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diff --git a/5092-0.txt b/5092-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bb4b5d --- /dev/null +++ b/5092-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4276 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming of Cuculain, by Standish O’Grady + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Coming of Cuculain + +Author: Standish O’Grady + + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5092] +This file was first posted on April 24, 2002 +Last Updated: November 17, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMING OF CUCULAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +THE COMING OF CUCULAIN + +By Standish O’grady + + +Author of + +“THE TRIUMPH AND PASSING OF CUCULAIN” + +“IN THE GATES OF THE NORTH” + +“THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE” + +ETC. + + + + + +PREFACE + +There are three great cycles of Gaelic literature. The first treats +of the gods; the second of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster and their +contemporaries; the third is the so-called Ossianic. Of the Ossianic, +Finn is the chief character; of the Red Branch cycle, Cuculain, the hero +of our tale. + +Cuculain and his friends are historical characters, seen as it were +through mists of love and wonder, whom men could not forget, but for +centuries continued to celebrate in countless songs and stories. +They were not literary phantoms, but actual existences; imaginary and +fictitious characters, mere creatures of idle fancy, do not live and +flourish so in the world’s memory. And as to the gigantic stature and +superhuman prowess and achievements of those antique heroes, it must not +be forgotten that all art magnifies, as if in obedience to some strong +law; and so, even in our own times, Grattan, where he stands in artistic +bronze, is twice as great as the real Grattan thundering in the Senate. +I will therefore ask the reader, remembering the large manner of the +antique literature from which our tale is drawn, to forget for a +while that there is such a thing as scientific history, to give his +imagination a holiday, and follow with kindly interest the singular +story of the boyhood of Cuculain, “battle-prop of the valour and torch +of the chivalry of the Ultonians.” + +I have endeavoured so to tell the story as to give a general idea of +the cycle, and of primitive heroic Irish life as reflected in that +literature, laying the cycle, so far as accessible, under contribution +to furnish forth the tale. Within a short compass I would bring before +swift modern readers the more striking aspects of a literature so vast +and archaic as to repel all but students. + + + + +STANDISH O’GRADY -- A TRIBUTE BY A. E. + + +In this age we read so much that we lay too great a burden on the +imagination. It is unable to create images which are the spiritual +equivalent of the words on the printed page, and reading becomes for too +many an occupation of the eye rather than of the mind. How rarely--out +of the multitude of volumes a man reads in his lifetime--can he remember +where or when he read any particular book, or with any vividness recall +the mood it evoked in him. When I close my eyes, and brood in memory +over the books which most profoundly affected me, I find none excited my +imagination more than Standish O’Grady’s epical narrative of Cuculain. +Whitman said of his Leaves of Grass, “Camerado, this is no book: who +touches this touches a man” and O’Grady might have boasted of his Bardic +History of Ireland, written with his whole being, that there was more +than a man in it, there was the soul of a people, its noblest and most +exalted life symbolised in the story of one heroic character. + +With reference to Ireland, I was at the time I read like many others who +were bereaved of the history of their race. I was as a man who, through +some accident, had lost memory of his past, who could recall no more +than a few months of new life, and could not say to what songs his +cradle had been rocked, what mother had nursed him, who were the +playmates of childhood or by what woods and streams he had wandered. +When I read O’Grady I was as such a man who suddenly feels ancient +memories rushing at him, and knows he was born in a royal house, that he +had mixed with the mighty of heaven and earth and had the very noblest +for his companions. It was the memory of race which rose up within me as +I read, and I felt exalted as one who learns he is among the children +of kings. That is what O’Grady did for me and for others who were my +contemporaries, and I welcome these reprints of his tales in the hope +that he will go on magically recreating for generations yet unborn the +ancestral life of their race in Ireland. For many centuries the youth +of Ireland as it grew up was made aware of the life of bygone ages, and +there were always some who remade themselves in the heroic mould before +they passed on. The sentiment engendered by the Gaelic literature was an +arcane presence, though unconscious of itself, in those who for the +past hundred years had learned another speech. In O’Grady’s writings the +submerged river of national culture rose up again, a shining torrent, +and I realised as I bathed in that stream, that the greatest spiritual +evil one nation could inflict on another was to cut off from it the +story of the national soul. For not all music can be played upon any +instrument, and human nature for most of us is like a harp on which can +be rendered the music written for the harp but not that written for the +violin. The harp strings quiver for the harp-player alone, and he who +can utter his passion through the violin is silent before an unfamiliar +instrument. That is why the Irish have rarely been deeply stirred by +English literature though it is one of the great literatures of the +world. Our history was different and the evolutionary product was a +peculiarity of character, and the strings of our being vibrate most in +ecstasy when the music evokes ancestral moods or embodies emotions akin +to these. I am not going to argue the comparative worth of the Gaelic +and English tradition. All I can say is that the traditions of our own +country move us more than the traditions of any other. Even if there was +not essential greatness in them we would love them for the same reasons +which bring back so many exiles to revisit the haunts of childhood. But +there was essential greatness in that neglected bardic literature which +O’Grady was the first to reveal in a noble manner. He had the spirit +of an ancient epic poet. He is a comrade of Homer, his birth delayed +in time perhaps that he might renew for a sophisticated people the +elemental simplicity and hardihood men had when the world was young +and manhood was prized more than any of its parts, more than thought +or beauty or feeling. He has created for us or rediscovered one figure +which looms in the imagination as a high comrade of Hector, Achilles, +Ulysses, Rama or Yudisthira, as great in spirit as any. Who could extol +enough his Cuculain, that incarnation of Gaelic chivalry, the fire and +gentleness, the beauty and heroic ardour or the imaginative splendour +of the episodes in his retelling of the ancient story. There are writers +who bewitch us by a magical use of words, whose lines glitter like +jewels, whose effects are gained by an elaborate art and who deal with +the subtlest emotions. Others again are simple as an Egyptian image and +yet are more impressive and you remember them less for the sentence than +for a grandiose effect. They are not so much concerned with the art of +words as with the creation of great images informed with magnificence of +spirit. They are not lesser artists but greater, for there is a greater +art in the simplification of form in the statue of Memnon than there +is in the intricate detail of a bronze by Benvenuto Cellini. Standish +O’Grady had in his best moments that epic wholeness and simplicity, and +the figure of Cuculain amid his companions of the Red Branch which he +discovered and refashioned for us is I think the greatest spiritual gift +any Irishman for centuries has given to Ireland. + +I know it will be said that this is a scientific age, the world is so +full of necessitous life that it is waste of time for young Ireland to +brood upon tales of legendary heroes, who fought with enchanters, who +harnessed wild fairy horses to magic chariots and who talked with +the ancient gods, and that it would be much better for youth to be +scientific and practical. Do not believe it, dear Irish boy, dear Irish +girl. I know as well as any the economic needs of our people. They must +not be overlooked, but keep still in your hearts some desires which +might enter Paradise. Keep in your souls some images of magnificence +so that hereafter the halls of heaven and the divine folk may not seem +altogether alien to the spirit. These legends have passed the test +of generations for century after century, and they were treasured +and passed on to those who followed, and that was because there was +something in them akin to the immortal spirit. Humanity cannot carry +with it through time the memory of all its deeds and imaginations, and +it burdens itself only in a new era with what was highest among the +imaginations of the ancestors. What is essentially noble is never out of +date. The figures carved by Phidias for the Parthenon still shine by the +side of the greatest modern sculpture. There has been no evolution of +the human form to a greater beauty than the ancient Greeks saw and the +forms they carved are not strange to us, and if this is true of the +outward form it is true of the indwelling spirit. What is essentially +noble is contemporary with all that is splendid to-day, and, until the +mass of men are equal in spirit, the great figures of the past will +affect us less as memories than as prophecies of the Golden Age to which +youth is ever hurrying in its heart. + +O’Grady in his stories of the Red Branch rescued from the past what was +contemporary to the best in us to-day, and he was equal in his gifts +as a writer to the greatest of his bardic predecessors in Ireland. His +sentences are charged with a heroic energy, and, when he is telling a +great tale, their rise and fall are like the flashing and falling of +the bright sword of some great champion in battle, or the onset and +withdrawal of Atlantic surges. He can at need be beautifully tender +and quiet. Who that has read his tale of the young Finn and the Seven +Ancients will forget the weeping of Finn over the kindness of the +famine-stricken old men, and their wonder at his weeping and the +self-forgetful pathos of their meditation unconscious that it was their +own sacrifice called forth the tears of Finn. “Youth,” they said, “has +many sorrows that cold age cannot comprehend.” + +There are critics repelled by the abounding energy in O’Grady’s +sentences. It is easy to point to faults due to excess and abundance, +but how rare in literature is that heroic energy and power. There is +something arcane and elemental in it, a quality that the most careful +stylist cannot attain, however he uses the file, however subtle he is. +O’Grady has noticed this power in the ancient bards and we find it in +his own writing. It ran all through the Bardic History, the Critical +and Philosophical History, and through the political books, “The Tory +Democracy” and “All Ireland.” There is this imaginative energy in the +tale of Cuculain, in all its episodes, the slaying of the hound, the +capture of the Laity Macha, the hunting of the enchanted deer, the +capture of the wild swans, the fight at the ford and the awakening of +the Red Branch. In the later tale of Red Hugh which he calls “The Flight +of the Eagle” there is the same quality of power joined with a shining +simplicity in the narrative which rises into a poetic ecstacy in that +wonderful chapter where Red Hugh, escaping from the Pale, rides through +the Mountain Gates of Ulster, and sees high above him Slieve Mullion, +a mountain of the Gods, the birthplace of legend “more mythic than +Avernus” and O’Grady evokes for us and his hero the legendary past, and +the great hill seems to be like Mount Sinai, thronged with immortals, +and it lives and speaks to the fugitive boy, “the last great secular +champion of the Gael,” and inspires him for the fulfilment of his +destiny. We might say of Red Hugh and indeed of all O’Grady’s heroes +that they are the spiritual progeny of Cuculain. From Red Hugh down to +the boys who have such enchanting adventures in “Lost on Du Corrig” and +“The Chain of Gold” they have all a natural and hardy purity of mind, +a beautiful simplicity of character, and one can imagine them all in an +hour of need, being faithful to any trust like the darling of the Red +Branch. These shining lads never grew up amid books. They are as much +children of nature as the Lucy of Wordsworth’s poetry. It might be said +of them as the poet of the Kalevala sang of himself, + + “Winds and waters my instructors.” + +These were O’Grady’s own earliest companions and no man can find better +comrades than earth, water, air and sun. I imagine O’Grady’s own +youth was not so very different from the youth of Red Hugh before his +captivity; that he lived on the wild and rocky western coast, that he +rowed in coracles, explored the caves, spoke much with hardy natural +people, fishermen and workers on the land, primitive folk, simple in +speech, but with that fundamental depth men have who are much in nature +in companionship with the elements, the elder brothers of humanity: it +must have been out of such a boyhood and such intimacies with natural +and unsophisticated people that there came to him the understanding of +the heroes of the Red Branch. How pallid, beside the ruddy chivalry +who pass huge and fleet and bright through O’Grady’s pages, appear +Tennyson’s bloodless Knights of the Round Table, fabricated in the study +to be read in the drawing-room, as anaemic as Burne Jones’ lifeless men +in armour. The heroes of ancient Irish legend reincarnated in the mind +of a man who could breathe into them the fire of life, caught from sun +and wind, their ancient deities, and send them, forth to the world to +do greater deeds, to act through many men and speak through many voices. +What sorcery was in the Irish mind that it has taken so many years to +win but a little recognition for this splendid spirit; and that others +who came after him, who diluted the pure fiery wine of romance he gave +us with literary water, should be as well known or more widely read. For +my own part I can only point back to him and say whatever is Irish in me +he kindled to life, and I am humble when I read his epic tale, feeling +how much greater a thing it is for the soul of a writer to have been the +habitation of a demigod than to have had the subtlest intellections. + +We praise the man who rushes into a burning mansion and brings out its +greatest treasure. So ought we to praise this man who rescued from the +perishing Gaelic tradition its darling hero and restored him to us, +and I think now that Cuculain will not perish, and he will be invisibly +present at many a council of youth, and he will be the daring which +lifts the will beyond itself and fires it for great causes, and he will +also be the courtesy which shall overcome the enemy that nothing else +may overcome. + +I am sure that Standish O’Grady would rather I should speak of his work +and its bearing on the spiritual life of Ireland, than about himself, +and, because I think so, in this reverie I have followed no set plan but +have let my thoughts run as they will. But I would not have any to think +that this man was only a writer, or that he could have had the heroes +of the past for spiritual companions, without himself being inspired to +fight dragons and wizardy. I have sometimes regretted that contemporary +politics drew O’Grady away from the work he began so greatly. I have +said to myself he might have given us an Oscar, a Diarmuid or a Caoilte, +an equal comrade to Cuculain, but he could not, being lit up by the +spirit of his hero, be merely the bard and not the fighter, and no man +in Ireland intervened in the affairs of his country with a superior +nobility of aim. He was the last champion of the Irish aristocracy and +still more the voice of conscience for them, and he spoke to them of +their duty to the nation as one might imagine some fearless prophet +speaking to a council of degenerate princes. When the aristocracy failed +Ireland he bade them farewell, and wrote the epitaph of their class in +words whose scorn we almost forget because of their sounding melody +and beauty. He turned his mind to the problems of democracy and more +especially of those workers who are trapped in the city, and he pointed +out for them the way of escape and how they might renew life in the +green fields close to Earth, their ancient mother and nurse. He used +too exalted a language for those to whom he spoke to understand, and it +might seem that all these vehement appeals had failed but that we know +that what is fine never really fails. When a man is in advance of his +age, a generation unborn when he speaks, is born in due time and finds +in him its inspiration. O’Grady may have failed in his appeal to the +aristocracy of his own time but he may yet create an aristocracy of +character and intellect in Ireland. The political and social writings +will remain to uplift and inspire and to remind us that the man who +wrote the stories of heroes had a bravery of his own and a wisdom of his +own. I owe so much to Standish O’Grady that I would like to leave it on +record that it was he who made me conscious and proud of my country, and +recalled my mind, that might have wandered otherwise over too wide and +vague a field of thought, to think of the earth under my feet and the +children of our common mother. There hangs in the Municipal Gallery of +Dublin the portrait of a man with brooding eyes, and scrawled on the +canvas is the subject of his bitter meditation, “The Lost Land.” I hope +that O’Grady will find before he goes back to Tir-na-noge that Ireland +has found again through him what seemed lost for ever, the law of its +own being, and its memories which go back to the beginning of the world. + + + + + + +THE COMING OF CUCULAIN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE RED BRANCH + + + “There were giants in the earth in those days, the same + were mighty men which were of yore men of renown.” + + +The Red Branch feasted one night in their great hall at Emain Macha. +So vast was the hall that a man, such as men are now, standing in +the centre and shouting his loudest, would not be heard at the +circumference, yet the low laughter of the King sitting at one end was +clearly audible to those who sat around the Champion at the other. The +sons of Dithorba made it, giants of the elder time, labouring there +under the brazen shoutings of Macha and the roar of her sounding thongs. +Its length was a mile and nine furlongs and a cubit. With her brooch pin +she ploughed its outline upon the plain, and its breadth was not much +less. Trees such as the earth nourished then upheld the massy roof +beneath which feasted that heroic brood, the great-hearted children of +Rury, huge offspring of the gods and giants of the dawn of time. For +mighty exceedingly were these men. At the noise of them running to +battle all Ireland shook, and the illimitable Lir [Footnote: Lir was the +sea-god, the Oceanns of the Celt; no doubt the same as the British Lear, +the wild, white-headed old king, who had such singular daughters; two, +monsters of cruelty, and one, exquisitely sweet, kind, and serene, viz.: +Storm, Hurricane, and Calm.] trembled in his watery halls; the roar of +their brazen chariots reverberated from the solid canopy of heaven, and +their war-steeds drank rivers dry. + +A vast murmur rose from the assembly, for like distant thunder or the +far-off murmuring of agitated waters was the continuous hum of their +blended conversation and laughter, while, ever and anon, cleaving the +many-tongued confusion, uprose friendly voices, clearer and stronger +than battle-trumpets, when one hero challenged another to drink, wishing +him victory and success, and his words rang round the hollow dome. +Innumerable candles, tall as spears, illuminated the scene. The eyes +of the heroes sparkled, and their faces, white and ruddy, beamed with +festal mirth and mutual affection. Their yellow hair shone. Their +banqueting attire, white and scarlet, glowed against the outer gloom. +Their round brooches and mantle-pins of gold, or silver, or golden +bronze, their drinking vessels and instruments of festivity, flashed and +glittered in the light. They rejoiced in their glory and their might, +and in the inviolable amity in which they were knit together, a host +of comrades, a knot of heroic valour and affection which no strength or +cunning, and no power, seen or unseen, could ever relax or untie. + +At one extremity of the vast hall, upon a raised seat, sat their young +king, Concobar Mac Nessa, slender, handsome, and upright. A canopy +of bronze, round as the bent sling of the Sun-god, the long-handed, +far-shooting son of Ethlend, [Footnote: This was the god Lu Lam-fada, +i.e., Lu, the Long-Handed. The rainbow was his sling. Remember that +the rod sling, familiar enough now to Irish boys, was the weapon of the +ancient Irish, and not the sling which is made of two cords.] encircled +his head. At his right hand lay a staff of silver. Far away at the other +end of the hall, on a raised seat, sat the Champion Fergus Mac Roy, +like a colossus. The stars and clouds of night were round his head and +shoulders seen through the wide and high entrance of the dun, whose +doors no man had ever seen closed and barred. Aloft, suspended from the +dim rafters, hung the naked forms of great men clear against the dark +dome, having the cords of their slaughter around their necks and their +white limbs splashed with blood. Kings were they who had murmured +against the sovereignty of the Red Branch. Through the wide doorway +out of the night flew a huge bird, black and grey, unseen, and soaring +upwards sat upon the rafters, its eyes like burning fire. It was +the Mor-Reega, [Footnote: There were three war goddesses:--(1) Badb +(pronounced Byve); (2) Macha, already referred to; (3) The Mor-Rigu +or Mor-Reega, who was the greatest of the three.] or Great Queen, the +far-striding terrible daughter of Iarnmas (Iron-Death). Her voice was +like the shouting of ten thousand men. Dear to her were these heroes. +More she rejoiced in them feasting than in the battle-prowess of the +rest. + +When supper was ended their bard, in his singing robes and girt around +the temples with a golden fillet, stood up and sang. He sang how once a +king of the Ultonians, having plunged into the sea-depths, there slew a +monster which had wrought much havoc amongst fishers and seafaring men. +The heroes attended to his song, leaning forward with bright eyes. They +applauded the song and the singer, and praised the valour of the heroic +man [Footnote: This was Fergus Mac Leda, Fergus, son of Leda, one of the +more ancient kings of Ulster. His contest with the sea-monster is the +theme of a heroic tale.] who had done that deed. Then the champion +struck the table with his clenched hand, and addressed the assembly. +Wrath and sorrow were in his voice. It resembled the brool of lions +heard afar by seafaring men upon some savage shore on a still night. + +“Famous deeds,” he said, “are not wrought now amongst the Red Branch. +I think we are all become women. I grow weary of these huntings in the +morning and mimic exercises of war, and this training of steeds and +careering of brazen chariots stained never with aught but dust and mire, +and these unearned feastings at night and vain applause of the brave +deeds of our forefathers. Come now, let us make an end of this. Let us +conquer Banba [Footnote: One of Ireland’s many names.] wholly in all her +green borders, and let the realms of Lir, which sustain no foot of +man, be the limit of our sovereignty. Let us gather the tributes of all +Ireland, after many battles and much warlike toil. Then more sweetly +shall we drink while the bards chaunt our own prowess. Once I knew a +coward who boasted endlessly about his forefathers, and at last my anger +rose, and with a flat hand I slew him in the middle of his speech, and +paid no eric, for he was nothing. We have the blood of heroes in our +veins, and we sit here nightly boasting about them; about Rury, whose +name we bear, being all his children; and Macha the warrioress, who +brought hither bound the sons of Dithorba and made them rear this mighty +dun; and Combat son of Fiontann; and my namesake Fergus,[Footnote: This +was the king already referred to who slew the sea-monster. The monster +had left upon him that mark and memorial of the struggle.] whose crooked +mouth was no dishonour, and the rest of our hero sires; and we consume +the rents and tributes of Ulster which they by their prowess conquered +to us, and which flow hither in abundance from every corner of the +province. Valiant men, too, will one day come hither and slay us as I +slew that boaster, and here in Emain Macha their bards will praise them. +Then in the halls of the dead shall we say to our sires, ‘All that you +got for us by your blood and your sweat that have we lost, and the glory +of the Red Branch is at an end.’” + +That speech was pleasing to the Red Branch, and they cried out that +Fergus Mac Roy had spoken well. Then all at once, on a sudden impulse, +they sang the battle-song of the Ultonians, and shouted for the war +so that the building quaked and rocked, and in the hall of the weapons +there was a clangour of falling shields, and men died that night for +extreme dread, so mightily shouted the Ultonians around their king and +around Fergus. When the echoes and reverberations of that shout ceased +to sound in the vaulted roof and in the far recesses and galleries, then +there arose somewhere upon the night a clear chorus of treble voices, +singing, too, the war-chant of the Ultonians, as when rising out of the +clangour of brazen instruments of music there shrills forth the clear +sound of fifes. For the immature scions of the Red Branch, boys and +tender youths, awakened out of slumber, heard them, and from remote +dormitories responded to their sires, and they cried aloud together and +shouted. The trees of Ulster shed their early leaves and buds at that +shout, and birds fell dead from the branches. + +Concobar struck the brazen canopy with his silver rod. The smitten brass +rang like a bell, and the Ultonians in silence hearkened for the words +of their clear-voiced king. + +“No ruler of men,” he said, “however masterful and imperious, could +withstand this torrent of martial ardour which rolls to-night through +the souls of the children of Rury, still less I, newly come to this high +throne, having been but as it were yesterday your comrade and equal, +till Fergus, to my grief, resigned the sovereignty, and caused me, a +boy, to be made king of Ulla and captain of the Red Branch. But now +I say, ere we consider what province or territory shall first see the +embattled Red Branch cross her borders, let us enquire of Cathvah the +Ard-Druid, whether the omens be propitious, and whether through his art +he is able to reveal to us some rite to be performed or prohibition to +be observed.” + +That proposal was not pleasing to Fergus, but it pleased the Red Branch, +and they praised the wisdom of their king. + +Then Cathvah the Ard-Druid [Footnote: High Druid, or Chief Druid. +Similarly we have Ard-Ri or High King.] spake. + +“It hath been foretold,” he said, “long since, that the Ultonians shall +win glory such as never was and never will be, and that their fame shall +endure till the world’s end. But, first, there are prophecies to be +accomplished and predictions to be fulfilled. For ere these things may +be there shall come a child to Emain Macha, attended by clear portents +from the gods; through him shall arise our deathless fame. Also it hath +been foretold that there shall be great divisions and fratricidal strife +amongst the children of Rury, a storm of war which shall strip the Red +Branch nigh bare.” + +Fergus was wroth at this, and spoke words of scorn concerning the +diviner, and concerning all omens, prohibitions, and prophecies. +Concobar, too, and all the Red Branch, rebuked the prophet. Yet he stood +against them like a rock warred on by winds which stand immovable, let +them rage as they will, and refused to take back his words. Then said +Concobar: + +“Many are the prophecies which came wandering down upon the mouths +of men, but they are not all to be trusted alike. Of those which have +passed thy lips, O Cathvah, we utterly reject the last, and think the +less of thee for having reported it. But the former which concerns the +child of promise hath been ever held a sure prophecy, and as such passed +down through all the diviners from the time of Amargin, the son of +Milesius, who first prophesied for the Gael. And now being arch-king of +the Ultonians, I command thee to divine for us when the coming of the +child shall be.” + +Then Cathvah, the Ard-Druid, put on his divining apparel and took his +divining instruments in his hands, and made his symbols of power upon +the air. And at first he was silent, and, being in a trance, stared out +before him with wide eyes full of wonder and amazement, directing +his gaze to the east. In the end he cried out with a loud voice, and +prophesying, sang this lay: + + “Yea, he is coming. He draweth nigh. + Verily It is he whom I behold-- + The predicted one--the child of many prophecies-- + Chief flower of the Branch that is over all-- + The mainstay of Emaiti Macha--the battle-prop of the Ultonians-- + The torch of the valour and chivalry of the North-- + The star that is to shine for ever upon the forehead of the Gael. + It is he who slumbers upon Slieve Fuad-- + The child who is like a star-- + Like a star upon Slieve Fuad. + There is a light around him never kindled at the hearth of Lu, + The Grey of Macha keeps watch and ward for him, + + [Footnote: Madia’s celebrated grey war-steed. The meaning + of the allusion will be understood presently.] + + And the whole mountain is filled with the Tuatha de Danan.” + + [Footnote: These were the gods of the pagan Irish. + Tuatha=nations, De=gods, Danan=of Dana. So it means + the god nations sprung from Dana also called Ana. She + is referred to in an ancient Irish Dictionary as Mater + deorurn Hibernensium.] + +Then his vision passed from the Druid, he raised up his long white hands +and gave thanks to the high gods of Erin that he had lived to see this +day. + +When Cathvah had made an end of speaking there was a great silence in +the hall. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BOYS OF THE ULTONIANS + + “And dear the school-boy spot + We ne’er forget though there we are forgot.” + + BYRON. + + + “There were his young barbarians all at play.” + + BYRON. + + +In the morning Fergus Mac Roy said to the young king, “What shall we do +this day, O Concobar? Shall we lead forth our sweet-voiced hounds into +the woods and rouse the wild boar from his lair, and chase the swift +deer, or shall we drive afar in our chariots and visit one of our +subject kings and take his tribute as hospitality, which, according to +thee, wise youth, is the best, for it is agreeable to ourselves and not +displeasing to the man that is tributary.” + +“Nay,” said Concobar, “let us wait and watch this day. Hast thou +forgotten the words of Cathvah?” + +“Truly, in a manner I had,” said Fergus, “for I never much regarded, the +race of seers, or deemed the birds more than pleasant songsters, and the +stars as a fair spectacle, or druidic instruments aught but toys.” + +“Let us play at chess on the lawn of the dun,” said the king, “while our +boys exercise themselves at hurling on the green.” + +“It is agreeable to me,” said Fergus, “though well thou knowest, dear +foster-son, that I am not thy match at the game.” + +What the champion said was true, for in royal wisdom the king far +excelled his foster-father, and that was the reason why Fergus had +abdicated the supreme captainship of the Red Branch in favour of +Concobar, for though his heart was great his understanding was not fine +and acute like the understanding of his foster-son. + +The table was set for them upon the lawn before the great painted and +glowing palace, and three-footed stools were put on either side of that +table, and bright cloths flung over them. A knight to whom that was a +duty brought forth and unfolded a chess-board of ivory on which silver +squares alternated with gold, cunningly wrought by some ancient cerd, +[Footnote: Craftsman.] a chief jewel of the realm; another bore in his +hand the man-bag, also a wonder, glistening, made of netted wires of +findruiney, [Footnote: A bright yellow bronze, the secret of making +which is now lost. The metal may be seen in our museums. In beauty it +is superior to gold. ] and took therefrom the men and disposed them +in their respective places on the board, each in the centre of his own +square. The gold men were on the squares of silver, and the silver on +the squares of gold. The table was set under the shadowing branches of +a great tree, for it was early summer and the sun shone in his strength. +So Concobar and Fergus, lightly laughing, affectionate and mirthful, the +challenger and the challenged, came forth through the wide doorway of +the dun. Armed youths went with them. The right arm of Fergus was cast +lightly over the shoulder of Concobar, and his ear was inclined to him +as the young king talked, for their mutual affection was very great and +like that of a great boy and a small boy when such, as often happens, +become attached to one another. So Concobar and Fergus sat down to +play, though right seldom did the Champion win any game from the King. +Concobar beckoned to him one of the young knights. It was Conall Carna, +[Footnote: Conall the Victorious. He came second to Cuculain amongst the +Red Branch Knights. He is the theme of many heroic stories. Once in a +duel he broke the right arm of his opponent. He bade his seconds tie up +his own corresponding arm.] son of Amargin, youngest of the knights of +Concobar. “Son of Amargin,” said the king, “do thou watch over the boys +this day in their pastimes. See that nothing is done unseemly or unjust. +Observe narrowly the behaviour and disposition of the lads, and report +all things clearly to me on the morrow.” + +So saying, he moved one of the pieces on the board, and Conall +Carna strode away southwards to where the boys were already dividing +themselves into two parties for a match at hurling. + +That son of Amargin was the handsomest youth of all the province. White +and ruddy was his beardless countenance. Bright as gold which boils over +the edge of the refiner’s crucible was his hair, which fell curling upon +his broad shoulders and over the circumference of his shield, outshining +its splendour. By his side hung a short sword with a handle of +walrus-tooth; in his left hand he bore two spears tipped with glittering +bronze. Fergus and Concobar watched him as he strode over the grass; +Concobar noted his beauty and grace, but Fergus noted his great +strength. Soon the boys, being divided into two equal bands, began their +pastime and contended, eagerly urging the ball to and fro. The noise +of the stricken ball and the clash of the hurles shod with bronze, the +cries of the captains, and the shouting of the boys, filled all the air. + +That good knight stood midway between the goals, eastward from the +players. Ever and anon with a loud clear voice he reproved the youths, +and they hearkening took his rebukes in silence and obeyed his words. +Cathvah came forth that day upon the lawn, and thus spoke one of the +boys to another in some pause of the game, “Yonder, see! the Ard-Druid +of the Province. Wherefore comes he forth from his druidic chambers +to-day at this hour, such not being his wont?” And the other answered +lightly, laughing, and with boyish heedlessness, “I know not wherefore; +but well he knows himself.” And therewith ran to meet the ball which +passed that way. There was yet a third who watched the boys. He stood +afar off on the edge of the plain. He had a little shield strapped on +his back, two javelins in one hand, and a hurle in the other. He was +very young and fair. He stood looking fixedly at the hurlers, and as he +looked he wept. It was the child who had been promised to the Ultonians. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +DETHCAEN’S NURSLING + + + “Very small and beautiful like a star.” + + --HOMER. + + + “I love all that thou lovest, + Spirit of delight; + The fresh earth in new leaves drest, + And the blessed night; + Starry evening and the morn, + When the golden mists are born.” + + SHELLEY. + + +Sualtam of Dun Dalgan on the Eastern Sea, took to wife Dectera, daughter +of Factna the Righteous. She was sister of Concobar Mac Nessa. Sualtam +was the King of Cooalney [Footnote: Now the barony of Cooley, a +mountainous promontory which the County of Louth projects into the Irish +Sea.] a land of woods and mountains, an unproductive headland reaching +out into the Ictian Sea. + +Dectera bare a son to Sualtam, and they called him Setanta, That was his +first name. His nurse was Dethcaen, the druidess, daughter of Cathvah +the druid, the mighty wizard and prophet of the Crave Rue. His +breast-plate [Footnote: A poetic spell or incantation. So even the +Christian hymn of St. Patrick was called the lorica or breastplate of +Patrick.] of power, woven of druidic verse, was upon Ulla [Footnote: +Ulla is the Gaelic root of Ulster.] in his time, upon all the children +of Rury in their going out and their coming in, in war and in peace. +Dethcaen [Footnote: Dethcaen is compounded of two words which mean +respectively, colour, and slender.] sang her own songs of protection +for the child. His mother gave the child suck, but the rosy-cheeked, +beautiful, sweetly-speaking daughter of Cathvah nursed him. On her +breast and knee she bare him with great love. Light of foot and +slender was Dethcaen; through the wide dun of Sualtam she went with +her nursling, singing songs. She it was that discovered his first ges, +[Footnote: Ges was the Irish equivalent of the tabu.] namely, that no +one should awake him while he slept. He had others, sacred prohibitions +which it was unlawful to transgress, but this was discovered by +Dethcaen. She discovered it while he was yet a babe. With her own hands +Dethcaen washed his garments and bathed his tiny limbs; lightly and +cheerfully she sprang from her couch at night when she heard his voice, +and raised him from the cradle and wrapped him tenderly, and put him +into the hands of his mother. She watched him when he slumbered; there +was great stillness in the palace of Sualtam when the child slept. She +repeated for him many tales and taught him nothing base. When he was +three years old, men came with hounds to hunt the stream which ran past +Dun Dalgan. [Footnote: Now Dundalk, capital of the County of Louth.] +Early in the morning Setanta heard the baying of the hounds and the +shouting of the men. They were hunting a great water-dog which had +his abode in this stream. Setanta leaped from his couch and ran to the +river. Well he knew that stream and all its pools and shallows; he knew +where the water-dog had his den. Thither by circuit he ran and stood +before the month of the same, having a stone in either hand. The hunted +water-dog drew nigh. Maddened with fear and rage he gnashed his teeth +and growled, and then charged at the child. There, O Setanta, with the +stroke of one stone thou didst slay the water-dog! The dog was carried +in procession with songs to the dun of Sualtam, who that night gave a +great feast and called many to rejoice with him, because his only son +had done bravely. A prophet who was there said, “Thou shalt do many +feats in thy time, O Setanta, and the last will resemble the first.” + +Setanta played along the sand and by the frothing waves of the sea-shore +under the dun. He had a ball and an ashen hurle shod with bronze; +joyfully he used to drive his ball along the hard sand, shouting among +his small playmates. The captain of the guard gave him a sheaf of toy +javelins and taught him how to cast, and made for him a sword of lath +and a painted shield. They made for him a high chair. In the great hall +of the dun, when supper was served, he used to sit beside the champion +of that small realm, at the south end of the table over against +the king. Ever as evening drew on and the candles were lit, and the +instruments of festivity and the armour and trophies on the walls and +pillars shone in the cheerful light, and the people of Sualtam sat down +rejoicing, there too duly appeared Setanta over against his father by +the side of the champion, very fair and pure, yellow-haired, in his +scarlet bratta fastened with a little brooch of silver, serene and grave +beyond his years, shining there like a very bright star on the edge of a +thunder-cloud, so that men often smiled to see them together. + +While Sualtam and his people feasted, the harper harped and trained +singers sang. Every day the floor was strewn with fresh rushes or dried +moss or leaves. Every night at a certain hour the bed-makers went round +spreading couches for the people of Sualtam. Sometimes the king slept +with his people in the great hall. Then one warrior sat awake through +the night at his pillow having his sword drawn, and another warrior sat +at his feet having his sword drawn. The fire-place was in the midst of +the hall. In winter a slave appointed for that purpose from time to time +during the night laid on fresh logs. Rude plenty never failed in the dun +of Sualtam. In such wise were royal households ordered in the age of +the heroes. For the palace, it was of timber staunched with clay and was +roofed with rushes. Without it was white with lime, conspicuous afar +to mariners sailing in the Muirnict. [Footnote: The Irish Sea or St. +George’s Channel. Muirnict means the Ictian Sea.] There was a rampart +round the dun and a moat spanned by a drawbridge. Before it there was +a spacious lawn. Down that lawn there ever ran a stream of sparkling +water. Setanta sailed his boats in the stream and taught it here to be +silent, and there to hum in rapids, or to apparel itself in silver and +sing liquid notes, or to blow its little trumpet from small cataracts. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SETANTA RUNS AWAY + + + “For a boy’s way is the wind’s way.” + + --LONGFELLOW + + +And now the daily life of that remote dun no longer pleased the boy, for +the war-spirit within drave him on. Moreover he longed for comrades and +playfellows, for his fearful mother permitted him no longer to associate +with children of that rude realm whose conversation and behaviour she +misliked for her child. She loved him greatly and perceived not how he +changed, or how the new years in their coming and their going both gave +and took away continually. + +In summer the boy sat often with the chief bard under the thatched eaves +of the dun, while the crying swallows above came and went, asking many +questions concerning his forefathers back the ascending line up to Rury, +and again downwards through the ramifications of that mighty stem, and +concerning famous marches and forays, and battles and single combats, +and who was worthy and lived and died well, and who not. More than all +else he delighted to hear about Fergus Mac Roy, who seemed to him the +greatest and best of all the Red Branch. In winter, cradled in strong +arms, he listened to the reminiscences and conversation of the men of +war as they sat and talked round the blazing logs in the hall, while the +light flickered upon warlike faces, and those who drew drink went round +bearing mead and ale. + +Upon his seventh birthday early in the morning he ran to his mother and +cried, “Mother, send me now to Emain Macha, to my uncle.” + +Dectera grew pale when she heard that word and her knees smote together +with loving fear. For answer she withdrew him from the society of the +men and kept him by herself in the women’s quarter, which was called +grianan. The grianan was in the north end of the palace behind the +king’s throne. In the hall men could see above them the rafters which +upheld the roof and the joining of the great central pillar with the +same. From the upper storey of the grianan a door opened upon the great +hall directly above the throne of the king, and before that door was a +railed gallery. + +Thence it was the custom of Dectera to supervise in the morning the +labours of the household thralls and at night to rebuke unseemly +revelry, and at the fit hour to command silence and sleep. Thence too +in the evening, ere he went to his small couch, Setanta would cry out +“good-night” and “good slumber” to his friends in the hall, who laughed +much amongst themselves for the secret of his immurement was not hid. +Moreover, Dectera gave straight commandment to her women, at peril of +her displeasure and of sore bodily chastisement, that they should not +speak to him any word concerning Emain Macha. The boy as yet knew not +where lay the wondrous city, whether in heaven or on earth or beyond +the sea. To him it was still as it were a fairy city or in the land of +dreams. + +One day he saw afar upon the plain long lines of lowing kine and +of laden garrans wending north-westward. He questioned his mother +concerning that sight. She answered, “It is the high King’s tribute +out of Murthemney.” [Footnote: A territory conterminous with the modern +County of Louth.] + +“Mother,” he said, “how runs the road hence to the great city?” + +“That thou shalt not know,” said his mother, looking narrowly on the +boy. + +But still the strong spirit from within, irresistible, urged on the lad. +One day while his mother conversed with him, inadvertently she uttered +certain words, and he knew that the road to Emain Macha went past the +mountain of Slieve Fuad. [Footnote: Now the Fews mountain lying on the +direct way between Dundalk and Armagh.] That night he dreamed of Emain +Macha, and he rose up early in the morning and clambered on to the roof +of the palace through a window and gazed long upon the mountain. The +next night too he dreamed of Emain Macha, and heard voices which were +unintelligible, and again the third night he heard the voices and +one voice said, “This our labour is vain, let him alone. He is some +changeling and not of the blood of Rury. He will be a grazier, I think, +and buy cattle and sell them for a profit.” And the other said, “Nay, +let us not leave him yet. Remember how valiantly he faced the fierce +water-dog and slew him at one cast.” When he climbed to the roof, as his +manner was, to gaze at the mountain, he thought that Slieve Fuad nodded +to him and beckoned. He broke fast with his mother and the women that +day and ate and drank silently with bright eyes, and when that meal was +ended he donned his best attire and took his toy weapons and a new ball +and his ashen hurle shod with red bronze. + +“Wherefore this holiday attire?” said his mother. + +“Because I shall see great people ere I put it off,” he answered. + +She kissed him and he went forth as at other times to play upon the +lawn by himself. The king sat upon a stone seat hard by the door of the +grianan. Under the eaves he sat sunning himself and gazing upon the sea. +The boy kneeled and kissed his hand. His father stroked his head and +said, “Win victory and blessings, dear Setanta.” He looked at the lad as +if he would speak further, but restrained himself and leaned back again +in his seat. + +Dectera sat in the window of the upper chamber amongst her women. They +sat around her sewing and embroidering. She herself was embroidering a +new mantle for the boy against his next birthday, though that indeed was +far away, but ever while her hands wrought her eyes were on the lawn. + +“Mother,” cried Setanta, “watch this stroke.” + +He flung his ball into the air and as it fell met it with his hurle, +leaning back and putting his whole force into the blow, and struck it +into the clouds. It was long before the ball fell. It fell at his feet. + +“Mother,” he cried again, “watch this stroke.” + +He went to the east mearing of the spacious lawn and struck the ball +to the west. It traversed the great lawn ere it touched the earth and +bounded shining above the trees. Truly it was a marvellous stroke for +one so young. As he went for his ball the boy stood still before the +window. “Give me thy blessing, dear mother,” he said. + +“Win victory and blessing for ever, O Setanta,” she answered. “Truly +thou art an expert hurler.” + +“These feats,” he replied, “are nothing to what I shall yet do in +needlework, O mother, when I am of age to be trusted with my first +needle, and knighted by thy hands, and enrolled amongst the valiant +company of thy sewing-women.” + +“What meaneth the boy?” said his mother, for she perceived that he spoke +awry. + +“That his childhood is over, O Dectera,” answered one of her women, “and +that thou art living in the past and in dreams. For who can hold back +Time in his career?” + +The queen’s heart leaped when she heard that word, and the blood forsook +her face. She bent down her head over her work and her tears fell. +After a space she looked out again upon the lawn to see if the boy had +returned, but he had not. + +She bade her women go and fetch him, and afterwards the whole household. +They called aloud, “Setanta, Setanta,” but there was no answer, only +silence and the watching and mocking trees and a sound like low laughter +in the leaves; for Setanta was far away. + +The boy came out of that forest on the west side. Soon he struck the +great road which from Ath-a-clia [Footnote: Ath-a-cliah, i.e., the +Ford of the Hurdles. It was the Irish name for Dublin.] ran through +Murthemney to Emain Macha, and saw before him the purple mountain of +Slieve Fuad. In his left hand was his sheaf of toy javelins; in his +right the hurle; his little shield was strapped upon his back. The boy +went swiftly, for there was power upon him that day, and with his ashen +hurle shod with red bronze ever urged his ball forward. So he went +driving, his ball before him. At other times he would cast a javelin +far out westward and pursue its flight. Ever as he went there ever flew +beside him a grey-necked crow. “It is a good omen,” said the boy, for he +knew that the bird was sacred to the Mor-Reega. + +He was amazed at his own speed and the elasticity of his limbs. Once +when he rose after having gathered his thrown javelin, a man stood +beside him who had the port and countenance of some ancient hero, and +whose attire was strange. He was taller and nobler than any living man. +He bore a rod-sling in his right hand, and in his left, in a leash of +bronze, he led a hound. The hound was like white fire. Setanta could +hardly look in that man’s face, but he did. The man smiled and said-- + +“Whither away, my son?” + +“To Emain Macha, to my uncle Concobar,” said the boy. + +“Dost thou know me, Setanta?” said the man. + +“I think thou art Lu Lam-fada Mac Ethlend,” [Footnote: Lu the +Long-Handed son of Ethlenn. This mysterious being, being one of the +deities of the pagan Irish, seems to have been the Sun-god.] answered +Setanta. + +“I am thy friend,” said the man, “fear nothing, for I shall be with thee +always.” + +Then the man and the hound disappeared as if they had been resolved +into the rays of the sun; Setanta saw nothing, only the grey-necked crow +starting for flight. Then a second man in a wide blue mantle specked +with white like flying foam came against him and flung his mantle over +Setanta. There was a sound in his ears like the roaring of the sea. +[Footnote: This man was Mananan son of Lir. He was the Sea-god.] +Chariots and horses came from the east after that. Setanta recognised +those who urged on the steeds, they were his own people. “Surely,” he +said, “I shall be taken now.” The men drave past him. “If I mistake +not,” he said, “the man who flung his mantle over me was Mananan the son +of Lir.” + +Divers persons, noble and ignoble, passed him on the way, some riding in +chariots, some going on foot. They went as though they saw him not. + +In the evening he came to Slieve Fuad. He gathered a bed of dried moss +and heaped moss upon his shield for a pillow. He wrapped himself in his +mantle, and lay down to sleep, and felt neither cold nor hunger. While +he slept a great steed, a stallion, grey to whiteness, came close to +him, and walked all round him, and smelt him, and stayed by him till the +morning. + +Setanta was awaked by the loud singing of the birds. Light of heart the +boy started from his mossy couch and wondered at that tuneful chorus. +The dawning day trembled through the trees still half-bare, for it was +the month of May. + +“Horses have been here in the night,” said the boy, “one horse. What +mighty hoof marks!” He wondered the more seeing how the marks encircled +him. “I too will one day have a chariot and horses, and a deft +charioteer.” He stood musing, “Is it the grey of Macha? [Footnote: The +goddess Macha, already referred to, had a horse which was called the +Grey of Macha--Liath-Macha. He was said to be still alive dwelling +invisibly in Erin.] They say that he haunts this mountain.” He hastened +to the brook, and finding a deep pool, bathed in the clear pure water +and dried himself in his woollen bratta [Footnote: The Gaelic word for +mantle.] of divers colours. Very happy and joyous was Setanta that day. +And he spread out the bratta to dry, and put on his shirt of fine linen +and his woollen tunic that reached to the knees in many plaits. Shoes he +had none; bare and naked were his swift feet. + +“This is the mountain of Fuad the son of Brogan,” [Footnote: An ancient +Milesian hero. Brogan was uncle of Milesius.] said he. “I would I +knew where lies his cairn in this great forest that I might pay my +stone-tribute to the hero.” Soon he found it and laid his stone upon the +heap. He climbed to the hill’s brow and looked westward and saw far away +the white shining duns of the marvellous city from which, even now, the +morning smoke went up into the windless air. He trembled, and rejoiced, +and wept. He stood a long time there gazing at Emain Macha. Descending, +he struck again the great road, but he went slowly; he cast not his +javelins and drave not his ball. Again, from a rising ground he saw +Emain Macha, this time near at hand. He remained there a long time +filled with awe and fear. He covered his head with his mantle and wept +aloud, and said he would return to Dun Dalgan, that he dared not set +unworthy feet in that holy place. + +Then he heard the cheerful voices of the boys as they brake from the +royal palace and ran down the wide smooth lawn to the hurling-ground. +His heart yearned for their companionship, yet he feared greatly, and +his mind misgave him as to the manner in which they would receive him. +He longed to go to them and say, “I am little Setanta, and my uncle is +the king, and I would be your friend and playfellow.” Hope and love and +fear confused his mind. Yet it came to him that he was urged forwards, +by whom he knew not. Reluctantly, with many pausings, he drew nigh to +the players and stood solitary on the edge of the lawn southwards, for +the company that held that barrier were the weaker. He hoped that some +one would call to him and welcome him, but none called or welcomed. +Silently the child wept, and the front of his mantle was steeped in his +tears. Some looked at him, but with looks of cold surprise, as though +they said, “Who is this stranger boy and what doth he here? Would that +he took himself away out of this and went elsewhere.” The boy thought +that he would be welcomed and made much of because he was a king’s son +and nephew of the high King of Ulla, and on account of his skill in +hurling, and because he himself longed so exceedingly for companions and +comrades, and because there were within him such fountains of affection +and loving kindness. And many a time happy visions had passed before +his eyes awake or asleep of the meeting between himself and his future +comrades, but the event itself when it happened was by no means what he +had anticipated. For no one kissed him and bade him welcome or took him +by the right hand and led him in, and no one seemed glad of his coming +and he was here of no account at all. Bitter truly was thy weeping, dear +Setanta. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE NEW BOY + + +“I to surrender, to fling away this! So owned by God and Man! so +witnessed to! I had rather be rolled into my grave and buried with +infamy.”--Battle-chaunt of a hero of the Saxons. + +Once, struck sideways out of the press, the ball bounded into a clear +space not far from Setanta. “Thou of the Javelins,” cried the captain +of the distressed party, “the ball is with thee.” He roared mightily at +Setanta. On a sudden Setanta, filled with all the glow and ardour of the +mimic battle, cast his javelins to the ground, slipped the strap of his +shield over his head, flung the shield beside his javelins on the grass +and pursued the bounding ball. He out-ran the rest and took possession +of the ball. Now to the right he urged it, now to the left. He played it +deftly before every opponent who sought to check his career, and swiftly +and cunningly carried it past each of these, and finally with a clear +loud stroke sent it straight as a sling-bolt through the middle of the +north goal. The boys of his adopted party shouted, and they praised his +playing and that final victorious stroke. Setanta went back after that +and stood by himself near the south goal. His face was flushed and his +eyes sparkled, and he himself trembled with joy, yet was he not in the +least exhausted or out of breath. + +The captain of the northern company came down with his boys and all the +boys who were chief in authority, and they surrounded Setanta and said, +“Thou art here a stranger and on sufferance. We know thee not, but thou +art a good hurler and not otherwise, as we think, unmeet to bear us +company. Receive now our protection, and we will divide the sides again +with a new division and continue the game, for thou art very swift and +truly expert in the use of thy hurle.” + +The boys regulated all things according to the laws and customs of their +elders. And everywhere it was the custom that the weak should accept +the protection of the strong and submit themselves to their command. +So slaves received masters, so runaways and fugitives got to themselves +lords, and sheltered themselves under their protection and paid dues. +Setanta’s brow fell, and he answered, “Put not upon me, I pray you, +these hard terms. I would be your friend and comrade, I cannot be your +subject being what I am.” + +And they said, “Who art thou?” + +And he answered, “I am the son of Dectera of Dun Dalgan, and nephew of +the king.” + +Then the boy who was captain of the whole school, and the biggest and +strongest, stood over him, and said-- + +“Thou, the king’s nephew! the son of Sualtam and Dectera of Dun Dalgan! +and comest hither without chariots and horsemen and a prince’s retinue +and guard. Nay, thou art a churl and a liar to boot, and hie thee hence +now with wings at thy heels or verily with sore blows I shall beat thee +off the lawn.” + +Thereat the blood forsook thy face, O Setanta, O peerless one, and thou +stoodest like a still figure carved out of white marble, with the pallor +of death in thy immortal face. But that other, indignant to see him +stand as one both deaf and dumb, and mistaking his pallor for fear, +raised his hurle and struck with all his might at the boy. Setanta +sprang back avoiding the blow, and ere the other could recover himself, +struck him back-handed over the right ear, whose knees were suddenly +relaxed and the useless weapon shaken from his hands. Then some stood +aside, but the rest ran upon Setanta to beat him off the lawn and struck +at him all together, as well as they could, for their numbers impeded +them, and fiercely the stranger defended himself, and many a shrewd +stroke he delivered upon his enemies, for the slumbering war-spirit now, +for the first time, had awaked in his gentle heart. Many times he was +overborne and flung to the ground, but again he arose overthrowing +others, never quitting hold of his hurle, and, whenever he got a free +space, grasping that weapon like a war-mace in both hands, he struck +down his foes. The skirts of his mantle were torn, only a rag remained +round his shoulders, fastened by the brooch; he was covered with blood, +his own and his enemies’, and his eyes were like burning fire. Then +Conall Carna being enraged ran towards the boys, meaning to rebuke +their cowardice and with his strong hands hurl them asunder and save the +stranger boy. There was not a knight in all Ireland those days who loved +battle-fairness better than Conall Carna. Truly he was the pure-burning +torch of the chivalry of the Ultonians in his time. But as he ran one +withheld him and a voice crying “Forbear” rang in his ears. Yet he saw +no man. He stood still, being astonished, and became aware that +this tumult was divinely guided, for as in a trance he saw and heard +marvellous things. For the war-steeds of the Ultonians neighed loudly +in their stables, and from the Tec Brac, the Speckled House of the Red +Branch, rose a clangour of brass, the roar of the shield called Ocean, +and the booming of the Gate-of-Battle, and the singing of swords long +silent, and the brazen thunder of the revolution of wheels; and he saw +strange forms and faces in the air, and the steady sun dancing in the +heavens, and a man standing beside the stranger whose face was like +the sun. The son of Amargin saw and heard all, for he was a seer and a +prophet no less than a warrior. But meantime his battle-fury descended +upon Setanta, his countenance was distraught and his strength was +multiplied tenfold, and the steam of his war-madness rose above him. He +staggered to no blow, but every boy whom he struck fell, and he charged +this way and that, and wherever he went they opened before him. Then +seeing how they closed in behind him and on each side, he beat his +way back to the grassy rampart in which was the goal, and, facing his +enemies, bade them come against him again in their troops, many against +one. “You have offered me your protection,” he said, “and I would not +endure it, but now I swear to you by all my gods that you and I do +not part this day till you have accepted my protection, or till I lie +without life on this lawn a trophy of your prowess and a monument of the +chivalry and hospitality of the Red Branch.” Then a boy stood out from +the rest. He was freckled, and with red hair, and his voice was loud and +fierce. + +“Thou shalt have a comrade in thy battle henceforward,” he said, +“O brave stranger. On the banks of the Nemnich, [Footnote: Now the +Nanny-Water, a beautiful stream running from Tara to the sea.] where it +springs beneath my father’s dun on the Hill of Gabra, nigh Tara, I met a +prophetess; Acaill is her name, the wisest of all women; and I asked +her who would be my life-friend. And she answered, ‘I see him standing +against a green wall at Emain Macha, at bay, with the blood and soil of +battle upon him, and alone he gives challenge to a multitude. He is thy +life-friend, O Laeg,’ she said, ‘and no man ever had a friend like him +or will till the end of time.’” + +So saying he ran to Setanta, and kneeling down he took him by his right +hand, and said, “I am thy man from this day forward.” And after that he +arose and kissed him, and standing by his side cried, “O Cumascra Mend +Macha, O stammering son of Concobar, if ever I was a shield to thee +against thy mockers, come hither; and thou too come O Art Storm-Ear, and +thou Art of the Shadow, and thou O Fionn of the Songs, and you O Ide and +Sheeling, who were nursed at the same breast and knee with myself.” So +he summoned to him his friends, and they came to him, and there came to +him, uninvited, the three sons of Fergus and others whose hearts were +stirred with shame or ruth. Yet, indeed, they were few compared with +the multitude of his enemies. Then for the first time the boy’s soul was +confused, and he cried aloud, and bowed his head between his hands, and +the hot tears gushed forth like rain from his eyes, mingled with blood. +Soon, hearing the loud mockery and derisive laughter of his enemies, he +hardened his heart and went out against them with these his friends, and +drove them over the whole course of the playing-ground, and, hard by +the north goal, he brake the battle upon them and they fled. Of the +fugitives some ran round the King and the Champion where they sat, +but Setanta running straight sprang lightly over the chess table. Then +Concobar, reaching forth his left hand, caught him by the wrist and +brought him to a stand, panting and with dilated eyes. + +“Why art thou so enraged?” said the King, “and why dost thou so maltreat +my boys?” + +It was a long time before the boy answered, so furiously burned the +battle-fire within him, so that the King repeated his question more than +once. At last he made answer-- + +“Because they have not treated me with the respect due a stranger.” + +“Who art thou thyself?” said the King. + +“I am Setanta, son of Sualtam and of Dectera thy own sister, and it is +not before my uncle’s palace that I should be dishonoured.” + +Concobar smiled, for he was well pleased with the appearance and +behaviour of the boy, but Fergus caught him up in his great arms and +kissed him, and he said-- + +“Dost thou know me, O Setanta?” + +“I think thou art Fergus Mac Roy,” he answered. + +“Wilt thou have me for thy tutor?” said Fergus. + +“Right gladly,” answered Setanta. “For in that hope too I left Dun +Dalgan, coming hither secretly without the knowledge of my parents.” + +This was the first martial exploit of Setanta, who is also called +Cuculain, and the reward of this his first battle was that the boys at +his uncle’s school elected him to be for their captain, and one and all +they put themselves under his protection. And a gentle captain made he +when the war-spirit went out of him, and a good play-fellow and comrade +was Setanta amongst his new friends. + +That night Setanta and Laeg slept in the same bed of healing after the +physicians had dressed their wounds; and they related many things to +each other, and oft times they kissed one another with great affection, +till sweet sleep made heavy their eyelids. + +So, impelled by the unseen, Setanta came to Emain Macha without the +knowledge of his parents, but in fulfilment of the law, for at a certain +age all the boys of the Ultonians should come thither to associate there +with their equals and superiors, and be instructed by appointed tutors +in the heroic arts of war and the beautiful arts of peace. Concobar Mac +Nessa was not only King of Ulster and captain of the Red Branch, but was +also the head and chief of a great school. In this school the boys did +not injure their eyesight and impair their health by poring over books; +nor were compelled to learn what they could not understand; nor were +instructed by persons whom they did not wish to resemble. They +were taught to hurl spears at a mark; to train war-horses and guide +war-chariots; to lay on with the sword and defend themselves with sword +and shield; to cast the hand-stone of the warrior--a great art in those +days; to run, to leap, and to swim; to rear tents of turf and branches +swiftly, and to roof them with sedge and rushes; to speak appropriately +with equals and superiors and inferiors, and to exhibit the beautiful +practices of hospitality according to the rank of guests, whether kings, +captains, warriors, bards or professional men, or unknown wayfarers; and +to play at chess and draughts, which were the chief social pastimes +of the age; and to drink and be merry in hall, but always without +intoxication; and to respect their plighted word and be ever loyal to +their captains; to reverence women, remembering always those who bore +them and suckled when they were themselves helpless and of no account; +to be kind to the feeble and unwarlike; and, in short, all that it +became brave men to feel and to think and to do in war and in peace. +Also there were those who taught them the history of their ancestors, +the great names of the Clanna Rury, and to distinguish between those who +had done well and those who had not done so well, and the few who had +done ill. And these their several instructors appointed by Concobar +Mac Nessa and the council of his wise men were famous captains of the +Ultonians, and approved bards and historians. And over all the high king +of Ulster, Concobar Mac Nessa, was chief and president, not in name +only but in fact, being well aware of all the instructors and all the +instructed, and who was doing well and exhibiting heroic traits, and who +was doing ill, tending downwards to the vast and slavish multitude whose +office was to labour and to serve and in no respect to bear rule, +which is for ever the office of the multitude in whose souls no god has +kindled the divine fire by which the lamp of the sun, and the candles +of the stars, and the glory and prosperity of nations are sustained and +fed. Such, and so supervised, was the Royal School of Emain Macha in the +days when Concobar Mac Nessa was King, and when Fergus Mac Roy Champion, +and when the son of Sualtam, not yet known by his rightful name, was a +pupil of the same and under tutors and governors like the rest, though +his fond mother would have evaded the law, for she loved him dearly, +and feared for him the rude companionship and the stern discipline, the +early rising and the strong labours of the great school. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE SMITH’S SUPPER PARTY + + + “Bearing on shoulders immense + Atlantean the weight, + Well nigh not to be borne, + Of the too vast orb of her fate.” + + MATTHEW ARNOLD. + + +One day, in the forenoon, a man came to Emain Macha. He was grim and +swarthy, with great hands and arms. He made no reverence to Concobar or +to any of the Ultonians, but standing stark before them, spake thus, not +fluently:--“My master, Culain, high smith of all Ulster, bids thee to +supper this night, O Concobar; and he wills thee to know that because +he has not wide territories, and flocks, and herds, and tribute-paying +peoples, only the implements of his industry, his anvils and hammers and +tongs, and the slender profits of his labour, he feareth to feast all +the Red Branch, who are by report mighty to eat and to drink; he would +not for all Ireland bring famine upon his own industrious youths, his +journeymen and his apprentices. Come therefore with a choice selection +of thy knights, choosing those who are not great eaters, and drinkers, +and you shall all have a fair welcome, a goodly supper, and a +proportionate quantity of drink.” That speech was a cause of great mirth +to the Ultonians; nevertheless they restrained their laughter, so that +the grim ambassador, who seemed withal to be a very angry man, saw +nothing but grave countenances. Concobar answered him courteously, +saying that he accepted the invitation, and that he would be mindful of +the smith’s wishes. When the man departed the Red Branch gave a loose +rein to their mirth, each man charging the other with being in especial +the person whose presence would be a cause of sorrow to the smith. + +Culain was a mighty craftsman in those days. It was he who used to make +weapons, armour, and chariots for the Ultonians, and there was never in +Ireland a better smith than he. In his huge and smoky dun the ringing of +hammers and the husky roar of the bellows seldom ceased; even at night +the red glare of his furnaces painted far and wide the barren moor +where he dwelt. Herdsmen and shepherds who, in quest of estrays, found +themselves unawares in this neighbourhood, fled away praying to their +gods, and, as they ran, murmured incantations. + +In the afternoon Concobar, having made as good a selection as he could +of his chief men, set forth to go. As they passed through the lawn he +saw Setanta playing with his comrades. He stopped for a while to look, +and then called the lad, who came at once and stood erect and silent +before the King. He was now full ten years of age, straight and +well-made and with sinews as hard as tempered steel. When he saw the +company looking at him, he blushed, and his blushing became him well. + +“Culain the smith,” said Concobar, “hath invited us to a feast. If it is +pleasing to thee, come too.” + +“It is pleasing indeed,” replied the boy, for he ardently desired to see +the famous artificer, his people, his furnaces, and his engines. “But +let me first, I pray thee, see this our game brought to an end, for the +boys await my return. After that I will follow quickly, nor can I lose +my way upon the moor, for the road hence to the smith’s dun is well +trodden and scored with wheels, and the sky too at night is red above +the city.” + +Concobar gave him permission, and Setanta hastened back to his +playmates, who hailed him gladly in his returning, for they feared that +the King might have taken him away from them. + +The King and his great men went away eastward after that and they +conversed eagerly by the way, talking sometimes of a certain recent +great rebellion of the non-Irian kings of Ulla, [Footnote: The Ultonians +were descended from Ir, son of Milesius.] and of each other’s prowess +and the prowess of the insurgents, and sometimes of the smith and his +strange and unusual invitation. + +“Say no word and do no thing,” said Concobar, “at which even a very +angry and suspicious man might take offence, for as to our host and his +artificers, their ways are not like ours, or their thoughts like our +thoughts, and they are a great and formidable people.” + +The Red Branch did not relish that speech, for they thought that +under the measureless canopy of the sky there were no people great or +formidable but themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SETANTA AND THE SMITH’S DOG + + + “How he fell + From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove + Sheer o’er the crystal battlements; from morn + To noon, from noon to dewy eve, + A Summer’s day, he fell; and with the setting sun + Dropped from the zenith like a falling star, + On Lemnos.” + + MILTON. + + +When Culain saw far away the tall figures of the Ultonians against the +sunset, and the flashing of their weapons and armour, he cried out with +a loud voice to his people to stop working and slack the furnaces +and make themselves ready to receive the Red Branch; and he bade the +household thralls prepare the supper, roast, boiled and stewed, which +he had previously ordered. Then he himself and his journeymen and +apprentices stripped themselves, and in huge keeves of water filled by +their slaves they washed from them the smoke and sweat of their labour +and put on clean clothes. The mirrors at which they dressed themselves +were the darkened waters of their enormous tubs. + +Culain sent a party of his men and those who were the best dressed +and the most comely and who were the boldest and most eloquent in the +presence of strangers, to meet the high King of the Ultonians on the +moor, but he himself stood huge in the great doorway just beyond the +threshold and in front of the bridge over which the Red Branch party was +to pass. He had on him over his clothes a clean leathern apron which was +not singed or scored. It was fastened at his shoulders and half covered +his enormous hairy chest, was girt again at his waist and descended +below his knees. He stood with one knee crooked, leaning upon a long +ash-handled sledge with a head of glittering bronze. There he gave a +friendly and grave welcome to the King and to all the knights one by +one. It was dusk when Concobar entered the dun. + +“Are all thy people arrived?” said the smith. + +“They are,” said Concobar. + +Culain bade his people raise the drawbridge which spanned the deep +black moat surrounding the city, and after that, with his own hands he +unchained his one dog. The dog was of great size and fierceness. It was +supposed that there was no man in Ireland whom he could not drag down. +He had no other good quality than that he was faithful to his master +and guarded his property vigilantly at night. He was quick of sight and +hearing and only slept in the daytime. Being let loose he sprang over +the moat and three times careered round the city, baying fearfully. +Then he stood stiffly on the edge of the moat to watch and listen, and +growled at intervals when he heard some noise far away. It was then +precisely that Setanta set forth from Emain Macha. Earth quaked to the +growling of that ill beast. + +In the meantime the smith went into the dun, and when he had commanded +his people to light the candles throughout the chamber, he slammed to +the vast folding doors with his right hand and his left, and drew forth +the massy bar from its place and shot it into the opposing cavity. There +was not a knight amongst the Red Branch who could shut one of those +doors, using both hands and his whole strength. Of the younger knights, +some started to their feet and laid their hands on their sword hilts +when they heard the bolt shot. + +The smith sat down on his high seat over against Concobar, with his +dusky sons and kinsmen around him, and truly they contrasted strangely +with the bravery and beauty of the Ultonians. He called for ale, and +holding in his hands a huge four-cornered mether of the same, rimmed +with silver and furnished with a double silver hand-grip, he pledged +the King and bade him and his a kindly welcome. He swore, too, that no +generation of the children of Rury, and he had wrought for many, had +done more credit to his workmanship than themselves, nor had he ever +made the appliances of war for any of the Gael with equal pleasure. +Concobar, on the other hand, responded discreetly, and praised +the smith-work of Culain, praising chiefly the shield called Ocean +[Footnote: Concobar’s shield. When Concobar was in danger the shield +roared. The sea, too, roared responsive.], which was one of the wonders +of the north-west of Europe. The smith and all his people were well +pleased at that speech, and Culain bade his thralls serve supper, which +proved to be a very noble repast. There was enough and to spare for +all the Ultonians. When supper was ended, the heroes and the artificers +pledged each other many times and drank also to the memory of famous men +of yore and their fathers who begat them, as was right and customary; +and they became very friendly and merry without intoxication, for +intoxication was not known in the age of the heroes. + +Then said Concobar: “We have this night toasted many heroes who are +gone, and, as it is not right that we should praise ourselves, I propose +that we drink now to the heroes that are coming, both those unborn, and +those who, still being boys, are under tutors and instructors; and for +this toast I name the name of my nephew Setanta, son of Sualtam, who, +if any, will one day, O Culain, if I mistake not, illustrate in an +unexampled manner thy skill as an artificer of weapons and armour.” + +“Is he then a boy of that promise, O Concobar?” said the smith, “for if +he is I am truly rejoiced to hear it.” + +“He is all that I say,” answered the King somewhat hotly, “and of a +beauty corresponding. And of that thou shalt be the judge to-night, for +he is coming, and indeed I am momentarily expecting to hear the loud +clamour of his brazen hurle upon the doors of the dun, after his having +leapt at one bound both thy moat and thy rampart.” + +The smith started from his high seat uttering a great oath, such as men +used then, and sternly chid Concobar because he had said that all his +people had arrived. “If the boy comes now,” he said, “ere I can chain +the dog, verily he will be torn into small pieces.” + +Just then they heard the baying of the dog sounding terribly in the +hollow night, and every face was blanched throughout the vast chamber. +Then without was heard a noise of trampling feet and short furious yells +and sibilant gaspings, as of one who exerts all his strength, after +which a dull sound at which the earth seemed to shake, mingled with a +noise of breaking bones, and after that silence. Ere the people in the +dun could do more than look at each other speechless, they heard a clear +but not clamorous knocking at the doors of the dun. Some of the smith’s +young men back-shot the bolt and opened the doors, and the boy Setanta +stepped in out of the night. He was very pale. His scarlet mantle was in +rags and trailing, and his linen tunic beneath and his white knees red +with blood, which ran down his legs and over his bare feet. He made a +reverence, as he had been taught, to the man of the house and to +his people, and went backwards to the upper end of the chamber. The +Ultonians ran to meet him, but Fergus Mac Roy was the first, and he took +Setanta upon his mighty shoulder and bore him along and set him down at +the table between himself and the King. + +“Did the dog come against thee?” said Culain. + +“Truly he came against me,” answered the boy. + +“And art thou hurt?” cried the smith. + +“No, indeed,” answered Setanta, “but I think he is.” + +At that moment a party of the smith’s people entered the dun bearing +between them the carcass of the dog from whose mouth and white crooked +fangs the blood was gushing in red torrents; and they showed Culain +how the skull of the dog and his ribs had been broken in pieces by some +mighty blow, and his backbone also in divers places. Also they said: +“One of the great brazen pillars which stand at the bridge head is bent +awry, and the clean bronze denied with blood, and it was at the foot of +that pillar we found the dog.” So saying, they laid the body upon the +heather in front of Culain’s high seat, that it might be full in his +eye, and when they did so and again sat down, there was a great silence +in the chamber. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SETANTA, THE PEACE-MAKER + + + “The swine-herd + [Footnote: One of the minor gods. He resembles Mars + Sylvanus of the Romans to whom swine were sacrificed.] + of Bove Derg, son of the Dagda, + The feasts to which he came used to end in blood.” + + GAELIC BARD. + + +Culain sat silent for a long time looking out before him with eyes like +iron, and when at last he spoke his voice was charged with wrath and +sorrow. + +“O Concobar,” he said, “and you, the rest, nobles of the children of +Rury. You are my guests to-night, wherefore it is not lawful that I +should take vengeance upon you for the killing of my brave and faithful +hound, who was a better keeper of my treasures than a company of hired +warriors. Truly he cost me nothing but his daily allowance of meat, and +there was not his equal as a watcher and warder in the world. An eric, +therefore, I must have. Consult now together concerning its amount and +let the eric be great and conspicuous, for, by Orchil [Footnote: The +queen of the infernal regions.] and all the gods who rule beneath the +earth, a small eric I will not accept.” + +Concobar answered straight, “Thou shalt not get from me or from the +Ultonians any eric, small or great. My nephew slew the beast in fair +fight, defending his life against an aggressor. But I will say something +else, proud smith, and little it recks me whether it is pleasing to thee +or not. Had thy wolf slain my nephew not one of you would have left this +dun alive, and of your famous city of artificers I would have made a +smoking heap.” + +The Ultonians fiercely applauded that speech, declaring that the smiths +should get no eric, great or small, for the death of their monster. The +smiths thereupon armed themselves with their hammers, and tongs, and +fire-poles, and great bars of unwrought brass, and Culain himself seized +an anvil withal to lay waste the ranks of the Red Branch. The Ultonians +on their side ran to the walls and plucked down their spears from the +pegs, and they raised their shields and balanced their long spears, +and swords flashed and screeched as they rushed to light out of the +scabbards, and the vast chamber glittered with shaking bronze and shone +with the eyeballs of angry men, and rang with shouts of defiance and +quick fierce words of command. For the Red Branch embattled themselves +on one side of the chamber and the smiths upon the other, burning with +unquenchable wrath, earth-born. The vast and high dome re-echoing rang +with the clear terrible cries of the Ultonians and the roar of the +children of the gloomy Orchil, and, far away, the magic shield moaned at +Emain Macha, and the waves of the ocean sent forth a cry, for the peril +of death and of shortness of life were around Concobar in that hour. +And, though the doors of thick oak, brass-bound, were shut and barred, +there came a man into the assembly, and he was not seen. He was red all +over, both flesh and raiment, as if he had been plunged in a bath of +blood. His countenance was distraught and his eyes like those of an +insane man, and sparks new from them like sparks from a smith’s stithy +when he mightily hammers iron plucked white from the furnace. Smoke +and fire came from his mouth. He held in his hand a long boar-yard. The +likeness of a boar bounded after him. He traversed the vast chamber with +the velocity of lightning, and with his boar-yard beat such as were +not already drunk with wrath and battle-fury, and shot insane fire into +their souls. [Footnote: This was the demon referred to in the lines at +the head of the chapter.] + +Then indeed it wanted little, not the space of time during which a man +might count ten, for the beginning of a murder grim and great as any +renowned in the world’s chronicles, and it is the opinion of the learned +that, in spite of all their valour and beautiful weapons, the artificers +would then and there have made a bloody end of the Red Branch had the +battle gone forward. But at this moment, ere the first missile was +hurled on either side, the boy Setanta sprang into the midst, into the +middle space which separated the enraged men, and cried aloud, with a +clear high voice that rang distinct above the tumult-- + +“O Culain, forbear to hurl, and restrain thy people, and you the +Ultonians, my kinsmen, delay to shoot. To thee, O chief smith, and thy +great-hearted artificers I will myself pay no unworthy eric for the +death of thy brave and faithful hound. For verily I will myself take thy +dog’s place, and nightly guard thy property, sleepless as he was, and I +will continue to do so till a hound as trusty and valiant as the hound +whom I slew is procured for thee to take his place, and to relieve me +of that duty. Truly I slew not thy hound in any wantonness of superior +strength, but only in the defence of my own life, which is not mine but +my King’s. Three times he leaped upon me with white fangs bared and eyes +red with murder, and three times I cast him off, but when the fourth +time he rushed upon me like a storm, and when with great difficulty I +had balked him on that occasion also, then I took him by the throat and +by his legs and flung him against one of the brazen pillars withal to +make him stupid. And truly it was not my intention to kill him and I am +sorry that he is dead, seeing that he was so faithful and so brave, and +so dear to thee whom I have always honoured, even when I was a child at +Dun Dalgan, and whom, with thy marvel-working craftsman, I have for +a long time eagerly desired to see. And I thought that our meeting, +whensoever it might be, would be other than this and more friendly.” + +As he went on speaking the fierce brows of the smith relaxed, and first +he regarded the lad with pity, being so young and fair, and then with +admiration for his bravery. Also he thought of his own boyish days, +and as he did so a torrent of kindly affection and love poured from his +breast towards the boy, yea, though he saw him standing before him with +the blood of his faithful hound gilding his linen lena and his white +limbs. Yet, indeed, it was not the hound’s blood which was on the boy, +but his own, so cruelly had the beast torn him with his long and strong +and sharp claws. + +“That proposal is pleasing to me,” he said, “and I will accept the eric, +which is distinguished and conspicuous and worthy of my greatness and of +my name and reputation amongst the Gael. Why should a man be angry for +ever when he who did the wrong offers due reparation?” Therewith over +his left shoulder he flung the mighty anvil into the dark end of the +vast chamber among the furnaces, at the sound of whose falling the +solid earth shook. On the other hand Concobar rejoiced at this happy +termination of the quarrel, for well he knew the might of those huge +children of the gloomy Orchil. He perceived, too, that he could with +safety entrust the keeping of the lad to those people, for he saw +the smith’s countenance when it changed, and he knew that among those +artificers there was no guile. + +“It is pleasing to me, too,” he said, “and I will be myself the lad’s +security for the performance of his promise.” + +“Nay, I want no security,” answered the smith. “The word of a scion of +the Red Branch is security enough for me.” + +Thereafter all laid aside their weapons and their wrath. The smiths with +a mighty clattering cast their tools into the dark end of the chamber, +and the Ultonians hanged theirs upon the walls, and the feasting and +pledging and making of friendly speeches were resumed. There was no more +any anger anywhere, but a more unobstructed flow of mutual good-will and +regard, for the Ultonians felt no more a secret inclination to laugh at +the dusky artificers, and the smiths no longer regarded with disdain the +beauty, bravery, and splendour of the Ultonians. + +In the meantime Setanta had returned to his place between the King and +Fergus Mac Roy. There a faintness came upon him, and a great horror +overshadowed him owing to his battle with the dog, for indeed it was no +common dog, and when he would have fallen, owing to the faintness, they +pushed him behind them so that he lay at full length upon the couch +unseen by the smiths. Concobar nodded to his chief Leech, and he came +to him with his instruments and salves and washes. There unobserved he +washed the cruel gashes cut by the hound’s claws, and applied salves and +stitched the skin over the wounds, and, as he did so, in a low voice he +murmured healing songs of power. + +“Where is the boy?” said Culain. + +“He is reposing a little,” said Concobar, “after his battle and his +conflict.” + +After a space they gave Setanta a draught of mighty ale, and his heart +revived in him and the colour returned to his cheeks wherein before was +the pallor of death, and he sat up again in his place, slender and fair, +between Concobar and Fergus Mac Roy. The smiths cried out a friendly +welcome to him as he sat up, for they held him now to be their +foster-son, and Culain himself stood up in his place holding in both +hands a great mether [Footnote: A four-cornered quadrangular cup.] of +ale, and he drank to all unborn and immature heroes, naming the name +of Setanta, son of Sualtam, now his dear foster-son, and magnified his +courage, so that the boy blushed vehemently and his eyelids trembled +and drooped; and all the artificers stood up too and drank to their +foster-son, wishing him victory and success, and they drained their +goblets and dashed them, mouth downwards, upon the brazen tables, so +that the clang reverberated over Ulla. Setanta thereupon stood up while +the smiths roared a welcome to their foster-son, and he said that it +was not he who had gained the victory, for that someone invisible had +assisted him and had charged him with a strength not his own. Then he +faltered in his speech and said again that he would be a faithful hound +in the service of the artificers, and sat down. The smiths at that time +would not have yielded him for all the hounds in the world. + +After that their harpers harped for them and their story tellers related +true stories, provoking laughter and weeping. There was no story told +that was not true in the age of the heroes. Then the smiths sang one +of their songs of labour, though it needed the accompaniment of ringing +mettle, a song wild and strange, and the Ultonians clear and high sang +all together with open mouths a song of battle and triumph and of the +marching home to Emain Macha with victory; and so they spent the night, +till Concobar said-- + +“O Culain, feasting and singing are good, but slumber is good also. +Dismiss us now to our rest and our slumber, for we, the Red Branch, must +rise betimes in the morning, having our own proper work to perform day +by day in Emain Macha, as you yours in your industrious city.” + +With difficulty were the smiths persuaded to yield to that request, for +right seldom was there a feast in Dun Culain, and the unusual pleasure +and joyful sense of comradeship and social exaltation were very pleasing +to their hearts. + +The Ultonians slept that night in the smiths’ hall upon resplendent +couches which had been prepared for them, and early in the morning, +having taken a friendly leave of the artificers, they departed, leaving +the lad behind them asleep. Setanta remained with the smiths a long time +after that, and Culain and his people loved him greatly and taught him +many things. It was owing to this adventure and what came of it that +Setanta got his second name, viz., the Hound of Culain or Cu-Culain. +Under that name he wrought all his marvellous deeds. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CHAMPION AND THE KING + + + “Sing, O Muse, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son + of Peleus, which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans.” + + --Homer. + + +Concobar Mac Nessa sat one day in his high chair, judging the Ultonians. +His great Council sat before him. In the Champion’s throne sat Fergus +Mac Roy. Before the high King his suitors gave testimony and his brehons +pleaded, and Concobar in each case pronounced judgment, clearly and +intelligently, briefly and concisely, with learning and with equity. + +“Right glad am I, O Concobar,” said Fergus, “that thou art in the King’s +throne, and I where I sit. Verily, had I remained in that chair of +honour and distress, long since would these historians and poets and +subtle-minded lawyers have talked and rhymed me into madness, or into my +grave.” + +Concobar made answer--“Dear foster-father, the high gods in their wisdom +have fashioned us each man to illustrate some virtue. To thee they have +given strength, courage, and magnanimity above all others; and to me, +in small measure, the vision of justice, and the perception of her +beautiful laws. A man can only excel in what he loves, and verily I love +well the known laws of the Ultonians.” + +A great man just then entered the hall. His mantle was black. In the +breast of it, instead of a brooch, he wore an iron pin. He came swiftly +and without making the customary reverences. His face was pale, and his +garments torn, his dark-grey tunic stained with blood. He stood in the +midst and cried-- + +“O high King of the Ultonians, and you the wise men and sages of the +children of Rury, to all of you there is now need of some prudent +resolution. A great deed has been done in Ulla.” + +“What is that?” said the King. + +“The abduction of the Beautiful Woman by Naysi, son of Usna. Verily, +she is taken away and may not be recovered, for the Clan Usna came last +night with a great company to the dun and they stormed it in their might +and their valour, and their irresistible fury, and they have taken +away Deirdre in their swift chariots, and have gone eastwards to the +Muirnicht with intent to cross the sea northwards, and abide henceforth +with their prize in the land of the Picts and of the Albanah, beyond the +stormy currents of the Moyle.” + +Fergus Mac Roy, when he heard that word, sat up with eyes bright-blazing +in his head. Dearer to him than all the rest were those sons of Usna, +namely--Naysi, Anli, and Ardane, and dearest of the three was Naysi, +who excelled all the youth of his time in beauty, valour, and +accomplishments. + +“Bind that man!” cried Concobar. His voice rang terribly through the +vast chamber. Truly it sheared through men’s souls like a dividing +sword. + +His guards took the man and bound him. “Lead him away now,” said +Concobar, “and stone him with stones even to the parting of body with +soul.” + +The man was one of Deirdre’s guard. + +A great silence fell upon the assembly after that and no man spoke, only +they looked at the King and then again at the Champion, and, as it were, +questioned one another silently with their eyes. It was the silence +behind which run the Fomorh, brazen-throated and clad with storm. Well +knew those wise men that what they long apprehended had come now to +pass, namely, the fierce and truceless antagonism of the King and of the +ex-King. Well they knew that Concobar would not forgive the Clan Usna, +and that Fergus Mac Roy would not permit them to be punished. Therefore, +great and mighty as were the men, yet on this occasion they might be +likened only to cattle who stand aside astonished when two fierce bulls, +rending the earth as they come, advance against each other for the +mastery of the herd. In the high King’s face the angry blood showed as +two crimson spots one on either cheek, and his eyes, harder than steel, +sparkled under brows more rigid than brass. On the other hand, the face +of the Champion darkened as the sea darkens when a black squall descends +suddenly upon its sunny and glittering tides, wrinkling and convulsing +all the face of the deep. His listlessness and amiability alike went +out of him, and he sat huge and erect in his throne. His mighty chest +expanded and stood out like a shield, and the muscles of his neck, +stronger than a bull’s, became clear and distinct, and his gathering ire +and stern resolution rushed stormfully through his nostrils. The King +first spoke. + +“To the man who has broken our law and abducted the child of ill omen, I +decree death by the sword and burial with the three throws of dishonour, +and if taken alive, then death by burning with the same, and if +he escapes out of Erin, then sentence of perpetual banishment and +expatriation.” + +“He shall not be slain, and he shall not be burned, and he shall not be +exiled. I say it, even I, Fergus, son of the Red Rossa, Champion of the +North. Let the man who will gainsay me show himself now in Emain Macha. +Let him bring round the buckle of his belt.” + +His eyes, as he spoke, were like flames of fire under a forehead dark +crimson, and with his clenched fist he struck the brazen table before +his throne, so that the clang and roar of the quivering bronze sounded +through all the borders of Ulla. + +“I will gainsay thee, O Fergus,” cried the King, “I am the guardian and +the executor of the laws of the Ultonians, and those laws shall prevail +over thee and over all men.” + +“All laws in restraint of true love and affection are unjust,” said +Fergus, “and the law by which Deirdre was consigned to virginity was the +unrighteous enactment of cold-hearted and unrighteous men.” + + + + +CHAPTER X + +DEIRDRE + + + “Beautiful the beginning of love, + A man and a woman and the birds of Angus above them.” + + GAELIC BARD. + + +The birth of the child Deirdre, daughter of the chief poet of Ulla, was +attended with a great portent, for the child shrieked from the mother’s +womb. Cathvah and the Druids were consulted concerning that omen. They +addressed themselves to their art of divination, and having consulted +their oracles and gods and familiar spirits, they gave a clear counsel +to the Ultonians. + +“This child,” they said, “will become a woman, in beauty surpassing all +the women who have ever been born or will be born. Her union with a man +will be a cause of great sorrow to the Ultonians. Let her, therefore, +be exposed after birth; or, if you would not slay the Arch-Poet’s only +child, let her be sternly immured; let her be reared to womanhood in +utter and complete and inviolable solitude, and live and die in her +virginity.” + +The Ultonians determined that the child should live and be immured. +These things took place in the reign of Factna the Righteous, father of +Concobar. When the child was born she was called Deirdre. The Ultonians +appointed for her a nurse and tutoress named Levarcam. They built for +her and for the nurse a strong dun in a remote forest and set a ward +there, and they made a solemn law enjoining perpetual virginity on the +child of ill omen, and the Druids shed a zone of terror round the dun. + +Concobar Mac Nessa in the wide circuit of his thoughts consulted always +for the inviolability of that law, and the stern maintenance of the +watching and warding. + +Unseen and unobserved, forgotten by all save the wise elders of the +Ultonians and by Concobar their King, whose thoughts ranged on all sides +devising good for the Red Branch, the child Deirdre grew to be a maiden. +Though her beauty was extraordinary, yet her mind was as beautiful as +her form, so that the Lady Levarcam loved her exceedingly. + +One day when the first flush of early womanhood came upon the maiden, +she said to her tutoress as they sat together and conversed-- + +“Are all men like those our guards who defend us against savage beasts +and the merciless Fomorians, dear Levarcam?” + +“Those our guards are true and brave men,” said Levarcam. + +“Surely they are,” said the girl, “and we lack no courtesy and due +attention at their hands, but dear foster-mother, my question is not +answered. Maybe it is not to be answered and that I am curious overmuch. +Are all men grim, grave, and austere, wearing rugged countenances scored +with ancient wounds, and bearing each man upon his shoulders the weight +of some fearful responsibility? Are all men like that, dear Levarcam?” + +“Nay, indeed,” said the other, “there are youths too, gracious, and gay, +and beautiful, as well as grave men such as these.” + +They sat together in their sunny grianan, [Footnote: A derivative +from Grian, the sun. The grianan was an upper chamber, more elegantly +furnished than the hall, usually with large windows and therefore +well lit and reserved for the use of women.] embroidering while they +conversed. It was early morning and the air was full of the noises and +odours of sweet spring-time. + +“I know that now,” said the maiden, “which I only guessed before, for +waking or sleeping I have dreamed of a youth who was as unlike these +men as the rose-tree with its roses is unlike the rugged oak-tree or the +wrinkled pine that has wrestled with a thousand storms. I would wish to +have him for a playfellow and pleasant acquaintance. Of maidens, too, +such as myself I have dreamed, yet they do not appear to me to be so +alluring or so amiable as that youth.” + +“Describe him more particularly,” said Levarcam. “Tell me his tokens one +by one that I may know.” + +“He is tall and strong but very graceful in all his motions; and of +speech and behaviour both gay and gracious. He is white and ruddy, +whiter than snow and ruddier than the rose or the fox-glove, where the +heroic blood burns bright in his comely cheeks. His eyes are blue-black +under fine and even brows and his hair is a wonder, so dense is it, so +lustrous and so curling, blacker than the crow’s wing, more shining than +the bright armour of the chaffer. His body is broad above and narrow +below, strong to withstand and agile to pursue. His limbs long and +beautifully proportioned; his hands and feet likewise, and his step +elastic Smiles seldom leave his eyes and lips, and his mouth is a +fountain of sweet speech. O that I were acquainted with him and he with +me? I think we should be happy in each other’s company. I think I could +love him as well as I do thee, dear foster-mother.” + +As she spoke, Deirdre blushed, and first she stooped down over her +work and then put before her face and eyes her two beautiful hands, +rose-white, with long delicate nails pink-flushed and transparent; and +tears, clearer than dewdrops, gushed between her ringers and fell in +bright showers upon the embroidery. Then she arose and flung her soft +white arms around Levarcam and wept on her bosom. + +“There is one youth only amongst the Red Branch,” said Levarcam, “who +answers to that description, namely Naysi, the son of Usna, who is +the battle-prop of the Ultonians and the clear-shining torch of their +valour, and what god or druid or power hath set that vision before thy +mind, I cannot tell.” + +“Would that I could see him with eyes and have speech with him,” + answered the girl. “If but once he smiled upon me and I heard the sweet +words flow from his mouth which is beyond price, then gladly would I +die!” + +“Thou shall both see him and have speech with him, O best, sweetest, +dearest, and loveliest of all maidens. Truly I will bring him to thee +and thee to him, for there is with me power beyond the wont of women.” + +Now Levarcam was a mighty Druidess amongst the Ultonians. So the lady in +whom they trusted forgot the ancient prophecies and the stern commands +of the Red Branch and of their King, owing to the great love which she +bore to the maiden and the great compassion which grew upon her day by +day, as she observed the life of the solitary girl and thought of the +cruel law to which all her youth and beauty and wealth of sweet love +beyond all the jewels of the world were thus barbarously sacrificed by +the Ultonians in obedience to soothsayers and Druids. + +Naysi, son of Usna, once in a hunting became separated from his +companions. He wandered far in that forest, seeking some one who should +direct him upon his way. Oftentimes he raised his voice, but there was +no answer. Such were his beauty, his grace, and his stature, that he +seemed more like a god than a man, and such another as Angus Ogue, son +of Dagda, [Footnote: Angus Ogue was the god of youth and beauty, son of +the Dagda who seems to have been the genius of earth and its fertility +or perhaps the Zeus of our Gaelic mythology.] whose fairy palace is +on the margin of the Boyne. His head and his feet were bare. His short +hunting-cloak was dark-red with flowery devices along the edge. On his +breast he wore a brooch of gold bronze; carbuncles and precious stones +were set in the bronze, and it was carved all over with many spiral +devices. His shirt below the mantle was coloured like the tassels of the +willow trees. His hair was fastened behind with a clasp and an apple of +red gold, and that apple lay below the blades of his ample shoulders. +In one hand he bore a broken leash of red bronze, and in the other two +hunting spears with blades of flashing findruiney and the hafts were +long, slender, and shining. By his thigh hung a short sword in a sheath +of red yew and beside it the polished and nigh transparent horn of the +Urus, suspended in a baldrick of knitted thread of bronze. The grass +stood erect from the pressure of his light feet. His manly face had not +yet known the razor; only the first soft down of budding manhood was +seen there. His countenance was pure and joyous with bright beaming +eyes, and his complexion red and white and of a brilliancy beyond words. +In his heart was no guile, only indomitable valour and truth and +loyalty and sweet affection. He had never known woman save in the way of +courtesy. The very trees and rocks and stones seemed to watch him as he +passed. + +Then suddenly and unawares an ice-cold air struck chill into his inmost +being, the bright earth was obscured and the sun grew dark in the +heavens and menacing voices were heard and horrid forms of evil, +monstrous, not to be described, came against him, and they bade him +return as he had come or they would tear him limb from limb in that +forest. Yet the son of Usna was by no means dismayed, only he flushed +with wrath and scorn and he drew his sword and went on against the +phantoms. In truth Naysi was at that moment passing through the zone of +terror which the Ultonian Druids had shed around the dun where Deirdre +was immured. The phantoms gave way before him and Naysi passed beyond +the zone. “Surely,” he said, “there is some chief jewel of the jewels of +the world preserved in this place.” + +He came to an opening in the forest. Beyond it there was a great space +which was cleared and girt all round by trees. There was a dun in +its midst. Scarlet and white were the walls of that dun. There was +a watch-tower on one side of the dun and a man there sitting in the +watchman’s seat; a grianan on the other with windows of glass. The roof +of the dun was covered all over with feathers of birds of various hues, +and shone with a hundred colours. The doorway was the narrowest which +Naysi had ever seen. The door pillars were of red yew curiously carved, +having feet of bronze and capitals of carved silver, and the lintel +above was a straight bar of pure silver. A knotted band or thickening +ran round the walls of the dun like a variegated zone, for the colours +of it were many and each different from the colours on the walls. In +the world there was no such prison as there was no such captive as that +prison held. Armed men of huge stature and terrible aspect went round +the dun. Their habiliments were black, their weapons without ornament, +the pins of their mantles were of iron. With each company went a slinger +having his sling bent, an iron bolt in the sling, and his thumb in the +string-loop, men who never missed their mark and never struck aught, +whether man or beast, that they did not slay. Great hounds such as were +not known amongst the Ultonians went with those men. They were grey +above and tawny beneath, as large as wild oxen after the growth of +one year. They were quick of sight and scent, fiercer than dragons and +swifter than eagles; they were not quick of sight and scent to-day. The +Lady Levarcam had great power. In and around that dun were three hundred +men of war, foreigners, picked men of the great fighting tribes of +Banba. Such was the decree of the Ultonians and their wise King, +so greatly did they fear concerning those prophecies and omens and +concerning the child who in Emain Macha shrieked out of her mother’s +womb. Naysi regarded the dun with wonder and amazement, and with +amazement the astonishing rigour of the watch and ward which were kept +there, and the more he looked the more he wondered. It seemed to the +hunter that he had chanced upon one of the abodes of the enchanted races +of Erin, namely the Tuatha De Dana or the Fomorians, whom the sons of +Milesius by their might had driven into the mountains and unfrequented +places and who, now immortal and invisible, and possessing great druidic +power, were worshipped as gods by the Gael. He knew he was in great +peril, but his stout heart did not fail; he was resolved to see this +adventure to an end. + +As he was about to step out into the open two women came from the door +of the grianan. One of them was old; she leaned upon her companion and +in her right hand held a long white wand squared save in the middle +where it was rounded for the hand grip, very long, unornamented, and +unshod at either extremity. Naysi paid slight attention to her, though, +as she was the first to come forth, he observed these things. The other +was young, tall, slender, and lissom, her raiment costly and splendid +like a high queen’s on some solemn day, and like a queen’s her behaviour +and her pacing over the flowery lawn. Never had that hunter seen such a +form, so proudly modest and virginal, such sweetness, grace, and majesty +of bearing. Presently, having passed a company of the guards, she flung +back the white, half-transparent veil that concealed her face. Then the +sudden radiance was like the coming unlocked for out of a white cloud of +that very bright star which shines on the edge of night and morning. All +things were transfigured in her light. Before her the grass grew greener +and more glittering and rare flowers started in her way. A silver basket +of most delicate craftsmanship, the work of some cunning cerd, was on +her right arm. It shone clear and sparkling against her mantle which +was exceedingly lustrous, many times folded, darkly crimson, and of +substance unknown. She towered above her aged companion, straight as +a pillar of red yew in a king’s house. So, unwitting, jocund, and +innocent, fresh and pure as the morning, she paced over the green +lawn, going in the direction of that youth, even Naysi, son of Usna the +Ultonian. Naysi’s loudly beating heart fell silent when he saw how she +came straight towards him; he retreated into the forest, so amazing and +so confounding was the radiance of that beauty. A company of those grim +warders, silent and watchful, followed close upon the women. As they +went they slipped the muzzles from the mouths of their dogs and lead +them forward leashed. The countenances of the men shewed displeasure. +From the tower the watchman cried aloud words in an unknown tongue, +hoarse, barbaric accents charged with energy and strong meaning. His +voice rang terribly in the hollows of the forest. There was a counter +challenge in the forest repeated many times, the voices of men mingled +with the baying of hounds. There was a ring of sentinels and dogs far +out in the forest. The son of Usna had gone through the ring. For twice +seven years and one that astonishing watch and ward had been maintained +day and night without relaxation or abatement. When they came to the +edge of the forest Levarcam addressed the commander of that company. +She said, “The Lady Deirdre would be alone with me in the forest for a +little space to gather flowers and listen to the music of the birds +and the stream, relieved, if but for one moment, of this watching and +warding.” + +The man answered not a word. He was of the Gamanrdians, dwellers by the +Sue, which feeds the great Western River; [Footnote: The Shannon.] his +people were of the Clan Dega in the south, and of the children of Orc +[Footnote: In scriptural language “of the seed of the giants,” huge, +simple-hearted and simple-minded men, who could obey orders and ask no +questions.] from the Isles of Ore in the frozen seas. [Footnote: The +Orkney Islands.] The blood of the Fomoroh was in those men. The women +went on, and that grim company followed, keeping close behind. When they +gained the first cover of the trees Levarcam turned round and stretched +over them her wand. They stood motionless, both men and dogs. Then the +women went forward, and alone. + +“Fill thy basket now with forest flowers, O sweetest, and dearest, and +fairest of all foster-children, and listen to the songs of the birds +and the music of the rill. Cull thy flowers, darling girl, and cull the +flower of thy youth, the flower that grows but once for all like thee, +the flower whose glory puts high heaven to shame, and whose odour makes +mad the most wise.” + +“Where shall I gather that flower, O gentlest and most amiable of +foster-mothers? Is it in the glade or the thicket, or on the margent of +the rill? + +“It is not to be found by seeking, O fairest of all maidens. Gather it +when thou meetest with it in the way. Wear it in thy heart, be the end +what it may. Verily thou wilt not mistake any other flower for that +flower.” + +“I know not thy meaning, O wise and many-counselled woman, but there is +fear upon me, and trembling, and my knees quake at thy strange words. +Now, if the whole world were swallowed up I should not be surprised. +Surely the end of the world is very nigh.” + +“It is the end of the world and the beginning of the world; and the end +of life and the beginning of life; and death and life in one, and death +and life will soon be the same to thee, O Deirdre!” + +“There is amazement upon me, and terror, O my foster-mother, on account +of thy words, and on account of the gathering of this flower. Let us +return to the dun. Terrible to me are the hollow-sounding ways of the +unknown forest.” + +“Fear not the unknown forest, O Deirdre. Leave the known and the +familiar now that thy time has come. Go on. Accomplish thy destiny. It +is vain to strive against fate and the pre-ordained designs of the high +gods of Erin. Truly I have failed in my trust. I see great wrath in +Emain Macha. I see the Red Branch tossed in storms, and a mighty riving +and rending and scattering abroad, and dismal conflagrations, and the +blood of heroes falling like rain, and I hear the croaking of Byves. +[Footnote: Badb, pronounced Byve, was primarily the scald-crow or +carrion-crow, secondarily a Battle-Fury.] Truly I have proved a brittle +prop to the Ultonians, but some power beyond my own drives me on.” + +“What wild words are these, O wisest of women, and what this rending and +scattering abroad, and showers of blood and croaking of Byves because I +cull a flower in the forest?” + +“Nay, it is nothing. Have peace and joy while thou canst, sweet Deirdre. +Thus I lay my wand upon thy bosom and enjoin peace!” + +“Thou art weary, dear foster-mother. Rest thee here now a little space, +while I go and gather forest flowers. They are sweeter than those +that grow in my garden. O, right glad am I to be alone in the forest, +relieved from the observation of those grim-visaged sentinels, to stray +solitary in the dim mysterious forest, and to think my own thoughts +there, and dream my dreams, and recall that vision which I have seen. O +Naysi, son of Usna, sweeter than harps is the mere sound of thy name, O +Ultonian!” + +Deirdre after that went forward alone into the forest. + +Naysi, when he had started back into the forest stood still for a long +time in his retreat. It was the hollow of a tall rock beside a falling +stream of water, all flowing snow or transparent crystal. Holly trees +and quicken trees grew from its crest, and long twines of ivy fell down +before like green torrents. Behind them he concealed himself, when he +heard the cries and the challengings and the baying of the hounds. Then +he saw the maiden come along the forest glade by the margent of the +stream, her basket filled and over-flowing with flowers. The sentient +stream sang loud and gay to greet her approaching, with fluent liquid +fingers striking more joyously the chords of his stony lyre. Light +beyond the sun was shed through the glen before her. Birds, the +brightest of plumage and sweetest of note of all the birds of Banba, +[Footnote: One of Ireland’s ancient names.] filled the air with their +songs, flying behind her and before her, and on her right hand and on +her left. Through his lattice of trailing ivy the son of Usna saw her. +Her countenance was purer and clearer than morning-dew upon the rose or +the lily, and the rose and lily, nay, the whiteness of the snow of one +night and the redness of the reddest rose, were there. Her eyes were +blue-black under eyebrows black and fine, but her clustering hair was +bright gold, more shining than the gold which boils over the edge of the +refiner’s crucible. Her forehead was free from all harshness, broad and +intelligent, her beautiful smiling lips of the colour of the berries of +the mountain ash, her teeth a shower of lustrous pearls. Her face and +form, her limbs, hands and feet, were such that no defect, blemish or +disproportion could be observed, though one might watch and observe +long, seeking to discover them. In that daughter of the High Poet and +Historian of the Hound-race of the North, [Footnote: The hound was the +type of valour. Though Cuculain was pre-eminently the Hound, the Gaelic +equivalents of this word will be discovered in most of the famous +names of the cycle.] child of valour and true wisdom, the body did not +predominate over the spirit, or the spirit over the body, for as her +form was of matchless, incomparable, and inexpressible beauty, so her +mind was not a whit less well proportioned and refined. Jocund and +happy, breathing innocence and love, she came up the dell. The birds +of Angus [Footnote: Angus Ogue’s kisses became invisible birds whose +singing inspired love.] unseen flew above her and shed upon her +unearthly graces and charms from the waving of their immortal wings. +A silver brooch lay on her breast, the pin of fine bronze ran straight +from one shoulder to the other. On her head was a lustrous tyre or leafy +diadem shading her countenance, gold above and silver below. Her short +kirtle was white below the rose-red mantle, and fringed with gold thread +above her perfect and lightly stepping feet. Shoes she wore shining with +brightest wire of findruiney. As she came up the dell, rejoicing in her +freedom and the sweetness of that sylvan place and the solitude, +she contemplated the bright stream, and sang clear and sweet an +unpremeditated song. + +Naysi stepped forth from his place, putting aside the ivy with his +hands, and came down the dell to meet her in her coming. She did not +scream or tremble or show any signs of confusion, though she had never +before seen any of the youths of the Gael. She only stood still and +straight, and with wide eyes of wonder watched him as he drew nigh, for +she thought at first that it was the genius of that glen and torrent +taking form in reply to her druidic lay. Then when she recognised +the comrade and playfellow of her vision, she smiled a friendly and +affectionate greeting. On the other hand, Naysi came trembling and +blushing. He bowed himself to the earth before her, and kissed the grass +before her feet. + +They remained together a long time in the glen and told each other +all they knew and thought and felt, save one feeling untellable, happy +beyond all power of language to express. When Deirdre rose to go, Naysi +asked for some token and symbol of remembrance. + +As they went she gathered a rose and gave it to Naysi. + +“There is a great meaning in this token amongst the youths and maidens +of the Gael,” said he. + +“I know that,” answered Deirdre. Deirdre returned to Levarcam. + +“Thou hast gathered the flower,” said Levarcam. + +“I have,” she replied, “and death and life are one to me now, dear +foster-mother.” + +Naysi went away through the forest and there is nothing related +concerning him till he reached Dun Usna. It was night when he entered +the hall. His brothers were sitting at the central fire. Anli was +scouring a shield; Ardane was singing the while he polished a spear and +held it out against the light to see its straightness and its lustre. +They were in no way alarmed about their brother. + +“I have seen Deirdre, the daughter of Felim,” he said. + +“Then thou art lost!” they answered; the weapons fell from their hands +upon the floor. + +“I am,” he replied. + +“What is thy purpose?” they said. + +“To storm the guarded dun, even if I go against it alone, To bear away +Deirdre and pass into the land of the Albanagh.” [Footnote: The Albanagh +were the people who inhabited the north and west of Scotland, in fact +the Highlanders. In ancient times they and the Irish were regarded as +one people.] + +“Thou shalt not go alone,” they said. “We have shared in thy glory and +thy power, we will share all things with thee.” + +They put their right hand into his on that promise. One hundred and +fifty nobles of the nobles of that territory did the same, for with +Naysi as their captain they did not fear to go upon any enterprise. They +knew that expatriation awaited them, but they had rather be with Naysi +and his brothers in a strange land than to live without them in Ireland. +So the Clan Usna with their mighty men stormed the dun and bore off +Deirdre and went away eastward to the Muirnicht. And they crossed the +Moyle [Footnote: The sea between Ireland and Scotland. “Silent, O Moyle, +be the roar of thy waters,”] in ships into the country of the Albanagh, +and settled on the delightful shores of Loch Etive and made swordland of +the surrounding territory. Great, famous, and long remembered were the +deeds of the children of Usna in that land. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THERE WAS WAR IN ULSTER + + + “Each spake words of high disdain + And insult to his heart’s best brother, + They parted ne’er to meet again.” + + --COLERIDGE + + +It was on account of this that there arose at first that dissidence +and divergence of opinion in the great Council at Emain Macha between +Concobar Mac Nessa and Fergus Mac Roy, Concobar standing for the law +which he had been sworn to safeguard and to execute, and Fergus casting +over the lovers the shield of his name and fame, his authority and his +strength, and the singular affection with which he was regarded by all +the Ultonians. + +After Fergus had made that speech in disparagement and contempt of the +solemn enactment and decree in accordance with which Deirdre had been +immured, Concobar did not immediately answer, for he knew that he was +heated both on account of the abduction and on account of the words of +Fergus. Then he said-- + +“The valour of the Red Branch, whereby we flourish so conspicuously +herein the North, doth not spring out of itself, and doth not come by +discipline, teaching, and example. It has its root in a virtue of which +the bards indeed, for bardic reasons, make little mention though it hold +a firm place in the laws of the Ultonians both ancient and recent. This, +our valour, and the famous kindred virtues through which we are strong +and irresistible, so that the world has today nothing anywhere of +equal glory and power, spring from the chastity of our women, which is +conspicuous and clear-shining, and in the modesty and shamefastness of +our young heroes, and the extreme rarity of lawless relations between +men and women in Ulla, the servile tribes excepted, of whom no man +maketh any account. Against such lawlessness our wise ancestors have +decreed terrible punishments. According to the laws of the Ultonians, +those who offend in this respect are burned alive in the place of the +burnings, and over their ashes are thrown the three throws of dishonour. +And well I know that these laws ofttimes to the unthinking and to those +who judge by their affections merely, seem harsh and unnatural. Yea +truly, were I not high King, I could weep, seeing gentle youths and +maidens, and men and women, whom the singing of Angus Ogue’s birds have +made mad, led away by my orders to be devoured by flame. But so it is +best, for without chastity valour faileth in a nation, and lawlessness +in this respect begetteth sure and rapid decay, and I give not this +forth as an opinion but as a thing that I know, seeing it as clearly +with my mind, O Fergus, as I see with my eyes thy countenance and form +and the foldings of thy fuan [Footnote: Mantle.] and the shape and +ornamentation of the wheel-brooch upon thy breast. Without chastity +there is no enduring valour in a nation. And thou, too, O Fergus, +sitting there in the champion’s throne, hast more than once or twice +heard me pronounce the dread sentence without word of protest or +dissent. But now, because it toucheth thee thyself, strongly and +fiercely thy voice of protest is lifted up, and unless I and this +Council can over-persuade thee, this thy rebellious purpose will be thy +own undoing or that of the Red Branch. Are the sons of Usna dear only to +thee? I say they are dearer to me, but the Red Branch is still dearer, +and it is the destruction of the Red Branch which unwittingly thou +wouldst Compass. Nor was that law concerning the inviolable virginity +of the child of Felim foolish or unwise, for it was made solemnly by the +Ultonians in obedience to the united voice of the Druids of Ulla, +men who see deeply into the hidden causes of things and the obscure +relations of events, of which we men of war have no perception.” + +So spoke Concobar, not threateningly like a sovereign king, but +pleadingly. On the other hand Fergus Mac Roy, rearing his huge form, +stood upon his feet, and said-- + +“To answer fine reasonings I have no skill, but I swear by the sun and +the wind and the earth and by my own right hand, which is a stronger +oath than any, that I will bring back the sons of Usna into Ireland, and +that they shall live and flourish in their place and sit honourably in +this great hall of the Clanna Rury, whether it be pleasing to thee or +displeasing. For I take the Clan Usna under my protection from this day +forth, and well I know that there is not in Erin or in Alba a man +born of a woman, no nor the Tuatha De Danan themselves, who will break +through that protection!” + +“I will break through it,” said the King. + +After that Fergus departed from Emain Macha and went away with his +people into the east to his own country. There he debated and considered +for a long time, but at last, so great was his affection for the +Clan Usna, that he went over the Moyle in ships to the country of the +Albanagh and brought home the sons of Usna, and they were slain by +Concobar Mac Nessa, according as he had promised by the word of +his mouth. Then Fergus rebelled against Concobar, drawing after him +two-thirds of the Red Branch, and amongst them Duvac Dael Ulla and +Cormac Conlingas, Concobar’s own son, and many other great men, but +the chiefest and best and most renowned of the Ultonians adhered to +the King. The whole province was shaken with war and there was great +shedding of blood, but in the end Concobar prevailed and drove out +Fergus Mac Roy. After that expulsion Fergus and three thousand of the +Red Branch fled across the Shannon and came to Rath Cruhane, and entered +into military service with Meave who was the queen of all the country +west of the Shannon. + +There is nothing told about Cuculain in connection with this war. It is +hard to imagine him taking any side in such a war. But, in fact, he +was still a schoolboy under tutors and governors and could not lawfully +appear in arms, seeing that he was not yet knighted. He was either with +the smiths or, having procured a worthy hound to take his place, he had +gone back to the royal school at Emain Macha. But the time when Cuculain +should be knighted, that is to say, invested with arms, and solemnly +received into the Red Branch as man to the high King of all Ulla, now +drew on, and such a knighting as that, and under such signs, omens, +and portents, has never been recorded anywhere in the history of the +nations. + +In the meantime, Fergus and his exiles served Queen Meave and were +subduing all the rest of Ireland under her authority, so that Meave, +Queen of Connaught, became very great and proud, and in the end +meditated the overthrow of Ulster and the conquest of the Red Branch. +Queen Meave and Fergus leading the joined host of the four remaining +provinces, Meath, Connaught, Munster, and Leinster, certain of success +owing to a strange lethargy which then fell on the Ultonians, did invade +Ulster. But as they drew nigh to the mearings they found the in-gate +of the province barred by one man. It is needless to mention that man’s +name. It was Dethcaen’s nursling, the ex-pupil of Fergus Mac Roy, the +little boy Setanta grown into a terrible and irresistible hero. It was +by his defence of Ulster on that occasion against Fergus and Meave +and the four provinces, that Cuculain acquired his deathless glory and +became the chief hero of the north-west of the world. So these chapters +which relate to the abduction of Deirdre and the rebellion and expulsion +of Fergus, are a vital portion of the whole story of Cuculain. We must +now return to the hero’s schoolboy days which, however, are drawing to a +memorable conclusion. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SACRED CHARIOT + + + “He dwelt a while among the neat-herds + Of King Admetus, veiling his godhood.” + + Greek Mythology. + + + “At Tailteen I raced my steeds against a woman, + Though great with child she came first to the goal, + Alas, I knew not the auburn-haired Macha, + Thence came affliction upon the Ultonians.” + + CONCOBAR MAC NESSA. + + +Concobar Mac Nessa on a solemn day called Cuculain forth from the ranks +of the boys where they stood in the rear of the assembly and said-- + +“O Setanta, there is a duty which falls to me by virtue of my kingly +office, and therein I need an assistant. For it is my province to keep +bright and in good running order the chariot of Macha wherein she used +to go forth to war from Emain, and to clean out the corn-troughs of +her two steeds and put there fresh barley perpetually, and fresh hay +in their mangers. Illan the Fair [Footnote: He was one of the sons of +Fergus Mac Roy slain in the great civil war.] was my last helper in this +office, till the recent great rebellion. That ministry is thine now, if +it is pleasing to thee to accept it.” + +The boy said that it was pleasing, and the King gave him the key of the +chamber in which were the vessels and implements used in discharging +that sacred function. + +Afterwards, on the same day, the King said to him, “Wash thyself now in +pure water and put on new clean raiment and come again to me.” + +The boy washed himself and put on new clean raiment. The King himself +did the same. + +Concobar said: “Go now to the chamber of which I have given thee the key +and fill with oil the silver oil-can and take a towel of the towels of +fawn-skin which are there and return.” He did so; and Concobar and his +nephew, armed youths following, went to the house of the chariot. + +Ere Concobar turned the wards of the lock he heard voices within in the +chariot-house. There, one said to another, “This is he. Our long watch +and ward are near the end.” And the other said, “It is well. Too long +have we been here waiting.” + +“Hast thou heard anything, my nephew?” said Concobar. + +“I have heard nothing,” said the lad. + +Concobar opened the great folding-doors. There was a sound there like +glad voices mingled with a roar of revolving wheels, and then silence. +Setanta drew back in dismay, and even Concobar stood still. “I have not +observed such portents before in the chariot-house,” he said. The King +and his nephew entered the hollow chamber. The chariot was motionless +but very bright. One would have said that the bronze burned. It was of +great size and beauty. By its side were two horse-stalls with racks +and mangers, the bars of the rack were of gold bronze which was called +findruiney, and the mangers of yellow brass. The floor was paved with +cut marble, the walls lined with smooth boards of ash. There were no +windows, but there were nine lamps in the room. “It will be thy duty to +feed those lamps,” said Concobar. + +Concobar took the fawn-skin towel from the boy and polished the chariot, +and the wheels, tyres, and boxes, and the wheel-spokes. He oiled the +wheels too, and mightily lifting the great chariot seized the spokes +with his right hand and made the wheels spin. + +“Go now to the chamber of which I have given thee the keys,” he said, +“and bring the buckets, and clear out the mangers to the last grain, +and empty the stale barley into the place of the burning, and afterwards +take fresh barley from the bin which is in the chamber and fill the +mangers. Empty the racks also and bring fresh hay. Thou wilt find it +stored there too; clean straw also and litter the horse-stalls.” + +The boy did that. In the meantime Concobar polished the pole, and the +yoke, and the chains. From the wall he took the head-gear of the horses +and the long shining reins of interwoven brass and did the same very +carefully till there was not a speck of rust or discolouration to be +seen. + +“Where are the horses, my Uncle Concobar?” said the boy. + +“That I cannot rightly tell,” said Concobar, “but verily they are +somewhere.” + +“What are those horses?” said the boy. “How are they called? What their +attributes, and why do I fill their racks and mangers?” + +“They are the Liath Macha and Black Shanglan,” said Concobar. “They have +not been seen in Erin for three hundred years, not since Macha dwelt +visibly in Emain as the bride of Kimbaoth, son of Fiontann. In this +chariot she went forth to war, charioteering her warlike groom. But they +are to come again for the promised one and bear him to battle and to +conflict in this chariot, and the time is not known but the King of +Emain is under gesa [Footnote: Terrible druidic obligations.] to keep +the chariot bright and the racks and mangers furnished with fresh hay, +and barley two years old. He is to wait, and watch, and stand prepared +under gesa most terrible.” + +“Maybe Kimbaoth will return to us again,” said the boy. + +“Nay, it hath not been so prophesied,” answered the King. “He was great, +and stern, and formidable. But our promised one is gentle exceedingly. +He will not know his own greatness, and his nearest comrades will not +know it, and there will be more of love in his heart than war.” So +saying Concobar looked steadfastly upon the boy. + +“Conall Carnach is as famous for love as for war,” said Setanta. “He +is peerless in beauty, and his strength and courage are equal to his +comeliness, and his chivalry and battle-splendour to his strength.” + +“Nay, lad, it is not Conall Carnach, though the women of Ulla sicken and +droop for the love of him. Verily, it is not Conall Carnach.” + +Setanta examined curiously the great war-car. + +“Was Kimbaoth assisting his wife,” he asked, “when she took captive the +sons of Dithorba?” + +“Nay,” said the King, “she went forth alone and crossed the Shannon +with one step into the land of the Fir-bolgs, and there, one by one, she +bound those builder-giants the sons of Dithorba, and bore them hither in +her might, and truly those five brethren were no small load for the back +of one woman.” + +“Has anyone seen her in our time?” asked the lad. + +“I have,” said Concobar. “I saw her at the great fair of Tailteen. There +she pronounced a curse upon me and upon the Red Branch. [Footnote: At +Tailteen a man boasted that his wife could outrun Concobar’s victorious +chariot-steeds. Concobar compelled the woman to run against his horses. +She won the race, but died at the goal leaving her curse upon the Red +Branch.] The curse hath not yet fallen, but it will fall in my time, +and the promised one will come in my time and he will redeem us from its +power. Great tribulation will be his. Question me no more, dear Setanta, +I have said more than enough.” + +They went forth from the sacred chamber and Concobar locked the doors. + +As they crossed the vacant space going to the palace, Concobar said-- + +“Why art thou sad, dear Setanta?” + +“I am not sad,” answered the boy. + +“Truly there is no sadness in thy face, or thy lips, in thy voice or thy +behaviour, but it is deep down in thine eyes,” said the King. “I see it +there always.” + +Setanta laughed lightly. “I know it not,” he said. + +Concobar went his way after that, musing, and Setanta, having replaced +the sacred vessels in their chamber and having locked the door, strode +away into the boys’ hall. There was a great fire in the midst, and the +boys sat round it, for it was cold. Cuculain broke their circle, pushing +the boys asunder, and sat down. They tried to drag him away, but +he laughed and kept his place like a rock. Then they called him “a +Fomorian, and no man,” and perforce made their circle wider. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE WEIRD HORSES + + + “On the brink of the night and the morning + My coursers are wont to respire, + But the earth has just whispered a warning, + That their flight must be swifter than fire, + They shall breathe the hot air of desire.” + + SHELLEY. + + +One night when the stars shone brightly, Setanta, as he passed by +Cathvah’s astrological tower, heard him declare to his students that +whoever should be knighted by Concobar on a certain day would be famous +to the world’s end. He was in his coming out of the forest then with +a bundle of young ash trees under his arm. He thought to put them to +season and therewith make slings, for truly he surpassed all others in +the use of the sling. Setanta went his way after that and came into the +speckled house. It was the armoury of the Red Branch and shone with all +manner of war-furniture. A fire burned here always, absorbing the damp +of the air lest the metal should take rust. Setanta flung his trees into +the rafters over the fire very deftly, so that they caught and remained +there. He said they would season best in that place. + +As he turned to go a man stood before him in the vast and hollow +chamber. + +“I know thee,” said the boy. “What wouldst thou now?” + +“Thou shalt go forth to-night,” said the man, [Footnote: This man was +Lu the Long-Handed, the same who met him when he was leaving home.] “and +take captive the Liath Macha and Black Shanghlan. Power will be given to +thee. Go out boldly.” + +“I am not wont to go out fearfully,” answered the lad. “Great labours +are thrust upon me.” + +He went into the supper hall as at other times and took his customary +place there, and ate and drank. + +“Thy eyes are very bright,” said Laeg. + +“They will be brighter ere the day,” he replied. + +“That is an expert juggler,” said Laeg. “How he tosseth the bright +balls!” + +“Can he toss the stars so?” said Setanta. + +“Thou art strange and wild to-night,” said Laeg. + +“I will be stranger and wilder ere the morrow,” cried Setanta. + +He stood up to go. Laeg caught him by the skirt of his mantle. The piece +came away in his hand. + +“Whither art thou going, Setanta?” cried the King from the other end of +the vast hall. + +“To seek my horses,” cried the lad. His voice rang round the hollow +dome and down the resounding galleries and long corridors, so that men +started in their seats and looked towards him. + +“They are stabled since the setting of the sun,” said the chief groom. + +“Thou liest,” answered the boy. “They are in the hills and valleys of +Erin.” His eyes burned like fire and his stature was exalted before +their eyes. + +“Great deeds will be done in Erin this night,” said Concobar. + +He went forth into the night. There was great power upon him. He crossed +the Plain of the Hurlings and the Plain of the Assemblies and the open +country and the great waste moor, going on to Dun-Culain. Culain’s new +hound cowered low when he saw him. The boy sprang over moat and rampart +at one bound and burst open the doors of the smith’s house, breaking the +bar. The noise of the riven beam was like the brattling of thunder. + +“That is an unusual way to enter a man’s house,” said Culain. He and his +people were at supper. + +“It is,” said Setanta. “Things more unusual will happen this night. Give +me bridles that will hold the strongest horses.” Culain gave him two +bridles. + +“Will they hold the strongest horses?” said the boy. + +“Anything less than the Liath Macha they will hold,” said the smith. + +The boy snapped the bridles and flung them aside. “I want bridles that +will hold the Liath Macha and Black Shanglan,” said he. + +“Fire all the furnaces,” cried Culain. “Handle your tools; show your +might. Work now, men, for your lives. Verily, if he get not the bridles, +soon your dead will be more numerous than your living.” + +Culain and his people made the bridles. He gave them to Cuculain. The +smiths stood around in pallid groups. Cuculain took the bridles and +went forth. He went south-westwards to Slieve Fuad, and came to the Grey +Lake. The moon shone and the lake glowed like silver. There was a great +horse feeding by the lake. He raised his head and neighed when he heard +footsteps on the hill. He came on against Cuculain and Cuculain went +on against him. The boy had one bridle knotted round his waist and +the other in his teeth. He leaped upon the steed and caught him by the +forelock and his mouth. The horse reared mightily, but Setanta held him +and dragged his head down to the ground. The grey steed grew greater and +more terrible. So did Cuculain. + +“Thou hast met thy master, O Liath Macha, this night,” he cried. “Surely +I will not lose thee. Ascend into the heavens, or, breaking the earth’s +roof, descend to Orchil, [Footnote: A great sorceress who ruled the +world under the earth.] yet even so thou wilt not shake me away.” + +Ireland quaked from the centre to the sea. They reeled together, steed +and hero, through the plains of Murthemney. “Make the circuit of Ireland +Liath Macha and I shall be on the neck of thee,” cried Cuculain. The +horse went in reeling circles round Ireland. Cuculain mightily thust the +bit into his mouth and made fast the headstall. The Liath Macha went a +second time round Ireland. The sea retreated from the shore and stood in +heaps. Cuculain sprang upon his back. A third time the horse went round +Ireland, bounding from peak to peak. They seemed a resplendent Fomorian +phantom against the stars. The horse came to a stand. “I think thou art +tamed, O Liath Macha,” said Cuculain. “Go on now to the Dark Valley.” + They came to the Dark Valley. There was night there always. Shapes of +Death and Horror, Fomorian apparitions, guarded the entrance. They came +against Cuculain, and he went against them. A voice from within cried, +“Forbear, this is the promised one. Your watching and warding are at +end.” He rode into the Dark Valley. There was a roaring of unseen rivers +in the darkness, of black cataracts rushing down the steep sides of the +Valley. The Liath Macha neighed loudly. The neigh reverberated through +the long Valley. A horse neighed joyfully in response. There was a +noise of iron doors rushing open somewhere, and a four-footed thunderous +trampling on the hollow-sounding earth. A steed came to the Liath Macha. +Cuculain felt for his head in the dark, and bitted and bridled him ere +he was aware. The horse reared and struggled. The Liath Macha dragged +him down the Valley. “Struggle not, Black Shanglan,” said Cuculain, “I +have tamed thy better.” The horse ceased to struggle. Down and out of +the Dark Valley rodest thou, O peerless one, with thy horses. The Liath +Macha was grey to whiteness, the other horse was black and glistening +like the bright mail of the chaffer. He rode thence to Emain Macha with +the two horses like a lord of Day and Night, and of Life and Death. +Truly the might and power of the Long-Handed and Far-Shooting one was +upon him that night. He came to Emain Macha. The doors of Macha’s +stable flew open before him. He rode the horses into the stable. Macha’s +war-car brayed forth a brazen roar of welcome, the Tuatha De Danan +shouted, and the car itself glowed and sparkled. The horses went to +their ancient stalls, the Liath Macha to that which was nearer to the +door. Cuculain took off their bridles and hanged them on the wall. He +went forth into the night. The horses were already eating their barley, +but they looked after him as he went. The doors shut to with a brazen +clash. Cuculain stood alone in the great court under the stars. A +druidic storm was abroad and howled in the forests. He thought all that +had taken place a wild dream. He went to his dormitory and to his couch. +Laeg was asleep with the starlight shining on his white forehead; his +red hair was shed over the pillow. Cuculain kissed him, and sitting on +the bed’s edge wept. Laeg awoke. + +“Thou wert not well at supper,” said Laeg, “and now thou hast been +wandering in the damp of the night, and thou with a fever upon thee, for +I hear thy teeth clattering. I sought to hinder thee, and thou wouldst +not be persuaded. Verily, if thou wilt not again obey me, being thy +senior, thou shalt have sore bones at my hands. Undress thyself now and +come to bed without delay.” + +Cuculain did so. + +“Thou art as cold as ice,” said Laeg. + +“Nay, I am hotter than fire,” said Cuculain. + +“Thou art ice, I say,” said Laeg, “and thy teeth are clattering like +hailstones on a brazen shield. Ay, and thine eyes shine terribly.” + +Laeg started from the couch. He struck flintsparks upon a rag steeped in +nitre, and waved it to a flame, and kindled a lanthorn. He flung his +own mantle upon the bed and went forth in his shirt. The storm raged +terribly; the stars were dancing in high heaven. He came to the house of +the Chief Leech and beat at the door. The Leech was not in bed. All +the wise men of Emain Macha were awake that night, listening to the +portents. + +“Setanta, son of Sualtam, is sick,” said Laeg. + +“What are his symptoms?” said the Leech. + +“He is colder than ice, his eyes shine terribly, and his teeth clatter, +but he says that he is hotter than fire.” + +The Leech went to Cuculain. “This is not a work for me,” he said, “but +for a seer. Bring hither Cathvah and his Druids.” Cathvah and and his +seers came. They made their symbols of power over the youth and chanted +their incantations and Druid songs. After that Cuculain slept. He slept +for three days and three nights. There was a great stillness while +the boy slept, for it was not lawful at any time for anyone to awake +Cuculain when he slumbered. + +On the third morning Cuculain awoke. The bright morning sunshine was +all around, and the birds sang in Emain Macha. He called for Laeg with a +loud voice and bade him order a division of the boys to get ready their +horses and chariots for charioteering exercise and fighting out of their +cars. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE KNIGHTING OF CUCULAIN + + + “Then felt I like a watcher of the skies + When a new planet swims into his ken.” + + KEATS. + + +The prophecies concerning the coming of some extraordinary warrior +amongst the Red Branch had been many and ancient, and by certain signs +Concobar believed that his time was now near. Often he contemplated his +nephew, observed his beauty, his strength, and his unusual proficiency +in all martial exercises, and mused deeply considering the omens. But +when he saw him slinging and charioteering amongst the rest, shooting +spears and casting battle-stones at a mark before the palace upon the +lawn, and saw him eating and drinking before him nightly in the hall +like another, and heard his clear voice and laughter amongst the boys, +his schoolfellows and comrades, then the thought or the faint surmise or +wish that his nephew might be that promised one passed out of his mind, +for the prophesyings and the rumours had been very great, and men +looked for one who should resemble Lu the Long-Handed, son of Ethlend, +[Footnote: This great deity resembled the Greek Phoebus Apollo. He led +the rebellion of the gods against the Fomorian giants who had previously +reduced them to a condition of intolerable slavery. Some say that he was +Cuculain’s true father. His favourite weapon was the sling, likened here +to the rainbow. It was not a thong or cord sling, but a pliant rod such +as boys in Ireland still make. The milky way was his chain.] whose sling +was like the cloud bow, who thundered and lightened against the giants +of the Fomoroh, who was all power and all skill, whose chain wherewith +he used to confine Tuatha De Danan and Milesians, spanned the midnight +sky. The rumours and prophecies were indeed exceeding great and +Cuculain, though he far surpassed the rest, was but a boy like others. +He stood at the head of Concobar’s horses when the King ascended his +chariot. His shoulder was warm and firm to the touch when the King +lightly laid his hand upon him. + +One night there were terrible portents. All Ireland quaked; there was +a druidic storm under bright stars; the buildings rocked; a brazen +clangour sounded from the Tec Brac; there were mighty tramplings and +cries and a four-footed thunder of giant hoofs, and they went round +Ireland three times, only the third time swifter and like a hurricane +of sound. Cuculain was abroad that night. There was deep sleep upon the +people of Emain, only the chiefs were awake and aware. Cuculain was sick +after that. The Druids stood around his bed. + +“The world labours with the new birth,” said Concobar. “Maybe my nephew +is the forerunner, the herald and announcer of the coming god!” + +One evening, after supper, when the lad came to bid his uncle good-night +as his custom was, he said, “If it be pleasing to thee, my Uncle +Concobar, I would be knighted on the morrow, for I am now of due age, +and owing to the instructions of my tutor, Fergus Mac Roy, and thyself, +and my other teachers and instructors, I am thought to be sufficiently +versed in martial exercises, and able to play a man’s part amongst the +Red Branch.” + +He was now a man’s full height, but his face was a boy’s face, and his +strength and agility amazed all who observed him in his exercises. + +“Has thou heard what Cathvah has predicted concerning the youth who is +knighted on that day?” said the King. + +“Yes,” answered the lad. + +“That he will be famous and short-lived and unhappy?” + +“Truly,” he replied. + +“And doth thy purpose still hold?” + +“Yes,” he answered, “but whether it be mine I cannot tell.” + +Concobar, though unwilling, yielded to that request. + +Loegairey, the Victorious, son of Conud, son of Iliach, the second best +knight of the Red Branch and the most devoted to poetry of them all +came that night into the hall while the rest slumbered. The candles +were flickering in their sockets. Darkness invested the rest of the vast +hollow-sounding chamber, but there was light around the throne and couch +of the King, owing to the splendour of the pillars and of the canopy +shining with bronze, white and red, and silver and gold, and glittering +with carbuncles and diamonds, and owing to the light which always +surrounded the King and encircled his regal head like a luminous cloud, +seen by many. He was looking straight out before him with bright eyes, +considering and consulting for the Red Branch while they slept. Two +great men having their swords drawn in their hands, stood behind him, on +the right and on the left, like statues, motionless and silent. + +Loegairey drew nigh to the King. Distraction and amazement were in his +face. His dense and lustrous hair was dishevelled and in agitation round +his neck and huge shoulders. He held in his hand two long spears with +rings of walrus tooth where the timber met the shank of the flashing +blades; they trembled in his hand. His lips were dry, his voice very +low. + +“There are horses in the stable of Macha,” he said. + +“I know it,” answered the King. + +Concobar called for water, and when he had washed his hands and his +face, he took from its place the chess-board of the realm, arranged the +men, and observed their movements and combinations. He closed the board +and put the men in their net of bronze wire, and restored all to their +place. + +“Great things will happen on the morrow, O grandson of Iliach,” he said. +“Take candles and go before me to the boys’ dormitory.” + +They went to the boys’ dormitory and to the couch of Cuculain. Cuculain +and Laeg were asleep together there. Their faces towards each other and +their hair mingled together. Cuculain’s face was very tranquil, and his +breathing inaudible, like an infant’s. + +“O sweet and serene face,” murmured the King, “I see great clouds of +sorrow coming upon you.” + +They returned to the hall. + +“Go now to thy rest and thy slumber, O Loegairey,” said the King. “When +the curse of Macha descends upon us I know one who will withstand it.” + +“Surely it is not that stripling?” said Loegairey. But the King made no +answer. + +On the morrow there was a great hosting of the Red Branch on the plain +of the Assemblies. It was May-Day morning and the sun shone brightly, +but at first through radiant showers. The trees were putting forth young +buds; the wet grass sparkled. All the martial pomp and glory of the +Ultonians were exhibited that day. Their chariots and war-horses ringed +the plain. All the horses’ heads were turned towards the centre where +were Concobar Mac Nessa and the chiefs of the Red Branch. The plain +flashed with gold, bronze, and steel, and glowed with the bright mantles +of the innumerable heroes, crimson and scarlet, blue, green, or purple. +The huge brooches on their breasts of gold and silver or gold-like +bronze, were like resplendent wheels. Their long hair, yellow for the +most part, was bound with ornaments of gold. Great, truly, were those +men, their like has not come since upon the earth. They were the heroes +and demigods of the heroic age of Erin, champions who feared nought +beneath the sun, mightiest among the mighty, huge, proud, and +unconquerable, and loyal and affectionate beyond all others; all of +the blood of Ir, [Footnote: On account of their descent from Ir, son of +Milesius, the Red Branch were also called the Irians.] son of Milesius, +the Clanna Rury of great renown, rejoicing in their valour, their +splendour, their fame and their peerless king. Concobar had no crown. A +plain circle of beaten gold girt his broad temples. In the naked glory +of his regal manhood he stood there before them all, but even so a +stranger would have swiftly discovered the captain of the Red +Branch, such was his stature, his bearing, such his slowly-turning, +steady-gazing eyes and the majesty of his bearded countenance. His +countenance was long, broad above and narrow below, his nose eminent, +his beard bipartite, curling and auburn in hue, his form without any +blemish or imperfection. + +Cuculain came forth from the palace. He wore that day a short mantle of +pale-red silk bordered with white thread and fastened on the breast +with a small brooch like a wheel of silver. The hues upon that silk were +never the same. His tunic of fine linen was girt at the waist with a +leathern zone, stained to the resemblance of the wild-briar rose. It +descended to but did not pass his beautiful knees, falling into many +plaits. The tunic was cut low at the neck, exposing his throat and the +knot in the throat and the cup-shaped indentation above the breast. On +his feet were comely shoes sparkling with bronze plates. They took the +colour of everything which they approached. His hair fell in many curls +over the pale-red mantle, without adornment or confinement. It was the +colour of the flower which is named after the dearest Disciple, but +which was called sovarchey by the Gael. A tinge of red ran through the +gold. As to his eyes, no two men or women could agree concerning their +colour, for some said they were blue, and some grey, and others hazel; +and there were those who said that they were blacker than the blackest +night that was ever known. Yet again, there were those who said that +they were of all colours named and nameless. They were soft and liquid +splendours, unfathomable lakes of light above his full and ruddy +cheeks, and beneath his curved and most tranquil brows. In form he was +symmetrical, straight and pliant as a young fir tree when the sweet +spring sap fills its veins. So he came to that assembly, in the glory of +youth, beauty, strength, valour, and beautiful shame-fastness, yet proud +in his humility and glittering like the morning star. Choice youths, his +comrades, attended him. The kings held their breaths when he drew nigh, +moving white knee after white knee over the green and sparkling grass. +When the other rites had been performed and the due sacrifices and +libations made, and after Cuculain had put his right hand into the right +hand of the King and become his man, Concobar gave him a shield, +two spears and a sword, weapons of great price and of thrice proved +excellence--a strong man’s equipment. Cuculain struck the spears +together at right angles and broke them. He clashed the sword flat-wise +on the shield. The sword leaped into small pieces and the shield was +bent inwards and torn. + +“These are not good weapons, my King,” said the boy. Then the King gave +him others, larger and stronger and worthy of his best champions. These, +too, the boy broke into pieces in like manner. + +“Son of Nessa, these are still worse,” he said, “nor is it well done, O +Captain of the Red Branch, to make me a laughing-stock in the presence +of this great hosting of the Ultonians.” + +Concobar Mac Nessa exulted exceedingly when he beheld the amazing +strength and the waywardness of the boy, and beneath delicate brows his +eyes glittered like glittering swords as he glanced proudly round on +the crowd of martial men that surrounded him. Amongst them all he seemed +himself a bright torch of valour and war, more pure and clear than +polished steel. He then beckoned to one of his knights, who hastened +away and returned bringing Concobar’s own shield and spears and sword +out of the Tec Brac, where they were kept, an equipment in reserve. And +Cuculain shook them and bent them and clashed them together, but they +held firm. + +“These are good arms, O son of Nessa,” said Cuculain. + +“Choose now thy charioteer,” said the King, “for I will give thee also +war-horses and a chariot.” + +He caused to pass before Cuculain all the boys who in many and severe +tests had proved their proficiency in charioteering, in the management +and tending of steeds, in the care of weapons and steed-harness, and +all that related to charioteering science. Amongst them was Laeg, with +a pale face and dejected, his eyes red and his cheeks stained from much +weeping. Cuculain laughed when he saw him, and called him forth from +the rest, naming him by his name with a loud, clear voice, heard to the +utmost limit of the great host. + +“There was fear upon thee,” said Cuculain. + +“There is fear upon thyself,” answered Laeg. “It was in thy mind that I +would refuse.” + +“Nay, there is no such fear upon me,” said Cuculain. + +“Then there is fear upon me,” said Laeg. “A charioteer needs a champion +who is stout and a valiant and faithful. Yea, truly there is fear upon +me,” answered Laeg. + +“Verily, dear comrade and bed-fellow,” answered Cuculain, “it is through +me that thou shalt get thy death-wound, and I say not this as a vaunt, +but as a prophecy.” + +And that prophecy was fulfilled, for the spear that slew Laeg went +through his master. + +After that Laeg stood by Cuculain’s side and held his peace, but his +face shone with excess of joy and pride. He wore a light graceful frock +of deerskin, joined in the front with a twine of bronze wire, and a +short, dark-red cape, secured by a pin of gold with a ring to it. A band +of gold thread confined his auburn hair, rising into a peak behind his +head. In his hands he held a goad of polished red-yew, furnished with +a crooked hand-grip of gold, and pointed with shining bronze, and where +the bronze met the timber there was a circlet of diamond of the diamonds +of Banba. He had also a short-handled scourge with a haft of walrus +tooth, and the rope, cord, and lash of that scourge were made of +delicate and delicately-twisted thread of copper. This equipment was the +equipment of a proved charioteer; the apprentices wore only grey capes +with white fringes, fastened by loops of red cord. + +Laeg was one of three brothers, all famous charioteers. Id and Sheeling +were the others. They were all three sons of the King of Gabra, whose +bright dun arose upon a green and sloping hill over against Tara +towards the rising of the sun. Thence sprang the beautiful stream of the +Nemnich, rich in lilies and reeds and bulrushes, which to-day men call +the Nanny Water. Laeg was grey-eyed and freckled. + +Then there were led forward by two strong knights a pair of great and +spirited horses and a splendid war-car. The King said, “They are +thine, dear nephew. Well I know that neither thou, nor Laeg, will be a +dishonour to this war equipage.” + +Cuculain sprang into the car, and standing with legs apart, he stamped +from side to side and shook the car mightily, till the axle brake, and +the car itself was broken in pieces. + +“It is not a good chariot,” said the lad. + +Another was led forward, and he broke it in like manner. + +“Give me a sound chariot, High Lord of the Clanna Rury, or give me +none,” he said. “No prudent warrior would fight from such brittle +foothold.” + +He brake in succession nine war chariots, the greatest and strongest in +Emain. When he broke the ninth the horses of Macha neighed from their +stable. Great fear fell upon the host when they heard that unusual noise +and the reverberation of it in the woods and hills. + +“Let those horses be harnessed to the Chariot of Macha,” cried Concobar, +“and let Laeg, son of the King of Gabra, drive them hither, for those +are the horses and that the chariot which shall be given this day to +Cuculain.” + +Then, son of Sualtam, how in thy guileless breast thy heart leaped, when +thou heardest the thundering of the great war-car and the wild neighing +of the immortal steeds, as they broke from the dark stable into the +clear-shining light of day, and heard behind them the ancient roaring +of the brazen wheels as in the days when they bore forth Macha and her +martial groom against the giants of old, and mightily established in +Eiriu the Red Branch of the Ultonians! Soon they rushed to view from +the rear of Emain, speeding forth impetuously out of the hollow-sounding +ways of the city and the echoing palaces into the open, and behind them +in the great car green and gold, above the many-twinkling wheels, the +charioteer, with floating mantle, girt round the temples with the gold +fillet of his office, leaning backwards and sideways as he laboured +to restrain their fury unrestrainable; a grey long-maned steed, +whale-bellied, broad-chested, with mane like flying foam, under one +silver yoke, and a black lustrous, tufty-maned steed under the other, +such steeds as in power, size, and beauty the earth never produced +before and never will produce again. + +Like a hawk swooping along the face of a cliff when the wind is high, or +like the rush of March wind over the smooth plain, or like the fleetness +of the stag roused from his lair by the hounds and covering his first +field, was the rush of those steeds when they had broken through the +restraint of the charioteer, as though they galloped over fiery flags, +so that the earth shook and trembled with the velocity of their motion, +and all the time the great car brayed and shrieked as the wheels +of solid and glittering bronze went round, and strange cries and +exclamations were heard, for they were demons that had their abode in +that car. + +The charioteer restrained the steeds before the assembly, but +nay-the-less a deep purr, like the purr of a tiger, proceeded from the +axle. Then the whole assembly lifted up their voices and shouted for +Cuculain, and he himself, Cuculain, the son of Sualtam, sprang into +his chariot, all armed, with a cry as of a warrior springing into his +chariot in the battle, and he stood erect and brandished his spears, and +the war sprites of the Gael shouted along with him, for the Bocanahs and +Bananahs and the Geniti Glindi, the wild people of the glens, and the +demons of the air, roared around him, when first the great warrior of +the Gael, his battle-arms in his hands, stood equipped for war in his +chariot before all the warriors of his tribe, the kings of the Clanna +Rury and the people of Emain Macha. Then, too, there sounded from the +Tec Brac the boom of shields, and the clashing of swords and the cries +and shouting of the Tuatha De Danan, who dwelt there perpetually; and Lu +the Long-Handed, the slayer of Balor, the destroyer of the Fomoroh, the +immortal, the invisible, the maker and decorator of the Firmament, whose +hound was the sun and whose son the viewless wind, thundered from heaven +and bent his sling five-hued against the clouds; and the son of the +illimitable Lir [Footnote: Mananan mac Lir, the sea-god.] in his mantle +blue and green, foam-fringed passed through the assembly with a roar of +far-off innumerable waters, and the Mor Reega stood in the midst with a +foot on either side of the plain, and shouted with the shout of a host, +so that the Ultonians fell down like reaped grass with their faces to +the earth, on account of the presence of the Mor Reega, and on account +of the omens and great signs. + +Cuculain bade Laeg let the steeds go. They went like a storm and three +times encircled Emain Macha. It was the custom of the Ultonians to march +thrice round Emain ere they went forth to war. + +Then said Cuculain--“Whither leads the great road yonder?” + +“To Ath-na-Forairey and the borders of the Crave Rue.” + +“And wherefore is it called the Ford of the Watchings?” said Cuculain. + +“Because,” answered Laeg, “there is always one of the King’s knights +there, keeping watch and ward over the gate of the province.” + +“Guide thither the horses,” said Cuculain, “for I will not lay aside my +arms till I have first reddened them in the blood of the enemies of my +nation. Who is it that is over the ward there this day?” + +“It is Conall Carnach,” said Laeg. + +As they drew nigh to the ford, the watchman from his high watch-tower on +the west side of the dun sent forth a loud and clear voice-- + +“There is a chariot coming to us from Emain Macha,” he said. “The +chariot is of great size; I have not seen its like in all Eiriu. In +front of it are two horses, one black and one white. Great is their +trampling and their glory and the shaking of their heads and necks. +I liken their progress to the fall of water from a high cliff or the +sweeping of dust and beech-tree leaves over a plain, when the March wind +blows hard, or to the rapidity of thunder rattling over the firmament. A +man would say that there were eight legs under each horse, so rapid and +indistinguishable is the motion of their limbs and hoofs. Identify those +horses, O Conall, and that chariot, for to me they are unknown.” + +“And to me likewise,” said Conall. “Who are in the chariot? Moderate, O +man, the extravagance of thy language, for thou art not a prophet but a +watchman.” + +“There are two beardless youths in the chariot,” answered the watchman, +“but I am unable to identify them on account of the dust and the rapid +motion and the steam of the horses. I think the charioteer is Laeg, the +son of the King of Gabra, for I know his manner of driving. The boy who +sits in front of him and below him on the champion’s seat I do not know, +but he shines like a star in the cloud of dust and steam.” Then a young +man who stood near to Conall Carna, wearing a short, red cloak with a +blue hood to it, and a tassel at the point of the hood, said to Conall-- + +“If it be my brother that charioteers sure am I that it is Cuculain who +is in the fighter’s seat, for many a time have I heard Laeg utter foul +scorn of the Red Branch, none excepted, when compared with Sualtam’s +son. For no other than him would he deign to charioteer. Truly though he +is my own brother there is not such a boaster in the North.” + +Then the watchman cried out again-- + +“Yea, the charioteer is the son of the King of Gabra, and it is +Cuculain, the son of Sualtam, who sits in the fighter’s seat. He has +Concobar’s own shield on his breast, and his two spears in his hand. +Over Bray Ros, over Brainia, they are coming along the highway, by the +foot of the Town of the Tree; it is gifted with victories.” + +“Have done, O talkative man,” cried Conall, “whose words are like the +words of a seer, or the full-voiced intonement of a chief bard.” + +When the chariot came to the ford, Conall was amazed at the horses and +the chariot, but he dissembled his amazement before his people, and when +he saw Cuculain armed, he laughed and said,-- + +“Hath the boy indeed taken arms?” + +And Cuculain said, “It is as thou seest, O son of Amargin; and moreover, +I have sworn not to let them back into the Chamber-of-Many-Colours +[Footnote: Tec Brac or Speckled House, the armoury of the Ultonians.] +until I shall have first reddened them in the blood of the enemies of +Ulla.” + +Then Conall ceased laughing and said, “Not so, Setanta, for verily thou +shalt not be permitted;” and the great Champion sprang forward to lay +his fearless, never-foiled, and all conquering hands on the bridles +of the horses, but at a nod from Cuculain, Laeg let the steeds go, and +Conall sprang aside out of the way, so terrible was the appearance of +the horses as they reared against him. “Harness my horses and yoke my +chariot,” cried Conall, “for if this mad boy goes into the enemies’ +country and meets with harm there, verily I shall never be forgiven by +the Ultonians.” + +His horses were harnessed and his chariot yoked,--illustrious too were +those horses, named and famed in many songs--and Conall and Ide in their +chariot dashed through the ford enveloped with rainbow-painted clouds +of foam and spray, and like hawks on the wing they skimmed the plain, +pursuing the boys. Laeg heard the roar and trampling, and looking back +over his shoulder, said,-- + +“They are after us, dear master, namely the great son of Amargin and my +haughty brother Ide, who hath ever borne himself to me as though I were +a wayward child. They would spoil upon us this our brave foray. But they +will overtake the wind sooner than they will overtake the Liath Macha +and Black Shanglan, whose going truly is like the going of eagles. O +storm-footed steeds, great is my love for you, and inexpressible my +pride in your might and your beauty, your speed and your terror, and +sweet docility and affection.” + +“Nevertheless, O Laeg,” said Cuculain, “slacken now their going, for +that Champion will be an impediment to us in our challengings and our +fightings; for when we stop for that purpose he will overtake us, and, +be our feats what they may, his and not ours will be the glory. Slacken +the going of the horses, for we must rid ourselves of the annoyance and +the pursuit of these gadflies.” + +Laeg slackened the pace, and as they went Cuculain leaped lightly from +his seat and as lightly bounded back again, holding a great pebble in +his hand, such as a man using all his strength could with difficulty +raise from the ground, and sat still, rejoicing in his purpose, and +grasping the pebble with his five fingers. + +Conall and Ide came up to them after that, and Conall, as the senior and +the best man amongst the Ultonians, clamorously called to them to turn +back straightway, or he would hough their horses, or draw the linch-pins +of their wheels, or in some other manner bring their foray to naught. +Cuculain thereupon stood upright in the car, and so standing, with feet +apart to steady him in his throwing and in his aim, dashed the stone +upon the yoke of Conall’s chariot between the heads of the horses and +broke the yoke, so that the pole fell to the ground and the chariot +tilted forward violently. Then the charioteer fell amongst the horses, +and Conall Carna, the beauty of the Ultonians the battle-winning and +ever-victorious son of Amargin, was shot out in front upon the road, and +fell there upon his left shoulder, and his beautiful raiment was defiled +with dust; and when he arose his left hand hung by his side, for the +shoulder-bone was driven from the socket, owing to the violence of the +fall. + +“I swear by all my gods,” he cried, “that if a step would save thy head +from the hands of the men of Meath, I would not take it.” + +Cuculain laughed and replied, “Good, O Conall, and who asked thee to +take it, or craved of thee any succour or countenance? Was it a straight +shot? Are there the materials of a fighter in me at all, dost thou +think? Thou art in my debt now too, O Conall. I have saved thee a +broken vow, for it is one of the oaths of our Order not to enter hostile +territory with brittle chariot-gear!” + +Then the boys laughed at him again, and Laeg let go the steeds, and +very soon they were out of sight. Conall returned slowly with his broken +chariot to Ath-na-Forairey and sent for Fingin of Slieve Fuad, who was +the most cunning physician and most expert of bone-setters amongst the +Ultonians. Conall’s messengers experienced no difficulty in finding the +house of the leech, which was very recognisable on account of its shape +and appearance, and because it had wide open doors, four in number, +affording a liberal ingress and free thoroughfare to all the winds. Also +a stream of pure water ran through the house, derived from a well of +healing properties, which sprang from the side of the uninhabited hill. +Such were the signs that showed the house of a leech. + +When they drew nigh they heard the voice of one man talking and of +another who laughed. It happened that that day there had been borne +thither a champion, in whose body there was not one small bone unbroken +or uninjured. The man’s bruises and fractures had been dressed and set +by Fingin and his intelligent and deft-handed apprentices, and he lay +now in his bed of healing listening joyfully to the conversation of +the leech, who was beyond all others eloquent and of most agreeable +discourse. + +When Conall’s messengers related the reason of their coming, Fingin +cried to his young men, “Harness me my horses and yoke my chariot. There +are few,” he said, “in Erin for whom I would leave my own house, but +that youth is one of them. His father Amargin was well known to me. He +was a warrior grim and dour exceedingly, and he ever said concerning +the boy, ‘This hound’s whelp that I have gotten is too fine and sleek +to hold bloody gaps or hunt down a noble prey. He will be a women’s +playmate and not a peer amongst Heroes.’ And that fear was ever upon him +till the day when Conall came red out of the Valley of the Thrush, and +his track thence to Rath-Amargin was one straight path of blood, and +he with his shield-arm hacked to the bone, his sword-arm swollen and +bursting, and the flame of his valour burning bright in his splendid +eyes. Then, for the first time, the old man smiled upon him, and he +said, ‘That arm, my son, has done a man’s work to-day.’” + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ACROSS THE MEARINGS AND AWAY + + + “Say, rushed the bold eagle exultingly forth. + From his home, in the dark rolling clouds of the North?” + + CAMPBELL. + + +As for the boys, they proceeded joyfully after that pleasant skirmish +and friendly encounter, both on account of the discomfiture of him who +was reckoned the prime champion of the Ultonians, and because they were +at large in Erin, with no one to direct them, or to whom they should +render an account; and their happiness, too, was increased by the +mettle, power and gallant action of the steeds, and by the clanking of +the harness and the brazen chains, and the ringing of the weapons of +war, and the roar of the revolving wheels, and owing to the velocity of +their motion and the rushing of the wind upon their temples and through +their hair. + +Then Cuculain stood up in the chariot, and surveyed the land on all +sides, and said-- + +“What is that great, firm-based, indestructible mountain upon our left +hand, one of a noble range which, rising from the green plain, runs +eastward. The last peak there is the mountain of which I speak, whose +foot is in the Ictian sea and whose head neighbours the firmament.” + +And Laeg said, “Men call it Slieve Modurn, after a giant of the elder +time, when men were mightier and greater than they are now. He was of +the children of Brogan, uncle of Milesius, and his brothers were +Fuad and Eadar and Breagh, and all these being very great men +are commemorated in the names of noble mountains and sea-dividing +promontories.” + +“Guide thither the horses,” said Cuculain. “It is right that those who +take the road against an enemy should first spy out the land, choosing +judiciously their point of onset, and Slieve Modurn yonder commands a +most brave prospect.” + +Laeg did so. There, in a green valley, they unharnessed the horses and +tethered them to graze, and they themselves climbed the mountain and +stood upon the top in the most clear air. Thence Laeg showed him the +green plain of Meath extending far and wide, and the great streams of +Meath where they ran, the Boyne and the Blackwater, the Liffey and the +Royal Rye, and his own stream the Nanny Water, clear and sparkling, +which was very dear to Laeg, because he had snared fish there and +erected dams, and had done divers boyish feats upon its shores. + +Cuculain said, “I see a beautiful green hill, shaped like an inverted +ewer, on the south shore of the Boyne. There is a noble palace there. +I see the flashing of its lime-white sides, and the colours of the +variegated roof and around it are other beautiful houses. How is that +city named O Laeg, and who dwells there?” + +“That is the hill of Temair,” answered Laeg, “Tara’s high citadel. Well +may that city be beautiful, for the seat of Erin’s high sovereignty is +there. The man who holds it is Arch-king of all Erin.” + +“Westward by south,” said Cuculain, “I see another city widely built, +and unenclosed by ramparts and defensive works, and hard by there is a +most smooth plain. At one end of the plain I see a glittering, and also +at the other.” + +And Laeg said, “That is the hill of Talteen, so named because the mother +of far-shooting Lu, the Deliverer, is worshipped there, and every year, +when the leaves change their colour, games and contests of skill are +celebrated there in her honour. So it was enjoined on the men of Erin +by her famous son. Chariot races are run there on that smooth plain. +The glittering points on either side of it are the racing pillars of +burnished brass, the starting-post, and that which the charioteers graze +with the glowing axle. Many a noble chariot has been broken, and many +a gallant youth slain at the further of those twain. It was there that +Concobar raced his steeds against the woman with child, concerning which +things there are rumours and prophesyings.” + +So Cuculain questioned Laeg concerning the cities of Meath, and +concerning the noble raths and duns where the kings and lords and +chief men of Meath dwelt prosperously, rejoicing in their great wealth. +Cuculain said, “None of these kings and lords and chief men whom thou +hast enumerated have at any time injured my nation, and there is not one +upon whom I might rightly take vengeance. But I see one other splendid +dun, and of this thou hast said no word, though thrice I have questioned +thee concerning it.” + +Laeg grew pale at these words, and he said, + +“What dun is that, my master?” + +Cuculain said, “O fox that thou art, right well thou knowest. It is not +a little or mean one, but great, proud, and conspicuous, and vauntingly +it rears its head like a man who has never known defeat, but on the +contrary has caused many widows to lament. Its white sides flashed +against the dark waters of the Boyne, and its bright roofs glitter above +the green woods. There is a stream that runs into the Boyne beside it, +and there are bulwarks around it, and great strong barriers.” + +Laeg answered, “That is the dun of the sons of Nectan.” + +“Let us now leave Slieve Modurn,” said Cuculain, “and guide thither my +horses, for I shall lay waste that dun, and burn it with fire, after +having slain the men who dwell there.” + +Then Laeg clasped his comrade’s knees, and said, “Take the road, dear +master, against the royalest dun in all Meath, but pass by that dun. +The men are not alive to-day who at any time approached it with warlike +intent. Those who dwell there are sorcerers and enchanters, lords of all +the arts of poison and of war.” + +Cuculain answered, “I swear by my gods that Dun-Mic-Nectan is the only +dun in all Meath which shall hear my warlike challenge this day. Descend +the hill now, for verily thither shalt thou fare, and that whether thou +art willing or unwilling.” + +Now, for the first time, his valour and his destructive wrath were +kindled in the soul of Dethcaen’s nursling. Laeg saw the tokens of it, +and feared and obeyed. Unwillingly he came down the slopes of Slieve +Modurn, and unwillingly harnessed the horses and yoked the chariot, +and yoked the horses. Southwards, then, they fared swiftly through the +night, and the intervening nations heard them as they went. When they +arrived at the dun of the sons of Nectan it was twilight and the dawning +of the day. Before the dun there was a green and spacious lawn in full +view of the palace, and on the lawn a pillar and on the pillar a huge +disc of shining bronze. Cuculain descended and examined the disc, and +there was inscribed on it in ogham a curse upon the man who should enter +that lawn and depart again without battle and single combat with the men +of the dun. Cuculain took the disc from its place and cast it from him +southwards. The brazen disc skimmed low across the plain and then soared +on high until it showed to those who looked a full, bright face, like +the moon’s, after which, pausing one moment, it fell sheer down and sank +into the dark waters of the Boyne, without a sound, or at all disturbing +the tranquil surface of the great stream, and was no more seen. + +“That bright lure,” said Cuculain, “shall no more be a cause of death to +brave men. This lawn, O Laeg, is surely the richest of all the lawns in +the world. Close-enwoven and thick is the mantle of short green grass +which it wears, decked all over with red-petalled daisies and bright +flowers more numerous than the stars on a frosty night.” + +“That is not surprising,” said Laeg, “for the lawn is enriched and made +fat by the blood that has been shed abundantly now for a long time, the +blood of heroes and valiant men--slain here by the people of the dun. +Very rich too, are the men, both on account of their strippings of the +slain, and on account of the druidic well of magic which is within the +dun. For the people come from far and near to pay their vows at that +well, and they give costly presents to those sorcerers who are priests +and custodians of the same.” + +“Noble, indeed, is the dun,” said Cuculain. “But it is yet early, for +the sun is not yet risen from his red-flaming eastern couch, and the +people of the dun, too, are in their heavy slumber. I would repose now +for a while and rest myself before the battles and hard combats which +await me this day. Wherefore, good Laeg, let down the sides and seats +of the chariot, that I may repose myself for a little and take a short +sleep.” + +For just then precisely an unwonted drowsiness and desire for slumber +possessed Cuculain. + +“Witless and devoid of sense art thou,” answered Laeg, “for who but +an idiot would think of sweet sleep and agreeable repose in a hostile +territory, much more in full view of those who look out from a foeman’s +dun, and that dun, Dun-Mic-Nectan?” + +“Do as I bid thee,” said Cuculain. “For one day, if for no other, thou +shalt obey my commands.” + +Laeg unyoked the chariot and turned the great steeds forth to graze on +the druidic lawn, which was never done before at any time. He let +down the chariot and arranged it as a couch, and his young master laid +himself therein, composing his limbs and pillowing tranquilly his head, +and he closed his immortal eyes. Very soon sweet slumber possessed him. +Laeg meanwhile kept watch and ward, and his great heart in his breast +continually trembled like the leaf of the poplar tree, or like a rush in +a flooded stream. The awakening birds unconscious sang in the trees, the +dew glittered on the grass; hard by the royal Boyne rolled silently. +The son of Sualtam slumbered without sound or motion, and the charioteer +stood beside him upright, like a pillar, his grey bright eyes fixed upon +the house of the sorcerers, the merciless, bloody, and ever-victorious +sons of Nectan, the son of Labrad. + +Of the people of the dun, Foil, son of Nectan, was the first to awake. +It was his custom to wander forth by himself early in the morning, +devising snares and stratagems by which he might take and destroy men at +his leisure. He was more cruel than anything. By him the great door of +the dun, bound and rivetted with brass, was flung open. With one hand he +backshot the bar, which rushed into its chamber with a roar and crash +as of a great house when it falls, and with the other he drew back the +door. It grated on its brazen hinges, and on the iron threshold, with a +noise like thunder. Then Foil stood black and huge in the wide doorway +of the dun, and he looked at Laeg and Laeg looked at him. The man +was ugly and fierce of aspect. His hair was thick and black; he was +bull-necked and large-eared. His mantle was black, bordered with dark +red; his tunic, a dirty yellow, was splashed with recent blood. There +were great shoes on his feet soled with wood and iron. In his hand he +bore a staff of quick-beam, as it were a full-grown tree without its +branches. He being thus, strode forward in an ungainly manner to Laeg, +and with a surly voice bade him drive the horses off the lawn. + +“Drive them off thyself,” said Laeg. + +He sought to do that, but owing to the behaviour of the steeds, he +desisted right soon, and turned again to Laeg. + +“Who is the sleeping youth?” said he, “and wherefore hath he come hither +in an evil hour?” + +“He is a certain mild and gentle youth of the Ultonians,” replied Laeg, +“who yester morning prosperously assumed his arms of chivalry for the +first time, and hath come hither to prove his valour upon the sons of +Nectan.” + +“Many youths of his nation have come hither with the same intent,” said +the giant, “but they did not return.” + +“This youth will,” said Laeg, “after having slain the sons of Nectan, +and after having sacked their dun and burned it with fire.” + +Foil hearing that word became very angry, and he gripped his great +staff and advanced to make a sudden end of Laeg first, and then of the +sleeper, Laeg, on his side, drew Cuculain’s sword. Hardly and using all +his strength, could he do so and at the same time hold himself in an +attitude of defence and attack, but he succeeded. His aspect, too, was +high and warlike, and his eyes shone menacingly the while his heart +trembled, for he knew too well that he was no match for the man. + +“Go back now for thy weapons of war,” he cried, “and all thy +war-furniture, and thy instruments of sorcery and enchantment. Truly +thou art in need of them all.” + +When Foil saw how the enormous sword flashed in the lad’s hand, and saw +the fierceness of his visage and heard his menacing words, he returned +to the dun. The people of the dun were now awake, and they clustered +like bees on the slope of the mound, and in the covered ways beneath +the eaves and along the rampart, and they hissed and roared and shouted +words of insult and contumely, lewd and gross, concerning Laeg and +concerning that other youth who slept in such a place and at such a +time. But Laeg stood still and silent, with his eyes fixed on the dun, +and with the point of his sword leaning on the ground, for his right +hand was weary on account of its great weight. Very ardently he longed +that his master should awake out of that unreasonable slumber. Yet he +made no attempt to rouse him, for it was unlawful to awake Cuculain +when he slept. Conspicuous amongst the people of the dun were Foil’s +brethren, Tuatha and Fenla, Tuatha vast in bulk, and Fenla, tall and +swift, wearing a mantle of pale blue. Around Fenla stood the three +cup-bearers, who drew water from the magic well, Flesc, Lesc, and Leam +were their names. At the same time that Foil reappeared in the doorway +of the dun, fully armed and equipped for battle, Cuculain awoke and +sat up. At first he was dazed and bewildered, for divine voices were +sounding in his ears, and fleeting visionary presences were departing +from him. Then he heard the people how they shouted and saw his enemy +descending the slope of the dun, sights and sounds indeed diverse from +those his dreams and visions. With a cry he started from his bed, like +a deer starting from his lair, and the people of the dun fell suddenly +silent when they beheld the velocity of his movements, the splendour of +his beauty, and the rapidity with which he armed himself and stood forth +for war. + +“That champion is Foil, son of Nectan,” said Laeg, “and there is not +one in the world with whom it is more difficult to contend both in other +respects and chiefly in this, that there is but one weapon wherewith he +may be slain. To all others he is invulnerable. That weapon is an iron +ball having magic properties, and no man knows where to look for it, +or where the man hath hidden it away. And O my dear master, thou goest +forth to certain death going forth against that man.” + +“Have no fear on that account,” said Cuculain, “for it has been revealed +to me where he hides it. It is a ges to him to wear it always on his +breast above his armour, but beneath his mantle and tunic. There it is +suspended by a strong chain of brass around his neck. With that ball I +shall slay him in the manner in which I have been directed by those who +visited me while I slept.” + +Then they fought, and in the first close so vehement was the onset of +Foil, that Cuculain could do no more than defend himself, and around the +twain sparks flew up in showers as from a smithy where a blacksmith and +his lusty apprentices strongly beat out the red iron. The second was +similar to the first, and equally without results. In the third close +Cuculain, having sheathed his sword, sprang upwards and dashed his +shield into the giant’s face, and at the same time he tore from its +place of concealment the magic ball, rending mightily the brazen chain. +And he leaped backwards, and taking a swift aim, threw. The ball flew +from the young hero’s hand like a bolt from a sling, and it struck the +giant in the middle of the forehead below the rim of his helmet, but +above his blazing eyes, and the ball crashed through the strong frontal +bone, and tore its way through the hinder part of his head, and went +forth, carrying the brains with it in its course, so that there was a +free tunnel and thoroughfare for all the winds of heaven there. With a +crash and a ringing, armour and weapons, the giant fell upon the +plain and his blood poured forth in a torrent there where he himself +invulnerable had shed the blood of so many heroes. Laeg rejoiced greatly +at that feat, and with a loud voice bade the men of the dun bring forth +their next champion. This was Tuatha the second son of Nectan, and the +fiercest of the three, he buffeted his esquires and gillas, while they +armed him, so that it was a sore task for them to clasp and strap and +brace his armour upon him that day, for their faces were bloody from his +hands, and the floor of the armoury was strewn with their teeth. That +armour was a marvel and astonishment to all who saw it, so many thick, +hard skins of wild oxen of the mountains had been stitched together to +furnish forth the champion’s coat of mail. It was strengthened, too, +with countless bars and rings of brass sewed fast to it all over, and +it encompassed the whole of his mighty frame, from his shoulders to his +feet. The helmet and neckpiece were one, wrought in like manner, only +stronger. The helmet covered his face. There was no opening there +save breathing slits and two round holes through which his eyes shone +terribly. On his feet were strong shoes bound with brass. To any other +man but himself this armour would have been an encumbrance, for it was +good and sufficient loading for a car drawn by one yoke of oxen; but so +clad, this man was aware of no unusual weight. When they had clasped him +and braced him to his satisfaction, and, indeed, that was not easy, they +put upon him his tunic of dusky grey, and over that his mantle of dark +crimson, and fastened it on his breast with a brooch whose wheel alone +would task one man’s full strength to lift from the ground. + +Then Tuatha went forth out of the dun, and when his people saw him they +shouted mightily, for before that they had been greatly dismayed, and +cast down on account of the slaying of Foil, whom till then they had +deemed invincible. They were all males dwelling here together in sorcery +and common lust for blood. No woman brightened their dark assemblies +and the voice of a child was never heard within the dun or around it. So +they rejoiced greatly when they beheld Tuatha and saw him how wrathfully +he came forth, breathing slaughter, and heard his voice; for terribly +he shouted as he strode down from the dun, and he banned and cursed +Cuculain and Laeg, and devoted them to his gloomy gods. Beneath his feet +the massive timbers of the drawbridge bent and creaked. + +Said Laeg, “This man, O dear Setanta, is far more terrible than the +first, for he is said to be altogether invulnerable and proof against +any weapon that was ever made.” + +“It is not altogether thus,” said Cuculain, “but if the man escapes the +first stroke he is thenceforward invincible, and surely slays his foe. +Therefore give into my hand Concobar’s unendurable and mighty ashen +spear, for I must make an end of him at one cast or not at all.” + +Tuatha now rushed upon Cuculain, flinging darts, of which he carried +many in his left hand. Not one of them did Cuculain attempt to take upon +his shield, but altogether eluded them, for now he swerved to one side +and now to another, and now he dropped on one knee and again sprang +high in air, so that the missile hurtled and hissed between his gathered +feet. Truly since the beginning of the world there was not, and to the +end of the world there will not be, a better leaper than thy nursling, +daughter of Cathvah; and behind him all the lawn was as it were sown +thick with spears, and these so buried in the earth that two-thirds of +their length was concealed and a third only projected slantwise from the +green and glittering sward. When the man with all his force, fury, and +venom had discharged his last shaft and seen it, too, shoot screaming +beneath the aerial feet of the hero, he roared so terribly that the +shores and waters of the Boyne and the surrounding woods and groves +returned a hollow moan, and, laying his right hand on the hand-grip of +his sword, he rushed upon Cuculain. At that moment Cuculain poised the +broad-bladed spear of Concobar Mac Nessa and cast it at the man, who was +now very near, and came rushing on like a storm, having his vast sword +drawn and flashing. That cast no one could rightly blame whether as to +force or direction, for the brazen blade caught the son of Nectan full +on breast under the left pap and tore through his thick and strong +armour and burst three rib bones, and fixed itself in his heart, so that +he fell first upon his knees, stumbling forward, and then rolled over +on the plain and a torrent of black blood gushed from his mouth and +nostrils. + +“That was indeed a brave cast,” said Laeg, “for the coat is the +thickness of seven bulls’ hides, and plated besides, and the rib-bones, +through which Concobar’s great spear impelled by thee hath burst his +victorious way, are stronger than the thigh-bones of a horse; but pluck +out the spear now, for it is beyond my power to do so, and stand well +upon thy guard, for the two combats past will be as child’s play to +that which now awaits thee. Fenla, the third son of Nectan, is preparing +himself for battle. He is called the Swallow, because there is not a +man in the world swifter to retreat, or swifter to pursue. He is more at +home in the water than on the dry land, for through it he dives like a +water-dog, and glides like an eel, and rushes like a salmon when in the +spring-time he seeks the upper pools. Greatly I fear that his challenge +and defiance will be to do battle with him there, where no man born of +woman can meet him and live.” + +“Say not so, O Laeg,” said Cuculain, “and be not so afraid and cast +down, but still keep a cheerful heart in thy breast and a high and brave +countenance before the people of the dun. For my tutor Fergus paid a +good heed to my education in the whole art of war and especially as to +swimming. He is himself a most noble swimmer and I have profited by his +instructions. Once he put me to the test. It was in the great swimming +bath in the Callan, dug out, it is said, by the Firbolgs in the ancient +days, and the trial was in secret and its issue has not been revealed to +this day. On that occasion I swam round the bath holding two well-grown +boys in my right arm and two in my left, and there was a fifth sitting +on my shoulders with his hands clasped on my forehead, and my back was +not wetted by the Callan. Therefore dismiss thy fear and answer thou +their challenge with a strong voice and a cheerful countenance.” + +Laeg did that and he answered their challenge with a voice that rang, +striking fear into the hearts of those who heard him. Forthwith, then, +Fenla, wearing sword and shield, sprang at a bound over the rampart and +foss, and his course thence to the Boyne was like a flash of blue and +white and he plunged into the dark stream like a bright spear, and +diving beneath the flood he emerged a great way off, and cried aloud for +his foe. + +“I am here,” cried Cuculain, at his side. “Cease thy shouting and look +to thyself, for it is not my custom to take advantage of any man.” + +Marvellous and terrible was the battle which then ensued between these +champions. For the spray and the froth and the flying spume of the +convulsed and agitated waters around that warring twain, rose in white +clouds, and owing to the fierceness of the combat and the displacement +of the waters around them, the Boyne on either hand beat her green +margin with sudden and unusual billows, for the divine river was taken +with a great surprise on that occasion. Amid the roar of the waters ever +sounded the dry clash of the meeting swords and the clang of the smitten +shields and the ringing of helmets. Sometimes one champion would dive +seeking an advantage, and the other would dive too, in order to elude +or meet the assault. Then the frothing surface of the stream would +clear itself, and the Boyne run dark as before, though the mounted water +showed that the combat still raged in its depths. The swallows, too, had +been scared away, returning, skimmed the surface, and the bird which +is the most beautiful of all darted a bright streak low across the dark +water. Anon the submerged champions, coming to the surface for breath, +renewed their deadly combat amid foaming waters and clouds of spray. +The full particulars of this combat are not related, only that the +wizard-champion grew weaker, while his vigour and strength continued +unabated with the son of Sualtam, and that in the end he slew the other, +and in the sight of all he cut off his head and flung it from the middle +Boyne to the shore, and that the headless trunk of Fenla, son of Nectan, +floated down-stream to the sea. When the people of the dun saw that, +they brake forth west-ward and fled. Then Cuculain and Laeg invaded the +dun, and they burst open the doors of the strong chambers, and of the +dungeons beneath the earth, and let loose the prisoners and the hostages +and the prepared victims, and they broke the idols and the instruments +of sorcery, and filled in the well. After that they replenished the +vacant places of the war-car with things the most precious and such as +were portable, and gave all the rest to the liberated captives for a +prey. Last of all they applied fire to the vast dun, and quickly the +devouring flames shot heavenward, fed with pine and red yew, and rolled +forth a mighty pillar of black smoke, reddened with rushing sparks and +flaming embers. The men of Tara saw it, and the men of Tlatga, and +of Tailteen, and of Ben-Eadar, and they consulted their prophets and +wizards as to what this portent might mean, for it was not a little +smoke that the burning of Dun-Mic-Nectan sent forth that day. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE RETURN OF CUCULAIN + + + “The golden gates of sleep unbar + When strength and beauty met together + Kindle their image like a star + In a sea of glassy weather.” + + SHELLEY. + + +Then Laeg harnessed the horses and yoked the chariot. To the brazen +peaks of the chariot he fastened the heads of Foil and of Tuatha, with +Foil’s on the left hand and Tuatha’s on the right; and the long-haired +head of the water-wizard he made fast by its own hair to the ornament of +silver that was at the forward extremity of the great chariot pole. When +this was done, and when he had secured his master’s weapons and warlike +equipments in their respective places, the youths ascended the chariot, +and Laeg shook the ringing reins and called to the steeds to go, and +they went, and soon they were on the hard highway straining forward to +the north. The sound of the war-car behind them outroared the roaring +of the flames. Cuculain was a pale red all over, for ere the last combat +was at an end that pool of the Boyne was like one bath of blood. His +eyes blazed terribly in his head, and his face was fearful to look upon. +Like a reed in a river so he quaked and trembled, and there went out +from him a moaning like the moaning of winds through deep woods or +desolate glens, or over the waste places of the earth when darkness is +abroad. For the war-fury which the Northmen named after the Barserkers +enwrapped and inflamed him, body and spirit, owing to those strenuous +combats, and owing to the venom and the poison which exhaled from those +children of sorcery, that spawn of Death and Hell, so that his gentle +mind became as it were the meeting-place of storms and the confluence of +shouting seas. A man ran before him whose bratta on the wind roared +like fire, and there was a sound of voices calling and acclaiming, and a +noontide darkness descended upon him and accompanied him as he went, and +all became obscure and shapeless, and all the ways were murk. And +the mind of Laeg, too, was disturbed and shaken loose from its strong +foundations. + +“But now,” said Cuculain, “there ran a man before us. Him I do not see, +but what is this herd of monstrous deer, sad-coloured and livid, as with +horns and hoofs of iron? I have not seen such at any time. Lurid fire +plays round them as they flee.” + +“No deer of the earth are they,” said Laeg. “They are the enchanted herd +of Slieve Fuad, and from their abode subterrene they have come up late +into the world surrounded by night that they may graze upon Eiriu’s +plains, and it is not lawful even to look upon them.” + +“Pursue and run down those deer,” said Cuculain. + +“There is fear upon me,” said Laeg. + +“Alive or dead thou shalt come with me on this adventure, though it lead +us into the mighty realms of the dead,” cried Cuculain. + +Laeg relaxed his hands upon the reins and let the steeds go, and they +chased the enchanted herd of Slieve Fuad. There was no hunting seen like +that before in Erin. So vehement was the chase that a twain of the herd +was run down and they upon their knees and sobbing. Cuculain sprang from +the chariot and he made fast one of the deer to the pole of the chariot +to run before, and on to the hinder part of it to run behind. So they +went northward again with a deer of the herd of Hell running before them +and another following behind. + +“What are those birds whiter than snow and more brilliant than stars,” + said then Cuculain, “which are before us upon the plain, as if Heaven +with its astral lights and splendour were outspread before us there?” + +“They are the wild geese of the enchanted flocks of Lir,” answered Laeg. +“From his vast and ever-during realms beneath the sea they have come up +through the dim night to feed on Banba’s plains. Have nought to do with +those birds, dear master.” + +Cuculain stood up in his chariot with his sling in his hand, and he +fitted thereto small bolts, and slang. He did not make an end before he +had overthrown and laid low three score of the birds of Lir. + +“Go bring me those birds,” said he to Laeg. The horses were plunging +terribly when he said that. + +“I may not, O my master,” said Laeg. “For even now, and with the reins +in my hand, I am unable to restrain their fury and their madness, to +such a degree have their noble minds been disturbed by the sorcery and +the druidism and the enchantment with which they are surrounded. And +I fear that soon the brazen wheels will fail me, or that the axle-tree +will fail me by reason of their collidings with the rocks and cliffs of +the land, when the horses shall have escaped from my control and shall +have rushed forth like hurricanes over the earth.” + +Forthwith Cuculain sprang out in front of the chariot, and seized them +by their mouths and they in their rearing, and with his hands bowed down +their heads to the earth, and they knew their master and stood still +while they quaked. Laeg collected the birds, and Cuculain secured +them to the chariot and to the harness. The birds returned to life +and Cuculain cut the binding cords, so that the birds flew over and on +either side of the chariot, and singing besides. + +In that manner, speeding northward, Cuculain and Laeg drew nigh to +Emain Macha. Concobar and the Ultonians happened at that very time to +be seeking a druidic response from the prophetess Lavarcam concerning +Cuculain and concerning Laeg, for their minds misgave them that beyond +the mearings of the Province the lads had come to some hurt, and +Lavarcam, answering them, said: + + “Look to yourselves now ye children of Rury, + Your destruction and the end of your career are at hand. + Close all gates, shoot every bar. + For Dethcaen’s nursling, Sualtam’s son, draweth nigh. + + “Verily he is not hurt, but he hath wounded. + Champions the mightiest + he hath victoriously overthrown. + Though he come swiftly it is not in flight. + Take good heed now while there is time. + He cometh like night in raiment of darkness, + Starry singing flocks are round his head, + Soon,O Concobar, his unendurable hand will be upon you; + Soon your dead will outnumber your living.” + +“Close all the gates of Emain,” cried Concobar, “and treble-bar all +with bars. Look to your weapons ye heroes of the Red Branch. Man the +ramparts, and let every bridge be raised.” + +So the high king shouted, and his voice rang through the vast and high +dun and rolled along the galleries and far-stretching corridors, and was +heard by the women of Ulla in their secluded chambers. And at the same +time the watchman from the watch-tower cried out. Then the women held +council together, and they said: + +“Moats and ramparts and strong doors will not repel Cuculain. He will +surely o’erleap the moat and burst through the doors and slay many.” + +And as they debated together they said that they alone would save the +city and defeat the war-demons who had Cuculain in their power. For they +said--“His virginity is with him, and his beautiful shamefastness, and +his humility and reverence for women, whether they be old or young, and +whether they be comely or not comely. And this was his way always, and +now more than formerly since young love hath descended upon him in the +form of Emer, daughter of Fargal Manach, King of Lusk in the south.” + +Then the women of the Ultonians did a great and memorable deed, and such +as was not known to have been done at any time in Erin. + +They bade all the men retire into the dun after they had lowered the +bridge; and when that was done three tens of them, such as were the most +illustrious in rank and famous for accomplishments, and they all in the +prime of their youth and beauty, and clad only in the pure raiment of +their womanhood, came forth out of the quarters of the women, and in +that order, in spite of shame they went to meet him. When Cuculain saw +them advancing towards him in lowly wise, with exposed bosom and hands +crossed on their breasts, his weapons fell from his hands and the +war-demons fled out of him, and low in the chariot he bent down his +noble head. By them he was conducted into the dun, into a chamber which +they had prepared for him, and they drew water and filled his kieve, and +there Laeg ministered to him. He was like one fiery glowing mass--like +iron plucked red out of the furnace. + +When he had entered his bath the water boiled around him. After he had +bathed and when he became calm and cool Laeg put upon him his beautiful +banqueting attire, and he came into the great hall lowly and blushing. +All were acclaiming and praising him, and he passed up the great +hall and made a reverence to the King, and he sat down at the King’s +footstool. All who saw him marvelled then more at his beauty than at his +deeds. He was sick after that, and came very near to death, but in +the end he fell into a very deep sleep from which he awoke whole and +refreshed, though it was the opinion of many that he would surely die. +Cuculain was seventeen years of age when he did these feats. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s The Coming of Cuculain, by Standish O’Grady + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMING OF CUCULAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 5092-0.txt or 5092-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/9/5092/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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