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

was a harder battle

fought in Ireland, for there was no man on one side or the other had a

mind to go back one step before whoever he was fighting against. For

they were the two hardest fighting troops to be found in the four parts

of the world, the strong, hardy Fianna of the Gael, and the beautiful

Men of Dea; and they went near to being all destroyed in that battle.

 

But after a while they saw the rest of the Fianna that were not in the

battle coming from all parts of Ireland. And when the Tuatha de Danaan

saw them coming, they put the Druid mist about themselves again and made

away. And clouds of weakness came on Finn himself, and on them that were

with him, with the dint of the fight. And there were many men of the

Fianna lost in that battle; and as to the rest, it is a long time they

stopped in Almhuin of Leinster, till their wounds were entirely healed.

 

CHAPTER X. (THE SHADOWY ONE)

And indeed Finn had no great luck in going to look for a wife that time;

and he had no better luck another time he asked a wife from among the

Sidhe. And this is the way that happened.

 

It was on the mountain of Bearnas Mor he was hunting, and a great wild

pig turned on the hounds of the Fianna and killed the most of them, but

Bran made an attack on it then and got the best of it. And the pig began

to scream, and with that a very tall man came out of the hill and he

asked Finn to let the pig go free. And when he agreed to that, the man

brought them into the hill of the Sidhe at Glandeirgdeis; and when they

came to the door of the house he struck the pig with his Druid rod, and

on the moment it changed into a beautiful young woman, and the name he

called her by was Scathach, the Shadowy One.

 

And he made a great feast for the Fianna, and Finn asked the young girl

in marriage, and the tall man, her father, said he would give her to him

on that very night.

 

But when night came on, Scathach asked the loan of a harp, and it was

brought to her. One string it had of iron, and one of bronze, and one of

silver. And when the iron string would be played, it would set all the

hosts of the world crying and ever crying; and when the bright bronze

string would be played, it would set them all laughing from the one day

to the same hour on the morrow; and when the silver string would be

played, all the men of the whole world would fall into a long sleep.

 

And it is the sleepy silver string the Shadowy One played upon, till

Finn and Bran and all his people were in their heavy sleep.

 

And when they awoke at the rising of the sun on the morrow, it is

outside on the mountain of Bearnas they were, where they first saw the

wild pig.

 

CHAPTER XI. (FINN'S MADNESS)

One time Finn and the Fianna were come to a ford of the Slaine, and they

sat down for a while. And as they were sitting there they saw on the

round rock up over the ford a young woman, having a dress of silk and a

green cloak about her, and a golden brooch in the cloak, and the golden

crown that is the sign of a queen on her head. "Fianna of Ireland," she

said, "let one of you come now and speak with me."

 

Then Sciathbreac, of the Speckled Shield, went towards her. "Who is it

you are wanting?" he said, "Finn, son of Cumhal," said she. Finn went

over then to talk with her. "Who are you?" he said, "and what is it you

are wanting?" "I am Daireann, daughter of Bodb Dearg, son of the Dagda,"

she said; "and I am come to be your wife if you will give me the

bride-gift I ask." "What bride-gift is that?" said Finn. "It is your

promise," said she, "I to be your only wife through the length of a

year, and to have the half of your time after that." "I will not give

that promise," said Finn, "to any woman of the world, and I will not

give it to you," he said.

 

On that the young woman took a cup of white silver from under a

covering, and filled it with strong drink, and she gave it to Finn.

"What is this?" said Finn. "It is very strong mead," said she. Now there

were bonds on Finn not to refuse anything belonging to a feast, so he

took the cup and drank what was in it, and on the moment he was like one

gone mad. And he turned his face towards the Fianna, and every harm and

every fault and every misfortune in battle that he knew against any one

of them, he sprang it on them, through the mad drunkenness the young

woman had put on him.

 

Then the chief men of the Fianna of Ireland rose up and left the place

to him, every one of them setting out for his own country, till there

was no one left upon the hill but Finn and Caoilte. And Caoilte rose up

and followed after them, and he said: "Fianna of Ireland," he said, "do

not leave your lord and your leader through the arts and the tricks of a

woman of the Sidhe." Thirteen times he went after them, bringing them

back to the hill in that way. And with the end of the day and the fall

of night the bitterness went from Finn's tongue; and by the time Caoilte

had brought back the whole of the Fianna, his sense and his memory were

come back to him, and he would sooner have fallen on his sword and got

his death, than have stayed living.

 

And that was the hardest day's work Caoilte ever did, unless the day he

brought the flock of beasts and birds to Teamhair, to ransom Finn from

the High King of Ireland.

 

Another time Maer, wife of Bersa of Berramain, fell in love with Finn,

and she made nine nuts of Segair with love charms, and sent them to

Finn, and bade him eat them. "I will not," said Finn; "for they are not

nuts of knowledge, but nuts of ignorance; and it is not known what they

are, unless they might be an enchantment for drinking love." So he

buried them a foot deep in the earth.

 

CHAPTER XII. (THE RED WOMAN)

One time the Fianna were in Almhuin with no great work to do, and there

came a very misty morning, and Finn was in dread that sluggishness would

come on his men, and he rose up, and he said: "Make yourselves ready,

and we will go hunting to Gleann-na-Smol."

 

They all said the day was too misty to go hunting; but there was no use

in talking: they had to do as Finn bade them. So they made themselves

ready and went on towards Gleann-na-Smol; and they were not gone far

when the mist lifted and the sun came shining out.

 

And when they were on the edge of a little wood, they saw a strange

beast coming towards them with the quickness of the wind, and a Red

Woman on its track. Narrow feet the beast had, and a head like the head

of a boar, and long horns on it; but the rest of it was like a deer, and

there was a shining moon on each of its sides.

 

Finn stopped, and he said: "Fianna of Ireland," he said, "did you ever

see a beast like that one until now?" "We never did indeed," said they;

"and it would be right for us to let out the hounds after it." "Wait a

while," said Finn, "till I speak with the Red Woman; but do not let the

beast go past you," he said. They thought to keep back the beast then,

going before it; but they were hardly able to hinder it at all, and it

went away through them.

 

And when the Red Woman was come up to them, Finn asked her what was the

name of the beast she was following. "I do not know that," she said,

"though I am on its track since I left the borders of Loch Dearg a month

ago, and I never lost sight of it since then; and the two moons that are

on its two sides shine through the country all around in the night time.

And I must follow it till it falls," she said, "or I will lose my own

life and the lives of my three sons that are the best fighting men in

the whole world." "We will take the beast for you if you have a mind,"

said Finn. "Do not try to do that," she said, "for I myself am swifter

than you are, and I cannot come up with it." "We will not let it go till

we know what sort of a beast is it," said Finn. "If you yourself or your

share of men go after it, I will bind you hand and foot," said she. "It

is too stiff your talk is," said Finn. "And do you not know," he said,

"I am Finn, son of Cumhal; and there are fourscore fighting men along

with me that were never beaten yet." "It is little heed I give to

yourself or your share of men," said the Red Woman; "and if my three

sons were here, they would stand up against you." "Indeed it will be a

bad day," said Finn, "when the threat of a woman will put fear on myself

or on the Fianna of Ireland." With that he sounded his horn, and he

said: "Let us all follow now, men and dogs, after that beast that we

saw."

 

He had no sooner said that word than the woman made a great water-worm

of herself, and made an attack on Finn, and she would have killed him

then and there but for Bran being with him. Bran took a grip of the worm

and shook it, and then it wound itself round Bran's body, and would

have crushed