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

put

my arms about her and to kiss her once." "You may do that," said the

king, "if you will wait to the end of a month." So Midhir agreed to

that, and went away for that time.

 

At the end of the month he came back again, and stood in the great hall

at Teamhair, and no one had ever seen him look so comely as he did that

night. And Eochaid had all his best fighting men gathered in the hall,

and he shut all the doors of the palace when he saw Midhir come in, for

fear he would try to bring away Etain by force.

 

"I am come to be paid what is due to me," said Midhir. "I have not been

thinking of it up to this time," said Eochaid, and there was anger on

him. "You promised me Etain, your wife," said Midhir. The redness of

shame came on Etain when she heard that, but Midhir said: "Let there be

no shame on you, Etain, for it is through the length of a year I have

been asking your love, and I have offered you every sort of treasure and

riches, and you refused to come to me till such a time as your husband

would give you leave." "It is true I said that," said Etain, "I will go

if Eochaid gives me up to you." "I will not give you up," said Eochaid;

"I will let him do no more than put his arms about you in this place, as

was promised him." "I will do that," said Midhir.

 

With that he took his sword in his left hand, and he took Etain in his

right arm and kissed her. All the armed men in the house made a rush at

him then, but he rose up through the roof bringing Etain with him, and

when they rushed out of the house to follow him, all they could see was

two swans high up in the air, linked together by a chain of gold.

 

There was great anger on Eochaid then, and he went and searched all

through Ireland, but there were no tidings of them to be had, for they

were in the houses of the Sidhe.

 

It was to the Brugh of Angus on the Boinn they went first, and after

they had stopped there a while they went to a hill of the Sidhe in

Connacht. And there was a serving-maid with Etain at that time, Cruachan

Croderg her name was, and she said to Midhir: "Is this your own place we

are in?" "It is not," said Midhir; "my own place is nearer to the rising

of the sun." She was not well pleased to stop there when she heard that,

and Midhir said to quiet her: "It is your own name will be put on this

place from this out." And the hill was called the Hill of Cruachan from

that time.

 

Then they went to Bri Leith; and Etain's daughter Esa came to them

there, and she brought a hundred of every sort of cattle with her, and

Midhir fostered her for seven years. And all through that time Eochaid

the High King was making a search for them.

 

But at last Codal of the Withered Breast took four rods of yew and wrote

Oghams on them, and through them and through his enchantments he found

out that Etain was with Midhir in Bri Leith.

 

So Eochaid went there, and made an attack on the place, and he was for

nine years besieging it, and Midhir was driving him away. And then his

people began digging through the hill; and when they were getting near

to where Etain was, Midhir sent three times twenty beautiful women,

having all of them the appearance of Etain, and he bade the king choose

her out from among them. And the first he chose was his own daughter

Esa. But then Etain called to him, and he knew her, and he brought her

home to Teamhair.

 

And Eochaid gave his daughter Esa her choice of a place for herself. And

she chose it, and made a rath there, that got the name of Rath Esa. And

from it she could see three notable places, the Hill of the Sidhe in

Broga, and the Hill of the Hostages in Teamhair, and Dun Crimthain on

Beinn Edair.

 

But there was great anger on Midhir and his people because of their hill

being attacked and dug into. And it was in revenge for that insult they

brought Conaire, High King of Ireland, that was grandson of Eochaid and

of Etain, to his death afterwards at Da Derga's Inn.

 

CHAPTER VIII. (MANANNAN)

Now as to Manannan the Proud, son of Lir, after he had made places for

the rest of the Tuatha de Danaan to live in, he went away out of Ireland

himself. And some said he was dead, and that he got his death by Uillenn

Faebarderg, of the Red Edge, in battle. And it is what they said, that

the battle was fought at Magh Cuilenn, and that Manannan was buried

standing on his feet, and no sooner was he buried than a great lake

burst up under his feet in the place that was a red bog till that time.

And the lake got the name of Loch Orbson, from one of the names of

Manannan. And it was said that red Badb was glad and many women were

sorry at that battle.

 

But he had many places of living, and he was often heard of in Ireland

after. It was he sent a messenger to Etain, mother of Conaire the High

King, the time she was hidden in the cowherd's house. And it was he

brought up Deirdre's children in Emhain of the Apple Trees, and it was

said of that place, "a house of peace is the hill of the Sidhe of

Emhain." And it was he taught Diarmuid of the Fianna the use of weapons,

and it was he taught Cuchulain the use of the Gae Bulg, and some say it

was he was Deirdre's father, and that he brought Conchubar, king of

Ulster, to the place she was hidden, and he running with the appearance

of a hare before the hounds of the men of Ulster to bring them there.

 

And it is what they say, that the time Conchubar had brought the sons of

Usnach to Emain Macha, and could not come at them to kill them because

of their bravery, it was to Manannan he went for help. And Manannan said

he would give him no help, for he had told him at the time he brought

Deirdre away that she would be the cause of the breaking up of his

kingdom, and he took her away in spite of him. But Conchubar asked him

to put blindness for a while on the sons of Usnach, or the whole army

would be destroyed with their blows. So after a while he consented to

that. And when the sons of Usnach came out again against the army of

Ulster, the blindness came on them, and it was at one another they

struck, not seeing who was near them, and it was by one another's hands

they fell. But more say Manannan had no hand in it, and that it was

Cathbad, the Druid, put a sea about them and brought them to their death

by his enchantments.

 

And some say Culain, the Smith, that gave his name to Cuchulain

afterwards, was Manannan himself, for he had many shapes.

 

Anyway, before Culain came to Ulster, he was living in the Island of

Falga, that was one of Manannan's places. And one time before Conchubar

came into the kingdom, he went to ask advice of a Druid, and the Druid

bade him to go to the Island of Falga and to ask Culain, the smith he

would find there, to make arms for him. So Conchubar did so, and the

smith promised to make a sword and spear and shield for him.

 

And while he was working at them Conchubar went out one morning early to

walk on the strand, and there he saw a sea-woman asleep on the shore.

And he put bonds on her in her sleep, the way she would not make her

escape. But when she awoke and saw what had happened, she asked him to

set her free. "And I am Tiabhal," she said, "one of the queens of the

sea. And bid Culain," she said, "that is making your shield for you, to

put my likeness on it and my name about it. And whenever you will go

into a battle with that shield the strength of your enemies will lessen,

and your own strength and the strength of your people will increase."

 

So Conchubar let her go, and bade the smith do as she had told him. And

when he went back to Ireland he got the victory wherever he brought that

shield.

 

And he sent for Culain then, and offered him a place on the plains of

Muirthemne. And whether he was or was not Manannan, it is likely he gave

Cuchulain good teaching the time he stopped with him there after killing

his great dog.

 

Manannan had good hounds one time, but they went hunting after a pig

that was destroying the whole country, and making a desert of it. And

they followed it till they came to a lake, and there it turned on them,

and no hound of them escaped alive, but they were all drowned or maimed.

And the pig made for an island then, that got the name of Muc-inis, the

Pigs Island afterwards; and the lake got the name of Loch Conn, the

Lake of the Hounds.

 

And it was through Manannan the wave of Tuaig, one of the three great

waves of Ireland, got its name, and this is the way that happened.

 

There was a young girl of the name of Tuag, a fosterling of Conaire the

High King, was reared in Teamhair, and a great company of the daughters

of the kings of Ireland were put about her to protect her, the way she

would be kept for a king's asking. But Manannan sent Fer Ferdiad, of the

Tuatha de Danaan, that was a pupil of his own and a Druid, in the shape

of a woman of his own household, and he went where Tuag was, and sang a

sleep-spell over her, and brought her away to Inver Glas. And there he

laid her down while he went looking for a boat, that he might bring her

away in her sleep to the Land of the Ever-Living Women. But a wave of

the flood-tide came over the girl, and she was drowned, and Manannan

killed Fer Ferdiad in his anger.

 

And one time Manannan's cows came up out of the sea at Baile Cronin,

three of them, a red, and a white, and a black, and the people that were

there saw them standing on the strand for a while, as if thinking, and

then they all walked up together, side by side, from the strand. And at

that time there were no roads in Ireland, and there was great wonder on

the people when they saw a good wide road ready before the three cows to

walk on. And when they got about a mile from the sea they parted; the

white cow went to the north-west, towards Luimnech, and the red cow went

to the south-west, and on round the coast of Ireland, and the black cow

went to the north-east, towards Lis Mor, in the district of Portlairge,

and a road opened before each of them, that is to be seen to this day.

 

And some say it was Manannan went to Finn and the Fianna in the form of

the Gilla Decair, the Bad Servant, and brought them away to

Land-under-Wave. Anyway, he used often to go hunting with them on Cnoc

Aine, and sometimes he came to their help.