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

Fianna of Ireland to search out the kings and the

princes of the Fianna, and to bury them; and every one that might be

healed was brought to a place of healing.

 

And Credhe, wife of Cael, came with the others, and went looking

through the bodies for her comely comrade, and crying as she went. And

as she was searching, she saw a crane of the meadows and her two

nestlings, and the cunning beast the fox watching the nestlings; and

when the crane covered one of the birds to save it, he would make a rush

at the other bird, the way she had to stretch herself out over the

birds; and she would sooner have got her own death by the fox than her

nestlings to be killed by him. And Credhe was looking at that, and she

said: "It is no wonder I to have such love for my comely sweetheart, and

the bird in that distress about her nestlings."

 

Then she heard a stag in Druim Ruighlenn above the harbour, that was

making great lamentations for his hind from place to place, for they had

been nine years together, and had lived in the wood at the foot of the

harbour, Fidh Leis, and Finn had killed the hind, and the stag was

nineteen days without tasting grass or water, lamenting after the hind.

"It is no shame for me," said Credhe, "I to die for grief after Cael,

since the stag is shortening his life sorrowing after the hind."

 

Then she met with Fergus of the True Lips. "Have you news of Cael for

me, Fergus?" she said. "I have news," said Fergus, "for he and the last

man that was left of the foreigners, Finnachta Fiaclach, are after

drowning one another in the sea."

 

And at that time the waves had put Cael back on the strand, and the

women and the men of the Fianna that were looking for him raised him up,

and brought him to the south of the White Strand.

 

And Credhe came to where he was, and she keened him and cried over him,

and she made this complaint:--

 

"The harbour roars, O the harbour roars, over the rushing race of the

Headland of the Two Storms, the drowning of the hero of the Lake of the

Two Dogs, that is what the waves are keening on the strand.

 

"Sweet-voiced is the crane, O sweet-voiced is the crane in the marshes

of the Ridge of the Two Strong Men; it is she cannot save her nestlings,

the wild dog of two colours is taking her little ones.

 

"Pitiful the cry, pitiful the cry the thrush is making in the Pleasant

Ridge, sorrowful is the cry of the blackbird in Leiter Laeig.

 

"Sorrowful the call, O sorrowful the call of the deer in the Ridge of

Two Lights; the doe is lying dead in Druim Silenn, the mighty stag cries

after her.

 

"Sorrowful to me, O sorrowful to me the death of the hero that lay

beside me; the son of the woman of the Wood of the Two Thickets, to be

with a bunch of grass under his head.

 

"Sore to me, O sore to me Cael to be a dead man beside me, the waves to

have gone over his white body; it is his pleasantness that has put my

wits astray.

 

"A woeful shout, O a woeful shout the waves are making on the strand;

they that took hold of comely Cael, a pity it is he went to meet them.

 

"A woeful crash, O a woeful crash the waves are making on the strand to

the north, breaking against the smooth rock, crying after Cael now he is

gone.

 

"A sorrowful fight, O a sorrowful fight, the sea is making with the

strand to the north; my beauty is lessened; the end of my life is

measured.

 

"A song of grief, O a song of grief is made by the waves of Tulcha Leis;

all I had is gone since this story came to me. Since the son of

Crimthann is drowned I will love no one after him for ever; many a king

fell by his hand; his shield never cried out in the battle."

 

After she had made that complaint, Credhe laid herself down beside Cael

and died for grief after him. And they were put in the one grave, and

it was Caoilte raised the stone over them.

 

And after that great battle of the White Strand, that lasted a year and

a day, there was many a sword and shield left broken, and many a dead

body lying on the ground, and many a fighting man left with a foolish

smile on his face.

 

And the great name that was on the armies of the World went from them to

the Fianna of Ireland; and they took the ships and the gold and the

silver and all the spoils of the armies of the World. And from that time

the Fianna had charge of the whole of Ireland, to keep it from the Fomor

and from any that might come against it.

 

And they never lost power from that time until the time of their last

battle, the sorrowful battle of Gabhra.

 

BOOK FOUR: HUNTINGS AND ENCHANTMENTS. CHAPTER I. (THE KING OF BRITAIN'S SON)

Arthur, son of the King of Britain, came one time to take service with

Finn, and three times nine men along with him. And they went hunting one

day on Beinn Edair, and Finn took his place on the Cairn of the Fianna

between the hill and the sea, and Arthur took his stand between the hunt

and the sea, the way the deer would not escape by swimming.

 

And while Arthur was there he took notice of three of Finn's hounds,

Bran, and Sceolan and Adhnuall, and he made a plan in his mind to go

away across the sea, himself and his three nines, bringing those three

hounds along with him. So he did that, and he himself and his men

brought away the hounds and crossed the sea, and the place where they

landed was Inver Mara Gamiach on the coast of Britain. And after they

landed, they went to the mountain of Lodan, son of Lir, to hunt on it.

 

And as to the Fianna, after their hunting was done they gathered

together on the hill; and as the custom was, all Finn's hounds were

counted. Three hundred full-grown hounds he had, and two hundred whelps;

and it is what the poets used to say, that to be counting them was like

counting the branches on a tree.

 

Now on this day when they were counted, Bran and Sceolan and Adhnuall

were missing; and that was told to Finn. He bade his people to search

again through the three battalions of the Fianna, but search as they

would, the hounds were not to be found.

 

Then Finn sent for a long-shaped basin of pale gold, and water in it,

and he put his face in the water, and his hand over his face, and it was

showed him what had happened, and he said: "The King of Britain's son

has brought away the hound. And let nine men be chosen out to follow

after them," he said. So nine men were chosen out, Diarmuid, grandson of

Duibhne; Goll, son of Morna; Oisin, son of Finn; Faolan, the friend of

the hounds, son of a woman that had come over the sea to give her love

to Finn; Ferdoman, son of Bodb Dearg; two sons of Finn, Raighne Wide Eye

and Cainche the Crimson-Red; Glas, son of Enchered Bera, with Caoilte

and Lugaidh's Son. And their nine put their helmets on their heads, and

took their long spears in their hands, and they felt sure they were a

match for any four hundred men from the east to the west of the world.

 

They set out then, till they came to the mountain of Lodan, son of Lir;

and they were not long there till they heard talk of men that were

hunting in that place.

 

Arthur of Britain and his people were sitting on a hunting mound just at

that time, and the nine men of the Fianna made an attack on them and

killed all of them but Arthur, that Goll, son of Morna, put his two arms

about and saved from death. Then they turned to go back to Ireland,

bringing Arthur with them, and the three hounds. And as they were going,

Goll chanced to look around him and he saw a dark-grey horse, having a

bridle with fittings of worked gold. And then he looked to the left and

saw a bay mare that was not easy to get hold of, and it having a bridle

of silver rings and a golden bit. And Goll took hold of the two, and he

gave them into Oisin's hand, and he gave them on to Diarmuid.

 

They went back to Finn then, bringing his three hounds with them, and

the King of Britain's son as a prisoner; and Arthur made bonds with

Finn, and was his follower till he died.

 

And as to the horse and the mare, they gave them to Finn; and the mare

bred eight times, at every birth eight foals, and it is of that seed

came all the horses of the fair Fianna of the Gael, for they had used

no horses up to that time.

 

And that was not the only time Finn was robbed of some of his hounds.

For there was a daughter of Roman was woman-Druid to the Tuatha de

Danaan, and she set her love on Finn. But Finn said, so long as there

was another woman to be found in the world, he would not marry a witch.

And one time, three times fifty of Finn's hounds passed by the hill

where she was; and she breathed on the hounds and shut them up in the

hill, and they never came out again. It was to spite Finn she did that,

and the place got the name of Duma na Conn, the Mound of the Hounds.

 

And as to Adhnuall, one of the hounds Finn thought most of, and that was

brought back from the King of Britain's son, this is the way he came to

his death afterwards.

 

There was a great fight one time between the Fianna and Macoon, son of

Macnia, at some place in the province of Leinster, and a great many of

the Fianna were killed. And the hound Adhnuall went wandering northward

from the battle and went astray; and three times he went round the whole

of Ireland, and then he came back to the place of the battle, and to a

hill where three young men of the Fianna that had fallen there were

buried after their death, and three daughters of a King of Alban that

had died for love of them. And when Adhnuall came to that hill, he gave

three loud howls and he stretched himself out and died.

 

CHAPTER II. (THE CAVE OF CEISCORAN)

Finn called for a great hunt one time on the plains of Magh Chonaill and

in the forest parts of Cairbre of the Nuts. And he himself went up to

the top of