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

all other kings' sons as the moon is

beyond the stars. And Finn liked him well, but the rest of the Fianna

got to be tired of him because there was not a woman of their women, wed

or unwed, but gave him her love. And Finn had to send him away at the

last, for he was in dread of the men of the Fianna because of the

greatness of their jealousy.

 

So Ciabhan went on till he came to the Strand of the Cairn, that is

called now the Strand of the Strong Man, between Dun Sobairce and the

sea. And there he saw a curragh, and it having a narrow stern of copper.

And Ciabhan got into the curragh, and his people said: "Is it to leave

Ireland you have a mind, Ciabhan?" "It is indeed," he said, "for in

Ireland I get neither shelter or protection." He bade farewell to his

people then, and he left them very sorrowful after him, for to part with

him was like the parting of life from the body.

 

And Ciabhan went on in the curragh, and great white shouting waves rose

up about him, every one of them the size of a mountain; and the

beautiful speckled salmon that are used to stop in the sand and the

shingle rose up to the sides of the curragh, till great dread came on

Ciabhan, and he said: "By my word, if it was on land I was I could make

a better fight for myself"

 

And he was in this danger till he saw a rider coming towards him on a

dark grey horse having a golden bridle, and he would be under the sea

for the length of nine waves, and he would rise with the tenth wave, and

no wet on him at all. And he said: "What reward would you give to

whoever would bring you out of this great danger?" "Is there anything in

my hand worth offering you?" said Ciabhan. "There is," said the rider,

"that you would give your service to whoever would give you his help."

Ciabhan agreed to that, and he put his hand into the rider's hand.

 

With that the rider drew him on to the horse, and the curragh came on

beside them till they reached to the shore of Tir Tairngaire, the Land

of Promise. They got off the horse there, and came to Loch Luchra, the

Lake of the Dwarfs, and to Manannan's city, and a feast was after being

made ready there, and comely serving-boys were going round with smooth

horns, and playing on sweet-sounding harps till the whole house was

filled with the music.

 

Then there came in clowns, long-snouted, long-heeled, lean and bald and

red, that used to be doing tricks in Manannan's house. And one of these

tricks was, a man of them to take nine straight willow rods, and to

throw them up to the rafters of the house, and to catch them again as

they came down, and he standing on one leg, and having but one hand

free. And they thought no one could do that trick but themselves, and

they were used to ask strangers to do it, the way they could see them

fail.

 

So this night when one of them had done the trick, he came up to

Ciabhan, that was beyond all the Men of Dea or the Sons of the Gael that

were in the house, in shape and in walk and in name, and he put the nine

rods in his hand. And Ciabhan stood up and he did the feat before them

all, the same as if he had never learned to do any other thing.

 

Now Gebann, that was a chief Druid in Manannan's country, had a

daughter, Cliodna of the Fair Hair, that had never given her love to any

man. But when she saw Ciabhan she gave him her love, and she agreed to

go away with him on the morrow.

 

And they went down to the landing-place and got into a curragh, and they

went on till they came to Teite's Strand in the southern part of

Ireland. It was from Teite Brec the Freckled the strand got its name,

that went there one time for a wave game, and three times fifty young

girls with her, and they were all drowned in that place.

 

And as to Ciabhan, he came on shore, and went looking for deer, as was

right, under the thick branches of the wood; and he left the young girl

in the boat on the strand.

 

But the people of Manannan's house came after them, having forty ships.

And Iuchnu, that was in the curragh with Cliodna, did treachery, and he

played music to her till she lay down in the boat and fell asleep. And

then a great wave came up on the strand and swept her away.

 

And the wave got its name from Cliodna of the Fair Hair, that will be

long remembered.

 

CHAPTER XIII. (HIS CALL TO CONNLA)

And it is likely it was Manannan sent his messenger for Connla of the

Red Hair the time he went away out of Ireland, for it is to his country

Connla was brought; and this is the way he got the call.

 

It chanced one day he was with his father Conn, King of Teamhair, on the

Hill of Uisnach, and he saw a woman having wonderful clothing coming

towards him. "Where is it you come from?" he asked her. "I come," she

said, "from Tir-nam-Beo, the Land of the Ever-Living Ones, where no

death comes. We use feasts that are lasting," she said, "and we do every

kind thing without quarrelling, and we are called the people of the

Sidhe." "Who are you speaking to, boy?" said Conn to him then, for no

one saw the strange woman but only Connla. "He is speaking to a high

woman that death or old age will never come to," she said. "I am asking

him to come to Magh Mell, the Pleasant Plain where the triumphant king

is living, and there he will be a king for ever without sorrow or fret.

Come with me, Connla of the Red Hair," she said, "of the fair freckled

neck and of the ruddy cheek; come with me, and your body will not wither

from its youth and its comeliness for ever."

 

They could all hear the woman's words then, though they could not see

her, and it is what Conn said to Coran his Druid: "Help me, Coran, you

that sing spells of the great arts. There is an attack made on me that

is beyond my wisdom and beyond my power, I never knew so strong an

attack since the first day I was a king. There is an unseen figure

fighting with me; she is using her strength against me to bring away my

beautiful son; the call of a woman is bringing him away from the hands

of the king."

 

Then Coran, the Druid, began singing spells against the woman of the

Sidhe, the way no one would hear her voice, and Connla could not see her

any more. But when she was being driven away by the spells of the Druid,

she threw an apple to Connla.

 

And through the length of a month from that time, Connla used no other

food nor drink but that apple, for he thought no other food or drink

worth the using. And for all he ate of it, the apple grew no smaller,

but was whole all the while. And there was great trouble on Connla on

account of the woman he had seen.

 

And at the end of a month Connla was at his father's side in Magh

Archomnim, and he saw the same woman coming towards him, and it is what

she said: "It is a high place indeed Connla has among dying people, and

death before him. But the Ever-Living Living Ones," she said, "are

asking you to take the sway over the people of Tethra, for they are

looking at you every day in the gatherings of your country among your

dear friends."

 

When Conn, the king, heard her voice, he said to his people: "Call

Coran, the Druid to me, for I hear the sound of the woman's voice

again." But on that she said: "O Conn, fighter of a hundred, it is

little love and little respect the wonderful tribes of Traig Mor, the

Great Strand, have for Druids; and where its law comes, it scatters the

spells on their lips."

 

Then Conn looked to his son Connla to see what he would say, and Connla

said: "My own people are dearer to me than any other thing, yet sorrow

has taken hold of me because of this woman." Then the woman spoke to him

again, and it is what she said: "Come now into my shining ship, if you

will come to the Plain of Victory. There is another country it would not

be worse for you to look for; though the bright sun is going down, we

shall reach to that country before night. That is the country that

delights the mind of every one that turns to me. There is no living race

in it but women and girls only."

 

And when the woman had ended her song, Connla made a leap from his

people into the shining boat, and they saw him sailing away from them

far off and as if in a mist, as far as their eyes could see. It is away

across the sea they went, and they have never come back again, and only

the gods know where was it they went.

 

CHAPTER XIV. (TADG IN MANANNAN'S ISLANDS)

And another that went to the Land of the Ever-Living Ones, but that came

back again, was Tadg, son of Cian, son of Olioll; and this is the way

that happened.

 

It was one time Tadg was going his next heir's round, into the west of

Munster, and his two brothers, Airnelach and Eoghan, along with him. And

Cathmann, son of Tabarn, that was king of the beautiful country of

Fresen that lay to the south-east of the Great Plain, was searching the

sea for what he could find just at that time, and nine of his ships with

him. And they landed at Beire do Bhunadas, to the west of Munster, and

the country had no stir in it, and so they slipped ashore, and no one

took notice of them till all were surrounded, both men and cattle. And

Tadg's wife Liban, daughter of Conchubar Abratrudh of the Red Brows, and

his two brothers, and a great many of the people of Munster, were taken

by the foreigners and brought away to the coasts of Fresen. And Cathmann

took Liban to be his own wife, and he put hardship on Tadg's two

brothers: Eoghan he put to work a common ferry across a channel of the

coast, and Airnelach to cut firing and to keep up fires for all the

people; and all the food they got was barley seed and muddy water.

 

And as to Tadg himself, it was only by his courage and the use of his

sword he made his escape, but there was great grief and