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

I will not ask to come into Teamhair."

The door-keeper went into the king's house then and told him all that.

"There is a young man at the door," he said, "and his name should be the

Ildanach, the Master of all Arts, for all the things the people of your

house can do, he himself is able to do every one of them." "Try him with

the chess-boards," said Nuada. So the chess-boards were brought out, and

every game that was played, Lugh won it. And when Nuada was told that,

he said: "Let him in, for the like of him never came into Teamhair

before."

 

Then the door-keeper let him pass, and he came into the king's house and

sat down in the seat of knowledge. And there was a great flag-stone

there that could hardly be moved by four times twenty yoke of oxen, and

Ogma took it up and hurled it out through the house, so that it lay on

the outside of Teamhair, as a challenge to Lugh. But Lugh hurled it back

again that it lay in the middle of the king's house. He played the harp

for them then, and he had them laughing and crying, till he put them

asleep at the end with a sleepy tune. And when Nuada saw all the things

Lugh could do, he began to think that by his help the country might get

free of the taxes and the tyranny put on it by the Fomor. And it is what

he did, he came down from his throne, and he put Lugh on it in his

place, for the length of thirteen days, the way they might all listen to

the advice he would give.

 

This now is the story of the birth of Lugh. The time the Fomor used to

be coming to Ireland, Balor of the Strong Blows, or, as some called

him, of the Evil Eye, was living on the Island of the Tower of Glass.

There was danger for ships that went near that island, for the Fomor

would come out and take them. And some say the sons of Nemed in the old

time, before the Firbolgs were in Ireland, passed near it in their

ships, and what they saw was a tower of glass in the middle of the sea,

and on the tower something that had the appearance of men, and they went

against it with Druid spells to attack it. And the Fomor worked against

them with Druid spells of their own; and the sons of Nemed attacked the

tower, and it vanished, and they thought it was destroyed. But a great

wave rose over them then, and all their ships went down and all that

were in them.

 

And the tower was there as it was before, and Balor living in it. And it

is the reason he was called "of the Evil Eye," there was a power of

death in one of his eyes, so that no person could look at it and live.

It is the way it got that power, he was passing one time by a house

where his father's Druids were making spells of death, and the window

being open he looked in, and the smoke of the poisonous spells was

rising up, and it went into his eye. And from that time he had to keep

it closed unless he wanted to be the death of some enemy, and then the

men that were with him would lift the eyelid with a ring of ivory.

 

Now a Druid foretold one time that it was by his own grandson he would

get his death. And he had at that time but one child, a daughter whose

name was Ethlinn; and when he heard what the Druid said, he shut her up

in the tower on the island. And he put twelve women with her to take

charge of her and to guard her, and he bade them never to let her see a

man or hear the name of a man.

 

So Ethlinn was brought up in the tower, and she grew to be very

beautiful; and sometimes she would see men passing in the currachs, and

sometimes she would see a man in her dreams. But when she would speak of

that to the women, they would give her no answer.

 

So there was no fear on Balor, and he went on with war and robbery as he

was used, seizing every ship that passed by, and sometimes going over to

Ireland to do destruction there.

 

Now it chanced at that time there were three brothers of the Tuatha de

Danaan living together in a place that was called Druim na Teine, the

Ridge of the Fire, Goibniu and Samthainn and Cian. Cian was a lord of

land, and Goibniu was the smith that had such a great name. Now Cian had

a wonderful cow, the Glas Gaibhnenn, and her milk never failed. And

every one that heard of her coveted her, and many had tried to steal her

away, so that she had to be watched night and day.

 

And one time Cian was wanting some swords made, and he went to Goibniu's

forge, and he brought the Glas Gaibhnenn with him, holding her by a

halter. When he came to the forge his two brothers were there together,

for Samthainn had brought some steel to have weapons made for himself;

and Cian bade Samthainn to hold the halter while he went into the forge

to speak with Goibniu.

 

Now Balor had set his mind for a long time on the Glas Gaibhnenn, but he

had never been able to get near her up to this time. And he was watching

not far off, and when he saw Samthainn holding the cow, he put on the

appearance of a little boy, having red hair, and came up to him and told

him he heard his two brothers that were in the forge saying to one

another that they would use all his steel for their own swords, and make

his of iron. "By my word," said Samthainn, "they will not deceive me so

easily. Let you hold the cow, little lad," he said, "and I will go in to

them." With that he rushed into the forge, and great anger on him. And

no sooner did Balor get the halter in his hand than he set out, dragging

the Glas along with him, to the strand, and across the sea to his own

island.

 

When Cian saw his brother coming in he rushed out, and there he saw

Balor and the Glas out in the sea. And he had nothing to do then but to

reproach his brother, and to wander about as if his wits had left him,

not knowing what way to get his cow back from Balor. At last he went to

a Druid to ask an advice from him; and it is what the Druid told him,

that so long as Balor lived, the cow would never be brought back, for no

one would go within reach of his Evil Eye.

 

Cian went then to a woman-Druid, Birog of the Mountain, for her help.

And she dressed him in a woman's clothes, and brought him across the sea

in a blast of wind, to the tower where Ethlinn was. Then she called to

the women in the tower, and asked them for shelter for a high queen she

was after saving from some hardship, and the women in the tower did not

like to refuse a woman of the Tuatha de Danaan, and they let her and her

comrade in. Then Birog by her enchantments put them all into a deep

sleep, and Cian went to speak with Ethlinn. And when she saw him she

said that was the face she had seen in her dreams. So she gave him her

love; but after a while he was brought away again on a blast of wind.

 

And when her time came, Ethlinn gave birth to a son. And when Balor knew

that, he bade his people put the child in a cloth and fasten it with a

pin, and throw him into a current of the sea. And as they were carrying

the child across an arm of the sea, the pin dropped out, and the child

slipped from the cloth into the water, and they thought he was drowned.

But he was brought away by Birog of the Mountain, and she brought him to

his father Cian; and he gave him to be fostered by Taillte, daughter of

the King of the Great Plain. It is thus Lugh was born and reared.

 

And some say Balor came and struck the head off Cian on a white stone,

that has the blood marks on it to this day; but it is likely it was some

other man he struck the head off, for it was by the sons of Tuireann

that Cian came to his death.

 

And after Lugh had come to Teamhair, and made his mind up to join with

his father's people against the Fomor, he put his mind to the work; and

he went to a quiet place in Grellach Dollaid, with Nuada and the Dagda,

and with Ogma; and Goibniu and Diancecht were called to them there. A

full year they stopped there, making their plans together in secret, the

way the Fomor would not know they were going to rise against them till

such time as all would be ready, and till they would know what their

strength was. And it is from that council the place got the name

afterwards of "The Whisper of the Men of Dea."

 

And they broke up the council, and agreed to meet again that day three

years, and every one of them went his own way, and Lugh went back to his

own friends, the sons of Manannan.

 

And it was a good while after that, Nuada was holding a great assembly

of the people on the Hill of Uisnech, on the west side of Teamhair. And

they were not long there before they saw an armed troop coming towards

them from the east, over the plain; and there was a young man in front

of the troop, in command over the rest, and the brightness of his face

was like the setting sun, so that they were not able to look at him

because of its brightness.

 

And when he came nearer they knew it was Lugh Lamh-Fada, of the Long

Hand, that had come back to them, and along with him were the Riders of

the Sidhe from the Land of Promise, and his own foster-brothers, the

sons of Manannan, Sgoith Gleigeil, the White Flower, and Goitne

Gorm-Shuileach, the Blue-eyed Spear, and Sine Sindearg, of the Red Ring,

and Donall Donn-Ruadh, of the Red-brown Hair. And it is the way Lugh

was, he had Manannan's horse, the Aonbharr, of the One Mane, under him,

that was as swift as the naked cold wind of spring, and the sea was the

same as dry land to her, and the rider was never killed off her back.

And he had Manannan's breast-plate on him, that kept whoever was wearing

it from wounds, and a helmet on his head with two beautiful precious

stones set in the front of it and one at the back, and when he took it

off, his forehead was like the sun on a dry summer day. And he had

Manannan's sword, the Freagarthach, the Answerer, at his side, and no

one that was wounded by it would ever get away alive; and when that

sword was bared in a battle, no man that saw it coming against him had

any more strength than a woman in child-birth.

 

And the troop came to where the King of Ireland was with the Tuatha de

Danaan, and they welcomed one another.

 

And they were not long there till they saw a surly, slovenly troop

coming towards them, nine times nine of the messengers of the Fomor,

that were coming to ask rent and taxes from the men of Ireland; and the

names of the four that were the hardest and the most cruel were Eine and

Eathfaigh and Coron and Compar; and there was such great dread of these

four on the Tuatha de Danaan, that not one of them would so much as

punish his own son or his foster-son without leave from them.

 

They came up then to where the King of Ireland was with the Riders of

the Sidhe, and the king and all the Tuatha de Danaan stood up before

them. And Lugh of the Long Hand said: "Why do you rise up before that

surly, slovenly troop, when you did not rise up before us?"

 

"It is needful for us to do it," said the king; "for