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

out from the

place. It is then Fionnuala said to Mochaomhog: "Come and baptize us

now, for it is short till our death comes; and it is certain you do not

think worse of parting with us than we do of parting with you. And make

our grave afterwards," she said, "and lay Conn at my right side and

Fiachra on my left side, and Aodh before my face, between my two arms.

And pray to the God of Heaven," she said, "that you may be able to

baptize us."

 

The children of Lir were baptized then, and they died and were buried as

Fionnuala had desired; Fiachra and Conn one at each side of her, and

Aodh before her face. And a stone was put over them, and their names

were written in Ogham, and they were keened there, and heaven was gained

for their souls.

 

And that is the fate of the children of Lir so far.

 

PART TWO: THE FIANNA. BOOK ONE: FINN, SON OF CUMHAL. CHAPTER I. (THE COMING OF FINN)

At the time Finn was born his father Cumhal, of the sons of Baiscne,

Head of the Fianna of Ireland, had been killed in battle by the sons of

Morna that were fighting with him for the leadership. And his mother,

that was beautiful long-haired Muirne, daughter of Tadg, son of Nuada of

the Tuatha de Danaan and of Ethlinn, mother of Lugh of the Long Hand,

did not dare to keep him with her; and two women, Bodhmall, the woman

Druid, and Liath Luachra, came and brought him away to care him.

 

It was to the woods of Slieve Bladhma they brought him, and they nursed

him secretly, because of his father's enemies, the sons of Morna, and

they kept him there a long time.

 

And Muirne, his mother, took another husband that was king of Carraighe;

but at the end of six years she came to see Finn, going through every

lonely place till she came to the wood, and there she found the little

hunting cabin, and the boy asleep in it, and she lifted him up in her

arms and kissed him, and she sang a little sleepy song to him; and then

she said farewell to the women, and she went away again.

 

And the two women went on caring him till he came to sensible years; and

one day when he went out he saw a wild duck on the lake with her clutch,

and he made a cast at her that cut the wings off her that she could not

fly, and he brought her back to the cabin, and that was his first hunt.

 

And they gave him good training in running and leaping and swimming. One

of them would run round a tree, and she having a thorn switch, and Finn

after her with another switch, and each one trying to hit at the other;

and they would leave him in a field, and hares along with him, and would

bid him not to let the hares quit the field, but to keep before them

whichever way they would go; and to teach him swimming they would throw

him into the water and let him make his way out.

 

But after a while he went away with a troop of poets, to hide from the

sons of Morna, and they hid him in the mountain of Crotta Cliach; but

there was a robber in Leinster at that time, Fiacuil, son of Codhna, and

he came where the poets were in Fidh Gaible and killed them all. But he

spared the child and brought him to his own house, that was in a cold

marsh. But the two women, Bodhmall and Liath, came looking for him after

a while, and Fiacuil gave him up to them, and they brought him back to

the same place he was before.

 

He grew up there, straight and strong and fair-haired and beautiful. And

one day he was out in Slieve Bladhma, and the two women along with him,

and they saw before them a herd of the wild deer of the mountain. "It is

a pity," said the old women, "we not to be able to get a deer of those

deer." "I will get one for you," said Finn; and with that he followed

after them, and caught two stags of them and brought them home to the

hunting cabin. And after that he used to be hunting for them every day.

But at last they said to him: "It is best for you to leave us now, for

the sons of Morna are watching again to kill you."

 

So he went away then by himself, and never stopped till he came to Magh

Life, and there he saw young lads swimming in a lake, and they called to

him to swim against them. So he went into the lake, and he beat them at

swimming. "Fair he is and well shaped," they said when they saw him

swimming, and it was from that time he got the name of Finn, that is,

Fair. But they got to be jealous of his strength, and he went away and

left them.

 

He went on then till he came to Loch Lein, and he took service there

with the King of Finntraigh; and there was no hunter like him, and the

king said: "If Cumhal had left a son, you would be that son."

 

He went from that king after, and he went into Carraighe, and there he

took service with the king, that had taken his mother Muirne for his

wife. And one day they were playing chess together, and he won seven

games one after another. "Who are you at all?" said the king then. "I am

a son of a countryman of the Luigne of Teamhair," said Finn. "That is

not so," said the king, "but you are the son that Muirne my wife bore to

Cumhal. And do not stop here any longer," he said, "that you may not be

killed under my protection."

 

From that he went into Connacht looking for his father's brother,

Crimall, son of Trenmor; and as he was going on his way he heard the

crying of a lone woman. He went to her, and looked at her, and tears of

blood were on her face. "Your face is red with blood, woman," he said.

"I have reason for it," said she, "for my only son is after being killed

by a great fighting man that came on us." And Finn followed after the

big champion and fought with him and killed him. And the man he killed

was the same man that had given Cumhal his first wound in the battle

where he got his death, and had brought away his treasure-bag with him.

 

Now as to that treasure-bag, it is of a crane skin it was made, that was

one time the skin of Aoife, the beautiful sweetheart of Ilbrec, son of

Manannan, that was put into the shape of a crane through jealousy. And

it was in Manannan's house it used to be, and there were treasures kept

in it, Manannan's shirt and his knife, and the belt and the smith's hook

of Goibniu, and the shears of the King of Alban, and the helmet of the

King of Lochlann, and a belt of the skin of a great fish, and the bones

of Asal's pig that had been brought to Ireland by the sons of Tuireann.

All those treasures would be in the bag at full tide, but at the ebbing

of the tide it would be empty. And it went from Manannan to Lugh, son of

Ethlinn, and after that to Cumhal, that was husband to Muirne, Ethlinn's

daughter.

 

And Finn took the bag and brought it with him till he found Crimall,

that was now an old man, living in a lonely place, and some of the old

men of the Fianna were with him, and used to go hunting for him. And

Finn gave him the bag, and told him his whole story.

 

And then he said farewell to Crimall, and went on to learn poetry from

Finegas, a poet that was living at the Boinn, for the poets thought it

was always on the brink of water poetry was revealed to them. And he did

not give him his own name, but he took the name of Deimne. Seven years,

now, Finegas had stopped at the Boinn, watching the salmon, for it was

in the prophecy that he would eat the salmon of knowledge that would

come there, and that he would have all knowledge after. And when at the

last the salmon of knowledge came, he brought it to where Finn was, and

bade him to roast it, but he bade him not to eat any of it. And when

Finn brought him the salmon after a while he said: "Did you eat any of

it at all, boy?" "I did not," said Finn; "but I burned my thumb putting

down a blister that rose on the skin, and after doing that, I put my

thumb in my mouth." "What is your name, boy?" said Finegas. "Deimne,"

said he. "It is not, but it is Finn your name is, and it is to you and

not to myself the salmon was given in the prophecy." With that he gave

Finn the whole of the salmon, and from that time Finn had the knowledge

that came from the nuts of the nine hazels of wisdom that grow beside

the well that is below the sea.

 

And besides the wisdom he got then, there was a second wisdom came to

him another time, and this is the way it happened. There was a well of

the moon belonging to Beag, son of Buan, of the Tuatha de Danaan, and

whoever would drink out of it would get wisdom, and after a second drink

he would get the gift of foretelling. And the three daughters of Beag,

son of Buan, had charge of the well, and they would not part with a

vessel of it for anything less than red gold. And one day Finn chanced

to be hunting in the rushes near the well, and the three women ran out

to hinder him from coming to it, and one of them that had a vessel of

the water in her hand, threw it at him to stop him, and a share of the

water went into his mouth. And from that out he had all the knowledge

that the water of that well could give.

 

And he learned the three ways of poetry; and this is the poem he made to

show he had got his learning well:--

 

"It is the month of May is the pleasant time; its face is beautiful; the

blackbird sings his full song, the living wood is his holding, the

cuckoos are singing and ever singing; there is a welcome before the

brightness of the summer.

 

"Summer is lessening the rivers, the swift horses are looking for the

pool; the heath spreads out its long hair, the weak white bog-down

grows. A wildness comes on the heart of the deer; the sad restless sea

is asleep.

 

"Bees with their little strength carry a load reaped from the flowers;

the cattle go up muddy to the mountains; the ant has a good full feast.

 

"The harp of the woods is playing music; there is colour on the hills,

and a haze on the full lakes, and entire peace upon every sail.

 

"The corncrake is speaking, a loud-voiced poet; the high lonely

waterfall is singing a welcome to the warm pool, the talking of the

rushes has begun.

 

"The light swallows are darting; the loudness of music is around the

hill; the fat soft mast is budding; there is grass on the trembling

bogs.

 

"The bog is as dark as the feathers of the raven; the cuckoo makes a

loud welcome; the speckled salmon is leaping; as strong is the leaping

of the swift fighting man.

 

"The man is gaining;