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

And Aoibhell, another woman of the Sidhe, made her dwelling-place in

Craig Liath, and at the time of the battle of Cluantarbh she set her

love on a young man of Munster, Dubhlaing ua Artigan, that had been sent

away in disgrace by the King of Ireland. But before the battle he came

back to join with Murchadh, the king's son, and to fight for the Gael.

And Aoibhell came to stop him; and when he would not stop with her she

put a Druid covering about him, the way no one could see him.

 

And he went where Murchadh was fighting, and he made a great attack on

the enemies of Ireland, and struck them down on every side. And Murchadh

looked around him, and he said; "It seems to me I hear the sound of the

blows of Dubhlaing ua Artigan, but I do not see himself." Then Dubhlaing

threw off the Druid covering that was about him, and he said: "I will

not keep this covering upon me when you cannot see me through it. And

come now across the plain to where Aoibhell is," he said, "for she can

give us news of the battle."

 

So they went where she was, and she bade them both to quit the battle,

for they would lose their lives in it. But Murchadh said to her, "I will

tell you a little true story," he said; "that fear for my own body will

never make me change my face. And if we fall," he said, "the strangers

will fall with us; and it is many a man will fall by my own hand, and

the Gael will be sharing their strong places." "Stop with me,

Dubhlaing," she said then, "and you will have two hundred years of happy

life with myself." "I will not give up Murchadh," he said, "or my own

good name, for silver or gold." And there was anger on Aoibhell when he

said that, and she said: "Murchadh will fall, and you yourself will

fall, and your proud blood will be on the plain to-morrow." And they

went back into the battle, and got their death there.

 

And it was Aoibhell gave a golden harp to the son of Meardha the time

he was getting his learning at the school of the Sidhe in Connacht and

that he heard his father had got his death by the King of Lochlann. And

whoever heard the playing of that harp would not live long after it. And

Meardha's son went where the three sons of the King of Lochlann were,

and played on his harp for them, and they died.

 

It was that harp Cuchulain heard the time his enemies were gathering

against him at Muirthemne, and he knew by it that his life was near its

end.

 

CHAPTER VII. (MIDHIR AND ETAIN)

And Midhir took a hill for himself, and his wife Fuamach was with him

there, and his daughter, Bri. And Leith, son of Celtchar of Cualu, was

the most beautiful among the young men of the Sidhe of Ireland at that

time, and he loved Bri, Midhir's daughter. And Bri went out with her

young girls to meet him one time at the Grave of the Daughters beside

Teamhair. And Leith came and his young men along with him till he was on

the Hill of the After Repentance. And they could not come nearer to one

another because of the slingers on Midhir's hill that were answering one

another till their spears were as many as a swarm of bees on a day of

beauty. And Cochlan, Leith's servant, got a sharp wound from them and he

died.

 

Then the girl turned back to Midhir's hill, and her heart broke in her

and she died. And Leith said: "Although I am not let come to this girl,

I will leave my name with her." And the hill was called Bri Leith from

that time.

 

After a while Midhir took Etain Echraide to be his wife. And there was

great jealousy on Fuamach, the wife he had before, when she saw the

love that Midhir gave to Etain, and she called to the Druid, Bresal

Etarlaim to help her, and he put spells on Etain the way Fuamach was

able to drive her away.

 

And when she was driven out of Bri Leith, Angus Og, son of the Dagda,

took her into his keeping; and when Midhir asked her back, he would not

give her up, but he brought her about with him to every place he went.

And wherever they rested, he made a sunny house for her, and put

sweet-smelling flowers in it, and he made invisible walls about it, that

no one could see through and that could not be seen.

 

But when news came to Fuamach that Etain was so well cared by Angus,

anger and jealousy came on her again, and she searched her mind for a

way to destroy Etain altogether.

 

And it is what she did, she persuaded Midhir and Angus to go out and

meet one another and to make peace, for there had been a quarrel between

them ever since the time Etain was sent away. And when Angus was away

from Brugh na Boinn, Fuamach went and found Etain there, in her sunny

house. And she turned her with Druid spells into a fly, and then she

sent a blast of wind into the house, that swept her away through the

window.

 

But as to Midhir and Angus, they waited a while for Fuamach to come and

join them. And when she did not come they were uneasy in their minds,

and Angus hurried back to Brugh na Boinn. And when he found the sunny

house empty, he went in search of Fuamach, and it was along with

Etarlaim, the Druid, he found her, and he struck her head off there and

then.

 

And for seven years Etain was blown to and fro through Ireland in great

misery. And at last she came to the house of Etar, of Inver Cechmaine,

where there was a feast going on, and she fell from a beam of the roof

into the golden cup that was beside Etar's wife. And Etar's wife drank

her down with the wine, and at the end of nine months she was born again

as Etar's daughter.

 

And she had the same name as before, Etain; and she was reared as a

king's daughter, and there were fifty young girls, daughters of princes,

brought up with her to keep her company.

 

And it happened one day Etain and all the rest of the young girls were

out bathing in the bay at Inver Cechmaine, and they saw from the water a

man, with very high looks, coming towards them over the plain, and he

riding a bay horse with mane and tail curled. A long green cloak he had

on him, and a shirt woven with threads of red gold, and a brooch of gold

that reached across to his shoulders on each side. And he had on his

back a shield of silver with a rim of gold and a boss of gold, and in

his hand a sharp-pointed spear covered with rings of gold from heel to

socket. Fair yellow hair he had, coming over his forehead, and it bound

with a golden band to keep it from loosening.

 

And when he came near them he got down from his horse, and sat down on

the bank, and it is what he said:

 

"It is here Etain is to-day, at the Mound of Fair Women. It is among

little children is her life on the strand of Inver Cechmaine.

 

"It is she healed the eye of the king from the well of Loch da Lig; it

is she was swallowed in a heavy drink by the wife of Etar.

 

"Many great battles will happen for your sake to Echaid of Midhe;

destruction will fall upon the Sidhe, and war on thousands of men."

 

And when he had said that, he vanished, and no one knew where he went.

And they did not know the man that had come to them was Midhir of Bri

Leith.

 

And when Etain was grown to be a beautiful young woman, she was seen by

Eochaid Feidlech, High King of Ireland, and this is the way that

happened.

 

He was going one time over the fair green of Bri Leith, and he saw at

the side of a well a woman, with a bright comb of gold and silver, and

she washing in a silver basin having four golden birds on it, and little

bright purple stones set in the rim of the basin. A beautiful purple

cloak she had, and silver fringes to it, and a gold brooch; and she had

on her a dress of green silk with a long hood, embroidered in red gold,

and wonderful clasps of gold and silver on her breasts and on her

shoulder. The sunlight was falling on her, so that the gold and the

green silk were shining out. Two plaits of hair she had, four locks in

each plait, and a bead at the point of every lock, and the colour of her

hair was like yellow flags in summer, or like red gold after it is

rubbed.

 

There she was, letting down her hair to wash it, and her arms out

through the sleeve-holes of her shift. Her soft hands were as white as

the snow of a single night, and her eyes as blue as any blue flower, and

her lips as red as the berries of the rowan-tree, and her body as white

as the foam of a wave. The bright light of the moon was in her face, the

highness of pride in her eyebrows, a dimple of delight in each of her

cheeks, the light of wooing in her eyes, and when she walked she had a

step that was steady and even like the walk of a queen.

 

And Eochaid sent his people to bring her to him, and he asked her name,

and she told him her name was Etain, daughter of Etar, King of the

Riders of the Sidhe. And Eochaid gave her his love, and he paid the

bride-price, and brought her home to Teamhair as his wife, and there was

a great welcome before her there.

 

And after a while there was a great feast made at Teamhair, and all the

chief men of Ireland came to it, and it lasted from the fortnight before

Samhain to the fortnight after it. And King Eochaid's brother Ailell,

that was afterwards called Ailell Anglonach, of the Only Fault, came to

the feast. And when he saw his brother's wife Etain, he fell in love

with her on the moment, and all through the length of the feast he was

not content unless he could be looking at her. And a woman, the daughter

of Luchta Lamdearg, of the Red Hand, took notice of it, and she said:

"What far thing are you looking at, Ailell? It is what I think, that to

be looking the way you are doing is a sign of love." Then Ailell checked

himself, and did not look towards Etain any more.

 

But when the feast was at an end, and the gathering broken up, great

desire and envy came on Ailell, so that he fell sick, and they brought

him to a house in Teffia. And he stopped there through the length of a

year, and he was wasting away, but he told no one the cause of his

sickness. And at the end of the year, Eochaid came to visit his brother,

and he passed his hand over his breast, and Ailell let a groan. "What

way are you?" said Eochaid then. "Are you getting any easier, for you

must not let this illness come to a bad end." "By my word," said