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

he told them how he had seen Angus himself, and had

talked with him, and Angus had told him his name, and had foretold what

would happen him in the future. "And he was a beautiful young man," he

said, "with high looks, and his appearance was more beautiful than all

beauty, and there were ornaments of gold on his dress; in his hand he

held a silver harp with strings of red gold, and the sound of its

strings was sweeter than all music under the sky; and over the harp were

two birds that seemed to be playing on it. He sat beside me pleasantly

and played his sweet music to me, and in the end he foretold things that

put drunkenness on my wits."

 

The birds, now, that used to be with Angus were four of his kisses that

turned into birds and that used to be coming about the young men of

Ireland, and crying after them. "Come, come," two of them would say, and

"I go, I go," the other two would say, and it was hard to get free of

them. But as to Angus, even when he was in his young youth, he used to

be called the Frightener, or the Disturber; for the plough teams of the

world, and every sort of cattle that is used by men, would make away in

terror before him.

 

And one time he appeared in the shape of a land-holder to two men, Ribh

and Eocho, that were looking for a place to settle in. The first place

they chose was near Bregia on a plain that was belonging to Angus; and

it was then he came to them, leading his horse in his hand, and told

them they should not stop there. And they said they could not carry away

their goods without horses. Then he gave them his horse, and bade them

to put all they had a mind to on that horse and he would carry it, and

so he did. But the next place they chose was Magh Find, the Fine Plain,

that was the playing ground of Angus and of Midhir. And that time Midhir

came to them in the same way and gave them a horse to put their goods

on, and he went on with them as far as Magh Dairbthenn.

 

And there were many women loved Angus, and there was one Enghi, daughter

of Elcmair, loved him though she had not seen him. And she went one time

looking for him to the gathering for games between Cletech and Sidhe in

Broga; and the bright troops of the Sidhe used to come to that gathering

every Samhain evening, bringing a moderate share of food with them, that

is, a nut. And the sons of Derc came from the north, out of Sidhe

Findabrach, and they went round about the young men and women without

their knowledge and they brought away Elcmair's daughter. There were

great lamentations made then, and the name the place got was Cnoguba,

the Nut Lamentation, from the crying there was at that gathering.

 

And Derbrenn, Eochaid Fedlech's daughter, was another that was loved by

Angus, and she had six fosterlings, three boys and three girls. But the

mother of the boys, Dalb Garb, the Rough, put a spell on them she made

from a gathering of the nuts of Caill Ochuid, that turned them into

swine.

 

And Angus gave them into the care of Buichet, the Hospitaller of

Leinster, and they stopped a year with him. But at the end of that time

there came a longing On Buichet's wife to eat a bit of the flesh of one

of them. So she gathered a hundred armed men and a hundred hounds to

take them. But the pigs made away, and went to Brugh na Boinn, to Angus,

and he bade them welcome, and they asked him to give them his help. But

he said he could not do that till they had shaken the Tree of Tarbga,

and eaten the salmon of Inver Umaill.

 

So they went to Glascarn, and stopped a year in hiding with Derbrenn.

And then they shook the Tree of Tarbga, and they went on towards Inver

Umaill. But Maeve gathered the men of Connacht to hunt them, and they

all fell but one, and their heads were put in a mound, and it got the

name of Duma Selga, the Mound of the Hunting.

 

And it was in the time of Maeve of Cruachan that Angus set his love on

Caer Ormaith, of the Province of Connacht, and brought her away to Brugh

na Boinn.

 

CHAPTER IV. (THE MORRIGU)

As to the Morrigu, the Great Queen, the Crow of Battle, where she lived

after the coming of the Gael is not known, but before that time it was

in Teamhair she lived. And she had a great cooking-spit there, that held

three sorts of food on it at the one time: a piece of raw meat, and a

piece of dressed meat, and a piece of butter. And the raw was dressed,

and the dressed was not burned, and the butter did not melt, and the

three together on the spit.

 

Nine men that were outlaws went to her one time and asked for a spit to

be made for themselves. And they brought it away with them, and it had

nine ribs in it, and every one of the outlaws would carry a rib in his

hand wherever he would go, till they would all meet together at the

close of day. And if they wanted the spit to be high, it could be raised

to a man's height, and at another time it would not be more than the

height of a fist over the fire, without breaking and without lessening.

 

And Mechi, the son the Morrigu had, was killed by Mac Cecht on Magh

Mechi, that till that time had been called Magh Fertaige. Three hearts

he had, and it is the way they were, they had the shapes of three

serpents through them. And if Mechi had not met with his death, those

serpents in him would have grown, and what they left alive in Ireland

would have wasted away. And Mac Cecht burned the three hearts on Magh

Luathad, the Plain of Ashes, and he threw the ashes into the stream; and

the rushing water of the stream stopped and boiled up, and every

creature in it died.

 

And the Morrigu used often to be meddling in Ireland in Cuchulain's

time, stirring up wars and quarrels. It was she came and roused up

Cuchulain one time when he was but a lad, and was near giving in to some

enchantment that was used against him. "There is not the making of a

hero in you," she said to him, "and you lying there under the feet of

shadows." And with that Cuchulain rose up and struck off the head of a

shadow that was standing over him, with his hurling stick. And the time

Conchubar was sending out Finched to rouse up the men of Ulster at the

time of the war for the Bull of Cuailgne, he bade him to go to that

terrible fury, the Morrigu, to get help for Cuchulain. And she had a

dispute with Cuchulain one time he met her, and she bringing away a cow

from the Hill of Cruachan; and another time she helped Talchinem, a

Druid of the household of Conaire Mor, to bring away a bull his wife had

set her mind on. And indeed she was much given to meddling with cattle,

and one time she brought away a cow from Odras, that was of the

household of the cow-chief of Cormac Hua Cuined, and that was going

after her husband with cattle. And the Morrigu brought the cow away with

her to the Cave of Cruachan, and the Hill of the Sidhe. And Odras

followed her there till sleep fell on her in the oak-wood of Falga; and

the Morrigu awoke her and sang spells over her, and made of her a pool

of water that went to the river that flows to the west of Slieve Buane.

 

And in the battle of Magh Rath, she fluttered over Congal Claen in the

shape of a bird, till he did not know friend from foe. And after that

again at the battle of Cluantarbh, she was flying over the head of

Murchadh, son of Brian; for she had many shapes, and it was in the shape

of a crow she would sometimes fight her battles.

 

And if it was not the Morrigu, it was Badb that showed herself in the

battle of Dunbolg, where the men of Ireland were fighting under Aedh,

son of Niall; and Brigit was seen in the same battle on the side of the

men of Leinster.

 

CHAPTER V. (AINE)

And as to Aine, that some said was a daughter of Manannan, but some said

was the Morrigu herself, there was a stone belonging to her that was

called Cathair Aine. And if any one would sit on that stone he would be

in danger of losing his wits, and any one that would sit on it three

times would lose them for ever. And people whose wits were astray would

make their way to it, and mad dogs would come from all parts of the

country, and would flock around it, and then they would go into the sea

to Aine's place there. But those that did cures by herbs said she had

power over the whole body; and she used to give gifts of poetry and of

music, and she often gave her love to men, and they called her the

Leanan Sidhe, the Sweet-heart of the Sidhe.

 

And it was no safe thing to offend Aine, for she was very revengeful.

Oilioll Oluim, a king of Ireland, killed her brother one time, and it is

what she did, she made a great yew-tree by enchantment beside the river

Maigh in Luimnech, and she put a little man in it, playing sweet music

on a harp. And Oilioll's son was passing the river with his

step-brother, and they saw the tree and heard the sweet music from it.

And first they quarrelled as to which of them would have the little

harper, and then they quarrelled about the tree, and they asked a

judgment from Oilioll, and he gave it for his own son. And it was the

bad feeling about that judgment that led to the battle of Magh

Mucruimhe, and Oilioll and his seven sons were killed there, and so Aine

got her revenge.

 

CHAPTER VI. (AOIBHELL)