Gods and Fighting Men, Lady I. A Gregory [best e books to read TXT] 📗

having a good share of

men with her. And they fought a hard battle, and many were killed on

both sides. And this was the first battle fought between the Sons of the

Gael and the Men of Dea for the kingship of Ireland.

 

It was in that battle Fais, wife of Un, was killed in a valley at the

foot of the mountain, and it was called after her, the Valley of Fais.

And Scota, wife of Miled, got her death in the battle, and she was

buried in a valley on the north side of the mountain near the sea. But

the Sons of the Gael lost no more than three hundred men, and they beat

back the Men of Dea and killed a thousand of them. And Eriu was beaten

back to Tailltin, and as many of her men as she could hold together; and

when she came there she told the people how she had been worsted in the

battle, and the best of her men had got their death. But the Gael

stopped on the battle-field, and buried their dead, and they gave a

great burial to two of their Druids, Aer and Eithis, that were killed in

the fight.

 

And after they had rested for a while, they went on to Inver Colpa in

Leinster, and Heremon and his men joined them there. And then they sent

messengers to the three kings of Ireland, the three sons of Cermait

Honey-Mouth, and bade them to come out and fight a battle that would

settle the ownership of the country once for all.

 

So they came out, and the best of the fighters of the Tuatha de Danaan

with them, to Tailltin. And there they attacked one another, and the

Sons of the Gael remembered the death of Ith, and there was great anger

on them, and they fell on the Men of Dea to avenge him, and there was a

fierce battle fought. And for a while neither side got the better of the

other, but at the last the Gael broke through the army of the Men of Dea

and put them to the rout, with great slaughter, and drove them out of

the place. And their three kings were killed in the rout, and the three

queens of Ireland, Eriu and Fodhla and Banba. And when the Tuatha de

Danaan saw their leaders were dead they fell back in great disorder, and

the Sons of the Gael followed after them. But in following them they

lost two of their best leaders, Cuailgne, son of Breagan, at Slieve

Cuailgne, and Fuad, his brother, at Slieve Fuad. But they were no way

daunted by that, but followed the Men of Dea so hotly that they were

never able to bring their army together again, but had to own themselves

beaten, and to give up the country to the Gael.

 

And the leaders, the sons of Miled, divided the provinces of Ireland

between them. Heber took the two provinces of Munster, and he gave a

share of it to Amergin; and Heremon got Leinster and Connacht for his

share, and Ulster was divided between Eimhir, son of Ir, son of Miled,

and some others of their chief men. And it was of the sons of Eimhir,

that were called the Children of Rudraighe, and that lived in Emain

Macha for nine hundred years, some of the best men of Ireland came;

Fergus, son of Rogh, was of them, and Conall Cearnach, of the Red Branch

of Ulster.

 

And from the sons of Ith, the first of the Gael to get his death in

Ireland, there came in the after time Fathadh Canaan, that got the sway

over the whole world from the rising to the setting sun, and that took

hostages of the streams and the birds and the languages.

 

And it is what the poets of Ireland used to be saying, that every brave

man, good at fighting, and every man that could do great deeds and not

be making much talk about them, was of the Sons of the Gael; and that

every skilled man that had music and that did enchantments secretly,

was of the Tuatha de Danaan. But they put a bad name on the Firbolgs and

the men of Domnand and the Gaileoin, for lies and for big talk and

injustice. But for all that there were good fighters among them, and

Ferdiad, that made so good a stand against Cuchulain, in the war for the

Bull of Cuailgne was one of them. And the Gaileoin fought well in the

same war; but the men of Ireland had no great liking for them, and their

Druids drove them out of the country afterwards.

 

BOOK FOUR: THE EVER-LIVING LIVING ONES. CHAPTER I. (BODB DEARG)

But as to the Tuatha de Danaan after they were beaten, they would not go

under the sway of the sons of Miled, but they went away by themselves.

And because Manannan, son of Lir, understood all enchantments, they left

it to him to find places for them where they would be safe from their

enemies. So he chose out the most beautiful of the hills and valleys of

Ireland for them to settle in; and he put hidden walls about them, that

no man could see through, but they themselves could see through them and

pass through them.

 

And he made the Feast of Age for them, and what they drank at it was the

ale of Goibniu the Smith, that kept whoever tasted it from age and from

sickness and from death. And for food at the feast he gave them his own

swine, that though they were killed and eaten one day, would be alive

and fit for eating again the next day, and that would go on in that way

for ever.

 

And after a while they said: "It would be better for us one king to be

over us, than to be scattered the way we are through the whole of

Ireland."

 

Now the men among them that had the best chance of getting the kingship

at that time were Bodb Dearg, son of the Dagda; and Ilbrech of Ess

Ruadh; and Lir of Sidhe Fionnachaidh, the Hill of the White Field, on

Slieve Fuad; and Midhir the Proud of Bri Leith, and Angus Og, son of the

Dagda; but he did not covet the kingship at all, but would sooner be

left as he was. Then all the chief men but those five went into council

together, and it is what they agreed, to give the kingship to Bodb

Dearg, for the sake of his father, for his own sake, and because he was

the eldest among the children of the Dagda.

 

It was in Sidhe Femen Bodb Dearg had his house, and he put great

enchantments about it. Cliach, the Harper of the King of the Three

Rosses in Connacht, went one time to ask one of his daughters in

marriage, and he stayed outside the place through the whole length of a

year, playing his harp, and able to get no nearer to Bodb or to his

daughter. And he went on playing till a lake burst up under his feet,

the lake that is on the top of a mountain, Loch Bel Sead.

 

It was Bodb's swineherd went to Da Derga's Inn, and his squealing pig

along with him, the night Conaire, the High King of Ireland, met with

his death; and it was said that whatever feast that swineherd would go

to, there would blood be shed before it was over.

 

And Bodb had three sons, Angus, and Artrach, and Aedh. And they used

often to be living among men in the time of the Fianna afterwards.

Artrach had a house with seven doors, and a free welcome for all that

came, and the king's son of Ireland, and of Alban, used to be coming to

Angus to learn the throwing of spears and darts; and troops of poets

from Alban and from Ireland used to be with Aedh, that was the comeliest

of Bodb's sons, so that his place used to be called "The Rath of Aedh of

the Poets." And indeed it was a beautiful rath at that time, with

golden-yellow apples in it and crimson-pointed nuts of the wood. But

after the passing away of the Fianna, the three brothers went back to

the Tuatha de Danaan.

 

And Bodb Dearg was not always in his own place, but sometimes he was

with Angus at Brugh na Boinn.

 

Three sons of Lugaidh Menn, King of Ireland, Eochaid, and Fiacha, and

Ruide, went there one time, for their father refused them any land till

they would win it for themselves. And when he said that, they rose with

the ready rising of one man, and went and sat down on the green of Brugh

na Boinn, and fasted there on the Tuatha de Danaan, to see if they

could win some good thing from them.

 

And they were not long there till they saw a young man, quiet and with

pleasant looks, coming towards them, and he wished them good health, and

they answered him the same way. "Where are you come from?" they asked

him then. "From the rath beyond, with the many lights," he said. "And I

am Bodb Dearg, son of the Dagda," he said, "and come in with me now to

the rath."

 

So they went in, and supper was made ready for them, but they did not

use it. Bodb Dearg asked them then why was it they were using nothing.

"It is because our father has refused land to us," said they; "and there

are in Ireland but the two races, the Sons of the Gael and the Men of

Dea, and when the one failed us we are come to the other."

 

Then the Men of Dea consulted together. And the chief among them was

Midhir of the Yellow Hair, and it is what he said: "Let us give a wife

to every one of these three men, for it is from a wife that good or bad

fortune comes."

 

So they agreed to that, and Midhir's three daughters, Doirenn, and Aife,

and Aillbhe, were given to them. Then Midhir asked Bodb to say what

marriage portion should be given to them. "I will tell you that," said

Bodb. "We are three times fifty sons of kings in this hill; let every

king's son give three times fifty ounces of red gold. And I myself," he

said, "will give them along with that, three times fifty suits of

clothing of all colours." "I will give them a gift," said a young man of

the Tuatha de Danaan, from Rachlainn in the sea. "A horn I will give

them, and a vat. And there is nothing wanting but to fill the vat with

pure water, and it will turn into mead, fit to drink, and strong enough

to make drunken. And into the horn," he said, "you have but to put salt

water from the sea, and it will turn into wine on the moment." "A gift

to them from me," said Lir of Sidhe Fionnachaidh, "three times fifty

swords, and three times fifty well-riveted long spears." "A gift from

me," said Angus Og, son of the Dagda, "a rath and a good town with high

walls, and with bright sunny houses, and with wide houses, in whatever

place it will please them between Rath Chobtaige and Teamhair." "A gift

to them from me," said Aine, daughter of Modharn, "a woman-cook that I

have, and there is _geasa_ on her not to refuse food to any; and

according as she serves it out, her store fills up of itself again."

"Another gift to them from me," said Bodb Dearg, "a good musician that I

have, Fertuinne, son of Trogain; and although there were women in the

sharpest pains of childbirth, and brave men wounded early in the day, in

a place where there were saws going through wood, they would sleep at

the sweetness of the music he makes. And whatever house