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

the girl is in her comely growing power; every wood

is without fault from the top to the ground, and every wide good plain.

 

"It is pleasant is the colour of the time; rough winter is gone; every

plentiful wood is white; summer is a joyful peace.

 

"A flock of birds pitches in the meadow; there are sounds in the green

fields, there is in them a clear rushing stream.

 

"There is a hot desire on you for the racing of horses; twisted holly

makes a leash for the hound; a bright spear has been shot into the

earth, and the flag-flower is golden under it.

 

"A weak lasting little bird is singing at the top of his voice; the lark

is singing clear tidings; May without fault, of beautiful colours.

 

"I have another story for you; the ox is lowing, the winter is creeping

in, the summer is gone. High and cold the wind, low the sun, cries are

about us; the sea is quarrelling.

 

"The ferns are reddened and their shape is hidden; the cry of the wild

goose is heard; the cold has caught the wings of the birds; it is the

time of ice-frost, hard, unhappy."

 

And after that, Finn being but a young lad yet, made himself ready and

went up at Samhain time to the gathering of the High King at Teamhair.

And it was the law at that gathering, no one to raise a quarrel or

bring out any grudge against another through the whole of the time it

lasted. And the king and his chief men, and Goll, son of Morna, that was

now Head of the Fianna, and Caoilte, son of Ronan, and Conan, son of

Morna, of the sharp words, were sitting at a feast in the great house of

the Middle Court; and the young lad came in and took his place among

them, and none of them knew who he was.

 

The High King looked at him then, and the horn of meetings was brought

to him, and he put it into the boy's hand, and asked him who was he.

 

"I am Finn, son of Cumhal," he said, "son of the man that used to be

head over the Fianna, and king of Ireland; and I am come now to get your

friendship, and to give you my service."

 

"You are son of a friend, boy," said the king, "and son of a man I

trusted."

 

Then Finn rose up and made his agreement of service and of faithfulness

to the king; and the king took him by the hand and put him sitting

beside his own son, and they gave themselves to drinking and to pleasure

for a while.

 

Every year, now, at Samhain time, for nine years, there had come a man

of the Tuatha de Danaan out of Sidhe Finnachaidh in the north, and had

burned up Teamhair. Aillen, son of Midhna, his name was, and it is the

way he used to come, playing music of the Sidhe, and all the people that

heard it would fall asleep. And when they were all in their sleep, he

would let a flame of fire out of his mouth, and would blow the flame

till all Teamhair was burned.

 

The king rose up at the feast after a while, and his smooth horn in his

hand, and it is what he said: "If I could find among you, men of

Ireland, any man that would keep Teamhair till the break of day

to-morrow without being burned by Aillen, son of Midhna, I would give

him whatever inheritance is right for him to have, whether it be much or

little."

 

But the men of Ireland made no answer, for they knew well that at the

sound of the sweet pitiful music made by that comely man of the Sidhe,

even women in their pains and men that were wounded would fall asleep.

 

It is then Finn rose up and spoke to the King of Ireland. "Who will be

your sureties that you will fulfil this?" he said. "The kings of the

provinces of Ireland," said the king, "and Cithruadh with his Druids."

So they gave their pledges, and Finn took in hand to keep Teamhair safe

till the breaking of day on the morrow.

 

Now there was a fighting man among the followers of the King of Ireland,

Fiacha, son of Conga, that Cumhal, Finn's father, used to have a great

liking for, and he said to Finn: "Well, boy," he said, "what reward

would you give me if I would bring you a deadly spear, that no false

cast was ever made with?" "What reward are you asking of me?" said Finn.

"Whatever your right hand wins at any time, the third of it to be mine,"

said Fiacha, "and a third of your trust and your friendship to be mine."

"I will give you that," said Finn. Then Fiacha brought him

the spear, unknown to the sons of Morna or to any other person, and he

said: "When you will hear the music of the Sidhe, let you strip the

covering off the head of the spear and put it to your forehead, and the

power of the spear will not let sleep come upon you."

 

Then Finn rose up before all the men of Ireland, and he made a round of

the whole of Teamhair. And it was not long till he heard the sorrowful

music, and he stripped the covering from the head of the spear, and he

held the power of it to his forehead. And Aillen went on playing his

little harp, till he had put every one in their sleep as he was used;

and then he let a flame of fire out from his mouth to burn Teamhair.

And Finn held up his fringed crimson cloak against the flame, and it

fell down through the air and went into the ground, bringing the

four-folded cloak with it deep into the earth.

 

And when Aillen saw his spells were destroyed, he went back to Sidhe

Finnachaidh on the top of Slieve Fuad; but Finn followed after him

there, and as Aillen was going in at the door he made a cast of the

spear that went through his heart. And he struck his head off then, and

brought it back to Teamhair, and fixed it on a crooked pole and left it

there till the rising of the sun over the heights and invers of the

country.

 

And Aillen's mother came to where his body was lying, and there was

great grief on her, and she made this complaint:--

 

"Ochone! Aillen is fallen, chief of the Sidhe of Beinn Boirche; the slow

clouds of death are come on him. Och! he was pleasant, Och! he was kind.

Aillen, son of Midhna of Slieve Fuad.

 

"Nine times he burned Teamhair. It is a great name he was always looking

for, Ochone, Ochone, Aillen!"

 

And at the breaking of day, the king and all the men of Ireland came out

upon the lawn at Teamhair where Finn was. "King," said Finn, "there is

the head of the man that burned Teamhair, and the pipe and the harp that

made his music. And it is what I think," he said, "that Teamhair and all

that is in it is saved."

 

Then they all came together into the place of counsel, and it is what

they agreed, the headship of the Fianna of Ireland to be given to Finn.

And the king said to Goll, son of Morna: "Well, Goll," he said, "is it

your choice to quit Ireland or to put your hand in Finn's hand?" "By my

word, I will give Finn my hand," said Goll.

 

And when the charms that used to bring good luck had done their work,

the chief men of the Fianna rose up and struck their hands in Finn's

hand, and Goll, son of Morna, was the first to give him his hand the way

there would be less shame on the rest for doing it.

 

And Finn kept the headship of the Fianna until the end; and the place he

lived in was Almhuin of Leinster, where the white dun was made by Nuada

of the Tuatha de Danaan, that was as white as if all the lime in Ireland

was put on it, and that got its name from the great herd of cattle that

died fighting one time around the well, and that left their horns there,

speckled horns and white.

 

And as to Finn himself, he was a king and a seer and a poet; a Druid and

a knowledgeable man; and everything he said was sweet-sounding to his

people. And a better fighting man than Finn never struck his hand into a

king's hand, and whatever any one ever said of him, he was three times

better. And of his justice it used to be said, that if his enemy and his

own son had come before him to be judged, it is a fair judgment he would

have given between them. And as to his generosity it used to be said, he

never denied any man as long as he had a mouth to eat with, and legs to

bring away what he gave him; and he left no woman without her

bride-price, and no man without his pay; and he never promised at night

what he would not fulfil on the morrow, and he never promised in the day

what he would not fulfil at night, and he never forsook his right-hand

friend. And if he was quiet in peace he was angry in battle, and Oisin

his son and Osgar his son's son followed him in that. There was a young

man of Ulster came and claimed kinship with them one time, saying they

were of the one blood. "If that is so," said Oisin, "it is from the men

of Ulster we took the madness and the angry heart we have in battle."

"That is so indeed," said Finn.

 

CHAPTER II. (FINN'S HOUSEHOLD)

And the number of the Fianna of Ireland at that time was seven score and

ten chief men, every one of them having three times nine righting men

under him. And every man of them was bound to three things, to take no

cattle by oppression, not to refuse any man, as to cattle or riches; no

one of them to fall back before nine fighting men. And there was no man

taken into the Fianna until his tribe and his kindred would give

securities for him, that even if they themselves were all killed he

would not look for satisfaction for their death. But if he himself would

harm others, that harm was not to be avenged on his people. And there

was no man taken into the Fianna till he knew the twelve books of

poetry. And before any man was taken, he would be put into a deep hole

in the ground up to his middle, and he having his shield and a hazel rod

in his hand. And nine men would go the length of ten furrows from him

and would cast their spears at him at the one time. And if he got a

wound from one of them, he was not thought fit to join with the Fianna.

And after that again, his hair would be fastened up, and he put to run

through the woods of Ireland, and the Fianna following after him to try

could they wound him, and only the length of a branch between themselves

and himself when they started. And if they came up with him and wounded

him, he was not let join them; or if his spears had trembled in his

hand, or if a branch of a tree had undone the plaiting of his hair, or

if he had cracked a dry stick under his foot, and he running. And they

would not take him among them till he had made a leap over a stick the

height of himself, and till he had stooped under one the height of