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

they said. "What are your names?" said

Finn. "Aincel and Digbail and Espaid; Ill-wishing and Harm and Want are

our names. And what answer do you give us now, Finn?" they said. "No one

before me ever gave a blood-fine for a man killed in battle, and I will

not give it," said Finn. "We will do revenge and robbery on you so,"

said they. "What revenge is that?" said Finn. "It is what I will do,"

said Aincel, "if I meet with two or three or four of the Fianna, I will

take their feet and their hands from them." "It is what I will do,"

said Digbail, "I will not leave a day without loss of a hound or a

serving-boy or a fighting man to the Fianna of Ireland." "And I myself

will be always leaving them in want of people, or of a hand, or of an

eye," said Espaid. "Without we get some help against them," said

Caoilte, "there will not be one of us living at the end of a year."

"Well," said Finn, "we will make a dun and stop here for a while, for I

will not be going through Ireland and these men following after me, till

I find who are the strongest, themselves or ourselves."

 

So the Fianna made little raths for themselves all about Slieve Mis, and

they stopped there through a month and a quarter and a year. And through

all that time the three red bald-headed men were doing every sort of

hurt and harm upon them.

 

But the three sons of the King of Iruath came to speak with Finn, and it

is what they said: "It is our wish, Finn, to send the hound that is with

us to go around you three times in every day, and however many may be

trying to hurt or to rob you, they will not have power to do it after

that. But let there be neither fire nor arms nor any other dog in the

house he goes into," they said. "I will let none of these things go into

the one house with him," said Finn, "and he will go safe back to you."

So every day the hound would be sent to Finn, having his chain of ridges

of red gold around his neck, and he would go three times around Finn,

and three times he would put his tongue upon him. And to the people that

were nearest to the hound when he came into the house it would seem like

as if a vat of mead was being strained, and to others there would come

the sweet smell of an apple garden.

 

And every harm and sickness the three sons of Uar would bring on the

Fianna, the three sons of the King of Iruath would take it off them

with their herbs and their help and their healing.

 

And after a while the High King of Ireland came to Slieve Mis with a

great, troop of his men, to join with Finn and the Fianna. And they told

the High King the whole story, and how the sons of Uar were destroying

them, and the three sons of the King of Iruath were helping them against

them. "Why would not the men that can do all that find some good spell

that would drive the sons of Uar out of Ireland?" said the High King.

 

With that Caoilte went looking for the three young men from Iruath and

brought them to the High King. "These are comely men," said the High

King, "good in their shape and having a good name. And could you find

any charm, my sons," he said, "that will drive out these three enemies

that are destroying the Fianna of Ireland?" "We would do that if we

could find those men near us," said they; "and it is where they are

now," they said, "at Daire's Cairn at the end of the raths." "Where are

Garb-Cronan, the Rough Buzzing One, and Saltran of the Long Heel?" said

Finn. "Here we are, King of the Fianna," said they. "Go out to those men

beyond, and tell them I will give according to the judgment of the King

of Ireland in satisfaction for their father." The messengers went out

then and brought them in, and they sat down on the bank of the rath.

 

Then the High King said: "Rise up, Dubh, son of the King of Iruath, and

command these sons of Uar with a spell to quit Ireland." And Dubh rose

up, and he said: "Go out through the strength of this spell and this

charm, you three enemies of the Fianna, one-eyed, lame-thighed,

left-handed, of the bad race. And go out on the deep bitter sea," he

said, "and let each one of you strike a blow of his sword on the head

of his brothers. For it is long enough you are doing harm and

destruction on the King of the Fianna, Finn, son of Cumhal."

 

With that the hound sent a blast of wind under them that brought them

out into the fierce green sea, and each of them struck a blow on the

head of the others. And that was the last that was seen of the three

destroying sons of Uar, Aincel and Digbail and Espaid.

 

But after the time of the Fianna, there came three times in the one

year, into West Munster, three flocks of birds from the western sea

having beaks of bone and fiery breath, and the wind from their wings was

as cold as a wind of spring. And the first time they came was at reaping

time, and every one of them brought away an ear of corn from the field.

And the next time they came they did not leave apple on tree, or nut on

bush, or berry on the rowan; and the third time they spared no live

thing they could lift from the ground, young bird or fawn or silly

little child. And the first day they came was the same day of the year

the three sons of Uar were put out in the sea.

 

And when Caoilte, that was one of the last of the Fianna, and that was

living yet, heard of them, he remembered the sons of Uar, and he made a

spell that drove them out into the sea again, and they perished there by

one another.

 

It was about the length of a year the three sons of the King of Iruath

stopped with Finn. And at the end of that time Donn and Dubhan, two sons

of the King of Ulster, came out of the north to Munster. And one night

they kept watch for the Fianna, and three times they made a round of the

camp. And it is the way the young men from Iruath used to be, in a place

by themselves apart from the Fianna, and their hound in the middle

between them; and at the fall of night there used a wall of fire to be

around them, the way no one could look at them.

 

And the third time the sons of the King of Ulster made the round of the

camp, they saw the fiery wall, and Donn said: "It is a wonder the way

those three young men are through the length of a year now, and their

hound along with them, and no one getting leave to look at them."

 

With that he himself and his brother took their arms in their hands, and

went inside the wall of fire, and they began looking at the three men

and at the hound. And the great hound they used to see every day at the

hunting was at this time no bigger than a lap-dog that would be with a

queen or a high person. And one of the young men was watching over the

dog, and his sword in his hand, and another of them was holding a vessel

of white silver to the mouth of the dog; and any drink any one of the

three would ask for, the dog would put it out of his mouth into the

vessel.

 

Then one of the young men said to the hound: "Well, noble one and brave

one and just one, take notice of the treachery that is done to you by

Finn." When the dog heard that he turned to the King of Ulster's sons,

and there rose a dark Druid wind that blew away the shields from their

shoulders and the swords from their sides into the wall of fire. And

then the three men came out and made an end of them; and when that was

done the dog came and breathed on them, and they turned to ashes on the

moment, and there was never blood or flesh or bone of them found after.

 

And the three battalions of the Fianna divided themselves into companies

of nine, and went searching through every part of Ireland for the King

of Ulster's two sons.

 

And as to Finn, he went to Teamhair Luachra, and no one with him but the

serving-lads and the followers of the army. And the companies of nine

that were looking for the King of Ulster's sons came back to him there

in the one night; but they brought no word of them, if they were dead or

living.

 

But as to the three sons of the King of Iruath and the hound that was

with them, they were seen no more by Finn and the Fianna.

 

CHAPTER IV. (RED RIDGE)

There was another young man came and served Finn for a while; out of

Connacht he came, and he was very daring, and the Red Ridge was the name

they gave him. And he all but went from Finn one time, because of his

wages that were too long in coming to him. And the three battalions of

the Fianna came trying to quiet him, but he would not stay for them. And

at the last Finn himself came, for it is a power he had, if he would

make but three verses he would quiet any one. And it is what he said:

"Daring Red Ridge," he said, "good in battle, if you go from me to-day

with your great name it is a good parting for us. But once at Rath Cro,"

he said, "I gave you three times fifty ounces in the one day; and at Cam

Ruidhe I gave you the full of my cup of silver and of yellow gold. And

do you remember," he said, "the time we were at Rath Ai, when we found

the two women, and when we ate the nuts, myself and yourself were there

together."

 

And after that the young man said no more about going from him.

 

And another helper came to Finn one time he was fighting at a ford, and

all his weapons were used or worn with the dint of the fight. And there

came to him a daughter of Mongan of the Sidhe, bringing him a flat stone

having a chain of gold to it. And he took the stone and did great deeds

with it. And after the fight the stone fell into the ford, that got the

name of Ath Liag Finn.

 

And that stone will never be found till the Woman of the Waves will find

it, and will bring it to land on a Sunday morning; and on that day seven

years the world will come to an end.