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

had often heard his grandfather telling them to his mother in Irish.

He did not know Irish, but he was learning it at school, and all the

little boys he knew were learning it. In a little while he will know

enough stories of Finn and Oisin to tell them to his children some day.

It is the owners of the land whose children might never have known what

would give them so much happiness. But now they can read this book to

their children, and it will make Slieve-na-man, Allen, and Benbulben,

the great mountain that showed itself before me every day through all my

childhood and was yet unpeopled, and half the country-sides of south and

west, as populous with memories as are Dundealgan and Emain Macha and

Muirthemne; and after a while somebody may even take them to some famous

place and say, "This land where your fathers lived proudly and finely

should be dear and dear and again dear"; and perhaps when many names

have grown musical to their ears, a more imaginative love will have

taught them a better service.

 

 

X

 

I need say nothing about the translation and arrangement of this book

except that it is worthy to be put beside "Cuchulain of Muirthemne."

Such books should not be commended by written words but by spoken words,

were that possible, for the written words commending a book, wherein

something is done supremely well, remain, to sound in the ears of a

later generation, like the foolish sound of church bells from the tower

of a church when every pew is full.

 

W.B. YEATS.

    CONTENTS

 

PART I. THE GODS

 

Book I. The Coming of the Tuatha de Danaan

 

   Chap.   I. The Fight with the Firbolgs

The Reign of Bres

 

Book II. Lugh of the Long Hand

 

   Chap.   I. The Coming of Lugh

The Sons of Tuireann

           III. The Great Battle of Magh Tuireadh

The Hidden House of Lugh

 

Book III. The Coming of the Gael

 

   Chap.   I. The Landing

The Battle of Tailltin

 

Book IV. The Ever-Living Living Ones

 

   Chap.   I. Bodb Dearg

The Dagda

           III. Angus Og

The Morrigu Aine Aoibhell

           VII. Midhir and Etain

         VIII. Manannan

Manannan at play His Call to Bran His Three Calls to Cormac

           XII. Cliodna's Wave

         XIII. His Call to Connla

           XIV. Tadg in Manannan's Islands

Laegaire in the Happy Plain

 

Book V. The Fate of The Children of Lir

 

 

PART II. THE FIANNA

 

Book I. Finn, Son of Cumhal

 

   Chap.   I. The Coming of Finn

Finn's Household

         III. Birth of Bran

Oisin's Mother The Best Men of the Fianna

 

Book II. Finn's Helpers

 

   Chap.   I. The Lad of the Skins

Black, Brown, and Grey

         III. The Hound

Red Ridge

 

Book III. The Battle of the White Strand

 

   Chap.   I. The Enemies of Ireland

Cael and Credhe

           III. Conn Crither

Glas, Son of Dremen The Help of the Men of Dea The March of the Fianna

           VII. The First Fighters

         VIII. The King of Ulster's Son

The High King's Son The King of Lochlann and his Sons Labran's Journey

          XII. The Great Fight

         XIII. Credhe's Lament

 

Book IV. Huntings and Enchantments

 

   Chap.     I. The King of Britain's Son

The Cave of Ceiscoran

           III. Donn, Son of Midhir

The Hospitality of Cuanna's House Cat-Heads and Dog-Heads Lomna's Head

           VII. Ilbrec of Ess Ruadh

           VIII. The Cave of Cruachan

The Wedding at Ceann Slieve The Shadowy One Finn's Madness

           XII. The Red Woman

           XIII. Finn and the Phantoms

           XIV. The Pigs of Angus

The Hunt of Slieve Cuilinn

 

Book V. Oisin's Children

 

 

Book VI. Diarmuid

 

   Chap.     I. Birth of Diarmuid

How Diarmuid got his Love-Spot

           III. The Daughter of King Under-Wave

The Hard Servant The House of the Quicken Trees

 

Book VII. Diarmuid and Grania

 

   Chap.   I. The Flight from Teamhair

The Pursuit

           III. The Green Champions

The Wood of Dubhros The Quarrel The Wanderers

           VII. Fighting and Peace

           VIII. The Boar of Beinn Gulbain

 

Book VIII. Cnoc-an-Air

 

   Chap.   I. Tailc, Son of Treon

Meargach's Wife

           III. Ailne's Revenge

 

Book IX. The Wearing Away of the Fianna

 

   Chap.   I. The Quarrel with the Sons of Morna

Death of Goll

           III. The Battle of Gabhra

 

Book X. The End of the Fianna

 

   Chap.   I. Death of Bran

The Call of Oisin

           III. The Last of the Great Men

 

Book XI. Oisin and Patrick

 

   Chap.   I. Oisin's Story

Oisin in Patrick's House

           III. The Arguments

Oisin's Laments GODS AND FIGHTING MEN. PART ONE: THE GODS. BOOK ONE: THE COMING OF THE TUATHA DE DANAAN. CHAPTER I. (THE FIGHT WITH THE FIRBOLGS)

It was in a mist the Tuatha de Danaan, the people of the gods of Dana,

or as some called them, the Men of Dea, came through the air and the

high air to Ireland.

 

It was from the north they came; and in the place they came from they

had four cities, where they fought their battle for learning: great

Falias, and shining Gorias, and Finias, and rich Murias that lay to the

south. And in those cities they had four wise men to teach their young

men skill and knowledge and perfect wisdom: Senias in Murias; and Arias,

the fair-haired poet, in Finias; and Urias of the noble nature in

Gorias; and Morias in Falias itself. And they brought from those four

cities their four treasures: a Stone of Virtue from Falias, that was

called the Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny; and from Gorias they brought

a Sword; and from Finias a Spear of Victory; and from Murias the fourth

treasure, the Cauldron that no company ever went away from unsatisfied.

 

It was Nuada was king of the Tuatha de Danaan at that time, but

Manannan, son of Lir, was greater again. And of the others that were

chief among them were Ogma, brother to the king, that taught them

writing, and Diancecht, that understood healing, and Neit, a god of

battle, and Credenus the Craftsman, and Goibniu the Smith. And the

greatest among their women were Badb, a battle goddess; and Macha, whose

mast-feeding was the heads of men killed in battle; and the Morrigu,

the Crow of Battle; and Eire and Fodla and Banba, daughters of the

Dagda, that all three gave their names to Ireland afterwards; and Eadon,

the nurse of poets; and Brigit, that was a woman of poetry, and poets

worshipped her, for her sway was very great and very noble. And she was

a woman of healing along with that, and a woman of smith's work, and it

was she first made the whistle for calling one to another through the

night. And the one side of her face was ugly, but the other side was

very comely. And the meaning of her name was Breo-saighit, a fiery

arrow. And among the other women there were many shadow-forms and great

queens; but Dana, that was called the Mother of the Gods, was beyond

them all.

 

And the three things they put above all others were the plough and the

sun and the hazel-tree, so that it was said in the time to come that

Ireland was divided between those three, Coll the hazel, and Cecht the

plough, and Grian the sun.

 

And they had a well below the sea where the nine hazels of wisdom were

growing; that is, the hazels of inspiration and of the knowledge of

poetry. And their leaves and their blossoms would break out in the same

hour, and would fall on the well in a shower that raised a purple wave.

And then the five salmon that were waiting there would eat the nuts, and

their colour would come out in the red spots of their skin, and any

person that would eat one of those salmon would know all wisdom and all

poetry. And there were seven streams of wisdom that sprang from that

well and turned back to it again; and the people of many arts have all

drank from that well.

 

It was on the first day of Beltaine, that is called now May Day, the

Tuatha de Danaan came, and it was to the north-west of Connacht they

landed. But the Firbolgs, the Men of the Bag, that were in Ireland

before them, and that had come from the South, saw nothing but a mist,

and it lying on the hills.

 

Eochaid, son of Erc, was king of the Firbolgs at that time, and

messengers came to him at Teamhair, and told him there was a new race of

people come into Ireland, but whether from the earth or the skies or on

the wind was not known, and that they had settled themselves at Magh

Rein.

 

They thought there would be wonder on Eochaid when he heard that news;

but there was no wonder on him, for a dream had come to him in the

night, and when he asked his Druids the meaning of the dream, it is what

they said, that it would not be long till there would be a strong enemy

coming against him.

 

Then King Eochaid took counsel with his chief advisers, and it is what

they agreed, to send a good champion of their own to see the strangers

and to speak with them. So they chose out Sreng, that was a great

fighting man, and he rose up and took his strong red-brown shield, and

his two thick-handled spears, and his sword, and his head-covering, and

his thick iron club, and he set out from Teamhair, and went on towards

the place the strangers were, at Magh Rein.

 

But before he reached it, the watchers of the Tuatha de Danaan got sight

of him, and they sent out one of their own champions, Bres, with his

shield and his sword and his two spears, to meet him and to talk with

him.

 

So the two champions went one towards the other slowly, and keeping a

good watch on one another, and wondering at one another's arms, till

they came near enough for talking; and then they stopped, and each put

his shield before his body and struck it hard into the ground, and they

looked at one another over the rim. Bres was the first to speak, and

when Sreng heard it was Irish he was talking, his own tongue, he was

less uneasy, and they drew nearer, and asked questions as to one

another's family and race.

 

And after a while they put their shields away, and it was what Sreng

said, that he had raised his in dread of the thin, sharp spears Bres had

in his hand. And Bres said he himself was in dread of the thick-handled

spears he saw with Sreng, and he asked were all the arms of the Firbolgs

of the same sort. And Sreng took off the tyings of his spears to show

them better, and Bres wondered at them, being so strong and so heavy,

and so sharp at the sides though they had no points. And Sreng told him

the name of those spears was Craisech, and that they would break through

shields and crush flesh and bones, so that their thrust was death or

wounds that never healed. And then he looked at the sharp, thin,

hard-pointed spears that were with Bres. And in the end they made an

exchange of spears, the way the fighters on each side would see the

weapons the others were used to. And it is the message Bres sent to the

Firbolgs, that if they would give up one half of Ireland, his people

would be content