" asked the King. + +"With your goodwill," replied Brian, "if so it may be, and to pay you +therefore with all the wealth we now have, which is thanks and love, +and to stand by your side hereafter in any strait or quarrel you may +enter into. But if you will not grant us the swine, and we may not be +quit of our eric without them, we shall even take them as we may, and +as we have beforetime taken mighty treasures from mighty kings." + +Then King Asal went into counsel with his lords, and he advised that +the swine be given to the Sons of Turenn, partly for that he was moved +with their desperate plight and the hardihood they had shown, and +partly that they might get them whether or no. To this they all +agreed, and the Sons of Turenn were invited to come ashore, where they +were courteously and hospitably entertained in the King's palace. On +the morrow the pigs were given to them, and great was their gladness, +for never before had they won a treasure without toil and blood. And +they vowed that, if they should live, the name of Asal should be made +by them a great and shining name, for his compassion and generosity +which he had shown them. This, then, was the fifth quest of the Sons +of Turenn. + +"And whither do ye voyage now?" said Asal to them. + +"We go," said they, "to Iorroway for the hound's whelp which is +there." + +"Take me with you, then," said Asal, "for the King of Iorroway is +husband to my daughter, and I may prevail upon him to grant you the +hound without combat." + +So the King's ship was manned and provisioned, and the Sons of Turenn +laid up their treasures in the Boat of Mananan, and they all sailed +joyfully forth to the pleasant kingdom of Iorroway. + +But here, too, they found all the coasts and harbours guarded, and +entrance was forbidden them. Then Asal declared who he was, and him +they allowed to land, and he journeyed to where his son-in-law, the +King of Iorroway, was. To him Asal related the whole story of the sons +of Turenn, and why they were come to that kingdom. + +"Thou wert a fool," said the King of Iorroway, "to have come on such a +mission. There are no three heroes in the world to whom the Immortals +have granted such grace that they should get my hound either by favour +or by fight." + +"That is not a good word," said Asal, "for the treasures they now +possess have made them yet stronger than they were, and these they won +in the teeth of kings as strong as thou." And much more he said to him +to persuade him to yield up the hound, but in vain. So Asal took his +way back to the haven where the Sons of Turenn lay, and told them his +tidings. + +Then the Sons of Turenn seized the magic spear, and the pigskin, and +with a rush like that of three eagles descending from a high cliff +upon a lamb-fold they burst upon the guards of the King of Iorroway. +Fierce and fell was the combat that ensued, and many times the +brothers were driven apart, and all but overborne by the throng of +their foes. But at last Brian perceived where the King of Iorroway was +directing the fight, and he cut his way to him, and having smitten him +to the ground, he bound him and carried him out of the press to the +haven-side where Asal was. + +"There," he said, "is your son-in-law for you Asal, and I swear by my +sword that I had more easily killed him thrice than once to bring him +thus bound to you." + +"That is very like," said Asal; "but now hold him to ransom." + +So the people of Iorroway gave the hound to the Sons of Turenn as a +ransom for their King, and the King was released, and friendship and +alliance were made between them. And with joyful hearts the Sons of +Turenn bade farewell to the King of Iorroway and to Asal, and departed +on their way. Thus was the sixth of their quests fulfilled. + +Now Lugh Lamfada desired to know how the Sons of Turenn had fared, and +whether they had got any portion of the great eric that might be +serviceable to him when the Fomorians should return for one more +struggle. And by sorcery and divination it was revealed to him how +they had thriven, and that nought remained to be won save the +cooking-spit of the sea-nymphs, and to give the three shouts upon the +hill. Lugh then by druidic art caused a spell of oblivion and +forgetfulness to descend upon the Sons of Turenn, and put into their +hearts withal a yearning and passion to return to their native land of +Erinn. They forgot, therefore, that a portion of the eric was still to +win, and they bade the Boat of Mananan bear them home with their +treasures, for they deemed that they should now quit them of all their +debt for the blood of Kian and live free in their father's home, +having done such things and won such fame as no three brothers had +ever done since the world began. + +At the Brugh of Boyne, where they had started on their quest, their +boat came ashore again, and as they landed they wept for joy, and +falling on their knees they kissed the green sod of Erinn. Then they +took up their treasures and journeyed to Ben Edar,[17] where the High +King of Ireland, and Lugh with him, were holding an Assembly of the +People of Dana. But when Lugh heard that they were on their way he put +on his cloak of invisibility and withdrew privily to Tara. + + [17] The Hill of Howth. + +When the brethren arrived at Ben Edar, the High King of the lords of +the Danaans gave them welcome and applause, for all were rejoiced that +the stain of ancient feud and bloodshed should be wiped out, and that +the Children of Dana should be at peace within their borders. Then +they sought for Lugh to deliver over the eric, but he was not to be +found. And Brian said, "He has gone to Tara to avoid us, having heard +that we were coming with our treasures and weapons of war." + +Word was then sent to Lugh at Tara that the Sons of Turenn were at Ben +Edar, and the eric with them. + +"Let them pay it over to the High King," said Lugh. + +So it was done; and when Lugh had tidings that the High King had the +eric, he returned to Ben Edar. + +Then the eric was laid before him, and Brian said, "Is the debt paid, +O Lugh, son of Kian?" + +Lugh said, "Truly there is here the price of any man's death; but it +is not lawful to give a quittance for an eric that is not complete. +Where is the cooking-spit from the Island of Finchory? and have ye +given the three shouts upon the Hill of Mochaen?" + +At this word Brian and Iuchar and Iucharba fell prone upon the +ground, and were speechless awhile from grief and dismay. After a +while they left the Assembly like broken men, with hanging heads and +with heavy steps, and betook themselves to Dún Turenn, where they +found their father, and they told him all that had befallen them since +they had parted with him and set forth on the Quest. Thus they passed +the night in gloom and evil forebodings, and on the morrow they went +down once more to the place where the Boat of Mananan was moored. And +Ethne their sister accompanied them, wailing and lamenting, but no +words of cheer had they now to say to her, for now they began to +comprehend that a mightier and a craftier mind had caught them in the +net of fate. And whereas they had deemed themselves heroes and victors +in the most glorious quest whereof the earth had record, they now knew +that they were but as arrows in the hands of a laughing archer, who +shoots one at a stag and one at the heart of a foe, and one, it may +be, in sheer wantonness, and to try his bow, over a cliff edge into +the sea. + +[Illustration: "There dwelt the red-haired ocean-nymphs"] + +However, they put forth in their magic boat, but in no wise could they +direct it to the Isle of Finchory, and a quarter of a year they +traversed the seaways and never could get tidings of that island. At +last Brian fashioned for himself by magic art a water-dress, with a +helmet of crystal, and into the depths of the sea he plunged. Here, +the story tells, he searched hither and thither for a fortnight, till +at last he found that island, which was an island indeed with the sea +over it and around it and beneath it. There dwelt the red-haired +ocean-nymphs in glittering palaces among the sea-flowers, and they +wrought fair embroidery with gold and jewels, and sang, as they +wrought, a fairy music like the chiming of silver bells. Three fifties +of them sat or played in their great hall as Brian entered, and they +gazed on him but spoke no word. Then Brian strode to the wide hearth, +and without a word he seized from it a spit that was made of beaten +gold, and turned again to go. But at that the laughter of the +sea-maidens rippled through the hall and one of them said: + +"Thou art a bold man, Brian, and bolder than thou knowest; for if +thy two brothers were here, the weakest of us could vanquish all the +three. Nevertheless, take the spit for thy daring; we had never +granted it for thy prayers." + +So Brian thanked them and bade farewell, and he rose to the surface of +the water. Ere long his brethren perceived him as he shouldered the +waves on the bosom of the deep, and they sailed to where he was and +took him on board. And thus ended the quest for the seventh portion of +the eric of Kian. + +After that their hopes revived a little, and they set sail for the +land of Lochlann, in which was the Hill of Mochaen. When they had +arrived at the hill Mochaen came out to meet them with his three sons, +Corc and Conn and Hugh; nor did the Sons of Turenn ever behold a band +of grimmer and mightier warriors than those four. + +"What seek ye here?" asked Mochaen of them They told him that it had +been laid upon them to give three shouts upon the hill. + +"It hath been laid upon me," said Mochaen, "to prevent this thing." + +Then Brian and Mochaen drew sword and fell furiously upon each other, +and their fighting was like that of two hungry lions or two wild +bulls, until at last Brian drove his sword into the throat of Mochaen, +and he died. + +With that the Sons of Mochaen and the Sons of Turenn rushed fiercely +upon each other. Long and sore was the strife that they had, and the +blood that fell made red the grassy place wherein they fought. Not one +of them but received wounds that pierced him through and through, and +that heroes of less hardihood had died of a score of times. But in the +end the sons of Mochaen fell, and Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba lay over +them in a swoon like death. + +After a while Brian's senses came back to him, and he said, "Do ye +live, dear brothers, or how is it with you?" "We are as good as dead," +said they; "let us be." + +"Arise," then said Brian, "for truly I feel death coming swiftly upon +us, and we have yet to give the three shouts upon the hill." + +"We cannot stir," said Iuchar and Iucharba. Then Brian rose to his +knees and to his feet, and he lifted up his two brothers while the +blood of all three streamed down to their feet, and they raised their +voices as best they might, and gave three hoarse cries upon the Hill +of Mochaen. And thus was the last of the epic fulfilled. + +Then they bound up their wounds, and Brian placed himself between the +two brothers, and slowly and painfully they made their way to the +boat, and put out to sea for Ireland. And as they lay in the stupor of +faintness in the boat, one murmured to himself, "I see the Cape of Ben +Edar and the coast of Turenn, and Tara of the Kings." Then Iuchar and +Iucharba entreated Brian to lift their heads upon his breast. "Let us +but see the land of Erinn again," said they, "the hills around +Tailtin, and the dewy plain of Bregia, and the quiet waters of the +Boyne and our father's Dún thereby, and healing will come to us; or if +death come we can endure it after that." Then Brian raised them up; +and they saw that they were now near by under Ben Edar; and at the +Strand of the Bull[18] they took land. They were then conveyed to the +Dún of Turenn, and life was still in them when they were laid in their +father's hall. + + [18] Cluan Tarbh, Clontarf; so called from the roaring of the + waves on the strand. + +And Brian said to Turenn, "Go now, dear father, with all speed to Lugh +at Tara. Give him the cooking-spit, and tell how thou hast found us +after giving our three shouts upon the Hill of Mochaen. Then beseech +him that he yield thee the loan of the pigskin of the King of Greece, +for if it be laid upon us while the life is yet in us, we shall +recover. We have won the eric, and it may be that he will not pursue +us to our death." + +Turenn went to Lugh and gave him the spit of the sea-nymphs, and +besought him for the lives of his sons. + +Lugh was silent for a while, but his countenance did not change, and +he said, "Thou, old man, seest nought but the cloud of sorrow wherein +thou art encompassed. But I hear from above it the singing of the +Immortal Ones, who tell to one another the story of this land. Thy +sons must die; yet have I shown to them more mercy than they showed to +Kian. I have forgiven them; nor shall they live to slay their own +immortality, but the royal bards of Erinn and the old men in the +chimney corners shall tell of their glory and their fate as long as +the land shall endure." + +Then Turenn bowed his white head and went sorrowfully back to Dún +Turenn; and he told his sons of the words that Lugh had said. And +with that the sons of Turenn kissed each other, and the breath of life +departed from them, and they died. And Turenn died also, for his heart +was broken in him; and Ethne his daughter buried them in one grave. +Thus, then, ends the tale of the Quest of the Eric and the Fate of the +Sons of Turenn. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Secret of Labra + + +In very ancient days there was a King in Ireland named Labra, who was +called Labra the Sailor for a certain voyage that he made. Now Labra +was never seen save by one man, once a year, without a hood that +covered his head and ears. But once a year it was his habit to let his +hair be cropped, and the person to do this was chosen by lot, for the +King was accustomed to put to death instantly the man who had cropped +him. And so it happened that on a certain year the lot fell on a young +man who was the only son of a poor widow, who dwelt near by the palace +of the King. When she heard that her son had been chosen she fell on +her knees before the King and besought him, with tears, that her son, +who was her only support and all she had in the world, might not +suffer death as was customary. The King was moved by her grief and her +entreaties, and at last he consented that the young man should not be +slain provided that he vowed to keep secret to the day of his death +what he should see. The youth agreed to this and he vowed by the Sun +and the Wind that he would never, so long as he lived, reveal to man +what he should learn when he cropped the King's hair. + +So he did what was appointed for him and went home. But when he did so +he had no peace for the wonder of the secret that he had learned +preyed upon his mind so that he could not rest for thinking of it and +longing to reveal it, and at last he fell into a wasting sickness from +it, and was near to die. Then there was brought to see him a wise +druid, who was skilled in all maladies of the mind and body, and after +he had talked with the youth he said to his mother, "Thy son is dying +of the burden of a secret which he may not reveal to any man, but +until he reveals it he will have no ease. Let him, therefore, walk +along the high way till he comes to a place where four roads meet. Let +him then turn to the right, and the first tree that he shall meet on +the roadside let him tell the secret to it, and so it may be he shall +be relieved, and his vow will not be broken." + +The mother told her son of the druid's advice, and next day he went +upon his way till he came to four cross roads, and he took the road +upon the right, and the first tree he found was a great willow-tree. +So the young man laid his cheek against the bark, and he whispered the +secret to the tree, and as he turned back homeward he felt lightened +of his burden, and he leaped and sang, and ere many days were past he +was as well and light hearted as ever he had been in his life. + +Some while after that it happened that the King's harper, namely +Craftiny, broke the straining-post of his harp and went out to seek +for a piece of wood wherewith to mend it. And the first timber he +found that would fit the purpose was the willow-tree by the cross +roads. He cut it down, therefore, and took as much as would give him a +new straining-post, and he bore it home with him and mended his harp +with it. That night he played after meat before the King and his lords +as he was wont, but whatever he played and sang the folk that listened +to him seemed to hear only one thing, "Two horse's ears hath Labra the +Sailor." + +Then the King plucked off his hood, and after that he made no secret +of his ears and none suffered on account of them thenceforward. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +King Iubdan and King Fergus + + +It happened on a day when Fergus son of Leda was King of Ulster, that +Iubdan, King of the Leprecauns or Wee Folk, of the land of Faylinn, +held a great banquet and assembly of the lords and princes of the Wee +Folk. And all their captains and men of war came thither, to show +their feats before the King, among whom was the strong man, namely +Glowar, whose might was such that with his battle-axe he could hew +down a thistle at one stroke. Thither also came the King's +heir-apparent. Tiny, son of Tot, and the Queen Bebo with her maidens; +and there were also the King's harpers and singing-men, and the chief +poet of the court, who was called Eisirt. + +All these sat down to the feast in due order and precedence, with Bebo +on the King's right hand and the poet on his left, and Glowar kept the +door. Soon the wine began to flow from the vats of dark-red yew-wood, +and the carvers carved busily at great haunches of roast hares and +ribs of field-mice; and they all ate and drank, and loudly the hall +rang with gay talk and laughter, and the drinking of toasts, and +clashing of silver goblets. + +At last when they had put away desire of eating and drinking, Iubdan +rose up, having in his hand the royal goblet of gold inlaid with +precious many-coloured jewels, and the heir-apparent rose at the other +end of the table, and they drank prosperity and victory to Faylinn. +Then Iubdan's heart swelled with pride, and he asked of the company, +"Come now, have any of you ever seen a king more glorious and powerful +than I am?" "Never, in truth," cried they all. "Have ye ever seen a +stronger man than my giant, Glowar?" "Never, O King," said they. "Or +battle-steeds and men-at-arms better than mine?" "By our words," they +cried, "we never have." "Truly," went on Iubdan, "I deem that he who +would assail our kingdom of Faylinn, and carry away captives and +hostages from us, would have his work cut out for him, so fierce and +mighty are our warriors; yea, any one of them hath the stuff of +kingship in him." + +On hearing this, Eisirt, in whom the heady wine and ale had done their +work, burst out laughing; and the King turned to him, saying, "Eisirt, +what hath moved thee to this laughter?" "I know a province in Erinn," +replied Eisirt, "one man of whom would harry Faylinn in the teeth of +all four battalions of the Wee Folk." "Seize him," cried the King to +his attendants; "Eisirt shall pay dearly in chains and in prison for +that scornful speech against our glory." + +Then Eisirt was put in bonds, and he repented him of his brag; but ere +they dragged him away he said, "Grant me, O mighty King, but three +days' respite, that I may travel to Erinn to the court of Fergus mac +Leda, and if I bring not back some clear token that I have uttered +nought but the truth, then do with me as thou wilt." + +So Iubdan bade them release him, and he fared away to Erinn oversea. + +[Illustration: "They all trooped out, lords and ladies, to view the +wee man"] + +After this, one day, as Fergus and his lords sat at the feast, the +gatekeeper of the palace of Fergus in Emania heard outside a sound of +ringing; he opened the gate, and there stood a wee man holding in his +hand a rod of white bronze hung with little silver bells, by which +poets are wont to procure silence for their recitations. Most noble +and comely was the little man to look on, though the short grass of +the lawn reached as high as to his knee. His hair was twisted in +four-ply strands after the manner of poets and he wore a +gold-embroidered tunic of silk and an ample scarlet cloak with a +fringe of gold. On his feet he wore shoes of white bronze ornamented +with gold, and a silken hood was on his head. The gatekeeper wondered +at the sight of the wee man, and went to report the matter to King +Fergus. "Is he less," asked Fergus, "than my dwarf and poet Æda?" +"Verily," said the gatekeeper, "he could stand upon the palm of Æda's +hand and have room to spare." Then with much laughter and wonder they +all trooped out, lords and ladies, to the great gate to view the wee +man and to speak with him. But Eisirt, when he saw them, waved them +back in alarm, crying, "Avaunt, huge men; bring not your heavy breath +so near me; but let yon man that is least among you approach me and +bear me in." So the dwarf Æda put Eisirt on his palm and bore him into +the banqueting hall. + +Then they set him on the table, and Eisirt declared his name and +calling. The King ordered that meat and drink should be given him, but +Eisirt said, "I will neither eat of your meat nor drink of ale." "By +our word," said Fergus, "'tis a haughty wight; he ought to be dropped +into a goblet that he might at least drink all round him." The +cupbearer seized Eisirt and put him into a tankard of ale, and he swam +on the surface of it. "Ye wise men of Ulster," he cried, "there is +much knowledge and wisdom ye might get from me, yet ye will let me be +drowned!" "What, then?" cried they. Then Eisirt, beginning with the +King, set out to tell every hidden sin that each man or woman had +done, and ere he had gone far they with much laughter and chiding +fetched him out of the ale-pot and dried him with fair satin napkins. +"Now ye have confessed that I know somewhat to the purpose," said +Eisirt, "and I will even eat of your food, but do ye give heed to my +words, and do ill no more." + +Fergus then said, "If thou art a poet, Eisirt, give us now a taste of +thy delightful art." "That will I," said Eisirt, "and the poem that I +shall recite to you shall be an ode in praise of my king, Iubdan the +Great." Then he recited this lay:-- + + "A monarch of might + Is Iubdan my king. + His brow is snow-white, + His hair black as night; + As a red copper bowl + When smitten will sing, + So ringeth the voice + Of Iubdan the king. + His eyen, they roll + Majestic and bland + On the lords of his land + Arrayed for the fight, + A spectacle grand! + Like a torrent they rush + With a waving of swords + And the bridles all ringing + And cheeks all aflush, + And the battle-steeds springing, + A beautiful, terrible, death-dealing band. + Like pines, straight and tall, + Where Iubdan is king, + Are the men one and all. + The maidens are fair-- + Bright gold is their hair. + From silver we quaff + The dark, heady ale + That never shall fail; + We love and we laugh. + Gold frontlets we wear; + And aye through the air + Sweet music doth ring-- + O Fergus, men say + That in all Inisfail + There is not a maiden so proud or so wise + But would give her two eyes + Thy kisses to win-- + But I tell thee, that there + Thou canst never compare + With the haughty, magnificent King of Faylinn!" + +At this they all applauded, and Fergus said, "O youth and blameless +bard, let us be friends henceforth." And they all heaped before him, +as a poet's reward, gifts of rings and jewels and gold cups and +weapons, as high as a tall man standing. Then Eisirt said, "Truly a +generous and a worthy reward have ye given me, O men of Ulster; yet +take back these precious things I pray you, for every man in my +king's household hath an abundance of them." But the Ulster lords +said, "Nothing that we have given may we take back." Eisirt then bade +two-thirds of his reward be given to the bards and learned men of +Ulster, and one-third to the horse-boys and jesters; and so it was +done. + +Three days and nights did Eisirt abide in Emania, and all the King's +court loved him and made much of him. Then he wished them blessing and +victory, and prepared to depart to his own country. Now Æda, the +King's dwarf and minstrel, begged Eisirt to take him with him on a +visit to the land of Faylinn; and Eisirt said, "I shall not bid thee +come, for then if kindness and hospitality be shown thee, thou wilt +say it is only what I had undertaken; but if thou come of thine own +motion, thou wilt perchance be grateful." + +So they went off together; but Eisirt could not keep up with Æda, and +Æda said, "I perceive that Eisirt is but a poor walker." At this +Eisirt ran off like a flash and was soon an arrow flight in front of +Æda. When the latter at last came up with him, he said, "The right +thing, Eisirt, is not too fast and not too slow." "Since I have been +in Ulster," Eisirt replied, "I have never before heard ye measure out +the right." + +By and by they reached the margin of the sea. "And what are we to do +now?" asked Æda. "Be not troubled, Æda," said Eisirt, "the horse of +Iubdan will bear us easily over this." They waited awhile on the +beach, and ere long they saw it coming toward them skimming over the +surface of the waves. "Save and protect us!" cried Æda at that sight; +and Eisirt asked him what he saw. "A red-maned hare," answered Æda. +"Nay, but that is Iubdan's horse," said Eisirt, and with that the +creature came prancing to land with flashing eyes and waving tail and +a long russet-coloured mane; a bridle beset with gold it had. Eisirt +mounted and bade Æda come up behind him. "Thy boat is little enough +for thee alone," said Æda. "Cease fault-finding and grumbling," then +said Eisirt, "for the weight of wisdom that is in thee will not bear +him down." + +So Æda and Eisirt mounted on the fairy horse and away they sped over +the tops of the waves and the deeps of the ocean till at last they +reached the Kingdom of Faylinn, and there were a great concourse of +the Wee Folk awaiting them. "Eisirt is coming! Eisirt is coming!" +cried they all, "and a Fomorian giant along with him." + +Then Iubdan went forth to meet Eisirt, and he kissed him, and said, +"Why hast thou brought this Fomorian with thee to slay us?" "He is no +Fomor," said Eisirt, "but a learned man and a poet from Ulster. He is +moreover the King of Ulster's dwarf, and in all that realm he is the +smallest man. He can lie in their great men's bosoms and stand upon +their hands as though he were a child; yet for all that you would do +well to be careful how you behave to him." "What is his name?" said +they then. "He is the poet Æda," said Eisirt. "Uch," said they, "what +a giant thou hast brought us!" + +"And now, O King," said Eisirt to Iubdan, "I challenge thee to go and +see for thyself the region from which we have come, and make trial of +the royal porridge which is made for Fergus King of Ulster this very +night." + +At this Iubdan was much dismayed, and he betook himself to Bebo his +wife and told her how he was laid under bonds of chivalry by Eisirt to +go to the land of the giants; and he bade her prepare to accompany +him. "I will go," said she, "but you did an ill deed when you +condemned Eisirt to prison." + +So they mounted, both of them, on the fairy steed, and in no long time +they reached Emania, and it was now past midnight. And they were +greatly afraid, and said Bebo, "Let us search for that porridge and +taste it, as we were bound, and make off again ere the folk awake." + +They made their way into the palace of Fergus, and soon they found a +great porridge pot, but the rim was too high to be reached from the +ground. "Get thee up upon thy horse," said Bebo, "and from thence to +the rim of this cauldron." And thus he did, but having gained the rim +of the pot his arm was too short to reach the silver ladle that was +in it. In straining downward to do so, however, he slipped and in he +fell, and up to his middle in the thick porridge he stuck fast. And +when Bebo heard what a plight he was in, she wept, and said, "Rash and +hasty wert thou, Iubdan, to have got into this evil case, but surely +there is no man under the sun that can make thee hear reason." And he +said, "Rash indeed it was, but thou canst not help me, Bebo, now, and +it is but folly to stay; take the horse and flee away ere the day +break." "Say not so," replied Bebo, "for surely I will not go till I +see how things fall out with thee." + + +At last the folk in the palace began to be stirring, and ere long they +found Iubdan in the porridge pot. + +So they picked him out with great laughter bore him off to Fergus. + +"By my conscience," said Fergus, "but this is not the little fellow +that was here before, for he had yellow hair, but this one hath a +shock of the blackest; who art thou at all, wee man?" + +"I am of the Wee Folk," said Iubdan, "and am indeed king over them, +and this woman is my wife and queen, Bebo." + +"Take him away," then said Fergus to his varlets, "and guard him +well"; for he misdoubted some mischief of Faery was on foot. + +"Nay, nay," cried Iubdan, "but let me not be with these coarse +fellows. I pledge thee my word that I will not quit this place till +thou and Ulster give me leave." + +"Could I believe that," said Fergus, "I would not put thee in bonds." + +"I have never broken my word," said Iubdan, "and I never will." + +Then Fergus set him free and allotted him a fair chamber for himself, +and a trusty servingman to wait upon him. Soon there came in a gillie +whose business it was to see to the fires, and he kindled the fire for +Iubdan, throwing on it a woodbine together with divers other sorts of +timber. Then Iubdan said, "Man of smoke, burn not the king of the +trees, for it is not meet to burn him. Wouldst thou but take counsel +from me thou mightest go safely by sea or land." Iubdan then chanted +to him the following recital of the duties of his office:-- + +"O fire-gillie of Fergus of the Feasts, never by land or sea burn the +King of the woods, High King of the forests of Inisfail, whom none may +bind, but who like a strong monarch holds all the other trees in hard +bondage. If thou burn the twining one, misfortune will come of it, +peril at the point of spear, or drowning in the waves. + +"Burn not the sweet apple-tree of drooping branches, of the white +blossoms, to whose gracious head each man puts forth his hand. + +"The stubborn blackthorn wanders far and wide, the good craftsman +burns not this timber; little though its bushes be, yet flocks of +birds warble in them. + +"Burn not the noble willow, the unfailing ornament of poems; bees +drink from its blossoms, all delight in the graceful tent. + +"The delicate, airy tree of the druids, the rowan with its berries, +this burn; but avoid the weak tree, burn not the slender hazel. + +"The ash-tree of the black buds burn not--timber that speeds the +wheel, that yields the rider his switch; the ashen spear is the +scale-beam of battle. + +"The tangled, bitter bramble, burn him, the sharp and green; he flays +and cuts the foot; he snares you and drags you back. + +"Hottest of timber is the green oak; he will give you a pain in the +head if you use him overmuch, a pain in the eyes will come from his +biting fumes. + +"Full-charged with witchcraft is the alder, the hottest tree in the +fight; burn assuredly both the alder and the whitehorn at your will. + +"Holly, burn it in the green and in the dry; of all trees in the +world, holly is absolutely the best. + +"The elder-tree of the rough brown bark, burn him to cinders, the +steed of the Fairy Folk. + +"The drooping birch, by all means burn him too, the tree of +long-lasting bloom. + +"And lay low, if it pleases you, the russet aspen; late or early, burn +the tree with the quaking plumage. + +"The yew is the venerable ancestor of the wood as the companion of +feasts he is known; of him make goodly brown vats for ale and wine. + +"Follow my counsel, O man of the smoke, and it shall go well with you, +body and soul." + +So Iubdan continued in Emania free to go and come as he pleased; and +all the Ulstermen delighted to watch him and to hear his conversation. + +One day it chanced that he was in the chamber of the Queen, and saw +her putting on her feet a very dainty and richly embroidered pair of +shoes. At this Iubdan gave a laugh. "Why dost thou laugh?" said +Fergus. "Meseems the healing is applied very far from the hurt," +replied Iubdan. "What meanest thou by that?" said Fergus. "Because the +Queen is making her feet fine in order, O Fergus, that she may attract +thee to her lips," said Iubdan. + +Another time it chanced that Iubdan overheard one of the King's +soldiers complaining of a pair of new brogues that had been served out +to him, and grumbling that the soles were too thin. At this Iubdan +laughed again, and being asked why, he said, "I must need laugh to +hear yon fellow grumbling about his brogues, for the soles of these +brogues, thin as they are, he will never wear out." And this was a +true prophecy, for the same night this and another of the King's men +had a quarrel, and fought, and killed each the other. + +At last the Wee Folk determined to go in search of their king, and +seven battalions of them marched upon Emania and encamped upon the +lawn over against the King's Dún. Fergus and his nobles went out to +confer with them. "Give us back our king," said the Wee Folk, "and we +shall redeem him with a great ransom." "What ransom, then?" asked +Fergus. "We shall," said they, "cause this great plain to stand thick +with corn for you every year, and that without ploughing or sowing." +"I will not give up Iubdan for that," said Fergus. "Then we shall do +you a mischief," said the Wee Folk. + +That night every calf in the Province of Ulster got access to its dam, +and in the morn there was no milk to be had for man or child, for the +cows were sucked dry. + +Then said the Wee Folk to Fergus, "This night, unless we get Iubdan, +we shall defile every well and lake and river in Ulster." "That is a +trifle," said Fergus, "and ye shall not get Iubdan." + +The Wee Folk carried out this threat, and once more they came and +demanded Iubdan, saying, "To-night we shall burn with fire the shaft +of every mill in Ulster." "Yet not so shall ye get Iubdan," said +Fergus. + +This being done, they came again, saying, "We shall have vengeance +unless Iubdan be delivered to us." "What vengeance?" said Fergus. "We +shall snip off every ear of corn in thy kingdom," said they. "Even +so," replied Fergus, "I shall not deliver Iubdan." + +So the Wee Folk snipped off every ear of standing corn in Ulster, and +once more they returned and demanded Iubdan. "What will ye do next?" +asked Fergus. "We shall shave the hair of every man and every woman in +Ulster," said they, "so that ye shall be shamed and disgraced for ever +among the people of Erinn." "By my word," said Fergus, "if ye do that +I shall slay Iubdan." + +Then Iubdan said, "I have a better counsel than that, O King; let me +have liberty to go and speak with them, and I shall bid them make good +what mischief they have done, and they shall return home forthwith." + +Fergus granted that; and when the Wee Folk saw Iubdan approaching +them, they set up a shout of triumph that a man might have heard a +bowshot off, for they believed they had prevailed and that Iubdan was +released to them. But Iubdan said, "My faithful people, you must now +begone, and I may not go with you; make good also all the mischief +that ye have done, and know that if ye do any more I must die." + +Then the Wee Folk departed, very downcast and sorrowful, but they did +as Iubdan had bidden them. + +Iubdan, however, went to Fergus and said, "Take, O King, the choicest +of my treasures, and let me go." + +"What is thy choicest treasure?" said Fergus. + +Iubdan then began to recite to Fergus the list of his possessions, +such as druidic weapons, and love-charms, and instruments of music +that played without touch of human hand, and vats of ale that could +never be emptied; and he named among other noble treasures a pair of +shoes, wearing which a man could go over or under the sea as readily +as on dry land. + +At the same time Æda, the dwarf and poet of Ulster, returned hale and +well from the land of Faylinn, and much did he entertain the King and +all the court with tales of the smallness of the Wee Folk, and their +marvel at his own size, and their bravery and beauty, and their marble +palaces and matchless minstrelsy. + +So the King, Fergus mac Leda, was well content to take a ransom, +namely the magic shoes, which he desired above all the treasures of +Faylinn, and to let Iubdan go. And he gave him rich gifts, as did also +the nobles of Ulster, and wished him blessing and victory; and Iubdan +he departed, with Bebo his wife, having first bestowed upon Fergus the +magical shoes. And of him the tale hath now no more to say. + +But Fergus never tired of donning the shoes of Iubdan and traversing +the secret depths of the lakes and rivers of Ulster. Thereby, too, in +the end he got his death, for as the wise say that the gifts of Faery +may not be enjoyed without peril by mortal men, so in this case too +it proved. For, one day as Fergus was exploring the depths of Loch +Rury he met the monster, namely the river-horse, which inhabited that +lake. Horrible of form it was, swelling and contracting like a +blacksmith's bellows, and with eyes like torches, and glittering +tusks, and a mane of coarse hair on its crest and neck. When it saw +Fergus it laid back its ears, and its neck arched like a rainbow over +his head, and the vast mouth gaped to devour him. Then Fergus rose +quickly to the surface and made for the land, and the beast after him, +driving before it a huge wave of foam. Barely did he escape with his +life; but with the horror of the sight his features were distorted and +his mouth was twisted around to the side of his head, so that he was +called Fergus Wry-mouth from that day forth. And the gillie that was +with him told the tale of the adventure. + +Now there was a law in Ireland that no man might be king who was +disfigured by any bodily blemish. His people, therefore, loving +Fergus, kept from him all knowledge of his condition, and the Queen +let all mirrors that were in the palace be put away. But one day it +chanced that a bondmaid was negligent in preparing the bath, and +Fergus being impatient, gave her a stroke with a switch which he had +in his hand. The maid in anger turned upon him, and cried, "It would +better become thee to avenge thyself on the riverhorse that hath +twisted thy mouth, than to do brave deeds on women." + +Fergus then bade a mirror be fetched, and when he saw his face in it, +he said, "The woman spake truth; the riverhorse of Loch Rury has done +this thing." + +[Illustration: "Fergus goes down into the lake"] + +The next day Fergus put on the shoes of Iubdan and went forth to Loch +Rury, and with him went the lords of Ulster. And when he reached the +margin of the lake he drew his sword and went down into it, and soon +the waters covered him. + +After a while those that watched upon the bank saw a bubbling and a +mighty commotion in the waters, now here, now there, and waves of +bloody froth broke at their feet. At last, as they strained their eyes +upon the tossing water, they saw Fergus rise to his middle from it, +pale and bloody. In his right hand he waved aloft his sword, his left +was twisted in the coarse hair of the monster's head, and they saw +that his countenance was fair and kingly as of old. "Ulstermen, I have +conquered," he cried; and as he did so he sank down again, dead with +his dead foe, into their red grave in Loch Rury. + +And the Ulster lords went back to Emania, sorrowful yet proud, for +they knew that a seed of honour had been sown that day in their land +from which should spring a breed of high-hearted fighting men for many +a generation to come. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +The Carving of mac Datho's Boar + + +Once upon a time there dwelt in the province of Leinster a wealthy +hospitable lord named Mesroda, son of Datho. Two possessions had he; +namely, a hound which could outrun every other hound and every wild +beast in Erinn, and a boar which was the finest and greatest in size +that man had ever beheld. + +Now the fame of this hound was noised all about the land, and many +were the princes and lords who longed to possess it. And it came to +pass that Conor, King of Ulster, and Maev, Queen of Connacht, sent +messengers to mac Datho to ask him to sell them the hound for a price, +and both the messengers arrived at the Dún of mac Datho on the same +day. Said the Connacht messenger, "We will give thee in exchange for +the hound six hundred milch cows, and a chariot with two horses, the +best that are to be found in Connacht, and at the end of a year thou +shalt have as much again." And the messenger of King Conor said, "We +will give no less than Connacht, and the friendship and alliance of +Ulster, and that will be better for thee than the friendship of +Connacht." + +Then Mesroda mac Datho fell silent, and for three days he would not +eat nor drink, nor could he sleep o' nights, but tossed restlessly on +his bed. His wife observed his condition, and said to him, "Thy fast +hath been long, Mesroda, though good food is by thee in plenty; and at +night thou turnest thy face to the wall, and well I know thou dost not +sleep. What is the cause of thy trouble?" + +"There is a saying," replied mac Datho, "'Trust not a thrall with +money, nor a woman with a secret.'" + +"When should a man talk to a woman," said his wife, "but when +something were amiss? What thy mind cannot solve perchance another's +may." + +Then mac Datho told his wife of the request for his hound both from +Ulster and from Connacht at one and the same time, "and whichever of +them I deny," he said, "they will harry my cattle and slay my people." + +"Then hear my counsel," said the woman. "Give it to both of them, and +bid them come and fetch it; and if there be any harrying to be done, +let them even harry each other; but in no way mayest thou keep the +hound." + +On that, mac Datho rose up and shook himself, and called for food and +drink, and made merry with himself and his guests. Then he sent +privately for the messenger of Queen Maev, and said to him, "Long have +I doubted what to do, but now I am resolved to give the hound to +Connacht. Let ye send for it on such a day with a train of your nobles +or warriors and bear him forth nobly and proudly, for he is worth it; +and ye shall all have drink and food and royal entertainment in my +Dún." So the messenger departed, well pleased. + +To the Ulster messenger mac Datho said, "After much perplexity I have +resolved to give my hound to Conor. Let the best of the Ulstermen come +to fetch him, and they shall be welcomed and entertained as is +fitting." And for these he named the same day as he had done for the +embassy from Connacht. + +When the appointed day came round, the flower of the fighting men of +two provinces of Ireland were assembled before the Dún of the son of +Datho, and there were also Conor, King of Ulster, and Ailill, the +husband of Maev, Queen of Connacht. Mac Datho went forth to meet them. +"Welcome, warriors," he said to them, "albeit for two armies at once +we were not prepared." Then he bade them into the Dún, and in the +great hall they sat down. Now in this hall there were seven doors, and +between every two doors were benches for fifty men. Not as friends +bidden to a feast did the men of Ulster and of Connacht look upon one +another, since for three hundred years the provinces had ever been at +war. + +"Let the great boar be killed," said mac Datho, and it was done. For +seven years had that boar been nourished on the milk of fifty cows; +yet rather on venom should it have been nourished, such was the +mischief that was to come from the carving of it. + +When the boar was roasted it was brought in, and many other kinds of +food as side dishes, "and if more be wanting to the feast," said mac +Datho, "it shall be slain for you before the morning." + +"The boar is good," said Conor. + +"It is a fine boar," said Ailill; "and now, O mac Datho, how shall it +be divided among us?" + +There was among the Ulster company one Bricru, son of Carbad, whose +delight was in biting speeches and in fomenting strife, though he +himself was never known to draw sword in any quarrel. He now spoke +from his couch in answer to Ailill: + +"How should the boar be divided, O son of Datho, except by appointing +to carve it him who is best in deeds of arms? Here be all the valiant +men of Ireland assembled; have none of us hit each other a blow on the +nose ere now?" + +"Good," said Ailill, "so let it be done." + +"We also agree," said Conor; "there are plenty of our lads in the +house that have many a time gone round the border of the Provinces." + +"You will want them to-night, Conor," said an old warrior from Conlad +in the West. "They have often been seen on their backs on the roads of +rushy Dedah, and many a fat steer have they left with me." + +"It was a fat bullock thou didst have with thee once upon a day," +replied Moonremar of Ulster, "even thine own brother, and by the rushy +road of Conlad he came and went not back." + +"'Twas a better man than he, even Irloth, son of Fergus mac Leda, who +fell by the hand of Echbael in Tara Luachra," replied Lugad of +Munster. + +"Echbael?" cried Keltchar, son of Uthecar Hornskin of Ulster. "Is it +of him ye boast, whom I myself slew and cut off his head?" + +And thus the heroes bandied about the tales and taunts of their +victories, until at length Ket, son of Maga of the Connachtmen, arose +and stood over the boar and took the knife into his hand. "Now," he +cried, "let one man in Ulster match his deeds with mine, or else hold +ye your peace and let me carve the boar!" + +For a while there was silence, and then Conor King of Ulster, said to +Logary the Triumphant, "Stay that for me." So Logary arose and said, +"Ket shall never carve the boar for all of us." + +"Not so fast, Logary," said Ket. "It is the custom among you Ulstermen +that when a youth first takes arms he comes to prove himself on us. So +didst thou, Logary, and we met thee at the border. From that meeting I +have thy chariot and horses, and thou hadst a spear through thy ribs +Not thus wilt thou get the boar from me." Then Logary sat down on his +bench. + +"Ket shall never divide that pig," spake then a tall fair-haired +warrior from Ulster, coming down the hall. "Whom have we here?" asked +Ket. "A better man than thou," shouted the Ulstermen, "even Angus, son +of Lama Gabad." "Indeed?" said Ket, "and why is his father called Lama +Gabad [wanting a hand]?" "We know not," said they. "But I know it," +said Ket. "Once I went on a foray to the East, and was attacked by a +troop, Lama Gabad among them. He flung a lance at me. I seized the +same lance and flung it back, and it shore off his hand, and it lay +there on the field before him. Shall that man's son measure himself +with me?" And Angus went to his bench and sat down. + +"Keep up the contest," then cried Ket tauntingly, "or let me divide +the boar." "That thou shalt not," cried another Ulster warrior of +great stature. "And who is this?" said Ket. "Owen Mór, King of Fermag," +said the Ulstermen. "I have seen him ere now," said Ket. "I took a +drove of cattle from him before his own house. He put a spear through +my shield and I flung it back and it tore out one of his eyes, and +one-eyed he is to this day." Then Owen Mór sat down. + +"Have ye any more to contest the pig with me?" then said Ket. "Thou +hast not won it yet," said Moonremar, son of Gerrkind, rising up. "Is +that Moonremar?" said Ket, "It is," they cried. + +"It is but three days," said Ket, "since I was the last man who won +renown of thee. Three heads of thy fighting men did I carry off from +Dún Moonremar, and one of the three was the head of thy eldest son." +Moonremar then sat down. + +"Still the contest," said Ket, "or I shall carve the boar." "Contest +thou shalt have," said Mend, son of Sword-heel. "Who is this?" said +Ket. "'Tis Mend," cried all the Ulstermen. + +"Shall the sons of fellows with nicknames come here to contend with +me?" cried Ket. "I was the priest who christened thy father that name. +'Twas I who cut the heel off him, so that off he went with only one. +What brings the son of that man to contend with me?" Mend then sat +down in his seat. + +"Come to the contest," said Ket, "or I shall begin to carve." Then +arose from the Ulstermen a huge grey and terrible warrior. "Who is +this?" asked Ket. '"Tis Keltcar, son of Uthecar," cried they all. + +"Wait awhile, Keltcar," said Ket, "do not pound me to pieces just yet. +Once, O Keltcar, I made a foray on thee and came in front of Dún. All +thy folk attacked me, and thou amongst them. In a narrow pass we +fought, and thou didst fling a spear at me and I at thee, but my spear +went through thy loins and thou hast never been the better of it +since." Then Keltcar sat down in his seat. + +"Who else comes to the contest," cried Ket "or shall I at last divide +the pig?" Up rose then the son of King Conor, named Cuscrid the +Stammerer "Whom have we here?" said Ket. "'Tis Cuscrid son of Conor," +cried they all. "He has the stuff of a king in him," said Ket. "No +thanks to thee for that," said the youth. + +"Well, then," said Ket, "thou madest thy first foray against us +Connachtmen, and on the border of the Provinces we met thee. A third +of thy people, thou didst leave behind thee, and came away with my +spear through thy throat, so that thou canst not speak rightly ever +since, for the sinews of thy throat were severed. And hence is Cuscrid +the Stammerer thy byname ever since." + +So thus Ket laid shame and defeat on the whole Province of Ulster, nor +was there any other warrior in the hall found to contend with him. + +[Illustration: "A mighty shout of exultation arose from the +Ulstermen"] + +Then Ket stood up triumphing, and took the knife in his hand and +prepared to carve the boar when a noise and trampling were heard at +the great door of the hall, and a mighty shout of exultation arose +from the Ulstermen. When the press parted, Ket saw coming up the +centre of the hall Conall of the Victories, and Conor the King dashed +the helmet from his head and sprang up for joy. + +"Glad we are," cried Conall, "that all is ready for feast; and who is +carving the boar for us?" + +"Ket, son of Maga," replied they, "for none could contest the place of +honour with him." + +"Is that so, Ket?" says Conall Cearnach. + +"Even so," replied Ket. "And now welcome to thee, O Conall, thou of +the iron heart and fiery blood; keen as the glitter of ice, +ever-victorious chieftain; hail mighty son of Finnchoom!" + +And Conall said, "Hail to thee, Ket, flower of heroes, lord of +chariots, a raging sea in battle; a strong, majestic bull; hail, son +of Maga!" + +"And now," went on Conall, "rise up from the boar and give me place." + +"Why so?" replied Ket. + +"Dost thou seek a contest from me?" said Conall; "verily thou shalt +have it. By the gods of my nation I swear that since I first took +weapons in my hand I have never passed one day that I did not slay a +Connachtman, nor one night that I did not make a foray on them, nor +have I ever slept but I had the head of a Connachtman under my knee." + +"I confess," then, said Ket, "that thou art a better man than I, and I +yield thee the boar. But if Anluan my brother were here, he would +match thee deed for deed, and sorrow and shame it is that he is not." + + +"Anluan is here," shouted Conall, and with that he drew from his +girdle the head of Anluan and dashed it in the face of Ket. + +Then all sprang to their feet and a wild shouting and tumult arose, +and the swords flew out of themselves, and battle raged in the hall of +mac Datho. Soon the hosts burst out through the doors of the Dún and +smote and slew each other in the open field, until the Connacht host +were put to flight. The hound of mac Datho pursued them along with the +Ulstermen, and it came up with the chariot in which King Ailill was +driving, and seized the pole of the chariot, but the charioteer dealt +it a blow that cut off its head. When Ailill drew rein they found the +hound's head still clinging to the pole, whence that place is called +Ibar Cinn Chon, or the Yew Tree of the Hound's Head. + +Now when Conor pursued hard upon King Ailill, Ferloga, the charioteer +of Ailill, lighted down and hid himself in the heather; and as Conor +drove past, Ferloga leaped up behind him in the chariot and gripped +him by the throat. + +"What will thou have of me?" said Conor. + +"Give over the pursuit," said Ferloga, "and take me with thee to +Emania,[19] and let the maidens of Emania so long as I am there sing +a serenade before my dwelling every night." + + [19] The ancient royal residence of Ulster, near to the present + town of Armagh. + +"Granted," said Conor. So he took Ferloga with him to Emania, and at +the end of a year sent him back to Connacht, escorting him as far as +to Athlone; and Ferloga had from the King of Ulster two noble horses +with golden bridles, but the serenade from the maidens of Ulster he +did not get, though he got the horses instead. And thus ends the tale +of the contention between Ulster and Connacht over the Carving of mac +Datho's Boar. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The Vengeance of Mesgedra + + +Atharna the Bard, surnamed the Extortionate, was the chief poet and +satirist of Ulster in the reign of Conor mac Nessa. Greed and +arrogance were in his heart and poison on his tongue, and the kings +and lords of whom he asked rewards for his poems dared not refuse him +aught, partly because of the poisonous satires and lampoons which he +would otherwise make upon them for their niggardliness, and partly for +that in Ireland at that day it was deemed shameful to refuse to a bard +whatsoever he might ask. Once it was said that he asked of a sub-king, +namely Eochy mac Luchta, who was famed for hospitality and generosity, +the single thing that Eochy would have been grieved to give, namely +his eye, and Eochy had but one eye. But the King plucked it out by the +roots and gave it to him; and Atharna went away disappointed, for he +had looked that Eochy would ransom his eye at a great price. + +Now Conor mac Nessa, King of Ulster, and all the Ulster lords, having +grown very powerful and haughty, became ill neighbours to all the +other kingdoms in Ireland. On fertile Leinster above all they fixed +their eyes, and sought for an opportunity to attack and plunder the +province. Conor resolved at last to move Atharna to go to the King of +Leinster, in the hope that he himself might be rid of Atharna, by the +King of Leinster killing him for his insolence and his exactions, and +that he might avenge the death of his bard by the invasion of +Leinster. + +Atharna therefore set out for Leinster accompanied by his train of +poets and harpers and gillies and arrived at the great Dún of Mesgedra +the King, at Naas in Kildare. Here he dwelt for twelve months wasting +the substance of the Leinstermen and in the end when he was minded to +return to Ulster he went before the King Mesgedra and the lords of +Leinster and demanded his poet's fee. + +"What is thy demand, Atharna?" asked Mesgedra. + +"So many cattle and so many sheep," answered Atharna, "and store of +gold and raiment, and of the fairest dames and maidens of Leinster +forty-five, to grind at my querns in Dún Atharna." + +"It shall be granted thee," said the King. Then Atharna feared some +mischief, for the King and the nobles of Leinster had not seemed like +men on whom shameful conditions are laid, nor had they offered to +ransom their women. Atharna therefore judged that the Leinstermen +might fall upon him to recover their booty when he was once beyond the +border, for within their own borders they might not affront a guest. +He sent, therefore, a swift messenger to Conor mac Nessa, bidding him +come with a strong escort as quickly as he might, to meet Atharna's +band on the marches of Leinster, and convey him safely home. + +Atharna then departed from Naas with a great herd of sheep and cattle +and other spoils, and with thrice fifteen of the noble women of +Leinster. He went leisurely, meaning to strike the highroad to Emania +from Dublin; but when he came thither the Liffey was swollen with +rain, and the ford at Dublin might not be crossed. He caused, +therefore, many great hurdles to be made, and these were set in the +river, and over them a causeway of boughs was laid, so that his +cattle and spoils came safely across. Hence is the town of that place +called to this day in Gaelic the City of the Hurdle Ford. + +On the next day Conor and the Ulstermen met him, but a great force of +the men of Leinster was also marching from Naas to the border, to +recover their womenfolk, even as Atharna had expected. The Leinstermen +then broke the battle on the company from Ulster, and defeated them, +driving them with the cows of Atharna on to the sea cape of Ben Edar +(Howth), but they recovered the women. On Ben Edar did King Conor with +the remnant of his troop then fortify themselves, making a great fosse +across the neck of land by which Ben Edar is joined to the mainland, +and here they were besieged, with hard fighting by day and night, +expecting that help should come to them from Ulster, whither they had +sent messengers to tell of their distress. + +Now Conall of the Victories was left behind to rule in Emania when +Conor set forth to Leinster, and he now, on hearing how the King was +beset, assembled a great host and marched down to Ben Edar. Here he +attacked the host of Leinster, and a great battle was fought, many +being slain on both sides, and the King of Leinster, Mesgedra, lost +his left hand in the fight. In the end the men of Leinster were +routed, and fled, and Mesgedra drove in his chariot past the City of +the Hurdle Ford and Naas to the fords of Liffey at Clane. Here there +was a sacred oak tree where druid rites and worship were performed, +and that oak tree was sanctuary, so that within its shadow, guarded by +mighty spells, no man might be slain by his enemy. + +Now Conall Cearnach had followed hard on the track of Mesgedra, and +when he found him beneath the oak, he drove his chariot round and +round the circuit of the sanctuary, bidding Mesgedra come forth and do +battle with him, or be counted a dastard among the kings of Erinn. But +Mesgedra said, "Is it the fashion of the champions of Ulster to +challenge one-armed men to battle?" + +Then Conall let his charioteer bind one of his arms to his side, and +again he taunted Mesgedra and bade him come forth. + +Mesgedra then drew sword, and between him and Conall there was a +fierce fight until the Liffey was reddened with their blood. At last, +by a chance blow of the sword of Mesgedra, the bonds of Conall's left +arm were severed. + +"On thy head be it," said Conall, "if thou release me again." + +Then he caused his arm to be bound up once more, and again they met, +sword to sword, and again in the fury of the fight Mesgedra cut the +thongs that bound Conall's arm. "The gods themselves have doomed +thee," shouted Conall then, and he rushed upon Mesgedra and in no +long time he wounded him to death. + +"Take my head," said Mesgedra then, "and add my glory to thy glory, +but be well assured this wrong shall yet be avenged by me upon +Ulster," and he died. + +Then Conall cut off the head of Mesgedra and put it in his chariot, +and took also the chariot of Mesgedra and fared northwards. Ere long +he met a chariot and fifty women accompanying it. In it was Buan the +Queen, wife of Mesgedra, returning from a visit to Meath. + +"Who art thou, woman?" said Conall. + +"I am Buan, wife of Mesgedra the King." + +"Thou art to come with me," then said Conall. + +"Who hath commanded this?" said Buan. + +"Mesgedra the King," said Conall. + +"By what token dost thou lay these commands upon me?" + +"Behold his chariot and his horses," said Conall. + +"He gives rich gifts to many a man," answered the Queen. + +Then Conall showed her the head of her husband. + +"This is my token," said he. + +"It is enough," said Buan. "But give me leave to bewail him ere I go +into captivity." + +Then Buan rose up in her chariot and raised for Mesgedra a keen of +sorrow so loud and piercing that her heart broke with it, and she fell +backwards on the road and died. + +Conall Cearnach then buried her there, and laid the head of her +husband by her side; and the fair hazel tree that grew from her grave +by the fords of Clane was called Coll Buana, or the Hazel Tree of +Buan. + +But ere Conall buried the head of Mesgedra he caused the brain to be +taken out and mixed with lime to make a bullet for a sling, for so it +was customary to do when a great warrior had been killed; and the +brain-balls thus made were accounted to be the deadliest of missiles. + + +So when Leinster had been harried and plundered and its king and queen +thus slain, the Ulstermen drew northward again, and the brain-ball was +laid up in the Dún of King Conor at Emania. + +Years afterwards it happened that the Wolf of Connacht, namely Ket, +son of Maga, came disguised within the borders of Ulster in search of +prey, and he entered the palace precincts of Conor in Emania. There he +saw two jesters of the King, who had gotten the brain-ball from the +shelf where it lay, and were rolling it about the courtyard. Ket knew +it for what it was, and put it out of sight of the jesters and took it +away with him while they made search for it. Thenceforth Ket carried +it ever about with him in his girdle, hoping that he might yet use it +to destroy some great warrior among the Ulstermen. + +One day thereafter Ket made a foray on the men of Ross, and carried +away a spoil of cattle. The host of Ulster and King Conor with them +overtook him as he went homeward. The men of Connacht had also +mustered to the help of Ket, and both sides made them ready for +battle. + +Now a river, namely Brosna, ran between them, and on a hill at one +side of this were assembled a number of the noble women of Connacht, +who desired greatly to look on the far-famed Ultonian warriors, and +above all on Conor the King, whose presence was said to be royal and +stately beyond any man that was then living in Erinn. Among the +bushes, close to the women, Ket hid himself, and lay still but +watchful. + +Now Conor, seeing none but womenfolk close to him at this point, and +being willing to show them his splendour, drew near to the bank on his +side of the stream. Then Ket leaped up, whirling his sling, and the +bullet hummed across the river and smote King Conor on the temple. And +his men carried him off for dead, and the men of Connacht broke the +battle on the Ulstermen, slaying many, and driving the rest of them +back to their own place. This battle was thenceforth called the Battle +of the Ford of the Sling-cast, or Athnurchar; and so the place is +called to this day. + +When Conor was brought home to Emania his chief physician, Fingen, +found the ball half buried in his temple. "If the ball be taken out," +said Fingen, "he will die; if it remain he will live, but he will bear +the blemish of it." + +"Let him bear the blemish," said the Ulster lords, "that is a small +matter compared with the death of Conor." + +Then Fingen stitched the wound over with a thread of gold, for Conor +had curling golden hair, and bade him keep himself from all violent +movements and from all vehement passions, and not to ride on +horseback, and he would do well. + +After that Conor lived for seven years, and he went not to war during +that time, and all cause of passion was kept far from him. Then one +day at broad noon the sky darkened, and the gloom of night seemed to +spread over the world, and all the people feared, and looked for some +calamity. Conor called to him his chief druid, namely Bacarach, and +inquired of him as to the cause of the gloom. + +The druid then went with Conor into a sacred grove of oaks and +performed the rites of divination, and in a trance he spoke to Conor, +saying, "I see a hill near a great city, and three high crosses on it. +To one of them is nailed the form of a young man who is like unto one +of the Immortals. Round him stand soldiers with tall spears, and a +great crowd waiting to see him die." + +"Is he, then, a malefactor?" + +"Nay," said the druid, "but holiness, innocence, and truth have come +to earth in him, and for this cause have the druids of his land doomed +him to die, for his teaching was not as theirs. And the heavens are +darkened for wrath and sorrow at the sight." + +Then Conor leaped up in a fury, crying, "They shall not slay him, +they shall not slay him! Would I were there with the host of Ulster, +and thus would I scatter his foes"; and with that he snatched his +sword and began striking at the trees that stood thickly about him in +the druid grove. Then with the heat of his passion the sling-ball +burst from his head, and he fell to the ground and died. + +Thus was fulfilled the vengeance of Mesgedra upon Conor mac Nessa, +King of Ulster. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The Story of Etain and Midir + + +Once upon a time there was a High King of the Milesian race in Ireland +named Eochy Airem, whose power and splendour were very great, and all +the sub-Kings, namely, Conor of Ulster, and Mesgedra of Leinster, and +Curoi of Munster, and Ailill and Maev of Connacht, were obedient to +him. But he was without a wife; and for this reason the sub-Kings and +Princes of Ireland would not come to his festivals at Tara, "for," +said they, "there is no noble in Ireland who is a wifeless man, and a +King is no king without a queen." And they would not bring their own +wives to Tara without a queen there to welcome them, nor would they +come themselves and leave their womenfolk at home. + +So Eochy bade search be made through all the boundaries of Ireland for +a maiden meet to be wife of the High King. And in time his messengers +came back and said that they had found in Ulster, by the Bay of +Cichmany, the fairest and most accomplished maiden in Ireland, and her +name was Etain, daughter of Etar, lord of the territory called Echrad. +So Eochy, when he had heard their report, went forth to woo the +maiden. + +When he drew near his journey's end he passed by a certain spring of +pure water where it chanced that Etain and her maids had come down +that she might wash her hair. She held in her hand a comb of silver +inlaid with gold, and before her was a bason of silver chased with +figures of birds, and around the rim of it red carbuncles were set. +Her mantle was purple with a fringe of silver, and it was fastened +with a broad golden brooch. She wore also a tunic of green silk, stiff +with embroidery of gold that glittered in the sun. Her hair before she +loosed it was done in two mighty tresses, yellow like the flower of +the waterflag, each tress being plaited in four strands, and at the +end of each strand a little golden ball. When she laid aside her +mantle her arms came through the armholes of her tunic, white as the +snow of a single night, and her cheeks were ruddy as the foxglove. +Even and small were her teeth, as if a shower of pearls had fallen in +her mouth. Her eyes were hyacinth-blue, her lips scarlet as the +rowan-berry, her shoulders round and white, her fingers were long and +her nails smooth and pink. Her feet also were slim, and white as +sea-foam. The radiance of the moon was in her face, pride in her +brows, the light of wooing in her eyes. Of her it was said that there +was no beauty among women compared with Etain's beauty, no sweetness +compared with the sweetness of Etain. + +When the King saw her his heart burned with love for her, and when he +had speech with her he besought her to be his bride. And she consented +to that, and said, "Many have wooed me, O King, but I would none of +them, for since I was a little child I have loved thee, for the high +tales that I heard of thee and of thy glory." And Eochy said, "Thine +alone will I be if thou wilt have me." So the King paid a great +bride-price for her, and bore her away to Tara, and there they were +wedded, and all men welcomed and honoured the Queen. Nor had she dwelt +long in Tara before the enchantment of her beauty and her grace had +worked upon the hearts of all about her, so that the man to whom she +spoke grew pale at the womanly sweetness of her voice, and felt +himself a king for that day. All fair things and bright she loved, +such as racing steeds and shining raiment, and the sight of Eochy's +warriors with their silken banners and shields decorated with rich +ornament in red and blue. And she would have all about her happy and +joyous, and she gave freely of her treasure, and of her smiles and +loving words, if she might see the light of joy on the faces of men, +but from pain or sadness that might not be cured she would turn away. +In one thing only was sadness endurable to her and that was in her +music, for when she sang or touched the harp all hearts were pierced +with longing for they knew not what, and all eyes shed tears save hers +alone, who looked as though she beheld, far from earth, some land more +fair than words of man can tell; and all the wonder of that land and +all its immeasurable distance were in her song. + +Now Eochy the King had a brother whose name was Ailill Anglounach, or +Ailill of the Single Stain, for one dark spot only was on his life, +and it is of this that the story now shall tell. One day, when he had +come from his own Dún to the yearly Assembly in the great Hall of +Tara, he ate not at the banquet but gazed as it were at something afar +off, and his wife said to him, "Why dost thou gaze so, Ailill; so do +men look who are smitten with love?" Ailill was wroth with himself and +turned his eyes away, but he said nothing, for that on which he gazed +was the face of Etain. + +After that Assembly was over Ailill knew that the torment of love had +seized him for his brother's wife, and he was sorely shamed and +wrathful, and the secret strife in his mind between his honour and the +fierce and pitiless love that possessed him brought him into a sore +sickness. And he went home to his Dún in Tethba and there lay ill for +a year. Then Eochy the King went to see him, and came near him and +laid his hand on his breast, and Ailill heaved a bitter sigh. Eochy +asked, "Why art thou not better of this sickness, how goes it with +thee now?" "By my word," said Ailill, "no better, but worse each day +and night." "What ails thee, then?" asked Eochy. Ailill said, "Verily, +I know not." Then Eochy bade summon his chief physician, who might +discover the cause of his brother's malady, for Ailill was wasting to +death. + +So Fachtna the chief physician came and he laid his hand upon Ailill, +and Ailill sighed. Then Fachtna said, "This is no bodily disease, but +either Ailill suffers from the pangs of envy or from the torment of +love." But Ailill was full of shame and he would not tell what ailed +him, and Fachtna went away. + +After this the time came that Eochy the High King should make a royal +progress throughout his realm of Ireland, but Etain he left behind at +Tara. Before he departed he charged her saying, "Do thou be gentle and +kind to my brother Ailill while he lives, and should he die, let his +burial mound be heaped over him, and a pillar stone set up above it, +and his name written thereon in letters of Ogham." Then the King took +leave of Ailill and looked to see him again on earth no more. + +After a while Etain bethought her and said, "Let us go to see how it +fares with Ailill." So she went to where he lay in his Dún at Tethba. +And seeing him wasted and pale she was moved with pity and distress +and said, + +"What ails thee, young man? Long thou hast lain prostrate, in fair +weather and in foul, thou who wert wont to be so swift and strong?" + +And Ailill said, + +"Truly, I have a cause for my suffering; and I cannot eat, nor listen +to the music makers; my affliction is very sore." + +Then said Etain, + +"Though I am a woman I am wise in many a thing; tell me what ails thee +and thy healing shall be done." + +Ailill replied, + +"Blessing be with thee, O fair one; I am not worthy of thy speech; I +am torn by the contention of body and of soul." + +Then Etain deemed that she knew somewhat of his trouble, and she said, + + +"If thy heart is set on any of the white maidens that are my +handmaids, tell me of it, and I shall court her for thee and she shall +come to thee," and then Ailill cried out, + +"Love indeed, O Queen, hath brought me low. It is a plague nearer than +the skin, it overwhelms my soul as an earthquake, it is farther than +the height of the sky, and harder to win than the treasures of the +Fairy Folk. If I contend with it, it is like a combat with a spectre; +if I fly to the ends of the earth from it, it is there; if I seek to +seize it, it is a passion for an echo. It is thou, O my love, who hast +brought me to this, and thou alone canst heal me, or I shall never +rise again." + +Then Etain went away and left him. But still in her palace in Tara she +was haunted by his passion and his misery, and, though she loved him +not, she could not endure his pain, nor the triumph of grim death over +his youth and beauty. So at last she went to him again and said, "If +it lies with me, Ailill, to heal thee of thy sickness, I may not let +thee die." And she made a tryst to meet him on the morrow at a house +of Ailill's between Dún Tethba and Tara, "but be it not at Tara," she +said, "for that is the palace of the High King." + +All that night Ailill lay awake with the thought of his tryst with +Etain. But on the morrow morn a heaviness came upon his eyelids, and a +druid sleep overcame him, and there all day he lay buried in slumbers +from which none could wake him, until the time of his meeting with +Etain was overpast. + +But Etain, when she had come to the place of the tryst, looked out, +and behold, a youth having the appearance and the garb of Ailill was +approaching from Tethba. He entered the bower where she was; but no +lover did she there meet, but only a sick and sorrowful man who spake +coldly to her and lamented the sufferings of his malady, and after a +short time he went away. + +Next day Etain went to see Ailill and to hear how he did. And Ailill +entreated her forgiveness that he had not kept his tryst, "for," said +he, "a druid slumber descended upon me, and I lay as one dead from +morn till eve. And morever," he added, "it seems as if the strange +passion that has befallen me were washed away in that slumber, for +now, Etain, I love thee no more but as my Queen and my sister, and I +am recovered as if from an evil dream." Then Etain knew that powers +not of earth were mingling in her fate, and she pondered much of these +things, and grew less lighthearted than of old. And when the King came +back, he rejoiced to find his brother whole and sound and merry, as +Ailill had ever been, and he praised Etain for her gentleness and +care. + +Now after a time as Etain was by herself in her sunny bower she was +aware of a man standing by her, whom she had never seen before. Young +he was, and grey-eyed, with curling golden hair, and in his hand he +bore two spears. His mantle was of crimson silk, his tunic of saffron, +and a golden helmet was on his head. And as she gazed upon him, +"Etain," he said, "the time is come for thee to return; we have missed +thee and sorrowed for thee long enough in the Land of Youth." Etain +said, "Of what land dost thou speak?" Then he chanted to her a song:-- + + "Come with me, Etain, O come away, + To that oversea land of mine! + Where music haunts the happy day, + And rivers run with wine; + Where folk are careless, and young, and gay, + And none saith 'mine' or 'thine.' + + "Golden curls on the proud young head, + And pearls in the tender mouth; + Manhood, womanhood, white and red, + And love that grows not loth + When all the world's desires are dead, + And all the dreams of youth. + + "Away from the cloud of Adam's sin! + Away from grief and care! + This flowery land thou dwellest in + Seems rude to us, and bare; + For the naked strand of the Happy Land + Is twenty times as fair." + +When Etain heard this she stood motionless and as one that dreams +awake, for it seemed to her as if she must follow that music +whithersoever it went on earth or beyond the earth. But at last +remembrance came upon her and she said to the stranger, "Who art thou, +that I, the High King's wife, should follow a nameless man and betray +my troth?" And he said, "Thy troth was due to me before it was due to +him, and, moreover, were it not for me thou hadst broken it already. I +am Midir the Proud, a prince among the people of Dana, and thy +husband, Etain. Thus it was, that when I took thee to wife in the Land +of Youth, the jealousy of thy rival, Fuamnach, was awakened; and +having decoyed me from home by a false report, she changed thee by +magical arts into a butterfly, and then contrived a mighty tempest +that drove thee abroad. Seven years wast thou borne hither and thither +on the blast till chance blew thee into the fairy palace of Angus my +kinsman, by the waters of the Boyne. But Angus knew thee, for the +Fairy Folk may not disguise themselves from each other, and he built +for thee a magical sunny bower with open windows, through which thou +mightest pass, and about it were all manner of blossoming herbs and +shrubs, and on the odour and honey of these thou didst live and grow +fair and well nourished. But in the end Fuamnach got tidings of thee, +and again the druid tempest descended and blew thee forth for another +seven years of wandering and woe. Then it chanced that thou wert blown +through the roof-window of the Dún of Etar by the Bay of Cichmany, and +fell into the goblet from which his wife was drinking, and thee she +drank down with that draught of ale. And in due time thou wast born +again in the guise of a mortal maid and daughter to Etar the Warrior. +But thou art no mortal, nor of mortal kin, for it is one thousand and +twelve years from the time when thou wast born in Fairy Land till +Etar's wife bore thee as a child on earth." + +Then Etain was bewildered, and her mind ran back on many a +half-forgotten thing and she gazed as into a gulf of visions, full of +dim shapes, strange and glorious. And Midir as she looked at him again +seemed transfigured, taller and mightier than before, and a light +flame flickered from his helmet's crest and moved like wings about his +shoulders. + +But at last she said, "I know not what thou sayest if it be truth or +not, but this I know, that I am the wife of the High King and I will +not break my troth." "It were broken already," said Midir, "but for +me, for I it was who laid a druidic sleep on Ailill, and it was I who +came to thee in his shape that thy honour might not be stained." Etain +said, "I learned then that honour is more than life." "But if Eochy +the High King consent to let thee go," said Midir, "wilt thou then +come with me to my land and thine?" "In that case," said Etain "I +will go." + +And the time went by, and Etain abode in Tara, and the High King did +justice and made war and held the great Assembly as he was used. But +one day in summer Eochy arose very early to breathe the morning air, +and he stood by himself leaning on the rampart of his great Dún, and +looking over the flowery plain of Bregia. And as he thus gazed he was +aware of a young warrior standing by his side. Grey-eyed the youth +was, and golden-haired, and he was splendidly armed and apparelled as +beseemed the lord of a great clan of the Gael. Eochy bade him welcome +courteously, and asked him of the cause of his coming. "I am come," he +said, "to play a game of chess with thee, O King, for thou art +renowned for thy skill in that game, and to test that skill am I come. +And my name is Midir, of the People of Dana, whom they have called The +Proud." + +"Willingly," said the King; "but I have here no chessboard, and mine +is in the chamber where the Queen is sleeping." + +"That is easily remedied," said Midir, and he drew from his cloak a +folding chessboard whose squares were alternate gold and silver. From +a men-bag made of brazen chainwork he drew out a set of men adorned +with flashing jewels, and he set them in array. + +"I will not play," then said Eochy, "unless we play for a stake." + +"For what stake shall we play, then?" said Midir. + +"I care not," said Eochy; "but do thou perform tasks for me if I win +and I shall bestow of my treasures upon thee if I lose." + +So they played a game, and Eochy won. Then Eochy bade Midir clear the +plains of Meath about Tara from rocks and stones, and Midir brought at +night a great host of the Fairy Folk, and it was done. And again he +played with Eochy, and again he lost, and this time he cut down the +forest of Breg. The third time Midir lost again, and his task was to +build a causeway across the moor of Lamrach. Now at night, while Midir +and the fairy host were labouring at the causeway and their oxen +drawing to it innumerable loads of earth and gravel, the steward of +Eochy stole out and hid himself to watch them, for it was a +prohibition to see them at work. And he observed that the fairy oxen +were not harnessed with a thong across their foreheads, that the pull +might be upon their brows and necks, as was the manner with the Gael, +but with yokes upon their shoulders. This he reported to Eochy, who +found it good; and he ordered that henceforth the children of the Gael +should harness their plough-oxen with the yoke upon their shoulders; +and so it was done from that day forth. Hence Eochy got his name of +_Airem_, or "The Ploughman," for he was the first of the Gael to put +the yoke upon the shoulder of the ox. + +But it was said that because the Fairy Folk were watched as they made +that noble causeway, there came a breach in it at one place which none +could ever rightly mend. + +When all their works were accomplished, Midir came again to Eochy, and +this time he bore a dark and fierce countenance and was high girt as +for war. And the King welcomed him, and Midir said, "Thou hast treated +me hardly and put slavish tasks upon me. All that seemed good to thee +have I done, but now I am moved with anger against thee." + +"I return not anger for anger," said Eochy; "say what satisfaction I +can make thee." + +"Let us once more play at chess," said Midir. + +"Good," said Eochy, "and what stake wilt thou have now?" + +"The stake to be whatever the winner shall demand," said Midir. + +Then they played for the fourth time and Eochy lost. + +"Thou hast won the game," said he. + +"I had won long ago had I chosen," said Midir. + +"What dost thou demand of me?" said Eochy. + +"To hold Etain in my arms and obtain a kiss from her," replied Midir. + +The King was silent for a while and after that he said, "Come back in +one month from this day and the stake which I have lost shall be +paid." + +But Eochy summoned together all the host of the heroes of the Gael, +and they surrounded Tara, ring within ring; and the King himself and +Etain were in the palace, with the outer court of it shut and locked. +For they looked that Midir should come with a great host of the Danaan +folk to carry off the Queen. And on the appointed day, as the kings +sat at meat, Etain and her handmaids were dispensing the wine to them +as was wont. Then suddenly as they feasted and talked, behold, Midir, +stood in the midst of them. If he was fair and noble to look on as he +had appeared before to the King and to Etain, he was fairer now, for +the splendour of the Immortals clothed him, and his jewels flamed as +he moved like eyes of living light. And all the kings and lords and +champions who were present gazed on him in amazement and were silent, +as the King arose and gave him welcome. + +"Thou hast received me as I expected to be received," said Midir, +"and now let thy debt be paid, since I for my part faithfully +performed all that I undertook." + +"I must consider the matter yet longer," said Eochy. + +"Thou hast promised Etain's very self to me," said Midir; "that is +what hath come from thee." And when she heard that word Etain blushed +for shame. + +"Blush not," said Midir, "for all the treasures of the Land of Youth +have not availed to win thee from Eochy, and it is not of thine own +will that thou art won, but because the time is come to return to thy +kin." + +Then said Eochy, "I have not promised Etain's self to thee, but to +take her in thine arms and kiss her, and now do so if thou wilt." + +[Illustration: "They rose up in the air"] + +Then Midir took his weapons in his left hand and placed his right +around Etain, and when he did so they rose up in the air over the +heads of the host, and passed through a roof-window in the palace. +Then all rose up, tumultuous and angry, and rushed out of doors, but +nothing could they see save two white swans that circled high in air +around the Hill of Tara, and then flew southwards and away towards +the fairy mountain of Slievenamon. And thus Etain the immortal +rejoined the Immortals; but a daughter of Etain and of Eochy, who was +another Etain in name and in beauty, became in due time a wife, and +mother of kings. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +How Ethne Quitted Fairyland + + +By the banks of the River Boyne, where rises the great Fairy Mound now +called Newgrange, there stood long ago the shining Palace of a prince +of the People of Dana, named Angus. Of him it is that the lines are +written-- + + "By the dark rolling waters of the Boyne + Where Angus Óg magnificently dwells." + +When the Milesian race invaded Ireland, and after long fighting +subdued the Danaans in spite of all their enchantments and all their +valour, the Danaans wrought for themselves certain charms by which +they and all their possessions became invisible to mortals, and thus +they continued to lead their old joyous life in the holy places of the +land, and their palaces and dancing-places and folk-motes seem to the +human eye to be merely a green mound or rath, or a lonely hillside, or +a ruined shrine with nettles and foxgloves growing up among its broken +masonry. + +Now, after Angus and his folk had thus retreated behind the veil of +invisibility, it happened that the steward of his palace had a +daughter born to him whose name was Ethne. On the same day Fand, the +wife of Mananan the Sea God, bore him a daughter, and since Angus was +a friend of Mananan and much beloved by him, the child of the Sea God +was sent to Brugh na Boyna, the noble dwelling-place of Angus, to be +fostered and brought up, as the custom was. And Ethne became the +handmaid of the young princess of the sea. + +In time Ethne grew into a fair and stately maiden Now in the Brugh of +Angus there were two magical treasures, namely, an ale-vat which could +never be emptied, and two swine whereof one was ever roasted and ready +to be eaten while the other lived, and thus they were, day and day +about. There was therefore always a store of food of faery, charged +with magical spells, by eating of which one could never grow old or +die. It came to be noticed that after Ethne had grown up she never ate +or drank of the fairy food, or of any other, yet she continued to seem +healthy and well-nourished. This was reported to Angus, and by him to +Mananan, and Mananan by his wisdom discovered the cause of it. One of +the lords of the Danaans, happening to be on a visit with Angus, was +rendered distraught by the maiden's beauty, and one day he laid hands +upon her and strove to carry her away to his own dwelling. Ethne +escaped from him, but the blaze of resentment at the insult that lit +up in her soul consumed in her the fairy nature, that knows not of +good or evil, and the nature of the children of Adam took its place. +Thenceforth she ate not of the fairy food, which is prohibited to man, +and she was nourished miraculously by the will of the One God. But +after a time it chanced that Mananan and Angus brought from the Holy +Land two cows whose milk could never run dry. In this milk there was +nothing of the fairy spell, and Ethne lived upon it many long years, +milking the cows herself, nor did her youth and beauty suffer any +change. + +Now it happened that on one very hot day the daughter of Mananan went +down to bathe in the waters of the Boyne, and Ethne and her other +maidens along with her. After they had refreshed themselves in the +cool, amber-coloured water, they arrayed themselves in their silken +robes and trooped back to the Brugh again; but ere they entered it, +they discovered that Ethne was not among them. + +So they went back, scattering themselves along the bank and searching +in every quiet pool of the river and in every dark recess among the +great trees that bordered it, for Ethne was dearly loved by all of +them; but neither trace nor tidings of her could they find, and they +went sorrowfully home without her, to tell the tale to Angus and to +her father. + +What had befallen Ethne was this. In taking off her garments by the +riverside she had mislaid her fairy charm, and was become as a mortal +maid. Nothing could she now see of her companions, and all around was +strange to her. The fairy track that had led to the riverside was +overgrown with briars, the palace of Angus was but a wooded hill. She +knew not where she was, and pierced with sudden terror she fled wildly +away, seeking for the familiar places that she had known in the fairy +life, but which were now behind the Veil. At length she came to a high +wall wherein was a wicket gate, and through it she saw a garden full +of sweet herbs and flowers, which surrounded a steep-roofed building +of stone. In the garden she saw a man in a long brown robe tied about +his waist with a cord. He smiled at her and beckoned her to come in +without fear. He was a monk of the holy Patrick, and the house was a +convent church. + +When the monk had heard her tale, he marvelled greatly and brought her +to St Patrick himself, who instructed her in the Faith, and she +believed and was baptized. + +[Illustration: "She heard her own name called again and again"] + +But not long thereafter, as she was praying in the church by the +Boyne, the sky darkened and she heard a sound without like the rushing +of a great wind, and mingled in it were cries and lamentations, and +her own name called again and again in a multitude of voices, thin and +faint as the crying of curlews upon the moor. She sprang up and gazed +around, calling in return, but nothing could she see, and at last the +storm of cries died away, and everything was still again around the +church except the singing voice of Boyne and the humming of the garden +bees. + +Then Ethne sank down swooning, and the monks bore her out into the +air, and it was long until her heart beat and her eyes unclosed again. +In that hour she fell into a sickness from which she never recovered. +In no long time she died with her head upon the breast of the holy +Patrick, and she was buried in the church where she had first been +received by the monk; and the church was called Killethne, or the +Church of Ethne, from that day forward until now. + + + + +THE HIGH DEEDS OF FINN + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Boyhood of Finn mac Cumhal + + +In Ireland long ago, centuries before the English appeared in that +country, there were kings and chiefs, lawyers and merchants, men of +the sword and men of the book, men who tilled their own ground and men +who tilled the ground of others, just as there are now. But there was +also, as ancient poets and historians tell us, a great company or +brotherhood of men who were bound to no fixed calling, unless it was +to fight for the High King of Ireland whenever foes threatened him +from within the kingdom or without it. This company was called the +Fianna of Erinn. They were mighty hunters and warriors, and though +they had great possessions in land, and rich robes, and gold +ornaments, and weapons wrought with beautiful chasing and with +coloured enamels, they lived mostly a free out-door life in the light +hunting-booths which they made in the woods where the deer and the +wolf ranged. There were then vast forests in Ireland, which are all +gone now, and there were also, as there still are, many great and +beautiful lakes and rivers, swarming with fish and water-fowl. In the +forests and on the mountain sides roamed the wild boar and the wolf, +and great herds of deer, some of giant size, whose enormous antlers +are sometimes found when bogs are being drained. The Fianna chased +these and the wolves with great dogs, whose courage and strength and +beauty were famous throughout Europe, and which they prized and loved +above all things. To the present day in Ireland there still remain +some of this breed of Irish hounds, but the giant deer and the wolf +are gone, and the Fianna of Erinn live only in the ancient books that +were written of them, and in the tales that are still told of them in +the winter evenings by the Irish peasant's fireside. + +The Fianna were under the rule of one great captain or chief, and at +the time I tell of his name was Cumhal, son of Trenmor. Now a tribe or +family of the Fianna named the Clan Morna, or Sons of Morna, rose in +rebellion against Cumhal, for they were jealous and greedy of his +power and glory, and sought to have the captaincy for themselves. They +defeated and slew him at the battle of Cnucha, which is now called +Castleknock, near the City of the Hurdle Ford, which is the name that +Dublin still bears in the Irish tongue. Goll, son of Morna, slew +Cumhal, and they spoiled him of the Treasure Bag of the Fianna, which +was a bag made of a crane's skin and having in it jewels of great +price, and magic weapons, and strange things that had come down from +far-off days when the Fairy Folk and mortal men battled for the +lordship of Ireland. The Bag with its treasures was given to Lia, the +chief of Luachar in Connacht, who had the keeping of it before, for he +was the treasurer of Cumhal, and he was the first man who had wounded +Cumhal in the battle when he fell. + +Cumhal's wife was named Murna, and she bore him two sons. The elder +was named Tulcha, and he fled from the country for fear of Goll and +took service with the King of Scotland. The younger was born after +Cumhal's death, and his name was called Demna. And because his mother +feared that the sons of Morna would find him out and kill him, she +gave him to a Druidess and another wise woman of Cumhal's household, +and bade them take him away and rear him as best they could. So they +took him into the wild woods on the Slieve Bloom Mountains, and there +they trained him to hunt and fish and to throw the spear, and he grew +strong, and as beautiful as a child of the Fairy Folk. If he were in +the same field with a hare he could run so that the hare could never +leave the field, for Demna was always before it. He could run down and +slay a stag with no dogs to help him, and he could kill a wild duck on +the wing with a stone from his sling. And the Druidess taught him the +learning of the time, and also the story of his race and nation, and +told him of his right to be captain of the Fianna of Erinn when his +day of destiny should come. + +One day, while still a boy, he was roaming through the woods when he +came to the mansion of a great lord, where many boys, sons of the +chief men of Ireland, were being trained in manly arts and exercises. +He found them playing at hurling, and they invited him to join them. +He did so, but the side he was on won too easily, so they divided +again, and yet again, giving fewer and fewer to Demna's side, till at +last he alone drove the ball to the goal through them all, flashing +among them as a salmon among a shoal of minnows. And then their anger +and jealousy rose and grew bitter against the stranger, and instead of +honouring him as gallant lads of gentle blood should have done they +fell upon him with their hurling clubs and sought to kill him. But +Demna felled seven of them to the ground and put the rest to flight, +and then went his way home. When the boys told what had happened the +chief asked them who it was that had defeated and routed them +single-handed. They said, "It was a tall shapely lad, and very fair +(_finn_)." So the name of Finn, the Fair One, clung to him +thenceforth, and by that name he is known to this day. + +By and by Finn gathered round him a band of youths who loved him for +his strength and valour and for his generous heart, and with them he +went hunting in the forests. And Goll, and the sons of Morna, who were +now captains of the Fianna under the High King, began to hear tales of +him and his exploits, and they sent trackers to inquire about him, for +they had an inkling of who this wonderful fair-haired youth might be. +Finn's foster mothers heard of this. "You must leave this place," they +said to him, "and see our faces no more, for if Goll's men find you +here they will slay you. We have cherished the blood of Cumhal," they +said, "and now our work is done. Go, and may blessing and victory go +with you." So Finn departed with naught but his weapons and his +hunting gear, very sorrowful at leaving the wise and loving friends +who had fostered his childhood; but deep in his heart was a wild and +fierce delight at the thought of the trackless ways he would travel, +and the wonders he would see; and all the future looked to him as +beautiful and dim as the mists that fill a mountain glen under the +morning sun. + +Now after the death of Cumhal, his brother Crimmal and a few others of +the aged warriors of the Fianna, who had not fallen in the fight at +Cnucha, fled away into Connacht, and lived there in the deepest +recesses of a great forest, where they hoped the conquerors might +never find them. Here they built themselves a poor dwelling of tree +branches, plastered with mud and roofed with reeds from the lake, and +here they lived on what game they could kill or snare in the wild +wood; and harder and harder it grew, as age and feebleness crept on +them, to find enough to eat, or to hew wood for their fire. In this +retreat, never having seen the friendly face of man, they were one day +startled to hear voices and the baying of hounds approaching them +through the wood, and they thought that the sons of Morna were upon +them at last, and that their hour of doom was at hand. Soon they +perceived a company of youths coming towards their hut, with one in +front who seemed to be their leader. Taller he was by a head than the +rest, broad shouldered, and with masses of bright hair clustering +round his forehead, and he carried in his hand a large bag made of +some delicate skin and stained in patterns of red and blue. The old +men thought when they saw him of a saying there was about the mighty +Lugh, who was brother to the wife of Cumhal, that when he came among +his army as they mustered for battle, men felt as though they beheld +the rising of the sun. As they came near, the young men halted and +looked upon the elders with pity, for their clothing of skins was +ragged and the weapons they strove to hold were rusted and blunt, and +except for their proud bearing and the fire in their old eyes they +looked more like aged and worthless slaves in the household of a +niggardly lord than men who had once been the flower of the fighting +men of Erinn. + +But the tall youth stepped in front of his band and cried aloud-- + +"Which of ye is Crimmal, son of Trenmor?" And one of the elders said, +"I am Crimmal." Then tears filled the eyes of the youth, and he knelt +down before the old man and put his hands in his. + +"My lord and chief," he said, "I am Finn, son of Cumhal, and the day +of deliverance is come." + +[Illustration: "And that night there was feasting and joy in the +lonely hut"] + +So the youths brought in the spoils of their hunting, and yet other +spoils than these; and that night there was feasting and joy in the +lonely hut. And Crimmal said-- + +"It was foretold to us that one day the blood of Cumhal should be +avenged, and the race of Cumhal should rule the Fianna again. This was +the sign that the coming champion should give of his birth and +destiny; he was to bear with him the Treasure Bag of Cumhal and the +sacred things that were therein." + +Finn said, "Ye know the Bag and its treasures, tell us if these be +they." And he laid his skin bag on the knees of Crimmal. + +Crimmal opened it, and he took out the jewels of sovranty the magic +spear-head made by the smiths of the Fairy Folk, and he said, "These +be the treasures of Cumhal; truly the ripeness of the time is come." + +And Finn then told the story of how he had won these things. + +"But yesterday morning," he said, "we met on our way a woman of noble +aspect, and she knelt over the body of a slain youth. When she lifted +her head as we drew near, tears of blood ran down her cheeks, and she +cried to me, 'Whoever thou art, I bind thee by the bonds of the sacred +ordinances of the Gael that thou avenge my wrong. This was my son +Glonda,' she said, 'my only son, and he was slain to-day wantonly by +the Lord of Luachar and his men.' So we went, my company and I, to the +Dún of the Lord of Luachar, and found an earthen rampart with a fosse +before it, and on the top of the rampart was a fence of oaken posts +interlaced with wattles, and over this we saw the many-coloured thatch +of a great dwelling-house, and its white walls painted with bright +colours under the broad eaves. So I stood forth and called to the Lord +of Luachar and bade him make ready to pay an eric to the mother of +Glonda, whatsoever she should demand. But he laughed at us and cursed +us and bade us begone. Then we withdrew into the forest, but returned +with a great pile of dry brushwood, and while some of us shot stones +and arrows at whoever should appear above the palisade, others rushed +up with bundles of brushwood and laid it against the palisade and set +it on fire, and the Immortal Ones sent a blast of wind that set the +brushwood and palisade quickly in a blaze, and through that fiery gap +we charged in shouting. And half of the men of Luachar we killed and +the rest fled, and the Lord of Luachar I slew in the doorway of his +palace. We took a great spoil then, O Crimmal--these vessels of bronze +and silver, and spears and bows, smoked bacon and skins of Greek wine; +and in a great chest of yewwood we found this bag. All these things +shall now remain with you, and my company shall also remain to hunt +for you and protect you, for ye shall know want and fear no longer +while ye live." + +And Finn said, "I would fain know if my mother Murna still lives, or +if she died by the sons of Morna." + +Crimmal said, "After thy father's death, Finn, she was wedded to +Gleor, Lord of Lamrigh, in the south, and she still lives in honour +with him, and the sons of Morna have let her be. Didst thou never see +her since she gave thee, an infant, to the wise women on the day of +Cnucha?" + +"I remember," said Finn, "when I was, as they tell me, but six years +old, there came one day to our shieling in the woods of Slieve Bloom a +chariot with bronze-shod wheels and a bronze wolf's head at the end of +the pole, and two horsemen riding with it, besides him who drove. A +lady was in it, with a gold frontlet on her brow and her cloak was +fastened with a broad golden brooch. She came into our hut and spoke +long with my foster-mothers, and me she clasped in her arms and kissed +many times, and I felt her tears on my face. And they told me +afterwards that this was Murna of the White Neck, and my mother. If +she have suffered no harm at the hands of the sons of Morna, so much +the less is the debt that they shall one day pay." + +Now it is to be told what happened to Finn at the house of Finegas the +Bard. Finn did not deem that the time had come for him to seize the +captaincy of the Fianna until he had perfected himself in wisdom and +learning. So on leaving the shelter of the old men in the wood he went +to learn wisdom and the art of poetry from Finegas, who dwelt by the +River Boyne, near to where is now the village of Slane. It was a +belief among the poets of Ireland that the place of the revealing of +poetry is always by the margin of water. But Finegas had another +reason for the place where he made his dwelling, for there was an old +prophecy that whoever should first eat of the Salmon of Knowledge that +lived in the River Boyne, should become the wisest of men. Now this +salmon was called Finntan in ancient times and was one of the +Immortals, and he might be eaten and yet live. But in the time of +Finegas he was called the Salmon of the Pool of Fec, which is the +place where the fair river broadens out into a great still pool, with +green banks softly sloping upward from the clear brown water. Seven +years was Finegas watching the pool, but not until after Finn had come +to be his disciple was the salmon caught. Then Finegas gave it to Finn +to cook, and bade him eat none of it. But when Finegas saw him coming +with the fish, he knew that something had chanced to the lad, for he +had been used to have the eye of a young man but now he had the eye of +a sage. Finegas said, "Hast thou eaten of the salmon?" + +"Nay," said Finn, "but it burnt me as I turned it upon the spit and I +put my thumb in my mouth" And Finegas smote his hands together and was +silent for a while. Then he said to the lad who stood by obediently, +"Take the salmon and eat it, Finn, son of Cumhal, for to thee the +prophecy is come. And now go hence, for I can teach thee no more, and +blessing and victory be thine." + +With Finegas, Finn learned the three things that make a poet, and they +are Fire of Song, and Light of Knowledge, and the Art of Extempore +Recitation. Before he departed he made this lay to prove his art, and +it is called "The Song of Finn in Praise of May":-- + + May Day! delightful day! + Bright colours play the vales along. + Now wakes at morning's slender ray, + Wild and gay, the blackbird's song. + + Now comes the bird of dusty hue, + The loud cuckoo, the summer-lover; + Branching trees are thick with leaves; + The bitter, evil time is over. + + Swift horses gather nigh + Where half dry the river goes; + Tufted heather crowns the height; + Weak and white the bogdown blows. + + Corncrake sings from eve till morn, + Deep in corn, a strenuous bard! + Sings the virgin waterfall, + White and tall, her one sweet word. + + Loaded bees of little power + Goodly flower-harvest win; + Cattle roam with muddy flanks; + Busy ants go out and in. + + Through, the wild harp of the wood + Making music roars the gale-- + Now it slumbers without motion, + On the ocean sleeps the sail. + + Men grow mighty in the May, + Proud and gay the maidens grow; + Fair is every wooded height; + Fair and bright the plain below. + + A bright shaft has smit the streams, + With gold gleams the water-flag; + Leaps the fish, and on the hills + Ardour thrills the flying stag. + + Carols loud the lark on high, + Small and shy, his tireless lay, + Singing in wildest, merriest mood + Of delicate-hued, delightful May.[20] + + [20] I am much indebted to the beautiful prose translation of + this song, published by Dr Kuno Meyer in _Ériu_ (the Journal of + the School of Irish Learning), Vol. I. Part II. In my poetic + version an attempt has been made to render the riming and + metrical effect of the original, which is believed to date from + about the ninth century. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +The Coming of Finn + + +And now we tell how Finn came to the captaincy of the Fianna of Erinn. + +At this time Ireland was ruled by one of the mightiest of her native +kings, Conn, son of Felimy, who was surnamed Conn of the Hundred +Battles. And Conn sat in his great banqueting hall at Tara, while the +yearly Assembly of the lords and princes of the Gael went forward, +during which it was the inviolable law that no quarrel should be +raised and no weapon drawn, so that every man who had a right to come +to that Assembly might come there and sit next his deadliest foe in +peace. Below him sat at meat the provincial kings and the chiefs of +clans, and the High King's officers and fighting-men of the Fianna, +with Goll and the sons of Morna at their head. And there, too, sat +modestly a strange youth, tall and fair, whom no one had seen in that +place before. Conn marked him with the eye of a king that is +accustomed to mark men, and by and by he sent him a horn full of wine +from his own table and bade the youth declare his name and lineage. +"I am Finn, son of Cumhal," said the youth, standing among them, tall +as a warriors spear, and a start and a low murmur ran through the +Assembly while the captains of the Fianna stared upon him like men who +see a vision of the dead. "What seek you here?" said Conn, and Finn +replied, "To be your man, O King, and to do you service in war as my +father did." "It is well," said the King. "Thou art a friend's son and +the son of man of trust." So Finn put his hand in the Kind's and swore +fealty and service to him, and Conn set him beside his own son Art, +and all fell to talking again and wondering what new things that day +would bring forth, and the feasting went merrily forward. + +Now at this time the people of the royal burg of Tara were sorely +afflicted by a goblin of the Fairy Folk, who was wont to approach the +place at night-fall, there to work what harm to man, or beast, or +dwelling that he found in his evil mind to do. And he could not be +resisted, for as he came he played on a magic harp a strain so keen +and sweet, that each man who heard it must needs stand entranced and +motionless until the fairy music had passed away. The King proclaimed +a mighty reward to any man who would save Tara from the goblin, and +Finn thought in his heart, "I am the man to do that." So he said to +the King, "Shall I have my rightful heritage as captain of the Fianna +of Erin if I slay the goblin?" Conn said, "I promise thee that," and +he bound himself by the sureties of all the provincial Kings of +Ireland and of the Druid Kithro and his magicians. + +Now there was among the following of Conn a man named Fiacha, who had +been as a youth a trusty friend and follower of Cumhal. He came to +Finn and brought with him a spear having a head of dark bronze with +glittering edges, and fastened with thirty rivets of Arabian gold, and +the spear-head was laced up within a leathern case. "By this weapon of +enchantment," said Fiacha, "you shall overcome the enchanter," and he +taught Finn what to do with it when the hour of need should come. + +So Finn took the spear, and left the strings of the case loose, and he +paced with it towards night-fall around the ramparts of royal Tara. +And when he had once made the circuit of the rampart, and the light +had now almost quite faded from the summer sky, and the wide low +plains around the Hill of Tara were a sea of white mist, he heard far +off in the deepening gloom the first notes of the fairy harp. Never +such music was made by mortal hand, for it had in it sorrows that man +has never felt, and joys for which man has no name, and it seemed as +if a man listening to that music might burst from time into eternity +and be as one of the Immortals for evermore. And Finn listened, amazed +and rapt, till at last as the triumphant melody grew nearer and louder +he saw dimly a Shadow Shape playing as it were on a harp, and coming +swiftly towards him. Then with a mighty effort he roused himself from +dreams, and tore the cover from the spear-head and laid the metal to +his brow. And the demoniac energy that had been beaten into the blade +by the hammers of unearthly craftsmen in ancient days thrilled +through him and made him fighting-mad, and he rushed forward shouting +his battle-cry, and swinging the spear aloft. But the Shadow turned +and fled before him, and Finn chased it northward to the Fairy Mound +of Slieve Fuad, and there he drove the spear through its back. And +what it was that fell there in the night, and what it was that passed +like the shadow of a shadow into the Fairy Mound, none can tell, but +Finn bore back with him next day a pale, sorrowful head on the point +of Fiacha's spear, and the goblin troubled the folk of royal Tara no +more. + +But Conn of the Hundred Battles called the Fianna together, and he set +Finn at his right hand and said, "Here is your Captain by birth-right +and by sword-right. Let who will now obey him hence-forward, and who +will not, let him go in peace and serve Arthur of Britain or Arist of +Alba, or whatsoever King he will." And Goll, son of Morna, said, "For +my part I will be Finn's man under thee, O King," and he swore +obedience and loyalty to Finn before them all. Nor was it hard for any +man to step where Goll had gone before, so they all took their oaths +of Fian service to Finn mac Cumhal. And thus it was that Finn came to +the captaincy of the Fianna of Erinn, and he ruled the Fianna many a +year till he died in battle with the Clan Urgrenn at Brea upon the +Boyne. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +Finn's Chief Men + + +With the coming of Finn did the Fianna of Erinn come to their glory, +and with his life their glory passed away. For he ruled them as no +other captain ever did, both strongly and wisely, and never bore a +grudge against any, but freely forgave a man all offences save +disloyalty to his lord. Thus it is told that Conan, son of the Lord of +Luachar, him who had the Treasure Bag and whom Finn slew at Rath +Luachar, was for seven years an outlaw and marauder, harrying the +Fians, and killing here a man and there a hound, and firing their +dwellings, and raiding their cattle. At last they ran him to a corner +at Cam Lewy in Munster, and when he saw that he could escape no more +he stole upon Finn as he sat down after a chase, and flung his arms +round him from behind, holding him fast and motionless. Finn knew who +held him thus and said, "What wilt thou Conan?" Conan said, "To make a +covenant of service and fealty with thee, for I may no longer evade +thy wrath." So Finn laughed and said, "Be it so, Conan, and if thou +prove faithful and valiant, I also will keep faith." And Conan served +him for thirty years, and no man of all the Fianna was keener and +hardier in fight. There was also another Conan, namely, mac Morna, +who was big and bald, and unwieldy in manly exercises, but whose +tongue was bitter and scurrilous; no high brave thing was done that +Conan the Bald did not mock and belittle. It is said that when he was +stripped he showed down his back and buttocks a black sheep's fleece +instead of a man's skin, and this is the way it came about. One day +when Conan and certain others of the Fianna were hunting in the forest +they came to a stately Dún, white-walled, with coloured thatching on +the roof, and they entered it to seek hospitality. But when they were +within they found! no man, but a great empty hall with pillars of +cedar wood and silken hangings about it, like the hall of a wealthy +lord. In the midst there was a table set forth with a sumptuous feast +of boar's flesh and venison, and a great vat of yew wood full of red +wine, and cups of gold and silver. So they set themselves gaily to eat +and drink, for they were hungry from the chase, and talk and laughter +were loud around the board. But one of them ere long started to his +feet with a cry of fear and wonder, and they all looked round, and saw +before their eyes the tapestried walls changing to rough wooden balks +and the ceiling to foul sooty thatch like that of a herdsman's hut. So +they knew they were being entrapped by some enchantment of the Fairy +Folk, and all sprang to their feet and made for the doorway, that was +no longer high and stately but was shrinking to the size of a fox +earth,--all but Conan the Bald, who was gluttonously devouring the +good things on the table, and heeded nothing else. Then they shouted +to him, and as the last of them went out he strove to rise and follow, +but found himself limed to the chair so that he could not stir. So +two of the Fianna, seeing his plight, rushed back and seized his arms +and tugged with all their might, and if they dragged him away, they +left the most part of his raiment and his skin sticking to the chair. +Then, not knowing what else to do with him in his sore plight they +clapped upon his back the nearest thing they could find, which was the +skin of a black sheep that they took from a peasant's flock hard by, +and it grew there, and Conan wore it till his death. + +Though Conan was a coward and rarely adventured himself in battle with +the Fianna, it is told that once a good man fell by his hand. This was +on the day of the great battle with the pirate horde on the Hill of +Slaughter in Kerry.[21] For Liagan, one of the invaders, stood out +before the hosts and challenged the bravest of the Fians to single +combat, and the Fians, in mockery, thrust Conan forth to the fight. +When he appeared, Liagan laughed, for he had more strength than wit, +and he said, "Silly is thy visit, thou bald old man." And as Conan +still approached, Liagan lifted his hand fiercely, and Conan said, +"Truly thou art in more peril from the man behind than from the man in +front." Liagan looked round; and in that instant Conan swept off his +head and then threw down his sword and ran for shelter to the ranks of +the laughing Fians. But Finn was very wroth because he had won the +victory by a trick. + + [21] The hill still bears the name, Knockanar. + +And one of the chiefest of the friends of Finn was Dermot of the Love +Spot. He was so fair and noble to look on that no woman could refuse +him love, and it was said that he never knew weariness, but his step +was as light at the end of the longest day of battle or the chase as +it was at the beginning. Between him and Finn there was great love +until the day when Finn, then an old man, was to wed Grania, daughter +of Cormac the High King; but Grania bound Dermot by the sacred +ordinances of the Fian chivalry to fly with her on her wedding night, +which thing, sorely against his will, he did, and thereby got his +death. But Grania went back to Finn, and when the Fianna saw her they +laughed through all the camp in bitter mockery, for they would not +have given one of the dead man's fingers for twenty such as Grania. + +Others of the chief men that Finn had were Keelta mac Ronan, who was +one of his house-stewards and a strong warrior as well as a +golden-tongued reciter of tales and poems. And there was Oisín, the +son of Finn, the greatest poet of the Gael, of whom more shall be told +hereafter. And Oisín had a son Oscar, who was the fiercest fighter in +battle among all the Fians. He slew in his maiden battle three kings, +and in his fury he also slew by mischance his own friend and +condisciple Linne. His wife was the fair Aideen, who died of grief +after Oscar's death in the battle of Gowra, and Oisín buried her on +Ben Edar (Howth), and raised over her the great cromlech which is +there to this day. + +Another good man that Finn had was Geena, the son of Luga; his mother +was the warrior-daughter of Finn, and his father was a near kinsman of +hers. He was nurtured by a woman that bore the name of Fair Mane, who +had brought up many of the Fianna to manhood. When his time to take +arms was come he stood before Finn and made his covenant of fealty, +and Finn gave him the captaincy of a band. But mac Luga proved +slothful and selfish, for ever vaunting himself and his weapon-skill +and never training his men to the chase of deer or boar, and he used +to beat his hounds and his serving-men. At last the Fians under him +came with their whole company to Finn at Loch Lena in Killarney, and +there they laid their complaint against mac Luga, and said, "Choose +now, O Finn, whether you will have us, or the son of Luga by himself." + +Then Finn sent to mac Luga and questioned him, but mac Luga could say +nothing to the point as to why the Fianna would none of him. Then Finn +taught him the things befitting a youth of noble birth and a captain +of men, and they were these:-- + +"Son of Luga, if armed service be thy design, in a great man's +household be quiet, be surly in the narrow pass." + +"Without a fault of his beat not thy hound; until thou ascertain her +guilt, bring not a charge against thy wife." + +"In battle, meddle not with a buffoon, for, O mac Luga, he is but a +fool." + +"Censure not any if he be of grave repute; stand not up to take part +in a brawl; have nought to do with a madman or a wicked one." + +"Two-thirds of thy gentleness be shown to women and to those that +creep on the floor (little children) and to poets, and be not violent +to the common people." + +"Utter not swaggering speech, nor say thou wilt not yield what is +right; it is a shameful thing to speak too stiffly unless that it be +feasible to carry out thy words." + +"So long as thou shalt live, thy lord forsake not; neither for gold +nor for other reward in the world abandon one whom thou art pledged to +protect." + +"To a chief do not abuse his people, for that is no work for a +gentleman." + +"Be no talebearer, nor utterer of falsehoods; be not talkative nor +rashly censorious. Stir not up strife against thee, however good a man +thou be." + +"Be no frequenter of the drinking-house, nor given to carping at the +old; meddle not with a man of mean estate." + +"Dispense thy meat freely, have no niggard for thy familiar." + +"Force not thyself upon a chief, nor give him cause to speak ill of +thee." + +"Stick to thy gear, hold fast to thy arms till the stern fight with +its weapon-glitter be well ended." + +"Be more apt to give than to deny, and follow after gentleness, O son +of Luga."[22] + + [22] I have in the main borrowed Standish Hayes O'Grady's vivid + and racy translation of these adages of the Fianna. (SILVA + GADELICA, Engl. transl., p. 115.) + +And the son of Luga, it is written, heeded these counsels and gave up +his bad ways, and he became one of the best of Finn's men. + +Such-like things also Finn taught to all his followers, and the best +of them became like himself in valour and gentleness and generosity. +Each of them loved the repute of his comrades more than his own, and +each would say that for all noble qualities there was no man in the +breadth of the world worthy to be thought of beside Finn. + +It was said of him that "he gave away gold as if it were the leaves of +the woodland, and silver as if it were the foam of the sea," and that +whatever he had bestowed upon any man, if he fell out with him +afterwards, he was never known to bring it against him. + +Sang the poet Oisín of him once to St Patrick:-- + + "These are the things that were dear to Finn-- + The din of battle, the banquet's glee, + The bay of his hounds through the rough glen ringing. + And the blackbird singing in Letter Lee, + + "The shingle grinding along the shore + When they dragged his war-boats down to sea, + The dawn-wind whistling his spears among, + And the magic song of his minstrels three." + +In the time of Finn no one was ever admitted to be one of the Fianna +of Erinn unless he could pass through many severe tests of his +worthiness. He must be versed in the Twelve Books of Poetry and must +himself be skilled to make verse in the rime and metre of the masters +of Gaelic poesy. Then he was buried to his middle in the earth, and +must, with a shield and a hazel stick, there defend himself against +nine warriors casting spears at him, and if he were wounded he was +not accepted. Then his hair was woven into braids and he was chased +through the forest by the Fians. If he were overtaken, or if a braid +of his hair were disturbed, or if a dry stick cracked under his foot, +he was not accepted. He must be able to leap over a lath level with +his brow and to run at full speed under level with his knee, and he +must be able while running to draw out a thorn from his foot and never +slacken speed. He must take no dowry with a wife. + +It was said that one of the Fians, namely Keelta, lived on to a great +age, and saw St Patrick, by whom he was baptized into the faith of the +Christ, and to whom he told many tales of Finn and his men, which +Patrick's scribe wrote down. And once Patrick asked him how it was +that the Fianna became so mighty and so glorious that all Ireland sang +of their deeds, as Ireland has done ever since. Keelta answered, +"Truth was in our hearts and strength in our arms, and what we said, +that we fulfilled." + +This was also told of Keelta after he had seen St Patrick and received +the Faith. He chanced to be one day by Leyney in Connacht, where the +Fairy Folk of the Mound of Duma were wont to be sorely harassed and +spoiled every year by pirates from oversea. They called Keelta to +their aid, and by his counsel and valour the invaders were overcome +and driven home, but Keelta was sorely wounded. Then Keelta asked +that Owen the seer of the Fairy Folk might foretell him how long he +had to live, for he was already a very aged man. Owen said, "It will +be seventeen years, O Keelta of fair fame, till thou fall by the pool +of Tara, and grievous that will be to all the King's household." "Even +so did my chief and lord, my guardian and loving Protector, Finn, +foretell to me," said Keelta. "And now what fee will ye give me for my +rescue of you from the worst affliction that ever befell you?" "A +great reward," said the Fairy Folk, "even youth; for by our art we +shall change you into young man again with all the strength and +activity of your prime." "Nay, God forbid," said Keelta "that I should +take upon me a shape of sorcery, or any other than that which my +Maker, the true and glorious God, hath bestowed upon me." And the +Fairy Folk said, "It is the word of a true warrior and hero, and the +thing that thou sayest is good." So they healed his wounds, and every +bodily evil that he had, and he wished them blessing and victory, and +went his way. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The Tale of Vivionn the Giantess + + +One day Finn and Goll, Keelta and Oscar, and others of the Fianna, +were resting after the hunt on a certain hill now called the Ridge of +the Dead Woman, and their meal was being got ready, when a girl of the +kin of the giants came striding up and sat down among them. "Didst +thou ever see a woman so tall?" asked Finn of Goll. "By my troth," +said Goll, "never have I or any other seen a woman so big." She took +her hand out of her bosom and on her long slender fingers there were +three gold rings each as thick as an ox's yoke. "Let us question her," +said Goll, and Finn said, "If we stood up, perchance she might hear +us." + +So they all rose to their feet, but the giantess, on that, rose up +too. "Maiden," said Finn, "if thou have aught to say to us or to hear +from us, sit down and lean thine elbow on the hill-side." So she lay +down and Finn bade her say whence she came and what was her will with +them. "Out of the World Oversea where the sun sets am I come," she +said, "to seek thy protection, O mighty Finn." "And what is thy name?" +"My name is Vivionn of the Fair Hair, and my father Treon is called +King of the Land of Lasses, for he has but three sons and nine and +seven score daughters, and near him is a King who hath one daughter +and eight score sons. To one of these, Æda, was I given in marriage +sorely against my will. Three times now have I fled from him. And this +time it was fishermen whom the wind blew to us from off this land who +told us of a mighty lord here, named Finn, son of Cumhal, who would +let none be wronged or oppressed, but he would be their friend and +champion. And if thou be he, to thee am I come." Then she laid her +hand in Finn's, and he bade her do the same with Goll mac Morna, who +was second in the Fian leadership, and she did so. + +Then the maiden took from her head a jewelled golden helmet, and +immediately her hair flowed out in seven score tresses, fair, curly +and golden, at the abundance of which all stood amazed; and Finn said, +"By the Immortals that we adore, but King Cormac and the poetess Ethne +and the fair women-folk of the Fianna would deem it a marvel to see +this girl. Tell us now, maiden, what portion wilt thou have of meat +and drink? will that of a hundred of us suffice thee?" The girl then +saw Cnu, the dwarf harper of Finn, who had just been playing to them, +and she said, "Whatever thou givest to yon little man that bears the +harp, be it much or little, the same, O Finn, will suffice for me." + +Then she begged a drink from them, and Finn called his gillie, +Saltran, and bade him fetch the full of a certain great goblet with +water from the ford; now this goblet was of wood, and it held as much +as nine of the Fianna could drink. The maiden poured some of the water +into her right hand and drank three sips of it, and scattered the rest +over the Fianna, and she and they burst out laughing. Finn said, "On +thy conscience, girl, what ailed thee not to drink out of the goblet?" +"Never," she replied, "have I drunk out of any vessel but there was a +rim of gold to it, or at least of silver." + +And now Keelta looking up perceived a tall youth coming swiftly +towards them, who, when he approached, seemed even bigger than was the +maiden. He wore a rough hairy cape over his shoulder and beneath that +a green cloak fastened by a golden brooch; his tunic was of royal +satin, and he bore a red shield slung over his shoulders, and a spear +with a shaft as thick as a man's leg was in his hand; a gold-hilted +sword hung by his side. And his face, which was smooth-shaven, was +comelier than that of any of the sons of men. + +When he came near, seeing among the Fians a stir of alarm at this +apparition, Finn said, "Keep every one of you his place, let neither +warrior nor gillie address him. Know any of you this champion?" "I +know him," said the maiden; "that is even he to escape from whom I am +come to thee, O Finn." And she sat down between Finn and Goll. But the +stranger drew near, and spake never a word, but before any one could +tell what he would be at he thrust fiercely and suddenly with his +spear at the girl, and the shaft stood out a hand's breadth at her +back. And she fell gasping, but the young man drew his weapon out and +passed rapidly through the crowd and away. + +[Illustration: "They ran him by hill and plain"] + +Then Finn cried, red with wrath, "Ye have seen! Avenge this wicked +deed, or none of you aspire to Fianship again." And the whole company +sprang to their feet and gave chase to that murderer, save only Finn +and Goll, who stayed by the dying maiden. And they ran him by hill and +plain to the great Bay of Tralee and down to the Tribute Point, where +the traders from oversea were wont to pay their dues, and there he set +his face to the West and took the water. By this time four of the +Fianna had outstripped the rest, namely, Keelta, and Dermot, and Glas, +and Oscar, son of Oisín. Of these Keelta was first, and just as the +giant was mid-leg in the waves he hurled his spear and it severed the +thong of the giant's shield so that it fell off in the water. And as +the giant paused, Keelta seized his spear and tore it from him. But +the giant waded on, and soon the Fians were floundering in deep water +while the huge form, thigh deep, was seen striding towards the setting +sun. And a great ship seemed to draw near, and it received him, and +then departed into the light, but the Fians returned in the grey +evening, bearing the spear and the great shield to Finn. There they +found the maiden at point of death, and they laid the weapons before +her. "Goodly indeed are these arms," she said, "for that is the +Thunder Spear of the King Oversea and the shield is the Red Branch +Shield," for it was covered with red arabesques. Then she bestowed her +bracelets on Finn's three harpers, the dwarf Cnu, and Blanit his wife, +and the harper Daira. And she bade Finn care for her burial, that it +should be done becomingly, "for under thy honour and protection I got +my death, and it was to thee I came into Ireland." So they buried her +and lamented her, and made a great far-seen mound over her grave, +which is called the Ridge of the Dead Woman, and set up a pillar stone +upon it with her name and lineage carved in Ogham-crave.[23] + + [23] Ogham-craobh = "branching Ogham," so called because the + letters resembled the branching of twigs from a stem. The Ogham + alphabet was in use in Ireland in pre-Christian times, and many + sepulchral inscriptions in it still remain. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +The Chase of the Gilla Dacar + + +In the reign of Cormac mac Art, grandson of Conn of the Hundred +Battles, the order of precedence and dignity in the court of the High +King at Tara was as follows: First came great Cormac, the kingly, the +hospitable, warrior and poet, and he was supreme over all. Next in +order came the five kings of the five Provinces of Ireland, namely, +Ulster, Munster, Connacht, Leinster, and Mid-Erinn. After these ranked +the captains of the royal host, of whom Finn, son of Cumhal, was the +chief. + +Now the privileges of the Fianna of Erinn were many and great; to wit, +in every county in Ireland one townland, and in every townland a +cartron of land, and in the house of every gentleman the right to +have a young deer-hound or a beagle kept at nurse from November to +May, together with many other taxes and royalties not to be recounted +here. But if they had these many and great privileges, yet greater +than these were the toils and hardships which they had to endure, in +guarding the coasts of all Ireland from oversea invaders and +marauders, and in keeping down all robbers and outlaws and evil folk +within the kingdom, for this was the duty laid upon them by their bond +of service to the King. + +Now the summer half of the year was wont to be ended by a great +hunting in one of the forests of Ireland, and so it was that one +All-hallowtide, when the great banquet of Finn in his Dún on the Hill +of Allen was going forward, and the hall resounded with cheerful talk +and laughter and with the music of tympan and of harp, Finn asked of +the assembled captains in what part of Erinn they should proceed to +beat up game on the morrow. And it was agreed among them to repair to +the territory of Thomond and Desmond in Munster; and from Allen they +set out accordingly and came to the Hill of Knockany. Thence they +threw out the hunt and sent their bands of beaters through many a +gloomy ravine and by many a rugged hill-pass and many a fair open +plain. Desmond's high hills, called now Slievelogher, they beat, and +the smooth, swelling hills of Slievenamuck, and the green slopes of +grassy Slievenamon, and the towering rough crags of the Decies, and +thence on to the dark woods of Belachgowran. + +While the great hunt was going forward Finn with certain of his chief +captains sat on a high mound to overlook it. There, with Finn, were +Goll and Art mac Morna, and Liagan the swift runner, and Dermot of the +Love Spot, and Keelta, son of Ronan, and there also was Conan the +Bald, the man of scurrilous tongue, and a score or so more. Sweet it +was to Finn and his companions to hear from the woods and wildernesses +around them the many-tongued baying of the hounds and the cries and +whistling of the beaters, the shouting of the strong men and the notes +of the Fian hunting-horn. + +When they had sat there awhile one of Finn's men came running quickly +towards him and said-- + +"A stranger is approaching us from the westward, O Finn, and I much +mislike his aspect." + +With that all the Fians looked up and beheld upon the hillside a huge +man, looking like some Fomorian marauder, black-visaged and ugly, with +a sour countenance and ungainly limbs. On his back hung a dingy black +shield, on his misshapen left thigh he wore a sharp broad-bladed +sword; projecting over his shoulder were two long lances with broad +rusty heads. He wore garments that looked as if they had been buried +in a cinder heap, and a loose ragged mantle. Behind him there shambled +a sulky, ill-shapen mare with a bony carcase and bowed knees, and on +her neck a clumsy iron halter. With a rope her master hauled her +along, with violent jerks that seemed as if they would wrench her head +from her scraggy neck, and ever and anon the mare would stand and jib, +when the man laid on her ribs such blows from a strong ironshod cudgel +that they sounded like the surges of the sea beating on a rocky coast. +Short as was the distance from where the man and his horse were first +perceived to where Finn was standing, it was long ere they traversed +it. At last, however, he came into the presence of Finn and louted +before him, doing obeisance. Finn lifted his hand over him and bade +him speak, and declare his business and his name and rank. "I know +not," said the fellow, "of what blood I am, gentle or simple, but only +this, that I am a wight from oversea looking for service and wages. +And as I have heard of thee, O Finn, that thou art not wont to refuse +any man, I came to take service with thee if thou wilt have me." + +"Neither shall I refuse thee," said Finn; "but what brings thee here +with a horse and no horseboy?" + +"Good enough reason," said the stranger. "I have much ado to get meat +for my own belly, seeing that I eat for a hundred men; and I will not +have any horseboy meddling with my ration." + +"And what name dost thou bear?" + +"I am called the Gilla Dacar (the Hard Gillie)," replied he. + +"Why was that name given thee?" asked Finn. + +"Good enough reason for that also," spake the stranger, "for of all +the lads in the world there is none harder than I am for a lord to get +any service and obedience from." Then turning to Conan the Bald he +said, "Whether among the Fianna is a horseman's pay or a footman's the +highest?" + +"A horseman's surely," said Conan, "seeing that he gets twice the pay +of a footman." + +"Then I am a horseman in thy service, Finn," said the gillie. "I call +thee to observe that I have here a horse, and moreover that as a +horseman I came among the Fianna. Have I thy authority," he went on, +"to turn out my steed among thine?" + +"Turn her out," quoth Finn. + +Then the big man flung his mare the rope and immediately she galloped +off to where the Fian horses were grazing. Here she fell to biting and +kicking them, knocking out the eye of one and snapping off another's +ear and breaking the leg of another with a kick. + +"Take away thy mare, big man," cried Conan then, "or by Heaven and +Earth were it not that Finn told thee to let her loose I would let +loose her brains. Many a bad bargain has Finn made but never a worse +than thou." + +"By Heaven and Earth," said the gillie, "that I never will, for I have +no horseboy, and I will do no horseboy's work." + +Then Conan mac Morna took the iron halter and laid it on the +stranger's horse and brought the beast back to Finn and held it there. + +Said Finn to Conan, "I have never seen thee do horseboy's service even +to far better men than this gillie. How now if thou wert to leap on +the brute's back and gallop her to death over hill and dale in payment +for the mischief she hath wrought among our steeds?" + +At this word Conan clambered up on the back of the big man's mare, and +with all his might he smote his two heels into her, but the mare never +stirred. + +"I perceive what ails her," said Finn. "She will never stir till she +has a weight of men on her equal to that of her own rider." + +Then thirteen men of the Fianna scrambled up laughing behind Conan, +and the mare lay down under them, and then got up again, they still +clinging to her. At this the big man said, + +"It appears that you are making a sport and mockery of my mare, and +that even I myself do not escape from it. It is well for me that I +have not spent the rest of the year in your company, seeing what a +jest ye have made of me the very first day; and I perceive, O Finn, +that thou art very unlike the report that is made of thee. And now I +bid thee farewell, for of thy service I have had enough." + +So with downcast head and despondent looks the big gillie shambled +slowly away until he had passed out of view of the Fianna, behind the +shoulder of the hill. Having arrived here he tucked up his coat to his +waist, and fast though be the flight of the swallow, and fast that of +the roe-deer, and fast the rush of a roaring wind over a mountain top +in mid-March, no faster are these than the bounding speed and furious +flight of the big man down the hillside toward the West. + +No sooner did the mare see that her master had departed than she too +dashed uncontrollably forward and flew down the hillside after him. +And as the Fians saw Conan the Bald and his thirteen companions thus +carried off, willy nilly, they broke into a roar of laughter and ran +alongside mocking them. But Conan, seeing that they were being carried +off in the wake of the big man of evil aspect, of whom none knew +whence or who he was, he was terrified and began reviling and cursing, +and shouted to Finn, "A palsy seize thee, Finn; may some rascally +churl, that is if possible of worse blood than thyself, have thy head, +unless thou follow and rescue us wheresoever this monster shall bring +us." So Finn and the Fianna ran, and the mare ran, over bare hills and +by deep glens, till at last they came to Corcaguiny in Kerry, where +the gillie set his face to the blue ocean, and the mare dashed in +after him. But ere he did so, Liagan the Swift got two hands on the +tail of the mare, though further he could not win, and he was towed +in, still clinging to his hold, and over the rolling billows away they +went, the fourteen Fians on the wild mare's back, and Liagan haled +along by her tail. + +"What is to be done now?" said Oisín to Finn when they had arrived at +the beach. + +"Our men are to be rescued," said Finn, "for to that we are bound by +the honour of the Fianna. Whithersoever they are gone, thither must we +follow and win them back by fair means or foul; but to that end we +must first fit out a galley." + +So in the end it was agreed that Finn and fourteen men of his bravest +and best champions should sail oversea in search of the Gilla Dacar +and his captives, while Oisín remained in Erinn and exercised rule +over the Fianna in the place of his father. + +After a while, then, a swift galley was made ready by Finn and stored +with victual, and with arms, and also with gold and raiment to make +gifts withal if need should be. And into the ship came the fifteen +valiant men, and gripped their oars, while Finn steered; and soon the +sea whitened around their oarblades, and over the restless, rolling +masses of the many-hued and voiceful billows, the ship clove her way +to the West. And the Fians, who were wont to be wakened by the +twittering of birds over their hunting booths in the greenwood, now +delighted to hear, day after day as they roused themselves at morn, +the lapping of the wide waters of the world against their vessel's +bows, or the thunder of pounding surges when the wind blew hard. + +At length after many days the sharpest-eyed of the men of Finn saw +far-off what seemed a mountain rising from the sea, and to it they +shaped their course. When they had come to that land they found +themselves under the shadow of a great grey cliff, and beneath it +slippery rocks covered with seaweed. + +Then Dermot, who was the most active of the company, was bidden to +mount the cliff and to procure means of drawing up the rest of the +party, but of what land might lie on the top of that wall of rock none +of them could discover anything. Dermot, descending from the ship, +then climbed with difficulty up the face of the cliff, while the +others made fast their ship among the rocks. But Dermot having arrived +at the top saw no habitation of man, and could compass no way of +helping his companions to mount. He went therefore boldly forward into +the unknown land, hoping to obtain some help, if any friendly and +hospitable folk could there be found. + +[Illustration: "Dermot took the horn and would have filled it"] + +Before he had gone far he came into a wild wood, thick and tangled, +and full of the noise of streams, and the sough of winds, and +twittering of birds, and hum of bees. After he had traversed this +wilderness for a while he came to a mighty tree with densely +interwoven branches, and beneath it a pile of rocks, having on its +summit a pointed drinking horn wreathed with rich ornament, and at its +foot a well of pure bright water. Dermot, being now thirsty, took the +horn and would have filled it at the well, but as he stooped down to +do so he heard a loud, threatening murmur which seemed to rise from +it. "I perceive," he said to himself, "that I am forbidden to drink +from this well" Nevertheless thirst compelled him, and he drank his +fill. + +In no long time thereafter he saw an armed warrior of hostile aspect +coming towards him through the wood. No courteous greeting did he give +to Dermot, but began to revile him for roaming in his wood and +wilderness, and for drinking his water. Thereupon they fought, and +for the rest of the afternoon they took and gave hard blows neither +subduing the other, till at last as darkness began to fall the warrior +suddenly dived into the well and was seen no more. Dermot, vexed at +this ending of the combat, then made him ready to spend the night in +that place, but first he slew a deer in the wood, and made a fire, +whereat he roasted pieces of the deer's flesh on spits of white hazel, +and drank abundantly of the well-water, and then slept soundly through +the night. + +Next morning when he awakened and went to the well he found the +Champion of the Well standing there and awaiting him. "It is not +enough, Dermot," said he angrily, "for thee to traverse my woods at +will and to drink my water, but thou must even also slay my deer." +Then they closed in combat again, and dealt each other blow for blow +and wound for wound till evening parted them, and the champion dived +into the well as before. + +On the third day it went even so; but as evening came on Dermot, +watching closely, rushed at the champion just as he was about to +plunge into the well, and gripped him in his arms. But none the less +the Champion of the Well made his dive, and took down Dermot with him. +And a darkness and faintness came over Dermot, but when he awoke, he +found himself in a wide, open country, flowery and fair, and before +him the walls and towers of a royal city. Thither the champion, sorely +wounded, was now borne off, while a crowd of his people came round +Dermot, and beat and wounded him, leaving him on the ground for dead. + +After night had fallen, when all the people of the city in the Land +Undersea had departed, a stalwart champion, well-armed and of bold +appearance, came upon Dermot and stirred him with his foot. Dermot +thereon awoke from his swoon and, warrior-like, reached out his hand +for his arms. But the champion said, "Wait awhile, my son, I have not +come to do thee hurt or harm. Thou hast chosen an ill place to rest +and slumber in, before the city of thine enemy. Rise and follow me, +and I shall bestow thee far better than that." Dermot then rose and +followed the champion, and long and far they journeyed until they came +to a high-towered fortress, wherein were thrice fifty valiant +men-at-arms and fair women; and the daughter of that champion, a +white-toothed, rosy-cheeked, smooth-handed, and black-eyebrowed maid, +received Dermot, kindly and welcomefully, and applied healing herbs to +his wounds, and in no long time he was made as good a man as ever. And +thus he remained, and was entertained most royally with the best of +viands and of liquors. The first part of every night those in that Dún +were wont to spend in feasting, and the second in recreation and +entertainment of the mind, with music and with poetry and bardic +tales, and the third part in sound and healthful slumber, till the sun +in his fiery journey rose over the heavy-clodded earth on the morrow +morn. + +And the King of that country, who was the champion that had aroused +Dermot, told him this was the land of Sorca, and that he had showed +this kindness to Dermot for that he himself had once been on wage and +service with Finn, son of Cumhal "and a better master," said he, "man +never had." + +Now the story turns to tell of what befell Finn and the remainder of +his companions when Dermot left them in the ship. After a while, +seeing that he did not return, and being assured that some mischief or +hindrance must have befallen him, they made an attempt to climb the +cliff after him, having noted which way he went. With much toil and +peril they accomplished this, and then journeying forward and +following on Dermot's track, they came at last to the well in the wild +wood, and saw near by the remains of the deer, and the ashes of the +fire that Dermot had kindled to cook it. But from this place they +could discover no track of his going. While they were debating on what +should next be done, they saw riding towards them a tall warrior on a +dark grey horse with a golden bridle, who greeted them courteously. +From him they enquired as to whether he had seen aught of their +companion, Dermot, in the wilderness. "Follow me," said the warrior, +"and you shall shortly have tidings of him." + +Then they followed the strange horseman into the forest by many dark +and winding ways, until at last they came into a rocky ravine, where +they found the mouth of a great cavern opening into the hillside. +Into this they went, and the way led them downward until it seemed as +if they were going into the bowels of the earth, until at last the +light began to shine round them, and they came out into a lovely land +of flowery plains and green woods and singing streams. In no long time +thereafter they came to a great royal Dún, where he who led them was +hailed as king and lord, and here, to their joy, they found their +comrade, Dermot of the Love Spot, who told them of all his adventures +and heard from them of theirs. This ended, and when they had been +entertained and refreshed, the lord of that place spoke to Finn and +said:-- + +"I have now, O Finn, within my fortress the fifteen stoutest heroes +that the world holds. To this end have I brought you here, that ye +might make war with me upon mine enemy the Champion of the Well, who +is king of the land bordering on mine, and who ceases not to persecute +and to harry my people because, in his arrogance, he would have all +the Under World country subject to himself alone. Say now if ye will +embrace this enterprise and help me to defend my own: and if not I +shall set you again upon the land of Erinn." + +Finn said, "What of my fifteen men that were carried away on the wild +mare's back oversea?" "They are guarding the marches of my kingdom," +said the King of Sorca, "and all is well with them and shall be well." + +Then Finn agreed to take service with the King of Sorca, and next day +they arrayed themselves for fight and went out at the head of the +host. Ere long they came upon the army of the King of the Well, and +with him was the King of the Greeks and a band of fierce mercenaries, +and also the daughter of the Greek King, by name Tasha of the White +Side, a maiden who in beauty and grace surpassed all other women of +the world, as the Shannon surpasses all rivers of Erinn and the eagle +surpasses all birds of the air. Now the stories of Finn and his +generosity and great deeds had reached her since she was a child, and +she had set her love on him, though she had never seen his face till +now. + +When the hosts were met, the King of the Greeks said, "Who of my men +will stand forth and challenge the best of these men of Erinn to +single combat that their metal may be proved, for to us it is unknown +what manner of men they be." The son of the King of the Greeks said, +"I will go." + +So on the side of Finn, Oscar, son of Oisín, was chosen to match the +son of the Greek King, and the two hosts sat down peacefully together +to watch the weapon-play. And Tasha the princess sat by Finn, son of +Cumhal. + +Then Oscar and the King's son stepped into their fighting place, and +fierce was the combat that arose between them, as when two roaring +surges of the sea dash against each other in a fissure of the rocks, +and the spray-cloud bursts from them high into the air. Long they +fought, and many red wounds did each of them give and receive, till at +last Oscar beat the Greek prince to the earth and smote off his head. +Then one host groaned for woe and discouragement, while the other +shouted for joy of victory, and so they parted for the night, each to +their own camp. + +And in the camp of the folk of Sorca they found Conan the Bald and the +fourteen men that had gone with him on the mare's back. + +But when night had fallen, Tasha stole from the wizard of the Greek +King his branch of silver bells that when shaken would lay asleep a +host of men, and with the aid of this she passed from the camp of the +Greeks, and through the sentinels, and came to the tent of Finn. + +On the morrow morn the King of the Greeks found that his daughter had +fled to be the wife of Finn, son of Cumhal, and he offered a mighty +reward to whosoever would slay Finn and bring Tasha back. But when the +two armies closed in combat the Fians and the host of the King of +Sorca charged so fiercely home, that they drove their foes before them +as a winter gale drives before it a cloud of madly whirling leaves, +and those that were not slain in the fight and the pursuit went to +their own lands and abode there in peace; and thus was the war ended +of the King of Sorca and the Lord of the Well. + +Then the King of Sorca had Finn and his comrades before him and gave +them praise and thanks for their valour. "And what reward," he said, +"will ye that I make you for the saving of the kingdom of Sorca?" + +"Thou wert in my service awhile," said Finn, "and I mind not that I +paid thee any wage for it. Let that service even go against this, and +so we are quits." + +"Nay, then," cried Conan the Bald, "but what shall I have for my ride +on the mare of the Gilla Dacar?" + +"What wilt thou have?" said the King of Sorca. + +"This," said Conan, "and nothing else will I accept. Let fourteen of +the fairest women of the land of Sorca be put on that same mare, and +thy wife, O King, clinging to its tail, and let them be thus haled +across the sea until they come to Corcaguiny in the land of Erinn. I +will have none of thy gold and silver, but the indignity that has been +put upon me doth demand an honourable satisfaction." + +Then the King of Sorca smiled, and he said, "Behold thy men, Finn." + +[Illustration: "'Follow me now to the Hill of Allen'"] + +Finn turned his head to look round, and as he did so the plain and the +encampment of the Fairy Host vanished from his sight, and he saw +himself standing on the shingly strand of a little bay, with rocky +heights to right and left, crowned with yellow whin bushes whose +perfume mingled with the salt sea wind. It was the spot where he had +seen the Gilla Dacar and his mare take water on the coast of Kerry. +Finn stared over the sea, to discover, if he might, by what means he +had come thither, but nothing could he see there save the sunlit +water, and nothing hear but what seemed a low laughter from the +twinkling ripples that broke at his feet. Then he looked for his men, +who stood there, dazed like himself and rubbing their eyes; and there +too stood the Princess Tasha, who stretched out her white arms to him. +Finn went over and took her hands. "Shoulder your spears, good lads!" +he called to his men. "Follow me now to the Hill of Allen, and to the +wedding feast of Tasha and of Finn mac Cumhal." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +The Birth of Oisín + + +One day as Finn and his companions and dogs were returning from the +chase to their Dún on the Hill of Allen, a beautiful fawn started up +on their path and the chase swept after her, she taking the way which +led to their home. Soon, all the pursuers were left far behind save +only Finn himself and his two hounds Bran and Sceolaun. Now these +hounds were of strange breed, for Tyren, sister to Murna, the mother +of Finn, had been changed into a hound by the enchantment of a woman +of the Fairy Folk, who loved Tyren's husband Ullan; and the two hounds +of Finn were the children of Tyren, born to her in that shape. Of all +hounds in Ireland they were the best, and Finn loved them much, so +that it was said he wept but twice in his life, and once was for the +death of Bran. + +At last, as the chase went on down a valley side, Finn saw the fawn +stop and lie down, while the two hounds began to play round her and to +lick her face and limbs. So he gave commandment that none should hurt +her, and she followed them to the Dún of Allen, playing with the +hounds as she went. + +The same night Finn awoke and saw standing by his bed the fairest +woman his eyes had ever beheld. + +"I am Saba, O Finn," she said, "and I was the fawn ye chased to-day. +Because I would not give my love to the Druid of the Fairy Folk, who +is named the Dark, he put that shape upon me by his sorceries, and I +have borne it these three years. But a slave of his, pitying me, once +revealed to me that if I could win to thy great Dún of Allen, O Finn, +I should be safe from all enchantments and my natural shape would come +to me again. But I feared to be torn in pieces by thy dogs, or wounded +by thy hunters, till at last I let myself be overtaken by thee alone +and by Bran and Sceolaun, who have the nature of man and would do me +no hurt." "Have no fear, maiden," said Finn, "we the Fianna, are free +and our guest-friends are free; there is none who shall put compulsion +on you here." + +So Saba dwelt with Finn, and he made her his wife; and so deep was his +love for her that neither the battle nor the chase had any delight for +him, and for months he never left her side. She also loved him as +deeply, and their joy in each other was like that of the Immortals in +the Land of Youth. But at last word came to Finn that the warships of +the Northmen were in the bay of Dublin, and he summoned his heroes to +the fight, "for," said he to Saba, "the men of Erinn give us tribute +and hospitality to defend them from the foreigner, and it were shame +to take it from them and not to give that to which we, on our side, +are pledged." And he called to mind that great saying of Goll mac +Morna when they were once sore bested by a mighty host--"a man," said +Goll, "lives after his life but not after his honour." + +Seven days was Finn absent, and he drove the Northmen from the shores +of Erinn. But on the eighth day he returned, and when he entered his +Dún he saw trouble in the eyes of his men and of their fair womenfolk, +and Saba was not on the rampart expecting his return. So he bade them +tell him what had chanced, and they said-- + +"Whilst thou, our father and lord, wert afar off smiting the +foreigner, and Saba looking ever down the pass for thy return, we saw +one day as it were the likeness of thee approaching, and Bran and +Sceolaun at thy heels. And we seemed also to hear the notes of the +Fian hunting call blown on the wind. Then Saba hastened to the great +gate, and we could not stay her, so eager was she to rush to the +phantom. But when she came near, she halted and gave a loud and bitter +cry, and the shape of thee smote her with a hazel wand, and lo, there +was no woman there any more, but a deer. Then those hounds chased it, +and ever as it strove to reach again the gate of the Dún they turned +it back. We all now seized what arms we could and ran out to drive +away the enchanter, but when we reached the place there was nothing to +be seen, only still we heard the rushing of flying feet and the baying +of dogs, and one thought it came from here, and another from there, +till at last the uproar died away and all was still. What we could do, +O Finn, we did; Saba is gone." + +Finn then struck his hand on his breast but spoke no word, and he went +to his own chamber. No man saw him for the rest of that day, nor for +the day after. Then he came forth, and ordered the matters of the +Fianna as of old, but for seven years thereafter he went searching for +Saba through every remote glen and dark forest and cavern of Ireland, +and he would take no hounds with him save Bran and Sceolaun. But at +last he renounced all hope of finding her again, and went hunting as +of old. One day as he was following the chase on Ben Gulban in Sligo, +he heard the musical bay of the dogs change of a sudden to a fierce +growling and yelping as though they were in combat with some beast, +and running hastily up he and his men beheld, under a great tree, a +naked boy with long hair, and around him the hounds struggling to +seize him, but Bran and Sceolaun fighting with them and keeping them +off. And the lad was tall and shapely, and as the heroes gathered +round he gazed undauntedly on them, never heeding the rout of dogs at +his feet. The Fians beat off the dogs and brought the lad home with +them, and Finn was very silent and continually searched the lad's +countenance with his eyes. In time, the use of speech came to him, and +the story that he told was this:-- + +He had known no father, and no mother save a gentle hind with whom he +lived in a most green and pleasant valley shut in on every side by +towering cliffs that could not be scaled, or by deep chasms in the +earth. In the summer he lived on fruits and such-like, and in the +winter, store of provisions was laid for him in a cave. And there came +to them sometimes a tall dark-visaged man, who spoke to his mother, +now tenderly, and now in loud menace, but she always shrunk away in +fear, and the man departed in anger. At last there came a day when the +Dark Man spoke very long with his mother in all tones of entreaty and +of tenderness and of rage, but she would still keep aloof and give no +sign save of fear and abhorrence. Then at length the Dark Man drew +near and smote her with a hazel wand; and with that he turned and went +his way, but she, this time, followed him, still looking back at her +son and piteously complaining. And he, when he strove to follow, found +himself unable to move a limb; and crying out with rage and desolation +he fell to the earth and his senses left him. When he came to himself +he was on the mountain side, on Ben Gulban, where he remained some +days, searching for that green and hidden valley, which he never found +again. And after a while the dogs found him; but of the hind his +mother and of the Dark Druid, there is no man knows the end. + +Finn called his name Oisín, and he became a warrior of fame, but far +more famous for the songs and tales that he made; so that of all +things to this day that are told of the Fianna of Erinn, men are wont +to say, "So sang the bard, Oisín, son of Finn." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Oisín in the Land of Youth + + +It happened that on a misty summer morning as Finn and Oisín with many +companions were hunting on the shores of Loch Lena they saw coming +towards them a maiden, beautiful exceedingly, riding on a snow-white +steed. She wore the garb of a queen; a crown of gold was on her head, +and a dark brown mantle of silk, set with stars of red gold, fell +around her and trailed on the ground. Silver shoes were on her horse's +hoofs, and a crest of gold nodded on his head. When she came near she +said to Finn, "From very far away I have come, and now at last I have +found thee, Finn, son of Cumhal." + +Then Finn said, "What is thy land and race, maiden, and what dost thou +seek from me?" + +"My name," she said, "is Niam of the Golden Hair. I am the daughter of +the King of the Land of Youth, and that which has brought me here is +the love of thy son Oisín." Then she turned to Oisín and she spoke to +him in the voice of one who has never asked anything but it was +granted to her, "Wilt thou go with me, Oisín, to my father's land?" + +And Oisín said, "That will I, and to the world's end"; for the fairy +spell had so wrought upon his heart that he cared no more for any +earthly thing but to have the love of Niam of the Head of Gold. + +Then the maiden spoke of the Land Oversea to which she had summoned +her lover, and as she spoke a dreamy stillness fell on all things, nor +did a horse shake his bit nor a hound bay, nor the least breath of +wind stir in the forest trees till she had made an end. And what she +said seemed sweeter and more wonderful as she spoke it than anything +they could afterwards remember to have heard, but so far as they could +remember it, it was this:-- + + "Delightful is the land beyond all dreams, + Fairer than aught thine eyes have ever seen. + There all the year the fruit is on the tree, + And all the year the bloom is on the flower. + + "There with wild honey drip the forest trees; + The stores of wine and mead shall never fail. + Nor pain nor sickness knows the dweller there, + Death and decay come near him never more. + + "The feast shall cloy not, nor the chase shall tire, + Nor music cease for ever through the hall; + The gold and jewels of the Land of Youth + Outshine all splendours ever dreamed by man. + + "Thou shalt have horses of the fairy breed, + Thou shalt have hounds that can outrun the wind; + A hundred chiefs shall follow thee in war, + A hundred maidens sing thee to thy sleep. + + "A crown of sovranty thy brow shall wear, + And by thy side a magic blade shall hang. + Thou shalt be lord of all the Land of Youth, + And lord of Niam of the Head of Gold." + +As the magic song ended, the Fians beheld Oisín mount the fairy steed +and hold the maiden in his arms, and ere they could stir or speak she +turned her horse's head and shook the ringing bridle and down the +forest glade they fled, as a beam of light flies over the land when +clouds drive across the sun; and never did the Fianna behold Oisín, +son of Finn, on earth again. + +Yet what befell him afterwards is known. As his birth was strange so +was his end, for he saw the wonders of the Land of Youth with mortal +eyes and lived to tell them with mortal lips. + +When the white horse with its riders reached the sea it ran lightly +over the waves and soon the green woods and headlands of Erinn faded +out of sight. And now the sun shone fiercely down, and the riders +passed into a golden haze in which Oisín lost all knowledge of where +he was or if sea or dry land were beneath his horse's hoofs. But +strange sights sometimes appeared to them in the mist, for towers and +palace gateways loomed up and disappeared, and once a hornless doe +bounded by them chased by a white hound with one red ear, and again +they saw a young maid ride by on a brown steed, bearing a golden apple +in her hand, and close behind her followed a young horseman on a white +steed, a purple cloak floating at his back and a gold-hilted sword in +his hand. And Oisín would have asked the princess who and what these +apparitions were, but Niam bade him ask nothing nor seem to notice any +phantom they might see until they were come to the Land of Youth. + +[Illustration: "They rode up to a stately palace"] + +At last the sky gloomed above them, and Niam urged their steed faster. +The wind lashed them with pelting rain, thunder roared across the sea +and lightning blazed, but they held on their way till at length they +came once more into a region of calm and sunshine. And now Oisín saw +before him a shore of yellow sand, lapped by the ripples of a summer +sea. Inland, there rose before his eye wooded hills amid which he +could discern the roofs and towers of a noble city. The white horse +bore them swiftly to the shore and Oisín and the maiden lighted down. +And Oisín marvelled at everything around him, for never was water so +blue or trees so stately as those he saw, and the forest was alive +with the hum of bees and the song of birds, and the creatures that are +wild in other lands, the deer and the red squirrel and the wood-dove, +came, without fear, to be caressed. Soon, as they went forward, the +walls of a city came in sight, and folk began to meet them on the +road, some riding, some afoot, all of whom were either youths or +maidens, all looking as joyous as if the morning of happy life had +just begun for them, and no old or feeble person was to be seen. Niam +led her companion through a towered gateway built of white and red +marble, and there they were met by a glittering company of a hundred +riders on black steeds and a hundred on white, and Oisín mounted a +black horse and Niam her white, and they rode up to a stately palace +where the King of the Land of Youth had his dwelling. And there he +received them, saying in a loud voice that all the folk could hear, +"Welcome, Oisín, son of Finn. Thou art come to the Land of Youth, +where sorrow and weariness and death shall never touch thee. This thou +hast won by thy faithfulness and valour and by the songs that thou +hast made for the men of Erinn, whereof the fame is come to us, for we +have here indeed all things that are delightful and joyous, but poesy +alone we had not. But now we have the chief poet of the race of men to +live with us, immortal among immortals, and the fair and cloudless +life that we lead here shall be praised in verses as fair; even as +thou, Oisín, did'st praise and adorn the short and toilsome and +chequered life that men live in the world thou hast left forever. And +Niam my daughter shall be thy bride, and thou shalt be in all things +even as myself in the Land of Youth." + +Then the heart of Oisín was filled with glory and joy, and he turned +to Niam and saw her eyes burn with love as she gazed upon him. And +they were wedded the same day, and the joy they had in each other grew +sweeter and deeper with every day that passed. All that Niam had +promised in her magic song in the wild wood when first they met, +seemed faint beside the splendour and beauty of the life in the Land +of Youth. In the great palace they trod on silken carpets and ate off +plates of gold; the marble walls and doorways were wrought with carved +work, or hung with tapestries, where forest glades, and still lakes, +and flying deer were done in colours of unfading glow. Sunshine bathed +that palace always, and cool winds wandered through its dim corridors, +and in its courts there played fountains of bright water set about +with flowers. When Oisín wished to ride, a steed of fiery but gentle +temper bore him wherever he would through the pleasant land; when he +longed to hear music, there came upon his thought, as though borne on +the wind, crystal notes such as no hand ever struck from the strings +of any harp on earth. + +But Oisín's hand now never touched the harp, and the desire of singing +and of making poetry never waked in him, for no one thing seemed so +much better than the rest, where all perfection bloomed and glowed +around him, as to make him long to praise it and to set it apart. + +When seven days had passed, he said to Niam, "I would fain go +a-hunting." Niam said, "So be it, dear love; to-morrow we shall take +order for that." Oisín lay long awake that night, thinking of the +sound of Finn's hunting-horn, and of the smell of green boughs when +they kindled them to roast the deer-flesh in Fian ovens in the +wildwood. + +So next day Oisín and Niam fared forth on horseback, with their +company of knights and maidens, and dogs leaping and barking with +eagerness for the chase. Anon they came to the forest, and the hunters +with the hounds made a wide circuit on this side and on that, till at +last the loud clamour of the hounds told that a stag was on foot, and +Oisín saw them streaming down an open glen, the stag with its great +antlers laid back and flying like the wind. So he shouted the Fian +hunting-cry and rode furiously on their track. All day long they +chased the stag through the echoing forest, and the fairy steed bore +him unfaltering over rough ground and smooth, till at last as darkness +began to fall the quarry was pulled down, and Oisín cut its throat +with his hunting-knife. Long it seemed to him since he had felt glad +and weary as he felt now, and since the woodland air with its odours +of pine and mint and wild garlic had tasted so sweet in his mouth; and +truly it was longer than he knew. But when he bade make ready the +wood-oven for their meal, and build a bothy of boughs for their +repose, Niam led him seven steps apart and seven to the left hand, and +yet seven back to the place where they had killed the deer, and lo, +there rose before him a stately Dún with litten windows and smoke +drifting above its roof. When they entered, there was a table spread +for a great company, and cooks and serving-men busy about a wide +hearth where roast and boiled meats of every sort were being prepared. +Casks of Greek wine stood open around the walls, and cups of gold were +on the board. So they all ate and drank their sufficiency, and all +night Oisín and Niam slept on a bed softer than swans-down in a +chamber no less fair than that which they had in the City of the Land +of Youth. + +Next day, at the first light of dawn, they were on foot; and soon +again the forest rang to the baying of hounds and the music of the +hunting-horn. Oisín's steed bore him all day, tireless and swift as +before, and again the quarry fell at night's approach, and again a +palace rose in the wilderness for their night's entertainment, and all +things in it even more abundant and more sumptuous than before. And so +for seven days they fared in that forest, and seven stags were slain. +Then Oisín grew wearied of hunting, and as he plunged his sharp black +hunting-knife into the throat of the last stag, he thought of the +sword of magic temper that hung idle by his side in the City of Youth, +or rested from its golden nail in his bed-chamber, and he said to +Niam, "Has thy father never a foe to tame, never a wrong to avenge? +Surely the peasant is no man whose hand forgets the plough, nor the +warrior whose hand forgets the sword hilt." Niam looked on him +strangely for a while and as if she did not understand his words, or +sought some meaning in them which yet she feared to find. But at last +she said, "If deeds of arms be thy desire, Oisín, thou shalt have thy +sufficiency ere long." And so they rode home, and slept that night in +the palace of the City of Youth. + +At daybreak on the following morn Niam roused Oisín, and she buckled +on him his golden-hilted sword and his corselet of blue steel inlaid +with gold. Then he put on his head a steel and gold helmet with dragon +crest, and slung on his back a shield of bronze wrought all over with +cunning hammer-work of serpentine lines that swelled and sank upon the +surface, and coiled in mazy knots, or flowed in long sweeping curves +like waves of the sea when they gather might and volume for their leap +upon the sounding shore. In the glimmering dawn, through the empty +streets of the fair city, they rode forth alone and took their way +through fields of corn and by apple orchards where red fruit hung down +to their hands. But by noontide their way began to mount upwards among +blue hills that they had marked from the city walls toward the west, +and of man's husbandry they saw no more, but tall red-stemmed pine +trees bordered the way on either side, and silence and loneliness +increased. At length they reached a broad table-land deep in the heart +of the mountains, where nothing grew but long coarse grass, drooping +by pools of black and motionless water, and where great boulders, +bleached white or stained with slimy lichens of livid red, lay +scattered far and wide about the plain. Against the sky the mountain +line now showed like a threat of bared and angry teeth, and as they +rode towards it Oisín perceived a huge fortress lying in the throat of +a wide glen or mountain pass. White as death was the stone of which it +was built, save where it was streaked with black or green from the +foulness of wet mosses that clung to its cornices and battlements, and +none seemed stirring about the place nor did any banner blow from its +towers. + +Then said Niam, "This, O Oisín, is the Dún of the giant Fovor of the +Mighty Blows. In it he keeps prisoner a princess of the Fairy Folk +whom he would fain make his bride, but he may not do so, nor may she +escape, until Fovor has met in battle a champion who will undertake +her cause. Approach, then, to the gate, if thou art fain to undertake +this adventure, and blow the horn which hangs thereby, and then look +to thy weapons, for soon indeed will the battle be broken upon thee." + +Then Oisín rode to the gate and thrice he blew on the great horn which +hung by it, and the clangour of it groaned drearily back from the +cliffs that overhung the glen. Not thus indeed sounded the _Dord_ of +Finn as its call blew lust of fighting and scorn of death into the +hearts of the Fianna amid the stress of battle. At the third blast the +rusty gates opened, grinding on their hinges, and Oisín rode into a +wide courtyard where servitors of evil aspect took his horse and +Niam's, and led them into the hall of Fovor. Dark it was and low, with +mouldering arras on its walls, and foul and withered rushes on the +floor, where dogs gnawed the bones thrown to them at the last meal, +and spilt ale and hacked fragments of flesh littered the bare oaken +table. And here rose languidly to greet them a maiden bound with seven +chains, to whom Niam spoke lovingly, saying that her champion was come +and that her long captivity should end. And the maiden looked upon +Oisín, whose proud bearing and jewelled armour made the mean place +seem meaner still, and a light of hope and of joy seemed to glimmer +upon her brow. So she gave them refreshment as she could, and +afterwards they betook them once more to the courtyard, where the +place of battle was set. + +Here, at the further side, stood a huge man clad in rusty armour, who +when he saw Oisín rushed upon him, silent and furious, and swinging a +great battleaxe in his hand. But doubt and langour weighed upon +Oisín's heart, and it seemed to him as if he were in an evil dream, +which he knew was but a dream, and would be less than nothing when the +hour of awakening should come. Yet he raised his shield and gripped +the fairy sword, striving to shout the Fian battle-cry as he closed +with Fovor. But soon a heavy blow smote him to the ground, and his +armour clanged harshly on the stones. Then a cloud seemed to pass from +his spirit, and he leaped to his feet quicker than an arrow flies from +the string, and thrusting fiercely at the giant his sword-point gashed +the under side of Fovor's arm when it was raised to strike, and Oisín +saw his enemy's blood. Then the fight raged hither and thither about +the wide courtyard, with trampling of feet and clash of steel and +ringing of armour and shouts of onset as the heroes closed; Oisín, +agile as a wild stag, evading the sweep of the mighty axe and rushing +in with flickering blade at every unguarded moment, his whole soul +bent on one fierce thought, to drive his point into some gap at +shoulder or neck in Fovor's coat of mail. At length, when both were +weary and wounded men, with hacked and battered armour, Oisín's blade +cut the thong of Fovor's headpiece and it fell clattering to the +ground. Another blow laid the giant prostrate, and Oisín leaned, dizzy +and panting, upon his sword, while Fovor's serving-men took off their +master in a litter, and Niam came to aid her lord. Then Oisín stripped +off his armour in the great hall, and Niam tended to his wounds, +healing them with magic herbs and murmured incantations, and they saw +that one of the seven rusty chains that had bound the princess hung +loose from its iron staple in the wall. + +All night long Oisín lay in deep and healing slumber, and next day he +arose, whole and strong, and hot to renew the fray. And the giant was +likewise healed and his might and fierceness returned to him. So they +fought till they were breathless and weary, and then to it again, and +again, till in the end Oisín drove his sword to the hilt in the +giant's shoulder where it joins the collar bone, and he fell aswoon, +and was borne away as before. And another chain of the seven fell from +the girdle of the captive maiden. + +Thus for seven days went on the combat, and Oisín had seven nights of +healing and rest, with the tenderness and beauty of Niam about his +couch; and on the seventh day the maiden was free, and her folk +brought her away, rejoicing, with banners and with music that made a +brightness for a while in that forlorn and evil place. + +But Oisín's heart was high with pride and victory, and a longing +uprose in his heart with a rush like a springtide for the days when +some great deed had been done among the Fianna, and the victors were +hailed and lauded by the home-folk in the Dún of Allen, men and women +leaving their toil or their pleasure to crowd round the heroes, and to +question again and again, and to learn each thing that had passed; and +the bards noting all to weave it into a glorious tale for after days; +and more than all the smile and the look of Finn as he learned how his +children had borne themselves in the face of death. And so Oisín said +to Niam, "Let me, for a short while, return to the land of Erinn, that +I may see there my friends and kin and tell them of the glory and joy +that are mine in the Land of Youth." But Niam wept and laid her white +arms about his neck, entreating him to think no more of the sad world +where all men live and move under a canopy of death, and where summer +is slain by winter, and youth by old age, and where love itself, if it +die not by falsehood and wrong, perishes many a time of too complete +a joy. But Oisín said, "The world of men compared with thy world is +like this dreary waste compared with the city of thy father; yet in +that city, Niam, none is better or worse than another, and I hunger to +tell my tale to ignorant and feeble folk that my words can move, as +words of mine have done of old, to wonder and delight. Then I shall +return to thee, Niam, and to thy fair and blissful land; and having +brought over to mortal men a tale that never man has told before, I +shall be happy and at peace for ever in the Land of Youth." + +So they fared back to the golden city, and next day Niam brought to +Oisín the white steed that had borne them from Erinn, and bade him +farewell. "This our steed," she said, "will carry thee across the sea +to the land where I found thee, and whithersoever thou wilt, and what +folk are there thou shalt see, and what tale thou hast to tell can be +told. But never for even a moment must thou alight from his back, for +if thy foot once touch again the soil of earth, thou shalt never win +to me and to the Land of Youth again. And sorely do I fear some evil +chance. Was not the love of Niam of the Head of Gold enough to fill a +mortal's heart? But if thou must go, then go, and blessing and victory +be thine." + +Then Oisín held her long in his arms and kissed her, and vowed to make +no long stay and never to alight from the fairy steed. And then he +shook the golden reins and the horse threw its head aloft and snorted +and bore him away in a pace like that of flowing water for speed and +smoothness. Anon they came to the margin of the blue sea, and still +the white steed galloped on, brushing the crests of the waves into +glittering spray. The sun glared upon the sea and Oisín's head swam +with the heat and motion, and in mist and dreams he rode where no day +was, nor night, nor any thought of time, till at last his horse's +hoofs ploughed through wet, yellow sands, and he saw black rocks +rising up at each side of a little bay, and inland were fields green +or brown, and white cottages thatched with reeds, and men and women, +toil-worn and clad in earth-coloured garments, went to and fro about +their tasks or stopped gazing at the rider in his crimson cloak and at +the golden trappings of his horse. But among the cottages was a small +house of stone such as Oisín had never seen in the land of Erinn; +stone was its roof as well as the walls, very steep and high, and +near-by from a rude frame of timber there hung a bell of bronze. Into +this house there passed one whom from his shaven crown Oisín guessed +to be a druid, and behind him two lads in white apparel. The druid +having seen the horseman turned his eyes again to the ground and +passed on, regarding him not, and the lads did likewise. And Oisín +rode on, eager to reach the Dún upon the Hill of Allen and to see the +faces of his kin and his friends. + +[Illustration: "The white steed had vanished from their eyes like a +wreath of mist"] + +At length, coming from the forest path into the great clearing where +the Hill of Allen was wont to rise broad and green, with its rampart +enclosing many white-walled dwellings, and the great hall towering +high in the midst, he saw but grassy mounds overgrown with rank weeds +and whin bushes, and among them pastured a peasant's kine. + +Then a strange horror fell upon him, and he thought some enchantment +from the land of Faery held his eyes and mocked him with false +visions. He threw his arms abroad and shouted the names of Finn and +Oscar, but none replied, and he thought that perchance the hounds +might hear him, and he cried upon Bran and Sceolaun, and strained his +ears if they might catch the faintest rustle or whisper of the world +from the sight of which his eyes were holden, but he heard only the +sigh of the wind in the whins. Then he rode in terror from that place, +setting his face towards the eastern sea, for he meant to traverse +Ireland from side to side and end to end in the search of some escape +from his enchantment. But when he came near to the eastern sea and was +now in the place which is called the Valley of the Thrushes,[24] he +saw in a field upon the hillside a crowd of men striving to roll aside +a great boulder from their tilled land, and an overseer directing +them. Towards them he rode, meaning to ask them concerning Finn and +the Fianna. As he came near, they all stopped their work to gaze upon +him, for to them he appeared like a messenger of the Fairy Folk or an +angel from heaven. Taller and mightier he was than the men-folk they +knew, with sword-blue eyes and brown ruddy cheeks; in his mouth, as +it were, a shower of pearls, and bright hair clustered beneath the rim +of his helmet. And as Oisín looked upon their puny forms, marred by +toil and care, and at the stone which they feebly strove to heave from +its bed, he was filled with pity, and thought to himself, "not such +were even the churls of Erinn when I left them for the Land of Youth," +and he stooped from his saddle to help them. His hand he set to the +boulder, and with a mighty heave he lifted it from where it lay and +set it rolling down the hill. And the men raised a shout of wonder and +applause, but their shouting changed in a moment into cries of terror +and dismay, and they fled, jostling and overthrowing each other to +escape from the place of fear; for a marvel horrible to see had taken +place. For Oisín's saddle-girth had burst as he heaved the stone, and +he fell headlong to the ground. In an instant the white steed had +vanished from their eyes like a wreath of mist, and that which rose, +feeble and staggering, from the ground was no youthful warrior but a +man stricken with extreme old age, white-bearded and withered, who +stretched out groping hands and moaned with feeble and bitter cries. +And his crimson cloak and yellow silken tunic were now but coarse +homespun stuff tied with a hempen girdle, and the gold-hilted sword +was a rough oaken staff such as a beggar carries who wanders the roads +from farmer's house to house. + + [24] Glanismole, near Dublin. + +When the people saw that the doom that had been wrought was not for +them they returned, and found the old man prone on the ground with +his face hidden in his arms. So they lifted him up and asked who he +was and what had befallen him. Oisín gazed round on them with dim +eyes, and at last he said, "I was Oisín the son of Finn, and I pray ye +tell me where he now dwells, for his Dún on the Hill of Allen is now a +desolation, and I have neither seen him nor heard his hunting horn +from the Western to the Eastern Sea." Then the men gazed strangely on +each other and on Oisín, and the overseer asked, "Of what Finn dost +thou speak, for there be many of that name in Erinn?" Oisín said, +"Surely of Finn mac Cumhal mac Trenmor, captain of the Fianna of +Erinn." Then the overseer said, "Thou art daft, old man, and thou hast +made us daft to take thee for a youth as we did a while agone. But we +at least have now our wits again, and we know that Finn son of Cumhal +and all his generation have been dead these three hundred years. At +the battle of Gowra fell Oscar, son of Oisín, and Finn at the battle +of Brea, as the historians tell us; and the lays of Oisín, whose death +no man knows the manner of, are sung by our harpers at great men's +feasts. But now the Talkenn,[25] Patrick, has come into Ireland and +has preached to us the One God and Christ His Son, by whose might +these old days and ways are done away with, and Finn and his Fianna, +with their feasting and hunting and songs of war and of love, have no +such reverence among us as the monks and virgins of holy Patrick, and +the psalms and prayers that go up daily to cleanse us from sin and to +save us from the fire of judgment." But Oisín replied, half hearing +and still less comprehending what was said to him, "If thy God have +slain Finn and Oscar, I would say that God is a strong man." Then they +all cried out upon him, and some picked up stones, but the overseer +bade them let him be until the Talkenn had spoken with him, and till +he should order what was to be done. + + [25] Talkenn or "Adze-head" was a name given to St Patrick by + the Irish. Probably it referred to the shape of his tonsure. + +So they brought him to Patrick, who entreated him gently and +hospitably, and to Patrick he told the story of all that had befallen +him. But Patrick bade his scribes write all carefully down, that the +memory of the heroes whom Oisín had known, and of the joyous and free +life they had led in the woods and glens and wild places of Erinn, +should never be forgotten among men. And Oisín, during the short span +of life that yet remained to him, told to Patrick many tales of the +Fianna and their deeds, but of the three hundred years that he had +spent with Niam in the Land of Youth he rarely spoke, for they seemed +to him but as a vision or a dream of the night, set between a sunny +and a rainy day. + + + + +THE HISTORY OF KING CORMAC + +CHAPTER XVI + + +I + +THE BIRTH OF CORMAC + +Of all the kings that ruled over Ireland, none had a better and more +loyal servant than was Finn mac Cumhal, and of all the captains and +counsellors of kings none ever served a more glorious and a nobler +monarch than did Finn, for the time that he served Cormac, son of Art, +son of Conn of the Hundred Battles. At the time at which this monarch +lived and reigned, the mist of sixteen centuries hangs between us and +the history of Ireland, but through this mist there shine a few great +and sunlike figures whose glory cannot be altogether hidden, and of +these figures Cormac is the greatest and the brightest. Much that is +told about him may be true, and much is certainly fable, but the +fables themselves are a witness to his greatness; they are like forms +seen in the mist when a great light is shining behind it, and we +cannot always say when we are looking at the true light and when at +the reflected glory. + +The birth of Cormac was on this wise. His father, as we have said, was +Art, son of Conn, and his mother was named Achta, being the daughter +of a famous smith or ironworker of Connacht. Now before the birth of +Cormac, Achta had a strange dream, namely, that her head was struck +off from her body and that out of her neck there grew a great tree +which extended its branches over all Ireland and flourished +exceedingly, but a huge wave of the sea burst upon it and laid it low. +Then from the roots of this tree there grew up another, but it did not +attain the splendour of the first, and a blast of wind came from the +West and overthrew it. On this the woman started from her sleep, and +she woke her husband, Art, and told him her vision. "It is a true +dream," said Art. "I am thy head, and this portends that I shall be +violently taken from thee. But thou shalt bear me a son who shall be +King of all Ireland, and shall rule with great power and glory until +some disaster from the sea overtake him. But from him shall come yet +another king, my grandson and thine, who shall also be cut down, and I +think that the cause of his fall shall be the armies of the Fian host, +who are swift and keen as the wind." + +Not long thereafter Art, son of Conn, fell in battle with the Picts +and Britons at the Plain of the Swine, which is between Athenry and +Galway in Connacht. Now the leader of the invaders then was mac Con, a +nephew to Art, who had been banished out of Ireland for rising against +the High King; and when he had slain Art he seized the sovranty of +Ireland and reigned there unlawfully for many years. + +But before the battle, Art had counselled his wife: + +"If things go ill with us in the fight, and I am slain, seek out my +faithful friend Luna who dwells in Corann in Connacht, and he will +protect thee till thy son be born." So Achta, with one maid, fled in +her chariot before the host of mac Con and sought to go to the Dún of +Luna. On her way thither, however, the hour came when her child should +be born, and the maid turned the chariot aside into the wild wood at +the place called Creevagh (the Place of the Twigs), and there, on a +couch of twigs and leaves, she gave birth to a noble son. + +Then Achta, when she had cherished her boy and rejoiced over him, bade +her handmaid keep watch over both of them, and they fell asleep. But +the maid's eyes were heavy with weariness and long travelling, and ere +long she, too, was overpowered by slumber, and all three slept a deep +sleep while the horses wandered away grazing through the wood. + +By and by there came a she-wolf roaming through the wood in search of +prey for her whelps, and it came upon the sleeping woman and the +little child. It did not wake the woman, but very softly it picked up +the infant and bore it off to the stony cave that is hard by to +Creevagh in the hill that was afterwards called Mount Cormac. + +After a while the mother waked up and found her child gone. Then she +uttered a lamentable cry, and woke her handmaid, and both the women +searched hither and thither, but no trace of the child could they +find; and thus Luna found them; for he had heard news of the battle +and the death of his King, and he had come to succour Achta as he had +pledged his word to do. Luna and his men also made search for the +infant, but in vain; and at last he conveyed the two sorrowing women +to his palace; but Achta was somewhat comforted by her prophetic +dream. Luna then proclaimed that whoever should discover the King's +son, if he were yet alive, might claim of him what reward he would. + +And so the time passed, till one day a man named Grec, a clansman of +Luna the lord of Corann, as he ranged the woods hunting, came on a +stony cavern in the side of a hill, and before it he saw wolf-cubs at +play, and among them a naked child on all fours gambolling with them, +and a great she-wolf that mothered them all. "Right," cried Grec, and +off he goes to Luna his lord. "What wilt thou give me for the King's +son?" said he. "What wilt thou have?" said Luna. So Grec asked for +certain lands, and Luna bound himself to give them to him and to his +posterity, and there lived and flourished the Clan Gregor for many a +generation to come. So Luna, guided by Grec, went to the cave on Mount +Cormac, and took the child and the wolf-cubs all together and brought +them home. And the child they called Cormac, or the Chariot-Child. Now +the lad grew up very comely and strong, and he abode with Luna in +Connacht, and no one told him of his descent. + + +II + +THE JUDGMENT OF CORMAC + +Once upon a time it happened that Cormac was at play with the two sons +of Luna, and the lads grew angry in their play and came to blows, and +Cormac struck one of them to the ground. "Sorrow on it," cried the +lad, "here I have been beaten by one that knows not his clan or +kindred, save that he is a fellow without a father." When Cormac heard +that he was troubled and ashamed, and he went to Luna and told him +what had been said. + +And Luna seeing the trouble of the youth, and also that he was strong +and noble to look on, and wise and eloquent in speech, held that the +time was now come to reveal to him his descent. "Thou hadst indeed a +clan and kindred," he said, "and a father of the noblest, for thou art +the son of Art, the High King of Ireland, who was slain and +dispossessed by mac Con. But it is foretold that thou shalt yet come +to thy father's place, and the land pines for thee even now, for there +is no good yield from earth or sea under the unlawful rule of him who +now sits on the throne of Art." + +"If that be so," said Cormac, "let us go to Tara, and bide our time +there in my father's house." + +So the two of them set out for Tara on the morrow morn. And this was +the retinue they had with them: a body-guard of outlawed men that had +revolted against mac Con and other lords and had gathered themselves +together at Corann under Luna, and four wolves that had been cubs with +Cormac when the she-wolf suckled him. + + +When they came to Tara, the folk there wondered at the fierce-eyed +warriors and the grey beasts that played like dogs around Cormac, and +the lad was adopted as a pupil by the King, to be taught arms and +poetry and law. Much talk there was of his coming, and of his strange +companions that are not wont to be the friends of man, and as the lad +grew in comeliness and in knowledge the eyes of all were turned to him +more and more, because the rule of mac Con was not good. + +So the time wore on, till one day a case came for judgment before the +King, in which the Queen sued a certain wealthy woman and an owner of +herds named Benna, for that the sheep of Benna had strayed into the +Queen's fields and had eaten to the ground a crop of woad[26] that was +growing there. The King gave judgment, that the sheep which had eaten +the woad were to be given to the Queen in compensation for what they +had destroyed. Then Cormac rose up before the people and said, "Nay, +but let the wool of the sheep, when they are next shorn, be given to +the Queen, for the woad will grow again and so shall the wool." "A +true judgment, a true judgment," cried all the folk that were present +in the place; "a very king's son is he that hath pronounced it." And +they murmured so loudly against mac Con that his druids counselled him +to quit Tara lest a worse thing befall him. So he gave up the sovranty +to Cormac and went southward into Munster to rally his friends there +and recover the kingdom, and there he was slain by Cormac's men as he +was distributing great largesse of gold and silver to his followers, +in the place called The Field of the Gold. + + [26] Woad is a cruciferous plant, _Isatis tinctoria_, used for + dyeing. + +So Cormac, son of Art, ruled in Tara and was High King of all Ireland. +And the land, it is said, knew its rightful lord, and yielded harvests +such as never were known, while the forest trees dripped with the +abundance of honey and the lakes and rivers were alive with fish. So +much game was there, too, that the folk could have lived on that alone +and never put a ploughshare in the soil. In Cormac's time the autumn +was not vexed with rain, nor the spring with icy winds, nor the summer +with parching heat, nor the winter with whelming snows. His rule in +Erinn, it is said, was like a wand of gold laid on a dish of silver. + +Also he rebuilt the ramparts of Tara and made it strong, and he +enlarged the great banqueting hall and made pillars of cedar in it +ornamented with plates of bronze, and painted its lime-white walls in +patterns of red and blue. Palaces for the women he also made there, +and store-houses, and halls for the fighting men--never was Tara so +populous or so glorious before or since. And for his wisdom and +righteousness knowledge was given to him that none other in Ireland +had as yet, for it was revealed to him that the Immortal Ones whom the +Gael worshipped were but the names of One whom none can name, and that +his message should ere long come to Ireland from over the eastern sea, +calling the people to a sweeter and diviner faith. + +And to the end of his life it was his way to have wolves about him, +for he knew their speech and they his, and they were friendly and tame +with him and his folk, since they were foster-brothers together in the +wild wood. + + +III + +THE MARRIAGE OF KING CORMAC + +It happened that in Cormac's time there was a very wealthy farmer +named Buicad[27] who dwelt in Leinster, and had vast herds of cattle +and sheep and horses. This Buicad and his wife had no children, but +they adopted a foster-child named Ethne, daughter of one Dunlang. Now +Buicad was the most hospitable of men, and never refused aught to +anyone, but he kept open house for all the nobles of Leinster who +came with their following and feasted there as they would, day after +day; and if any man fancied any of the cattle or other goods of +Buicad, he might take them home with him, and none said him nay. Thus +Buicad lived in great splendour, and his Dún was ever full to +profusion with store of food and clothing and rich weapons, until in +time it was all wasted away in boundless hospitality and generosity, +and so many had had a share in his goods that they could never be +recovered nor could it be said of any man that he was the cause of +Buicad's undoing. But undone he was at last, and when there remained +to him but one bull and seven cows he departed by night with his wife +and Ethne from Dún Buicad, leaving his mansion desolate. And he +travelled till he came to a place where there was a grove of oak trees +by a little stream in the county of Meath, near where Cormac had a +summer palace, and there he built himself a little hut and tended his +few cattle, and Ethne waited as a maid-servant upon him and his wife. + + [27] Pronounced Bweé-cad. His name is said to be preserved in + the townland of Dunboyke, near Blessington, Co. Wicklow. + +Now on a certain day it happened that King Cormac rode out on +horseback from his Dún in Meath, and in the course of his ride he came +upon the little herd of Buicad towards evening, and he saw Ethne +milking the cows. And this was the way she milked them: first she +milked a portion of each cow's milk into a certain vessel, then she +took a second vessel and milked into it the remaining portion, in +which was the richest cream, and these two vessels she kept apart. +Cormac watched all this. She then bore the vessels of milk into the +hut, and came out again with two other vessels and a small cup. These +she bore down to the river-side; and one of the vessels she filled by +means of the cup from the water at the brink of the stream, but the +other vessel she bore out into the middle of the stream and there +filled it from the deepest of the running water. After this she took a +sickle and began cutting rushes by the river-side, and Cormac saw that +when she cut a wisp of long rushes she would put it on one side, and +the short rushes on the other, and she bore them separately into the +house. But Cormac stopped her and saluted her, and said: + +"For whom, maiden, art thou making this careful choice of the milk and +the rushes and the water?" + +"I am making it," said she, "for one who is worthy that I should do +far more than that for him, if I could." + +"What is his name?" + +"Buicad, the farmer," said Ethne. + +"Is it that Buicad, who was the rich farmer in Leinster that all +Ireland has heard of?" asked the King. + +"It is even so." + +"Then thou art his foster-child, Ethne the daughter of Dunlang?" said +Cormac. + +"I am," said Ethne. + +"Wilt thou be my wife and Queen of Erinn?" then said Cormac. + +"If it please my foster-father to give me to thee, O King, I am +willing," replied Ethne. + +Then Cormac took Ethne by the hand and they went before Buicad, and he +consented to give her to Cormac to wife. And Buicad was given rich +lands and great store of cattle in the district of Odran close by +Tara, and Ethne the Queen loved him and visited him so long as his +life endured. + + +IV + +THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE KING + +Ethne bore to Cormac a son, her firstborn, named Cairbry, who was King +of Ireland after Cormac. It was during the lifetime of Cormac that +Cairbry came to the throne, for it happened that ere he died Cormac +was wounded by a chance cast of a spear and lost one of his eyes, and +it was forbidden that any man having a blemish should be a king in +Ireland. Cormac therefore gave up the kingdom into the hands of +Cairbry, but before he did so he told his son all the wisdom that he +had in the governing of men, and this was written down in a book which +is called _The Instructions of Cormac_.[28] These are among the things +which are found in it, of the wisdom of Cormac:-- + + [28] _The Instructions of Cormac_ (Tecosa Cormaic) have been + edited with a translation by Dr. Kuno Meyer in the Todd Lecture + Series of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xv., April 1909. + + "Let him (the king) restrain the great, + Let him exalt the good, + Let him establish peace, + Let him plant law, + Let him protect the just, + Let him bind the unjust, + Let his warriors be many and his counsellors few, + Let him shine in company and be the sun of the mead-hall, + Let him punish with a full fine wrong done knowingly, + and with a half-fine wrong done in ignorance." + +Cairbry said, "What are good customs for a tribe to pursue?" "They are +as follows," replied Cormac:-- + + "To have frequent assemblies, + To be ever enquiring, to question the wise men, + To keep order in assemblies, + To follow ancient lore, + Not to crush the miserable, + To keep faith in treaties, + To consolidate kinship, + Fighting-men not to be arrogant, + To keep contracts faithfully, + To guard the frontiers against every ill." + +"Tell me, O Cormac," said Cairbry, "what are good customs for the +giver of a feast?" and Cormac said:-- + + "To have lighted lamps, + To be active in entertaining the company, + To be liberal in dispensing ale, + To tell stories briefly, + To be of joyous countenance, + To keep silence during recitals." + +"Tell me, O Cormac," said his son once, "what were thy habits when +thou wert a lad?" And Cormac said:-- + + "I was a listener in woods, + I was a gazer at stars, + I pried into no man's secrets, + I was mild in the hall, + I was fierce in the fray, + I was not given to making promises, + I reverenced the aged, + I spoke ill of no man in his absence, + I was fonder of giving than of asking." + +"If you listen to my teaching," said Cormac:-- + + "Do not deride any old person though you be young + Nor any poor man though you be rich, + Nor any naked though you be well-clad, + Nor any lame though you be swift, + Nor any blind though you be keen-sighted, + Nor any invalid though you be robust, + Nor any dull though you be clever, + Nor any fool though you be wise. + +"Yet be not slothful, nor fierce, nor sleepy, nor niggardly, nor +feckless nor envious, for all these are hateful before God and men. + +"Do not join in blasphemy, nor be the butt of an assembly; be not +moody in an alehouse, and never forget a tryst." + +"What are the most lasting things on earth?" asked Cairbry. + +"Not hard to tell," said Cormac; "they are grass, copper, and a +yew-tree." + +"If you will listen to me," said Cormac, "this is my instruction for +the management of your household and your realm:-- + + "Let not a man with many friends be your steward, + Nor a woman with sons and foster-sons your housekeeper, + Nor a greedy man your butler, + Nor a man of much delay your miller, + Nor a violent, foul-mouthed man your messenger, + Nor a grumbling sluggard your servant, + Nor a talkative man your counsellor, + Nor a tippler your cup-bearer, + Nor a short-sighted man your watchman, + Nor a bitter, haughty man your doorkeeper, + Nor a tender-hearted man your judge, + Nor an ignorant man your leader, + Nor an unlucky man your counsellor." + + +Such were the counsels that Cormac mac Art gave to his son Cairbry. +And Cairbry became King after his father's abdication, and reigned +seven and twenty years, till he and Oscar, son of Oisín, slew one +another at the battle of Gowra. + + +V + +CORMAC SETS UP THE FIRST MILL IN ERINN + +During the reign of Cormac it happened that some of the lords of +Ulster made a raid upon the Picts in Alba[29] and brought home many +captives. Among them was a Pictish maiden named Kiernit, daughter of a +king of that nation, who was strangely beautiful, and for that the +Ulstermen sent her as a gift to King Cormac. And Cormac gave her as a +household slave to his wife Ethne, who set her to grinding corn with a +hand-quern, as women in Erinn were used to do. One day as Cormac was +in the palace of the Queen he saw Kiernit labouring at her task and +weeping as she wrought, for the toil was heavy and she was unused to +it. Then Cormac was moved with compassion for the women that ground +corn throughout Ireland, and he sent to Alba for artificers to come +over and set up a mill, for up to then there were no mills in Ireland. +Now there was in Tara, as there is to this day, a well of water +called _The Pearly_, for the purity and brightness of the water that +sprang from it, and it ran in a stream down the hillside, as it still +runs, but now only in a slender trickle. Over this stream Cormac bade +them build the first mill that was in Ireland, and the bright water +turned the wheel merrily round, and the women in Tara toiled at the +quern no more. + + [29] Scotland. + + +VI + +A PLEASANT STORY OF CORMAC'S BREHON + +Among other affairs which Cormac regulated for himself and all kings +who should come after him was the number and quality of the officers +who should be in constant attendance on the King. Of these he ordained +that there should be ten, to wit one lord, one brehon, one druid, one +physician, one bard, one historian, one musician and three stewards. +The function of the brehon, or judge, was to know the ancient customs +and the laws of Ireland, and to declare them to the King whenever any +matter relating to them came before him. Now Cormac's chief brehon was +at first one Fithel. But Fithel's time came to die, and his son +Flahari,[30] a wise and learned man, trained by his father in all the +laws of the Gael, was to be brehon to the High King in his father's +stead. Fithel then called his son to his bedside and said:-- + + [30] Pronounced Fla'-haree--accent on the first syllable. + +"Thou art well acquainted, my son, with all the laws and customs of +the Gael, and worthy to be the chief brehon of King Cormac. But wisdom +of life thou hast not yet obtained, for it is written in no law-book. +This thou must learn for thyself, from life itself; yet somewhat of it +I can impart unto thee, and it will keep thee in the path of safety, +which is not easily trodden by those who are in the counsels of great +kings. Mark now these four precepts, and obey them, and thou wilt +avoid many of the pit-falls in thy way:-- + + "Take not a king's son in fosterage,[31] + Impart no dangerous secret to thy wife, + Raise not the son of a serf to a high position, + Commit not thy purse or treasure to a sister's keeping." + + [31] The institution of fosterage, by which the children of + kings and lords were given to trusted persons among their + friends or followers to bring up and educate, was a marked + feature of social life in ancient Ireland, and the bonds of + affection and loyalty between such foster-parents and their + children were held peculiarly sacred. + +Having said this Fithel died, and Flahari became chief brehon in his +stead. + +After a time Flahari thought to himself, "I am minded to test my +father's wisdom of life and to see if it be true wisdom or but +wise-seeming babble. For knowledge is no knowledge until it be tried +by life." + +So he went before the King and said, "If thou art willing, Cormac, I +would gladly have one of thy sons in fosterage." At this Cormac was +well pleased, and a young child of the sons of Cormac was given to +Flahari to bring up, and Flahari took the child to his own Dún, and +there began to nurture and to train him as it was fitting. + +After a time, however, Flahari one day took the child by the hand and +went with him into the deep recesses of the forest where dwelt one of +the swine-herds who minded the swine of Flahari. To him Flahari handed +over the child and bade him guard him as the apple of his eye, and to +be ready deliver him up again when he was required. The Flahari went +home, and for some days went about like a man weighed down by gloomy +and bitter thoughts. His wife marked that, and sought to know the +reason, but Flahari put her off. At last when she continually pressed +him to reveal the cause of his trouble, he said "If them must needs +learn what ails me, and if thou canst keep a secret full of danger to +me and thee, know that I am gloomy and distraught because I have +killed the son of Cormac." At this the woman cried out, "Murderer +parricide, hast thou spilled the King's blood, and shall Cormac not +know it, and do justice on thee?" And she sent word to Cormac that he +should come and seize her husband for that crime. + +But before the officers came, Flahari took a young man, the son of his +butler, and placed him in charge of his lands to manage them, while +Flahari was away for his trial at Tara. And he also gave to his sister +a treasure of gold and silver to keep for him, lest it should be made +a spoil of while he was absent. Then he went with the officers to +Tara, denying his offence and his confession, but when Cormac had +heard all, and the child could not be found, he sentenced him to be +put to death. + +Flahari then sent a messenger to his sister, begging her to send him +at once a portion of the treasure he had left with her, that he might +use it to make himself friends among the folk at court, and perchance +obtain a remission of his sentence; but she sent the messenger back +again empty, saying she knew not of what he spoke. + +On this Flahari deemed that the time was come to reveal the truth, so +he obtained permission from the King to send a message to his +swineherd before he died, and to hear the man's reply. And the message +was this, that Murtach the herd should come without delay to Tara and +bring with him the child that Flahari had committed to him. Howbeit +this messenger also came back empty, and reported that on reaching Dún +Flahari he had been met by the butler's son that was over the estate, +who had questioned him of his errand, and had then said, "Murtach the +serf has run away as soon as he heard of his lord's downfall, and if +he had any child in his care he has taken it away with him, and he +cannot be found." This he said because, on hearing of the child, he +guessed what this might mean, and he had been the bitterest of all in +urging Flahari's death, hoping to be rewarded with a share of his +lands. + +Then Flahari said to himself, "Truly the proving of my father's wisdom +of life has brought me very near to death." So he sent for the King +and entreated him that he might be suffered to go himself to the +dwelling of Murtach the herd, promising that the King's son should be +then restored to him, "or if not," said he, "let me then be slain +there without more ado." With great difficulty Cormac was moved to +consent to this, for he believed it was but a subterfuge of Flahari's +to put off the evil day or perchance to find a way of escape. But next +day Flahari was straitly bound and set in a chariot, and, with a guard +of spearmen about him and Cormac himself riding behind, they set out +for Dún Flahari. Then Flahari guided them through the wild wood till +at last they came to the clearing where stood the dwelling of Murtach +the swineherd, and lo! there was the son of Cormac playing merrily +before the door. And the child ran to his foster-father to kiss him, +but when he saw Flahari in bonds he burst out weeping and would not be +at peace until he was set free. + +Then Murtach slew one of the boars of his herd and made an oven in the +earth after the manner of the Fianna, and made over it a fire of +boughs that he had drying in a shed. And when the boar was baked he +set it before the company with ale and mead in methers of beechwood, +and they all feasted and were glad of heart. + +Cormac then asked of Flahari why he had suffered himself to be +brought into this trouble. "I did so," said Flahari, "to prove the +four counsels which my father gave them ere he died, and I have proved +them and found them to be wise. In the first place, it is not wise for +any man that is not a king to take the fosterage of a king's son, for +if aught shall happen to the lad, his own life is in the king's hands +and with his life he shall answer for it. Secondly, the keeping of a +secret, said my father, is not in the nature of women in general, +therefore no dangerous secret should be entrusted to them. The third +counsel my father gave me was not to raise up or enrich the son of a +serf, for such persons are apt to forget benefits conferred on them, +and moreover it irks them that he who raised them up should know the +poor estate from which they sprang. And good, too, is the fourth +counsel my father gave me, not to entrust my treasure to my sister, +for it is the nature of most women to regard as spoil any valuables +that are entrusted to them to keep for others." + + +VII + +THE JUDGMENT CONCERNING CORMAC'S SWORD + +When Cormac, son of Art, son of Conn of the Hundred Battles, was High +King in Erinn, great was the peace and splendour of his reign, and no +provincial king or chief in any part of the country lifted up his +head against Cormac. At his court in Tara were many noble youths, who +were trained up there in all matters befitting their rank and station. + +One of these youths was named Socht, son of Fithel. Socht had a +wonderful sword, named "The Hard-headed Steeling," which was said to +have been long ago the sword of Cuchulain. It had a hilt of gold and a +belt of silver, and its point was double-edged. At night it shone like +a candle. If its point were bent back to the hilt it would fly back +again and be as straight as before. If it was held in running water +and a hair were floated down against the edge, it would sever the +hair. It was a saying that this sword would make two halves of a man, +and for a while he would not perceive what had befallen him. This +sword was held by Socht for a tribal possession from father and +grandfather. + +There was at this time a famous steward to the High King in Tara whose +name was Dubdrenn. This man asked Socht to sell him the sword. He +promised to Socht such a ration as he, Dubdrenn, had every night, and +four men's food for the family of Socht, and, after that, Socht to +have the full value of the sword at his own appraisement. "No," said +Socht. "I may not sell my father's treasures while he is alive." + +And thus they went on, Dubdrenn's mind ever running on the sword. At +last he bade Socht to a drinking-bout, and plied him so with wine and +mead that Socht became drunken, and knew not where he was, and +finally fell asleep. + +Then the steward takes the sword and goes to the King's brazier, by +name Connu. + +"Art thou able," says Dubdrenn, "to open the hilt of this sword?" "I +am that," says the brazier. + +Then the brazier took apart the hilt, and within, upon the tang of the +blade, he wrote the steward's name, even Dubdrenn, and the steward +laid the sword again by the side of Socht. + +So it was for three months after that, and the steward continued to +ask Socht to sell him the sword, but he could not get it from him. + +Then the steward brought a suit for the sword before the High King, +and he claimed that it was his own and that it had been taken from +him. But Socht declared that the sword was his by long possession and +by equity, and he would not give it up. + +Then Socht went to his father, Fithel the brehon, and begged him to +take part in the action and to defend his claim. But Fithel said, +"Nay, thou art too apt to blame the pleadings of other men; plead for +thyself." + +So the court was set, and Socht was called upon to prove that the +sword was his. He swore that it was a family treasure, and thus it had +come down to him. + +The steward said, "Well, O Cormac, the oath that Socht has uttered is +a lie." + +"What proof hast thou of that?" asked Cormac. + +"Not hard to declare," replied the steward. "If the sword be mine, my +name stands graved therein, concealed within the hilt of the sword." + +"That will soon be known," says Cormac, and therewith he had the +brazier summoned. The brazier comes and breaks open the hilt and the +name of Dubdrenn stands written within it. Thus a dead thing testified +in law against a living man. + +Then Socht said, "Hear ye, O men of Erinn and Cormac the King! I +acknowledge that this man is the owner of the sword." And to Dubdrenn +he said, "The property therein and all the obligations of it pass from +me to thee." + +Dubdrenn said, "I acknowledge property in the sword and all its +obligations." + +Then said Socht, "This sword was found in the neck of my grandfather +Angus, and till this day it never was known who had done that murder. +Do justice, O King, for this crime." + +Said the King to Dubdrenn, "Thou art liable for more than the sword is +worth." So he awarded to Socht the price of seven bondwomen as +blood-fine for the slaying of Angus, and restitution of the sword to +Socht. Then the steward confessed the story of the sword, and Cormac +levied seven other cumals from the brazier. But Cormac said, "This is +in truth the sword of Cuchulain, and by it was slain my grandfather, +even Conn of the Hundred Battles, at the hands of the King of Ulster, +of whom it is written:-- + +"With a host, with a valiant band Well did he go into Connacht. Alas, +that he saw the blood of Conn On the side of Cuchulain's sword!" + +Then Cormac and Fithel agreed that the sword be given to Cormac as +blood-fine for the death of Conn, and his it was; and it was the third +best of the royal treasures that were in Erin: namely, Cormac's Cup, +that broke if a falsehood were spoken over it and became whole if a +truth were spoken; and the Bell Branch that he got in Fairyland, whose +music when it was shaken would put to sleep wounded men, and women in +travail; and the Sword of Cuchulain, against which, and against the +man that held it in his hand, no victory could ever be won. + + +VIII + +THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CORMAC + +In the chronicle of the Kings of Ireland that was written by Tierna +the Historian in the eleventh century after Christ's coming, there is +noted down in the annals of the year 248, "Disappearance of Cormac, +grandson of Conn, for seven months." That which happened to Cormac +during these seven months is told in one of the bardic stories of +Ireland, being the Story of Cormac's Journey to Fairyland, and this +was the manner of it. + +One day Cormac, son of Art, was looking over the ramparts of his royal +Dún of Tara, when he saw a young man, glorious to look on in his +person and his apparel, coming towards him across the plain of Bregia. +The young man bore in his hand, as it were, a branch, from which hung +nine golden bells formed like apples. When he shook the branch the +nine apples beat against each other and made music so sweet that there +was no pain or sorrow in the world that a man would not forget while +he hearkened to it. + +"Does this branch belong to thee?" asked Cormac of the youth. + +"Truly it does," replied the youth. + +"Wilt thou sell it to me?" said Cormac. + +"I never had aught that I would not sell for a price," said the young +man. + +"What is thy price?" asked Cormac. + +"The price shall be what I will," said the young man. + +"I will give thee whatever thou desirest of all that is mine," said +Cormac, for he coveted the branch exceedingly, and the enchantment was +heavy upon him. + +So the youth gave him the bell-branch, and then said, "My price is thy +wife and thy son and thy daughter." + +Then they went together into the palace and found there Cormac's wife +and his children. "That is a wonderful jewel thou hast in thy hand, +Cormac," said Ethne. + +"It is," said Cormac, "and great is the price I have paid for it." + +"What is that price?" said Ethne. + +"Even thou and thy children twain," said the King. + +"Never hast thou done such a thing," cried Ethne, "as to prefer any +treasure in the world before us three!" And they all three lamented +and implored, but Cormac shook the branch and immediately their sorrow +was forgotten, and they went away willingly with the young man across +the plain of Bregia until a mist hid them from the eyes of Cormac. And +when the people murmured and complained against Cormac, for Ethne and +her children were much beloved of them, Cormac shook the bell-branch +and their grief was turned into joy. + +A year went by after this, and then Cormac longed for his wife and +children again, nor could the bell-branch any longer bring him +forgetfulness of them. So one morning he took the branch and went out +alone from Tara over the plain, taking the direction in which they had +passed away a year agone; and ere long little wreathes of mist began +to curl about his feet, and then to flit by him like long trailing +robes, and he knew no more where he was. After a time, however, he +came out again into sunshine and clear sky, and found himself in a +country of flowery meadows and of woods filled with singing-birds +where he had never journeyed before. He walked on, till at last he +came to a great and stately mansion with a crowd of builders at work +upon it, and they were roofing it with a thatch made of the wings of +strange birds. But when they had half covered the house, their supply +of feathers ran short, and they rode off in haste to seek for more. +While they were gone, however, a wind arose and whirled away the +feathers already laid on, so that the rafters were left bare as +before. And this happened again and again, as Cormac gazed on them for +he knew not how long. At last his patience left him and he said, "I +see with that ye have been doing this since the beginning of the +world, and that ye will still be doing it in the end thereof," and +with that he went on his way. + +And many other strange things he saw, but of them we say nothing now, +till he came to the gateway of a great and lofty Dún, where he entered +in and asked hospitality. Then there came to him a tall man clad in a +cloak of blue that changed into silver or to purple as its folds waved +in the light, and with him was a woman more beautiful than the +daughters of men, even she of whom it was said her beauty was as that +of a tear when it drops from the eyelid, so crystal-pure it was and +bright.[32] They greeted Cormac courteously and begged him to stay +with them for the night. + + [32] See Miss Hull's CUCHULAIN, THE HOUND OF ULSTER, p. 175. + The pair were Mananan, god of the sea, and Fand his wife, of + whom a tale of great interest is told in the Cuchulain Cycle of + legends. The sea-cloak of Mananan is the subject of a + magnificent piece of descriptive poetry in Ferguson's CONGAL. + +Cormac then entered a great hall with pillars of cedar and +many-coloured silken hangings on the walls. In the midst of it was a +fire-place whereon the host threw a huge log, and shortly afterwards +brought in a young pig which Cormac cut up to roast before the fire. +He first put one quarter of the pig to roast, and then his host said +to him, + +"Tell us a tale, stranger, and if it be a true one the quarter will be +done as soon as the tale is told." + +"Do thou begin," said Cormac, "and then thy wife, and after that my +turn will come." + +"Good," said the host. "This is my tale. I have seven of these swine, +and with their flesh the whole world could be fed. When one of them is +killed and eaten, I need but put its bones into the pig-trough and on +the morrow it is alive and well again." They looked at the fireplace, +and behold, the first quarter of the pig was done and ready to be +served. + +Then Cormac put on the second quarter, and the woman took up her tale. +"I have seven white cows," she said, "and seven pails are filled with +the milk of them each day. Though all the folk in the world were +gathered together to drink of this milk, there would be enough and to +spare for all." As soon as she had said that, they saw that the second +quarter of the pig was roasted. + +Then Cormac said: "I know you now, who you are; for it is Mananan that +owns the seven swine of Faery, and it is out of the Land of Promise +that he fetched Fand his wife and her seven cows." Then immediately +the third quarter of the pig was done. + +"Tell us now," said Mananan, "who thou art and why thou art come +hither." + +Cormac then told his story, of the branch with its nine golden apples +and how he had bartered for it his wife and his children, and he was +now-seeking them through the world. And when he had made an end, the +last quarter of the pig was done. + +"Come, let us set to the feast," then said Mananan; but Cormac said, +"Never have I sat down to meat in a company of two only." "Nay," said +Mananan, "but there are more to come." With that he opened a door in +the hall and in it appeared Queen Ethne and her two children. And when +they had embraced and rejoiced in each other Mananan said, "It was I +who took them from thee, Cormac, and who gave thee the bell-branch, +for I wished to bring thee hither to be my guest for the sake of thy +nobleness and thy wisdom." + +Then they all sat down to table and feasted and made merry, and when +they had satisfied themselves with meat and drink, Mananan showed the +wonders of his household to King Cormac. And he took up a golden cup +which stood on the table, and said: "This cup hath a magical property, +for if a lie be spoken over it, it will immediately break in pieces, +and if a truth be spoken it will be made whole again." "Prove this to +me," said Cormac. "That is easily done," said Mananan. "Thy wife hath +had a new husband since I carried her off from thee." Straightway the +cup fell apart into four pieces. "My husband has lied to thee, +Cormac," said Fand, and immediately the cup became whole again. + +Cormac then began to question Mananan as to the things he had seen on +his way thither, and he told him of the house that was being thatched +with the wings of birds, and of the men that kept returning ever and +again to their work as the wind destroyed it. And Mananan said, +"These, O Cormac, are the men of art, who seek to gather together much +money and gear of all kinds by the exercise of their craft, but as +fast as they get it, so they spend it, or faster and the result is +that they will never be rich." But when he had said this it is related +that the golden cup broke into pieces where it stood. Then Cormac +said, "The explanation thou hast given of this mystery is not true." +Mananan smiled, and said, "Nevertheless it must suffice thee, O King, +for the truth of this matter may not be known, lest the men of art +give over the roofing of the house and it be covered with common +thatch." + +So when they had talked their fill, Cormac and his wife and children +were brought to a chamber where they lay down to sleep. But when they +woke up on the morrow morn, they found themselves in the Queen's +chamber in the royal palace of Tara, and by Cormac's side were found +the bell-branch and the magical cup and the cloth of gold that had +covered the table where they sat in the palace of Mananan. Seven +months it was since Cormac had gone out from Tara to search for his +wife and children, but it seemed to him that he had been absent but +for the space of a single day and night. + + +IX + +DESCRIPTION OF CORMAC[33] + + [33] The original from the BOOK OF BALLYMOTE (14th century) is + given in O'Curry's MS. MATERIALS OF IRISH HISTORY, Appendix + xxvi. I have in the main followed O'Curry's translation. + +"A noble and illustrious king assumed the sovranty and rule of Erinn, +namely Cormac, grandson of Conn of the Hundred Battles. The world was +full of all goodness in his time; there were fruit and fatness of the +land, and abundant produce of the sea, with peace and ease and +happiness. There were no killings or plunderings in his time, but +everyone occupied his land in happiness. + +"The nobles of Ireland assembled to drink the Banquet of Tara with +Cormac at a certain time.... Magnificently did Cormac come to this +great Assembly; for no man, his equal in beauty, had preceded him, +excepting Conary Mór or Conor son of Caffa, or Angus Óg son of the +Dagda.[34] Splendid, indeed, was Cormac's appearance in that Assembly. +His hair was slightly curled, and of golden colour; a scarlet shield +he had, with engraved devices, and golden bosses and ridges of silver. +A wide-folding purple cloak was on him with a gem-set gold brooch over +his breast; a golden torque round his neck; a white-collared shirt +embroidered with gold was on him; a girdle with golden buckles and +studded with precious stones was around him; two golden net-work +sandals with golden buckles upon his feet; two spears with golden +sockets and many red bronze rivets in his hand; while he stood in the +full glow of beauty, without defect or blemish. You would think it was +a shower of pearls that was set in his mouth, his lips were rubies, +his symmetrical body was as white as snow, his cheek was ruddy as the +berry of the mountain-ash, his eyes were like the sloe, his brows and +eye-lashes were like the sheen of a blue-black lance." + + [34] Angus Óg was really a deity or fairy king. He appears also + in the story of Midir and Etain. _q.v._ + + +X + +THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF CORMAC + +Strange was the birth and childhood of Cormac strange his life and +strange the manner of his death and burial, as we now have to narrate. + +Cormac, it is said, was the third man in Ireland who heard of the +Christian Faith before the coming of Patrick. One was Conor mac Nessa, +King of Ulster, whose druid told him of the crucifixion of Christ and +who died of that knowledge.[35] The second was the wise judge, Morann, +and the third Cormac, son of Art. This knowledge was revealed to him +by divine illumination, and thenceforth he refused to consult the +druids or to worship the images which they made as emblems of the +Immortal Ones. + + [35] See the conclusion of the _Vengeance of Mesgedra_. + +One day it happened that Cormac after he had laid down the kingship of +Ireland, was present when the druids and a concourse of people were +worshipping the great golden image which was set up in the plain +called Moy Slaught. When the ceremony was done, the chief druid, whose +name was Moylann, spoke to Cormac and said: "Why, O Cormac, didst thou +not bow down and adore the golden image of the god like the rest of +the people?" + +And Cormac said: "Never will I worship a stock[36] that my own +carpenter has made. Rather would I worship the man that made it, for +he is nobler than the work of his hands." + + [36] The image was doubtless of wood overlaid with gold. + +Then it is told that Moylann by magic art caused the image to move and +leap before the eyes of Cormac. "Seest thou that?" said Moylann. + +"Although I see," said Cormac, "I will do no worship save to the God +of Heaven and Earth and Hell." + +Then Cormac went to his own home at Sletty on the Boyne, for there he +lived after he had given up the kingdom to his son Cairbry. But the +druids of Erinn came together and consulted over this matter, and they +determined solemnly to curse Cormac and invoke the vengeance of their +gods upon him lest the people should think that any man could despise +and reject their gods, and suffer no ill for it. + +So they cursed Cormac in his flesh and bones, in his waking and +sleeping, in his down sitting and his uprising, and each day they +turned over the Wishing Stone upon the altar of their god,[37] and +wove mighty spells against his life. And whether it was that these +took effect, or that the druids prevailed upon some traitorous servant +of Cormac's to work their will, so it was that he died not long +thereafter; and some say that he was choked by a fish bone as he sat +at meat in his house at Sletty on the Boyne. + + [37] There are still Wishing Stones, which are used in + connexion with petitions for good or ill, on the ancient altars + of Inishmurray and of Caher Island, and possibly other places + on the west coast of Ireland. + +But when he felt his end approaching, and had still the power to +speak, he said to those that gathered round his bed:--"When I am gone +I charge you that ye bury me not at Brugh of the Boyne where is the +royal cemetery of the Kings of Erinn.[38] For all these kings paid +adoration to gods of wood or stone, or to the Sun and the Elements, +whose signs are carved on the walls of their tombs, but I have learned +to know the One God, immortal, invisible, by whom the earth and +heavens were made. Soon there will come into Erinn one from the East +who will declare Him unto us, and then wooden gods and cursing priests +shall plague us no longer in this land. Bury me then not at +Brugh-na-Boyna, but on the hither-side of Boyne, at Ross-na-ree, where +there is a sunny, eastward-sloping hill, there would I await the +coming of the sun of truth." + + [38] This famous cemetery of the kings of pagan Ireland lies on + the north bank of the Boyne and consists of a number of + sepulchral mounds, sometimes of great extent, containing, in + their interior, stone walled chambers decorated with symbolic + and ornamental carvings. The chief of these mounds, now known + as Newgrange, has been explored and described by Mr George + Coffey in his valuable work NEWGRANGE, published by the Royal + Irish Academy. _Brugh_=mansion. + +So spake Cormac, and he died, and there was a very great mourning for +him in the land. But when the time came for his burial, the princes +and lords of the Gael vowed that he should lie in Brugh with Art, his +father, and Conn of the Hundred Battles, and many another king, in the +great stone chambers of the royal dead. For Ross-na-ree, they said, is +but a green hill of no note; and Cormac's expectation of the message +of the new God they took to be but the wanderings of a dying man. + +Now Brugh-na-Boyna lay at the farther side of the Boyne from Sletty, +and near by was a shallow ford where the river could be crossed. But +when the funeral train came down to the ford, bearing aloft the body +of the King, lo! the river had risen as though a tempest had burst +upon it at its far-off sources in the hills, and between them and the +farther bank was now a broad and foaming flood, and the stakes that +marked the ford were washed clean away. Even so they made trial of the +ford, and thrice the bearers waded in and thrice they were forced to +turn back lest the flood should sweep them down. At length six of the +tallest and mightiest of the warriors of the High King took up the +bier upon their shoulders, and strode in. And first the watchers on +the bank saw the brown water swirl about their knees, and then they +sank thigh-deep, and at last it foamed against their shoulders, yet +still they braced themselves against the current, moving forward very +slowly as they found foothold among the slippery rocks in the +river-bed. But when they had almost reached the mid-stream it seemed +as if a great surge overwhelmed them, and caught the bier from their +shoulders as they plunged and clutched around it, and they must needs +make back for the shore as best they could, while Boyne swept down the +body of Cormac to the sea. + +On the following morning, however, shepherds driving their flocks to +pasture on the hillside of Ross-na-ree found cast upon the shore the +body of an aged man of noble countenance, half wrapped in a silken +pall; and knowing not who this might be they dug a grave in the grassy +hill, and there laid the stranger, and laid the green sods over him +again. + +There still sleeps Cormac the King, and neither Ogham-lettered stone +nor sculptured cross marks his solitary grave. But he lies in the +place where he would be, of which a poet of the Gael in our day has +written:-- + + "A tranquil spot: a hopeful sound + Comes from the ever-youthful stream, + And still on daisied mead and mound + The dawn delays with tenderer beam. + + "Round Cormac, spring renews her buds: + In march perpetual by his side + Down come the earth-fresh April floods, + And up the sea-fresh salmon glide; + + "And life and time rejoicing run + From age to age their wonted way; + But still he waits the risen sun, + For still 'tis only dawning day."[39] + + [39] These lines are taken from Sir S. Ferguson's noble poem, + _The Burial of King Cormac_, from which I have also borrowed + some of the details of the foregoing narrative. + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Notes on the Sources + + +_The Story of the Children of Lir_ and _The Quest of the Sons of +Turenn_ are two of the three famous and popular tales entitled "The +Three Sorrows of Storytelling." The third is the _Tragedy of the Sons +of Usna_, rendered by Miss Eleanor Hull in her volume CUCHULAIN. I +have taken the two stories which are given here from the versions in +modern Irish published by the Society for the Preservation of the +Irish Language, with notes and translation. Neither of them is found +in any very early MS., but their subject-matter certainly goes back to +very primitive times. + + +_The Secret of Labra_ is taken from Keating's FORUS FEASA AR EIRINN, +edited with translation by the Rev. P.S. Dineen for the Irish Texts +Society, vol. i. p. 172. + + +_The Carving of mac Datho's Boar_. This is a clean, fierce, fighting +story, notable both for its intensely dramatic _dénouement_, and for +the complete absence from it of the magical or supernatural element +which is so common a feature in Gaelic tales. It has been edited and +translated from one MS. by Dr Kuno Meyer, in _Hibernica Minora_ +(ANECDOTA OXONIENSIA), 1894, and translated from THE BOOK OF LEINSTER +(twelfth century) in Leahy's HEROIC ROMANCES. + + +_The Vengeance of Mesgedra_. This story, as I have given it, is a +combination of two tales, _The Siege of Howth_ and _The Death of King +Conor_. The second really completes the first, though they are not +found united in Irish literature. Both pieces are given in O'Curry's +MS. MATERIALS OF IRISH HISTORY, and Miss Hull has printed translations +of them in her CUCHULLIN SAGA, the translation of the _Siege_ being by +Dr Whitly Stokes and that of the _Death of Conor_ by O'Curry. These +are very ancient tales and contain a strong barbaric element. Versions +of both of them are found in the great MS. collection known as the +BOOK OF LEINSTER (twelfth century). + + +_King Iubdan and King Fergus_ is a brilliant piece of fairy +literature. The imaginative grace, the humour, and, at the close, the +tragic dignity of this tale make it worthy of being much more widely +known than it has yet become. The original, taken from one of the +Egerton MSS. in the British Museum, will be found with a translation +in O'Grady's SILVA GADELICA. For the conclusion, I have in the main +followed another version (containing the death of Fergus only), given +in the SEANCUS MOR and finely versified by Sir Samuel Ferguson in his +POEMS, 1880. + + +_The Story of Etain and Midir_. This beautiful and very ancient +romance is extant in two distinct versions, both of which are +translated by Mr A.H. Leahy in his HEROIC ROMANCES. The tale is found +in several MSS., among others, in the twelfth century BOOK OF THE DUN +COW (LEABHAR NA H-UIDHRE). It has been recently made the subject of a +dramatic poem by "Fiona Macleod." + + +_How Ethne quitted Fairyland_ is taken from D'Arbois de Jubainville's +CYCLE MYTHOLOGIQUE IRLANDAIS, ch. xii. 4. The original is to be found +in the fifteenth century MS., entitled THE BOOK OF FERMOY. + + +_The Boyhood of Finn_ is based chiefly on the MACGNIOMHARTHA FHINN, +published in 1856, with a translation, in the _TRANSACTIONS OF THE +OSSIANIC SOCIETY_, vol. iv. I am also indebted, particularly for the +translation of the difficult _Song of Finn in Praise of May_, to Dr +Kuno Meyer's translation published in _Ériu_ (the Journal of the +School of Irish Learning), vol. i. pt. 2. + + +_The Coming of Finn_, _Finns Chief Men_, the _Tale of Vivionn_ and +_The Chase of the Gilla Dacar_, are all handfuls from that rich mine +of Gaelic literature, Mr Standish Hayes O'Grady's SILVA GADELICA. In +the _Gilla Dacar_ I have modified the second half of the story rather +freely. It appears to have been originally an example of a well-known +class of folk-tales dealing with the subject of the Rescue of +Fairyland. The same motive occurs in the famous tale called _The +Sickbed of Cuchulain_. The idea is that some fairy potentate, whose +realm is invaded and oppressed, entices a mortal champion to come to +his aid and rewards him with magical gifts. But the eighteenth +century narrator whose MS. was edited by Mr S.H. O'Grady, apparently +had not the clue to the real meaning of his material, and after going +on brilliantly up to the point where Dermot plunges into the magic +well, he becomes incoherent, and the rest of the tale is merely a +string of episodes having no particular connexion with each other or +with the central theme. The latter I have here endeavoured to restore +to view. The _Gilla Dacar_ is given from another Gaelic version by Dr +P.W. Joyce in his invaluable book, OLD CELTIC ROMANCES. + + +_The Birth of Oisín_ I have found in Patrick Kennedy's LEGENDARY +FICTIONS OF THE IRISH CELTS. I do not know the Gaelic original. + + +_Oisín in the Land of Youth_ is based, as regards the outlines of this +remarkable story, on the LAOI OISÍN AR TIR NA N-ÓG, written by Michael +Comyn about 1750, and edited with a translation by Thomas Flannery in +1896 (Gill & Son, Dublin). Comyn's poem was almost certainly based on +earlier traditional sources, either oral or written or both, but these +have not hitherto been discovered. + + +_The History of King Cormac_. The story of the birth of Cormac and his +coming into his kingdom is to be found in SILVA GADELICA, where it is +edited from THE BOOK OF BALLYMOTE, an MS. dating from about the year +1400. + +The charming tale, of his marriage with Ethne ni Dunlaing is taken +from Keating's FORUS FEASA. From this source also I have taken the +tales of the Brehon Flahari, of Kiernit and the mill, and of Cormac's +death and burial. The _Instructions of Cormac_ have been edited and +translated by Dr Kuno Meyer in the Todd Lecture Series of the Royal +Irish Academy, xiv., April 1909. They are found in numerous MSS., and +their date is fixed by Dr Meyer about the ninth century. With some +other Irish matter of the same description they constitute, says Mr +Alfred Nutt, "the oldest body of gnomic wisdom" extant in any European +vernacular. (_FOLK-LORE_, Sept. 30, 1909.) + +The story of Cormac's adventures in Fairyland has been published with +a translation by Standish Hayes O'Grady in the _TRANSACTIONS OF THE +OSSIANIC SOCIETY_, vol. iii., and is also given very fully by d'Arbois +de Jubainvilie in his CYCLE MYTHOLOGIQUE IRLANDAIS. The tale is found, +among other MSS., in the BOOK OF BALLYMOTE, but is known to have been +extant at least as early as the tenth century, since in that year it +figures in a list of Gaelic tales drawn up by the historian Tierna. + +The ingenious story of the _Judgment concerning Cormac's Sword_ is +found in the BOOK OF BALLYMOTE, and is printed with a translation by +Dr Whitly Stokes in _IRISCHE TEXTE_, iii. Serie, 7 Heft, 1891. + + + + +Pronouncing Index + + +The correct pronunciation of Gaelic proper names can only be learned +from the living voice. It cannot be accurately represented by any +combination of letters from the English alphabet. I have spared the +reader as much trouble as possible on this score by simplifying, as +far as I could, the forms of the names occurring in the text, and if +the reader will note the following general rules, he will get quite as +near to the pronunciation intended as there is any necessity for him +to do. A few names which might present some unusual difficulty are +given with their approximate English pronunciations in the Index. + +The chief rule to observe is that vowels are pronounced as in the +Continental languages, not according to the custom peculiar to +England. Thus _a_ is like _a_ in _father_, never like _a_ in _fate, +I_(when long) is like _ee_, _u_ like _oo_, or like _u_ in _put_ (never +like _u_ in _tune_). An accent implies length, thus _Dún_, a fortress +or mansion, is pronounced _Doon_. The letters _ch_ are never to be +pronounced with a _t_ sound, as in the word _chip_, but like a rough +_h_ or a softened _k_, rather as in German. _Gh_ is silent as in +English, and _g_ is always hard, as in _give_. _C_ is always as _k_, +never as _s_. + +In the following Index an accent placed after a syllable indicates +that the stress is to be laid on that syllable. Only those words are +given, the pronunciation of which is not easily ascertainable by +attention to the foregoing rules. + + + + +INDEX + +Æda is to be pronounced Ee'-da. +Ailill " Al'-yill. +Anluan " An'-looan. +Aoife " Ee'-fa. +Bacarach " Bac'-ara_h_. +Belachgowran " Bel'-a_h_-gow'-ran. +Cearnach " Kar'-na_h_. +Cuchulain " Coo-_h_oo'-lin. +Cumhal " Coo'wal, Cool. +Dacar " Dak'-ker. +Derryvaragh " Derry-var'-a. + +Eisirt " Eye'sert. +Eochy " Yeo'_h_ee. + +Fiachra " Fee'-a_k_ra. +Fianna " Fee'-anna. +Finegas " Fin'-egas. +Fionnuala " Fee-on-oo'-ala, shortened in modern Irish + into Fino'-la. + +Flahari " Fla'-haree. + +Iorroway " Yor'-oway. +Iubdan " Youb'-dan. +Iuchar " You'-_h_ar. +Iucharba " You-_h_ar'-ba. + +Liagan " Lee'-agan. +Lir " Leer. +Logary " Lo'-garee. + +Maev " rhyming to _wave_. +Mananan " Man'-anan. +Mesgedra " Mes-ged'-ra. +Midir " Mid'-eer. +Mochaen " Mo-_hain'. +Mochaovóg " Mo-_h_wee'-vogue. +Moonremur " Moon'-ray-mur. + +Oisín " Ush'-een (Ossian). + +Peisear " Pye'-sar. + +Sceolaun " Ske-o'-lawn (the _e_ very short). +Slievenamuck " Sleeve-na-muck'. +Slievenamon " Sleeve-na-mon'. + +Tuish " Too'-ish. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14749 *** |