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

he may be in,

the people of the whole country round will hear him."

 

So they stopped in Brugh na Boinne three days and three nights, and when

they left it, Angus bade them bring away from the oak-wood three

apple-trees, one in full bloom, and one shedding its blossom, and the

third covered with ripe fruit.

 

They went then to their own dun that was given them, and it is a good

place they had there, and a troop of young men, and great troops of

horses and of greyhounds; and they had three sorts of music that comely

kings liked to be listening to, the music of harps and of lutes, and the

chanting of Trogain's son; and there were three great sounds, the

tramping on the green, and the uproar of racing, and the lowing of

cattle; and three other sounds, the grunting of good pigs with the fat

thick on them, and the voices of the crowd on the green lawn, and the

noise of men drinking inside the house. And as to Eochaid, it was said

of him that he never took a step backwards in flight, and his house was

never without music or drinking of ale. And it was said of Fiacha that

there was no man of his time braver than himself, and that he never said

a word too much. And as to Ruide, he never refused any one, and never

asked anything at all of any man.

 

And when their lifetime was over, they went back to the Tuatha de

Danaan, for they belonged to them through their wives, and there they

have stopped ever since.

 

And Bodb Dearg had a daughter, Scathniamh, the Flower of Brightness,

that gave her love to Caoilte in the time of the Fianna; and they were

forced to part from one another, and they never met again till the time

Caoilte was, old and withered, and one of the last that was left of the

Fianna. And she came to him out of the cave of Cruachan, and asked him

for the bride-price he had promised her, and that she was never able to

come and ask for till then. And Caoilte went to a cairn that was near

and that was full up of gold, that was wages earned by Conan Maol and

hidden there, and he gave the gold to Bodb Dearg's daughter. And the

people that were there wondered to see the girl so young and comely, and

Caoilte so grey and bent and withered. "There is no wonder in that,"

said Caoilte, "for I am of the sons of Miled that wither and fade away,

but she is of the Tuatha de Danaan that never change and that never

die."

 

CHAPTER II. (THE DAGDA)

And it was at Brugh na Boinne the Dagda, the Red Man of all Knowledge,

had his house. And the most noticeable things in it were the Hall of the

Morrigu, and the Bed of the Dagda, and the Birthplace of Cermait

Honey-Mouth, and the Prison of the Grey of Macha that was Cuchulain's

horse afterwards. And there was a little hill by the house that was

called the Comb and the Casket of the Dagda's wife; and another that was

called the Hill of Dabilla, that was the little hound belonging to

Boann. And the Valley of the Mata was there, the Sea-Turtle that could

suck down a man in armour.

 

And it is likely the Dagda put up his cooking oven there, that Druimne,

son of Luchair, made for him at Teamhair. And it is the way it was, the

axle and the wheel were of wood, and the body was iron, and there were

twice nine wheels in its axle, that it might turn the faster; and it was

as quick as the quickness of a stream in turning, and there were three

times nine spits from it, and three times nine pots. And it used to lie

down with the cinders and to rise to the height of the roof with the

flame.

 

The Dagda himself made a great vat one time for Ainge, his daughter, but

she was not well satisfied with it, for it would not stop from dripping

while the sea was in flood, though it would not lose a drop during the

ebb-tide. And she gathered a bundle of twigs to make a new vat for

herself, but Gaible, son of Nuada of the Silver Hand, stole it from her

and hurled it away. And in the place where it fell a beautiful wood grew

up, that was called Gaible's Wood.

 

And the Dagda had his household at Brugh na Boinne, and his steward was

Dichu, and Len Linfiaclach was the smith of the Brugh. It was he lived

in the lake, making the bright vessels of Fand, daughter of Flidhais;

and every evening when he left off work he would make a cast of the

anvil eastward to Indeoin na Dese, the Anvil of the Dese, as far as the

Grave End. Three showers it used to cast, a shower of fire, and a shower

of water, and a shower of precious stones of pure purple.

 

But Tuirbe, father of Goibniu the Smith, used to throw better again, for

he would make a cast of his axe from Tulach na Bela, the Hill of the

Axe, in the face of the flood tide, and he would put his order on the

sea, and it would not come over the axe.

 

And Corann was the best of the harpers of the household; he was harper

to the Dagda's son, Diancecht. And one time he called with his harp to

Cailcheir, one of the swine of Debrann. And it ran northward with all

the strength of its legs, and the champions of Connacht were following

after it with all their strength of running, and their hounds with them,

till they got as far as Ceis Corain, and they gave it up there, all

except Niall that went on the track of the swine till he found it in the

oak-wood of Tarba, and then it made away over the plain of Ai, and

through a lake. And Niall and his hound were drowned in following it

through the lake. And the Dagda gave Corann a great tract of land for

doing his harping so well.

 

But however great a house the Dagda had, Angus got it away from him in

the end, through the help of Manannan, son of Lir. For Manannan bade him

to ask his father for it for the length of a day and a night, and that

he by his art would take away his power of refusing. So Angus asked for

the Brugh, and his father gave it to him for a day and a night. But when

he asked it back again, it is what Angus said, that it had been given to

him for ever, for the whole of life and time is made up of a day and a

night, one following after the other.

 

So when the Dagda heard that he went away and his people and his

household with him, for Manannan had put an enchantment on them all.

 

But Dichu the Steward was away at the time, and his wife and his son,

for they were gone out to get provisions for a feast for Manannan and

his friends. And when he came back and knew his master was gone, he took

service with Angus.

 

And Angus stopped in Brugh na Boinne, and some say he is there to this

day, with the hidden walls about him, drinking Goibniu's ale and eating

the pigs that never fail.

 

As to the Dagda, he took no revenge, though he had the name of being

revengeful and quick in his temper. And some say it was at Teamhair he

made his dwelling-place after that, but wherever it was, a great

misfortune came on him.

 

It chanced one time Corrgenn, a great man of Connacht, came to visit

him, and his wife along with him. And while they were there, Corrgenn

got it in his mind that there was something that was not right going on

between his wife and Aedh, one of the sons of the Dagda. And great

jealousy and anger came on him, and he struck at the young man and

killed him before his father's face.

 

Every one thought the Dagda would take Corrgenn's life then and there in

revenge for his son's life. But he would not do that, for he said if his

son was guilty, there was no blame to be put on Corrgenn for doing what

he did. So he spared his life for that time, but if he did, Corrgenn did

not gain much by it. For the punishment he put on him was to take the

dead body of the young man on his back, and never to lay it down till he

would find a stone that would be its very fit in length and in breadth,

and that would make a gravestone for him; and when he had found that, he

could bury him in the nearest hill.

 

So Corrgenn had no choice but to go, and he set out with his load; but

he had a long way to travel before he could find a stone that would fit,

and it is where he found one at last, on the shore of Loch Feabhail. So

then he left the body up on the nearest hill, and he went down and

raised the stone and brought it up and dug a grave and buried the

Dagda's son. And it is many an Ochone! he gave when he was putting the

stone over him, and when he had that done he was spent, and he dropped

dead there and then.

 

And the Dagda brought his two builders, Garbhan and Imheall, to the

place, and he bade them build a rath there round the grave. It was

Garbhan cut the stones and shaped them, and Imheall set them all round

the house till the work was finished, and then he closed the top of the

house with a slab. And the place was called the Hill of Aileac, that is,

the Hill of Sighs and of a Stone, for it was tears of blood the Dagda

shed on account of the death of his son.

 

CHAPTER III. (ANGUS OG)

And as to Angus Og, son of the Dagda, sometimes he would come from Brugh

na Boinn and let himself be seen upon the earth.

 

It was a long time after the coming of the Gael that he was seen by

Cormac, King of Teamhair, and this is the account he gave of him.

 

He was by himself one day in his Hall of Judgment, for he used to be

often reading the laws and thinking how he could best carry them out.

And on a sudden he saw a stranger, a very comely young man, at the end

of the hall; and he knew on the moment it was Angus Og, for he had often

heard his people talking of him, but he himself used to be saying he did

not believe there was any such person at all. And when his people came

back to the hall,