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

of Almhuin, thinking to see Sadbh his

wife looking out from the dun, but there was no sign of her. And when he

came to the dun, all his people came out to meet him, but they had a

very downcast look. "Where is the flower of Almhuin, beautiful gentle

Sadbh?" he asked them. And it is what they said: "While you were away

fighting, your likeness, and the likeness of Bran and of Sceolan

appeared before the dun, and we thought we heard the sweet call of the

Dord Fiann. And Sadbh, that was so good and so beautiful, came out of

the house," they said, "and she went out of the gates, and she would not

listen to us, and we could not stop her." "Let me go meet my love," she

said, "my husband, the father of the child that is not born." And with

that she went running out towards the shadow of yourself that was before

her, and that had its arms stretched out to her. But no sooner did she

touch it than she gave a great cry, and the shadow lifted up a hazel

rod, and on the moment it was a fawn was standing on the grass. Three

times she turned and made for the gate of the dun, but the two hounds

the shadow had with him went after her and took her by the throat and

dragged her back to him. "And by your hand of valour, Finn," they said,

"we ourselves made no delay till we went out on the plain after her. But

it is our grief, they had all vanished, and there was not to be seen

woman, or fawn or Druid, but we could hear the quick tread of feet on

the hard plain, and the howling of dogs. And if you would ask every one

of us in what quarter he heard those sounds, he would tell you a

different one."

 

When Finn heard that, he said no word at all, but he struck his breast

over and over again with his shut hands. And he went then to his own

inside room, and his people saw him no more for that day, or till the

sun rose over Magh Life on the morrow.

 

And through the length of seven years from that time, whenever he was

not out fighting against the enemies of Ireland, he went searching and

ever searching in every far corner for beautiful Sadbh. And there was

great trouble on him all the time, unless he might throw it off for a

while in hunting or in battle. And through all that time he never

brought out to any hunting but the five hounds he had most trust in,

Bran and Sceolan and Lomaire and Brod and Lomluath, the way there would

be no danger for Sadbh if ever he came on her track.

 

But after the end of seven years, Finn and some of his chief men were

hunting on the sides of Beinn Gulbain, and they heard a great outcry

among the hounds, that were gone into some narrow place. And when they

followed them there, they saw the five hounds of Finn in a ring, and

they keeping back the other hounds, and in the middle of the ring was a

young boy, with high looks, and he naked and having long hair. And he

was no way daunted by the noise of the hounds, and did not look at them

at all, but at the men that were coming up. And as soon as the fight was

stopped Bran and Sceolan went up to the little lad, and whined and

licked him, that any one would think they had forgotten their master.

Finn and the others came up to him then, and put their hands on his

head, and made much of him. And they brought him to their own hunting

cabin, and he ate and drank with them, and before long he lost his

wildness and was the same as themselves. And as to Bran and Sceolan,

they were never tired playing about him.

 

And it is what Finn thought, there was some look of Sadbh in his face,

and that it might be he was her son, and he kept him always beside him.

And little by little when the boy had learned their talk, he told them

all he could remember. He used to be with a deer he loved very much, he

said, and that cared and sheltered him, and it was in a wide place they

used to be, having hills and valleys and streams and woods in it, but

that was shut in with high cliffs on every side, that there was no way

of escape from it. And he used to be eating fruits and roots in the

summer, and in the winter there was food left for him in the shelter of

a cave. And a dark-looking man used to be coming to the place, and

sometimes he would speak to the deer softly and gently, and sometimes

with a loud angry voice. But whatever way he spoke, she would always

draw away from him with the appearance of great dread on her, and the

man would go away in great anger. And the last time he saw the deer, his

mother, the dark man was speaking to her for a long time, from softness

to anger. And at the end he struck her with a hazel rod, and with that

she was forced to follow him, and she looking back all the while at the

child, and crying after him that any one would pity her. And he tried

hard to follow after her, and made every attempt, and cried out with

grief and rage, but he had no power to move, and when he could hear his

mother no more he fell on the grass and his wits went from him. And when

he awoke it is on the side of the hill he was, where the hounds found

him. And he searched a long time for the place where he was brought up,

but he could not find it.

 

And the name the Fianna gave him was Oisin, and it is he was their maker

of poems, and their good fighter afterwards.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER V. THE BEST MEN OF THE FIANNA

 

 

And while Oisin was in his young youth, Finn had other good men along

with him, and the best of them were Goll, son of Morna, and Caoilte, son

of Ronan, and Lugaidh's Son.

 

As to Goll, that was of Connacht, he was very tall and light-haired, and

some say he was the strongest of all the Fianna. Finn made a poem in

praise of him one time when some stranger was asking what sort he was,

saying how hardy he was and brave in battle, and as strong as a hound or

as the waves, and with all that so kind and so gentle, and open-handed

and sweet-voiced, and faithful to his friends.

 

And the chessboard he had was called the Solustairtech, the Shining

Thing, and some of the chessmen were made of gold, and some of them of

silver, and each one of them was as big as the fist of the biggest man

of the Fianna; and after the death of Goll it was buried in Slieve

Baune.

 

And as to Caoilte, that was a grey thin man, he was the best runner of

them all. And he did a good many great deeds; a big man of the Fomor he

killed one time, and he killed a five-headed giant in a wheeling door,

and another time he made an end of an enchanted boar that no one else

could get near, and he killed a grey stag that had got away from the

Fianna through twenty-seven years. And another time he brought Finn out

of Teamhair, where he was kept by force by the High King, because of

some rebellion the Fianna had stirred up. And when Caoilte heard Finn

had been brought away to Teamhair, he went out to avenge him. And the

first he killed was Cuireach, a king of Leinster that had a great name,

and he brought his head up to the hill that is above Buadhmaic. And

after that he made a great rout through Ireland, bringing sorrow into

every house for the sake of Finn, killing a man in every place, and

killing the calves with the cows.

 

And every door the red wind from the east blew on, he would throw it

open, and go in and destroy all before him, setting fire to the fields,

and giving the wife of one man to another.

 

And when he came to Teamhair, he came to the palace, and took the

clothes off the door-keeper, and he left his own sword that was worn

thin in the king's sheath, and took the king's sword that had great

power in it. And he went into the palace then in the disguise of a

servant, to see how he could best free Finn.

 

And when evening came Caoilte held the candle at the king's feast in the

great hall, and after a while the king said: "You will wonder at what I

tell you, Finn, that the two eyes of Caoilte are in my candlestick." "Do

not say that," said Finn, "and do not put reproach on my people although

I myself am your prisoner; for as to Caoilte," he said, "that is not the

way with him, for it is a high mind he has, and he only does high

deeds, and he would not stand serving with a candle for all the gold of

the whole world."

 

After that Caoilte was serving the King of Ireland with drink, and when

he was standing beside him he gave out a high sorrowful lament. "There

is the smell of Caoilte's skin on that lament," said the king. And when

Caoilte saw he knew him he spoke out and he said: "Tell me what way I

can get freedom for my master." "There is no way to get freedom for him

but by doing one thing," said the king, "and that is a thing you can

never do. If you can bring me together a couple of all the wild

creatures of Ireland," he said, "I will give up your master to you

then."

 

When Caoilte heard him say that he made no delay, but he set out from

Teamhair, and went through the whole of Ireland to do that work for the

sake of Finn. It is with the flocks of birds he began, though they were

scattered in every part, and from them he went on to the beasts. And he

gathered together two of every sort, two ravens from Fiodh da Bheann;

two wild ducks from Loch na Seillein; two foxes from Slieve Cuilinn; two

wild oxen from Burren; two swans from blue Dobhran; two owls from the

wood of Faradhruim; two polecats from the branchy wood on the side of

Druim da Raoin, the Ridge of the Victories; two gulls from the strand of

Loch Leith; four woodpeckers from white Brosna; two plovers from

Carraigh Dhain; two thrushes from Leith Lomard; two wrens from Dun

Aoibh; two herons from Corrain Cleibh; two eagles from Carraig of the

stones; two hawks from Fiodh Chonnach; two sows from Loch Meilghe; two

water-hens from Loch Erne; two moor-hens from Monadh Maith; two

sparrow-hawks from Dubhloch; two stonechats from Magh Cuillean; two

tomtits from Magh Tuallainn; two swallows from Sean Abhla; two

cormorants from Ath Cliath; two wolves from Broit Cliathach; two

blackbirds from the Strand of the Two Women; two roebucks from Luachair

Ire; two pigeons from Ceas Chuir; two nightingales from Leiter Ruadh;

two starlings from green-sided Teamhair; two rabbits from Sith Dubh

Donn; two wild pigs from Cluaidh Chuir; two cuckoos from Drom Daibh; two

lapwings from Leanain na Furraich; two woodcocks from Craobh Ruadh; two

hawks from the Bright Mountain; two grey mice from Luimneach; two otters

from the Boinn; two larks from the Great Bog; two bats from the Cave of

the Nuts; two badgers from the province of Ulster; two landrail from the

banks of the Sionnan; two wagtails from Port Lairrge; two curlews from

the harbour of Gallimh; two hares from Muirthemne; two deer from Sith

Buidhe; two peacocks from Magh Mell; two cormorants from Ath Cliath; two

eels from Duth Dur; two goldfinches from Slieve na-n Eun; two birds of

slaughter from Magh Bhuilg; two bright swallows from Granard; two

redbreasts from the Great Wood; two rock-cod from Cala Chairge; two

sea-pigs from the great sea; two wrens from Mios an Chuil; two salmon

from Eas Mhic Muirne; two clean deer from Gleann na Smoil; two cows from

Magh Mor; two cats from the Cave of Cruachan; two sheep from bright

Sidhe Diobhlain; two pigs of the