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

man of

tricks when he saw that, and he took his sword and struck the head off

the boy. "I do not like a thing of that sort to be done in my presence,"

said Tadg O'Cealaigh. "If it did not please you, I can set all right

again," said the stranger. And with that he took up the head and made a

cast of it at the body, and it joined to it, and the young man stood

up, but if he did his face was turned backwards. "It would be better for

him to be dead than to be living like that," said O'Cealaigh. When the

man of tricks heard that, he took hold of the boy and twisted his head

straight, and he was as well as before.

 

And with that the man of tricks vanished, and no one saw where was he

gone.

 

That is the way Manannan used to be going round Ireland, doing tricks

and wonders. And no one could keep him in any place, and if he was put

on a gallows itself, he would be found safe in the house after, and some

other man on the gallows in his place. But he did no harm, and those

that would be put to death by him, he would bring them to life again

with a herb out of his bag.

 

And all the food he would use would be a vessel of sour milk and a few

crab-apples. And there never was any music sweeter than the music he

used to be playing.

 

CHAPTER X. (HIS CALL TO BRAN)

And there were some that went to Manannan's country beyond the sea, and

that gave an account of it afterwards.

 

One time Bran, son of Febal, was out by himself near his dun, and he

heard music behind him. And it kept always after him, and at last he

fell asleep with the sweetness of the sound. And when he awoke from his

sleep he saw beside him a branch of silver, and it having white

blossoms, and the whiteness of the silver was the same as the whiteness

of the blossoms.

 

And he brought the branch in his hand into the royal house, and when all

his people were with him they saw a woman with strange clothing standing

in the house.

 

And she began to make a song for Bran, and all the people were looking

at her and listening to her, and it is what she said:

 

"I bring a branch of the apple-tree from Emhain, from the far island

around which are the shining horses of the Son of Lir. A delight of the

eyes is the plain where the hosts hold their games; curragh racing

against chariot in the White Silver Plain to the south.

 

"There are feet of white bronze under it, shining through life and time;

a comely level land through the length of the world's age, and many

blossoms falling on it.

 

"There is an old tree there with blossoms, and birds calling from among

them; every colour is shining there, delight is common, and music, in

the Gentle-Voiced Plain, in the Silver Cloud Plain to the south.

 

"Keening is not used, or treachery, in the tilled familiar land; there

is nothing hard or rough, but sweet music striking on the ear.

 

"To be without grief, without sorrow, without death, without any

sickness, without weakness; that is the sign of Emhain; it is not common

wonder that is.

 

"There is nothing to liken its mists to, the sea washes the wave against

the land; brightness falls from its hair.

 

"There are riches, there are treasures of every colour in the Gentle

Land, the Bountiful Land. Sweet music to be listening to; the best of

wine to drink.

 

"Golden chariots in the Plain of the Sea, rising up to the sun with the

tide; silver chariots and bronze chariots on the Plain of Sports.

 

"Gold-yellow horses on the strand, and crimson horses, and others with

wool on their backs, blue like the colour of the sky.

 

"It is a day of lasting weather, silver is dropping on the land; a pure

white cliff on the edge of the sea, getting its warmth from the sun.

 

"The host race over the Plain of Sports; it is beautiful and not weak

their game is; death or the ebbing of the tide will not come to them in

the Many-Coloured Land.

 

"There will come at sunrise a fair man, lighting up the level lands; he

rides upon the plain that is beaten by the waves, he stirs the sea till

it is like blood.

 

"An army will come over the clear sea, rowing to the stone that is in

sight, that a hundred sounds of music come from.

 

"It sings a song to the army; it is not sad through the length of time;

it increases music with hundreds singing together; they do not look for

death or the ebb-tide.

 

"There are three times fifty far islands in the ocean to the west of us,

and every one of them twice or three times more than Ireland.

 

"It is not to all of you I am speaking, though I have made all these

wonders known. Let Bran listen from the crowd of the world to all the

wisdom that has been told him.

 

"Do not fall upon a bed of sloth; do not be overcome by drunkenness; set

out on your voyage over the clear sea, and you may chance to come to the

Land of Women."

 

With that the woman went from them, and they did not know where she

went. And she brought away her branch with her, for it leaped into her

hand from Bran's hand, and he had not the strength to hold it.

 

Then on the morrow Bran set out upon the sea, and three companies of

nine along with him; and one of his foster-brothers and comrades was set

over each company of nine.

 

And when they had been rowing for two days and two nights, they saw a

man coming towards them in a chariot, over the sea. And the man made

himself known to them, and he said that he was Manannan, son of Lir.

 

And then Manannan spoke to him in a song, and it is what he said:

 

"It is what Bran thinks, he is going in his curragh over the wonderful,

beautiful clear sea; but to me, from far off in my chariot, it is a

flowery plain he is riding on.

 

"What is a clear sea to the good boat Bran is in, is a happy plain with

many flowers to me in my two-wheeled chariot.

 

"It is what Bran sees, many waves beating across the clear sea; it is

what I myself see, red flowers without any fault.

 

"The sea-horses are bright in summer-time, as far as Bran's eyes can

reach; there is a wood of beautiful acorns under the head of your little

boat.

 

"A wood with blossom and with fruit, that has the smell of wine; a wood

without fault, without withering, with leaves of the colour of gold.

 

"Let Bran row on steadily, it is not far to the Land of Women; before

the setting of the sun you will reach Emhain, of many-coloured

hospitality."

 

With that Bran went from him; and after a while he saw an island, and he

rowed around it, and there was a crowd on it, wondering at them, and

laughing; and they were all looking at Bran and at his people, but they

would not stop to talk with them, but went on giving out gusts of

laughter. Bran put one of his men on the island then, but he joined with

the others, and began to stare the same way as the men of the island.

And Bran went on rowing round about the island; and whenever they went

past his own man, his comrades would speak to him, but he would not

answer them, but would only stare and wonder at them. So they went away

and left him on that island that is called the Island of Joy.

 

It was not long after that they reached to the Land of Women. And they

saw the chief one of the women at the landing-place, and it is what she

said: "Come hither to land, Bran, son of Febal, it is welcome your

coming is." But Bran did not dare to go on shore. Then the woman threw a

ball of thread straight to him, and he caught it in his hand, and it

held fast to his palm, and the woman kept the thread in her own hand,

and she pulled the curragh to the landing-place.

 

On that they went into a grand house, where there was a bed for every

couple, three times nine beds. And the food that was put on every dish

never came to an end, and they had every sort of food and of drink they

wished for.

 

And it seemed to them they were only a year there when the desire of

home took hold on one of them, Nechtan, son of Collbrain, and his

kinsmen were begging and praying Bran to go back with him to Ireland.

The woman said there would be repentance on them if they went; but in

spite of that they set out in the end. And the woman said to them not to

touch the land when they would come to Ireland, and she bade them to

visit and to bring with them the man they left in the Island of Joy.

 

So they went on towards Ireland till they came to a place called Srub

Bruin. And there were people on the strand that asked them who they were

that were coming over the sea. And Bran said: "I am Bran, son of Febal."

But the people said: "We know of no such man, though the voyage of Bran

is in our very old stories."

 

Then Nechtan, son of Collbrain, made a leap out of the curragh, and no

sooner did he touch the shore of Ireland than he was a heap of ashes,

the same as if he had been in the earth through hundreds of years.

 

And then Bran told the whole story of his wanderings to the people,

from the beginning. And after that he bade them farewell, and his

wanderings from that time are not known.

 

CHAPTER XI. (HIS THREE CALLS TO CORMAC)

And another that went to Manannan's country was Cormac, grandson of

Conn, King of Teamhair, and this is the way it happened. He was by

himself in Teamhair one time, and he saw an armed man coming towards

him, quiet, with high looks, and having grey hair; a shirt ribbed with

gold thread next his skin, broad shoes of white bronze between his feet

and the ground, a shining branch, having nine apples of red gold, on his

shoulder. And it is delightful the sound of that branch was, and no one

on earth would keep in mind any want, or trouble, or tiredness, when

that branch was shaken for him; and whatever trouble there might be on

him, he would forget it at the sound.

 

Then Cormac and the armed man saluted one another, and Cormac asked

where did he come from. "I come," he said, "from a country where