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

the Dog-Heads in hand and made an end of them, and of the

White-Backs along with them.

 

And after that they went to a little hill to the south, having a double

dun on it, and it is there they found a hound they were able to get a

pup from.

 

And by that time they had searched through the whole of Ireland, and

they did not find in the whole of it a hundred men that could match

their nine.

 

And as well as their banners, some of the Fianna had swords that had

names to them, Mac an Luin, Son of the Waves, that belonged to Finn; and

Ceard-nan Gallan, the Smith of the Branches, that was Oisin's; and

Caoilte's Cruadh-Chosgarach, the Hard Destroying One; and Diarmuid's

Liomhadoir, the Burnisher; and Osgar's Cosgarach Mhor, the Great

Triumphant One.

 

And it is the way they got those swords: there came one time to where

Finn and Caoilte and some others of the Fianna were, a young man, very

big and ugly, having but one foot and one eye; a cloak of black skins he

had over his shoulders, and in his hand a blunt ploughshare that was

turning to red. And he told them he was Lon, son of Liobhan, one of the

three smiths of the King of Lochlann. And whether he thought to go away

from the Fianna, or to bring them to his smithy, he started running, and

they followed after him all through Ireland, to Slieve-na-Righ, and to

Luimnech, and to Ath Luain, and by the right side of Cruachan of

Connacht, and to Ess Ruadh and to Beinn Edair, and so to the sea.

 

And wherever it was they found the smithy, they went into it, and there

they found four smiths working, and every one of them having seven

hands. And Finn and Caoilte and the rest stopped there watching them

till the swords were made, and they brought them away with them then,

and it is good use they made of them afterwards.

 

And besides his sword, Mac an Luin, Finn had a shield was called Sgiath

Gailbhinn, the Storm Shield; and when it called out it could be heard

all through Ireland.

 

And whether or not it was the Storm Shield, Finn had a wonderful shield

that he did great deeds with, and the story of it is this:

 

At the time of the battle of the Great Battle of Magh Tuireadh, Lugh,

after he had struck the head off Balor of the Evil Eye, hung it in the

fork of a hazel-tree. And the tree split, and the leaves fell from it

with the dint of the poison that dropped from the head. And through the

length of fifty years that tree was a dwelling-place of crows and of

ravens. And at the end of that time Manannan, son of Lir, was passing

by, and he took notice of the tree that it was split and withered, and

he bade his men to dig it up. And when they began to dig, a mist of

poison rose up from the roots, and nine of the men got their death from

it, and another nine after them, and the third nine were blinded. And

Luchtaine the Carpenter made a shield of the wood of that hazel for

Manannan. And after a while Manannan gave it, and a set of chessmen

along with it, to Tadg, son of Nuada; and from him it came to his

grandson, Finn, son of Muirne and of Cumhal.

 

CHAPTER VI. (LOMNA'S HEAD)

 

FINN took a wife one time of the Luigne of Midhe. And at the same time

there was in his household one Lomna, a fool.

 

Finn now went into Tethra, hunting with the Fianna, but Lomna stopped at

the house. And after a while he saw Coirpre, a man of the Luigne, go in

secretly to where Finn's wife was.

 

And when the woman knew he had seen that, she begged and prayed of Lomna

to hide it from Finn. And Lomna agreed to that, but it preyed on him to

have a hand in doing treachery on Finn. And after a while he took a

four-square rod and wrote an Ogham on it, and these were the words he

wrote:--"An alder stake in a paling of silver; deadly night-shade in a

bunch of cresses; a husband of a lewd woman; a fool among the

well-taught Fianna; heather on bare Ualann of Luigne."

 

Finn saw the message, and there was anger on him against the woman; and

she knew well it was from Lomna he had heard the story, and she sent a

message to Coirpre bidding him to come and kill the fool.

 

So Coirpre came and struck his head off, and brought it away with him.

 

And when Finn came back in the evening he saw the body, and it without a

head. "Let us know whose body is this," said the Fianna. And then Finn

did the divination of rhymes, and it is what he said: "It is the body of

Lomna; it is not by a wild boar he was killed; it is not by a fall he

was killed; it is not in his bed he died; it is by his enemies he died;

it is not a secret to the Luigne the way he died. And let out the hounds

now on their track," he said.

 

So they let out the hounds, and put them on the track of Coirpre, and

Finn followed them, and they came to a house, and Coirpre in it, and

three times nine of his men and he cooking fish on a spit; and Lomna's

head was on a spike beside the fire.

 

And the first of the fish that was cooked Coirpre divided between his

men, but he put no bit into the mouth of the head. And then he made a

second division in the same way. Now that was against the law of the

Fianna, and the head spoke, and it said: "A speckled white-bellied

salmon that grows from a small fish under the sea; you have shared a

share that is not right; the Fianna will avenge it upon you, Coirpre."

"Put the head outside," said Coirpre, "for that is an evil word for us."

Then the head said from outside: "It is in many pieces you will be; it

is great fires will be lighted by Finn in Luigne."

 

And as it said that, Finn came in, and he made an end of Coirpre, and of

his men.

CHAPTER VII. (ILBREC OF ESS RUADH)

One time Caoilte was hunting on Beinn Gulbain, and he went on to Ess

Ruadh. And when he came near the hill of the Sidhe that is there, he saw

a young man waiting for him, having a crimson fringed cloak about him,

and on his breast a silver brooch, and a white shield, ornamented with

linked beasts of red gold, and his hair rolled in a ball at the back,

and covered with a golden cup. And he had heavy green weapons, and he

was holding two hounds in a silver chain.

 

And when Caoilte came up to him he gave him three loving kisses, and sat

down beside him on the grass. "Who are you, young champion?" said

Caoilte. "I am Derg, son of Eoghan of the people of Usnach," he said,

"and foster-brother of your own." Caoilte knew him then, and he said:

"And what is your life with your mother's people, the Tuatha de Danaan

in Sidhe Aedha?" "There is nothing wanting to us there of food or of

clothing," said the young man. "But for all that," he said, "I would

sooner live the life of the worst treated of the serving-boys of the

Fianna than the life I am living in the hill of the Sidhe." "Lonely as

you are at your hunting to-day," said Caoilte, "it is often I saw you

coming to the Valley of the Three Waters in the south, where the Siuir

and the Beoir and the Berba come together, with a great company about

you; fifteen hundred young men, fifteen hundred serving-boys, and

fifteen hundred women." "That was so," said Derg; "and although myself

and my gentle hound are living in the hill of the Sidhe, my mind is

always on the Fianna. And I remember well the time," he said, "when you

yourself won the race against Finn's lasting black horse. And come now

into the hill," he said, "for the darkness of the night is coming on."

 

So he brought Caoilte into the hill with him, and they were set down in

their right places.

 

It was at that time, now, there was great war between Lir of Sidhe

Fionnachaidh and Ilbrec of Ess Ruadh. There used a bird with an iron

beak and a tail of fire to come every evening to a golden window of

Ilbrec's house, and there he would shake himself till he would not leave

sword on pillow, or shield on peg, or spear in rack, but they would come

down on the heads of the people of the house; and whatever they would

throw at the bird, it is on the heads of some of themselves it would

fall. And the night Caoilte came in, the hall was made ready for a

feast, and the bird came in again, and did the same destruction as

before, and nothing they threw at him would touch him at all. "Is it

long the bird has been doing this?" said Caoilte. "Through the length of

a year now," said Derg, "since we went to war with Sidhe Fionnachaidh."

 

Then Caoilte put his hand within the rim of his shield, and he took out

of it a copper rod he had, and he made a cast of it at the bird, that

brought it down on the floor of the hall. "Did any one ever make a

better cast than that?" said Ilbrec. "By my word," said Caoilte, "there

is no one of us in the Fianna has any right to boast against another."

Then Ilbrec took down a sharp spear, having thirty rivets of gold in it,

from its place, and he said: "That is the Spear of Fiacha, son of

Congha, and it is with that Finn made an end of Aillen, son of Midhna,

that used to burn Teamhair. And keep it beside you now, Caoilte," he

said, "till we see will Lir come to avenge his bird on us."

 

Then they took up their horns and their cups, and they were at drinking

and pleasure, and Ilbrec said: "Well, Caoilte," he said, "if Lir comes

to avenge his bird on us, who will you put in command of the battle?" "I

will give the command to Derg there beyond," said he. "Will you take it

in hand, Derg?" said the people of the hill. "I will take it," said

Derg, "with its loss and its gain."

 

So that is how they spent the night, and it was not long in the morning

till they heard blowing of horns, and rattling of chariots, and clashing

of shields, and the uproar of a great army that came all about the hill.

They sent some of their people out then to see were there