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

till Finn came to a lake, and there was sitting on the

brink of it a young girl, the most beautiful he had ever seen, having

hair of the colour of gold, and a skin as white as lime, and eyes like

the stars in time of frost; but she seemed to be some way sorrowful and

downhearted. Finn asked her did she see his hounds pass that way. "I did

not see them," she said; "and it is little I am thinking of your hounds

or your hunting, but of the cause of my own trouble." "What is it ails

you, woman of the white hands?" said Finn; "and is there any help I can

give you?" he said. "It is what I am fretting after," said she, "a ring

of red gold I lost off my finger in the lake. And I put you under bonds,

Finn of the Fianna," she said, "to bring it back to me out of the lake."

 

With that Finn stripped off his clothes and went into the lake at the

bidding of the woman, and he went three times round the whole lake and

did not leave any part of it without searching, till he brought back the

ring. He handed it up to her then out of the water, and no sooner had he

done that than she gave a leap into the water and vanished.

 

And when Finn came up on the bank of the lake, he could not so much as

reach to where his clothes were; for on the moment he, the head and the

leader of the Fianna of Ireland, was but a grey old man, weak and

withered.

 

Bran and Sceolan came up to him then, but they did not know him, and

they went on round the lake, searching after their master.

 

 

In Almhuin, now, when he was missed, Caoilte began asking after him.

"Where is Finn," he said, "of the gentle rule and of the spears?" But no

one knew where was he gone, and there was grief on the Fianna when they

could not find him. But it is what Conan said: "I never heard music

pleased me better than to hear the son of Cumhal is missing. And that he

may be so through the whole year," he said, "and I myself will be king

over you all." And downhearted as they were, it is hardly they could

keep from laughing when they heard Conan saying that.

 

Caoilte and the rest of the chief men of the Fianna set out then looking

for Finn, and they got word of him; and at last they came to Slieve

Cuilinn, and there they saw a withered old man sitting beside the lake,

and they thought him to be a fisherman. "Tell us, old man," said

Caoilte, "did you see a fawn go by, and two hounds after her, and a tall

fair-faced man along with them?" "I did see them," he said, "and it is

not long since they left me." "Tell us where are they now?" said

Caoilte. But Finn made no answer, for he had not the courage to say to

them that he himself was Finn their leader, being as he was an ailing,

downhearted old man, without leaping, without running, without walk,

grey and sorrowful.

 

Caoilte took out his sword from the sheath then, and he said: "It is

short till you will have knowledge of death unless you will tell us what

happened those three."

 

Then Finn told them the whole story; and when the seven battalions of

the Fianna heard him, and knew it was Finn that was in it, they gave

three loud sorrowful cries. And to the lake they gave the name of Loch

Doghra, the Lake of Sorrow.

 

But Conan of the sharp tongue began abusing Finn and all the Fianna by

turns. "You never gave me right praise for my deeds, Finn, son of

Cumhal," he said, "and you were always the enemy of the sons of Morna;

but we are living in spite of you," he said, "and I have but the one

fault to find with your shape, and that is, that it was not put on the

whole of the Fianna the same as on yourself." Caoilte made at him then;

"Bald, senseless Conan," he said, "I will break your mouth to the bone."

But Conan ran in then among the rest of the Fianna and asked protection

from them, and peace was made again.

 

And as to Finn, they asked him was there any cure to be found for him.

"There is," he said; "for I know well the enchantment was put on me by a

woman of the Sidhe, Miluchradh, daughter of Cuilinn, through jealousy of

her sister Aine. And bring me to the hill that belongs to Cuilinn of

Cuailgne," he said, "for he is the only one can give me my shape again."

 

They came around him then, and raised him up gently on their shields,

and brought him on their shoulders to the hill of the Sidhe in Cuailgne,

but no one came out to meet them. Then the seven battalions began

digging and rooting up the whole hill, and they went on digging through

the length of three nights and three days. And at the end of that time

Cuilinn of Cuailgne, that some say was Manannan, son of Lir, came out of

the hill, holding in his hand a vessel of red gold, and he gave the

vessel into Finn's hand. And no sooner did Finn drink what was in the

vessel than his own shape and his appearance came back to him. But only

his hair, that used to be so fair and so beautiful, like the hair of a

woman, never got its own colour again, for the lake that Cuilinn's

daughter had made for Finn would have turned all the men of the whole

world grey if they had gone into it.

 

And when Finn had drunk all that was in the vessel it slipped from his

hand into the earth, that was loosened with the digging, and he saw it

no more. But in the place where it went into the earth, a tree grew up,

and any one that would look at the branches of that tree in the morning,

fasting, would have knowledge of all that was to happen on that day.

 

That, now, is the way Finn came by his grey hair, through the jealousy

of Miluchradh of the Sidhe, because he had not given his love to her,

but to her sister Aine.

 

BOOK FIVE: (OISIN'S CHILDREN)

Now as to Oisin, that was so brave and so comely, and that could

overtake a deer at its greatest speed, and see a thistle thorn on the

darkest night, the wife he took was Eibhir of the plaited yellow hair,

that was the foreign sweetheart of the High King of Ireland.

 

It is beyond the sea she lived, in a very sunny place; and her father's

name was lunsa, and her sunny house was thatched with the feathers of

birds, and the doorposts were of gold, and the doors of ribbed grass.

And Oisin went there looking for her, and he fought for her against the

High King and against an army of the Firbolgs he had helping him; and he

got the better of them all, and brought away Eibhir of the yellow hair

to Ireland.

 

And he had a daughter that married the son of Oiliol, son of Eoghan, and

of Beara, daughter of the King of Spain. It was that Eoghan was driven

out of Ireland one time, and it is to Spain he went for safety. And

Beara, that was daughter of the King of Spain, was very shining and

beautiful, and her father had a mind to know who would be her husband,

and he sent for his Druid and asked the question of him. "I can tell you

that," said the Druid, "for the man that is to be her husband will come

to land in Spain this very night. And let your daughter go eastward to

the river Eibhear," he said, "and she will find a crimson-spotted salmon

in that river, having shining clothing on him from head to tail. And let

her strip that clothing off him," he said, "and make with it a shining

shirt for her husband."

 

So Beara went to the river Eibhear, and found the golden salmon as the

Druid had said, and she stripped him of his crimson clothing and made a

shining shirt of it.

 

And as to Eoghan, the waves of the shore put a welcome before him, and

he came the same night to the king's house. And the king gave him a

friendly welcome; and it is what all the people said, that there was

never seen a comelier man than Eoghan, or a woman more beautiful than

Beara, and that it was fitting for them to come together. And Eoghan's

own people said they would not be sorry for being sent away out of

Ireland, if only Eoghan could get her for his wife.

 

And after a while the king sent his Druid to ask Eoghan why he did not

ask for Beara. "I will tell you that," said Eoghan; "it would not be

fitting for me to be refused a wife, and I am but an exile in this

country, and I have brought no treasures or goods with me out of Ireland

for giving to learned men and to poets. But for all that," he said, "the

king's daughter is dear to me, and I think I have the friendship of the

king."

 

The Druid went back with that message. "That is the answer of a king,"

said the King of Spain; "and bid my daughter to sit at Eoghan's right

hand," he said, "and I will give her to him this very night." And when

Beara, the king's daughter, heard that, she sent out her serving-maid to

bring the shirt she had made for Eoghan, and he put it on him over his

armour, and its shining was seen in every place; and it was from wearing

that shirt he got the name of Eoghan the Bright.

 

And Oiliol was the first son they had; it was he that had his ear bitten

off by Aine of the Sidhe in revenge for her brother, and it was his son

married Oisin's daughter afterwards.

 

And as to Osgar, that was Oisin's son, of all the young men of the

Fianna he was the best in battle. And when he was but a young child he

was made much of by the whole of the Fianna, and it is for him they used

to keep the marrow bones, and they did not like to put any hardship on

him. And he grew up tall and idle, and no one thought he would turn out

so strong as he did. And one day there was an attack made on a troop of

the Fianna, and all that were in it went out to fight, but they left

Osgar after them. And when he knew the fight was going on, he took a log

of wood that was the first thing he could find, and attacked the enemy

and made a great slaughter, and they gave way and ran before him. And

from that out there was no battle he did not go into; and he was said to

be the strongest of all the Fianna, though the people of Connacht said

that Goll was the strongest. And he and Diarmuid, grandson of Duibhne,

were comrades and dear friends; and it was Diarmuid taught him feats of

arms and of skill, and chess-playing. And Oisin his father took great

pride in him, and his grandfather Finn. And one time Finn was holding a

feast at Almhuin, and he asked the chief men of the Fianna that were

there what was the music they thought the best. "To be playing at

games," said Conan, "that is the best music