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

said Muadhan, "you

would have given the best share to Grania; and if it was Grania divided

it, she would have given you the best share; and as it is myself is

dividing it, let you have the biggest fish, Diarmuid, and let Grania

have the second biggest, and I myself will have the one is smallest."

 

They spent the night there, and Diarmuid and Grania slept in the far

part of the cave, and Muadhan kept watch for them until the rising of

the day and the full light of the morrow.

 

Diarmuid rose up early, and he bade Grania keep watch for Muadhan, and

that he himself would go and take a walk around the country. He went out

then, and he went up on a hill that was near, and he was looking about

him, east and west, north and south. He was not long there till he saw a

great fleet of ships coming from the west, straight to the bottom of the

hill where he was. And when they were come to land, nine times nine of

the chief men of the ships came on shore, and Diarmuid went down and

greeted them, and asked news of them, and to what country they belonged.

 

"Three kings we are of the Green Champions of Muir-na-locht," said they;

"and Finn, son of Cumhal, sent looking for us by cause of a thief of the

woods, and an enemy of his own that has gone hiding from him; and it is

to hinder him we are come. And we are twenty hundred good fighting men,

and every one of us is a match for a hundred, and besides that," he

said, "we have three deadly hounds with us; fire will not burn them, and

water will not drown them, and arms will not redden on them, and we will

lay them on his track, and it will be short till we get news of him.

And tell us who you are yourself?" they said, "and have you any word of

the grandson of Duibhne?" "I saw him yesterday," said Diarmuid; "and I

myself," he said, "am but a fighting man, walking the world by the

strength of my hand and by the hardness of my sword. And by my word," he

said, "you will know Diarmuid's hand when you will meet it." "Well, we

found no one up to this," said they. "What are your own names?" said

Diarmuid. "Dubh-chosach, the Black-footed, Fionn-chosach, the

Fair-footed, and Treun-chosach, the Strong-footed," they said.

 

"Is there wine in your ships?" said Diarmuid. "There is," said they. "If

you have a mind to bring out a tun of wine," said Diarmuid, "I will do a

trick for you." They sent men to get the tun, and when it came Diarmuid

took it between his two hands and drank a drink out of it, and the

others drank what was left of it. Diarmuid took up the tun after that,

and brought it to the top of the hill, and he went up himself on the

tun, and let it go down the steep of the hill till it was at the bottom.

And then he brought the tun up the hill again, and he himself on it

coming and going, and he did that trick three times before the

strangers. But they said he was a man had never seen a good trick when

he called that a trick; and with that a man of them went up on the tun,

but Diarmuid gave a stroke of his foot at it and the young man fell from

it before it began to move, and it rolled over him and crushed him, that

he died. And another man went on it, and another after him again, till

fifty of them were killed trying to do Diarmuid's trick, and as many of

them as were not killed went back to their ships that night.

 

Diarmuid went back then to where he left Grania; and Muadhan put the

hair and the hook on the rod till he killed three salmon; and they ate

their meal that night, and he kept watch for them the same way he did

before.

 

Diarmuid went out early the next day again to the hill, and it was not

long till he saw the three strangers coming towards him, and he asked

them would they like to see any more tricks. They said they would sooner

get news of the grandson of Duibhne. "I saw a man that saw him

yesterday," said Diarmuid. And with that he put off his arms and his

clothes, all but the shirt that was next his skin, and he struck the

Crann Buidhe, the spear of Manannan, into the earth with the point

upwards. And then he rose with a leap and lit on the point of the spear

as light as a bird, and came down off it again without a wound on him.

Then a young man of the Green Champions said: "It is a man has never

seen feats that would call that a feat"; and he put off his clothing and

made a leap, and if he did he came down heavily on the point of the

spear, and it went through his heart, and he fell to the ground. The

next day Diarmuid came again, and he brought two forked poles out of the

wood and put them standing upright on the hill, and he put the sword of

Angus Og, the Mor-alltach, the Big-fierce one, between the two forks on

its edge. Then he raised himself lightly over it, and walked on the

sword three times from the hilt to the point, and he came down and asked

was there a man of them could do that feat.

 

"That is a foolish question," said a man of them then, "for there was

never any feat done in Ireland but a man of our own would do it." And

with that he rose up to walk on the sword; but it is what happened, he

came down heavily on it the way he was cut in two halves.

 

The rest of the champions bade him take away his sword then, before any

more of their people would fall by it; and they asked him had he any

word of the grandson of Duibhne. "I saw a man that saw him to-day," said

Diarmuid, "and I will go ask news of him to-night."

 

He went back then to where Grania was, and Muadhan killed three salmon

for their supper, and kept a watch for them through the night. And

Diarmuid rose up at the early break of day, and he put his battle

clothes on him, that no weapon could go through, and he took the sword

of Angus, that left no leavings after it, at his left side, and his two

thick-handled spears, the Gae Buidhe and the Gae Dearg, the Yellow and

the Red, that gave wounds there was no healing for. And then he wakened

Grania, and he bade her to keep watch for Muadhan, and he himself would

go out and take a look around.

 

When Grania saw him looking so brave, and dressed in his clothes of

anger and of battle, great fear took hold of her, and she asked what was

he going to do. "It is for fear of meeting my enemies I am like this,"

said he. That quieted Grania, and then Diarmuid went out to meet the

Green Champions.

 

They came to land then, and they asked had he news of the grandson of

Duibhne. "I saw him not long ago," said Diarmuid. "If that is so, let us

know where is he," said they, "till we bring his head to Finn, son of

Cumhal." "I would be keeping bad watch for him if I did that," said

Diarmuid, "for his life and his body are under the protection of my

valour, and by reason of that I will do no treachery on him." "Is that

true?" said they. "It is true indeed," said Diarmuid. "Let you yourself

quit this place, so," they said, "or we will bring your head to Finn

since you are an enemy to him." "It is in bonds I would be," said

Diarmuid, "the time I would leave my head with you." And with that he

drew his sword the Mor-alltach out of its sheath, and he made a fierce

blow at the head nearest him that put it in two halves. Then he made an

attack on the whole host of the Green Champions, and began to destroy

them, cutting through the beautiful shining armour of the men of

Muir-na-locht till there was hardly a man but got shortening of life and

the sorrow of death, or that could go back to give news of the fight,

but only the three kings and a few of their people that made their

escape back to their ships. Diarmuid turned back then without wound or

hurt on him, and he went to where Crania and Muadhan were. They bade him

welcome, and Grania asked him did he hear any news of Finn and the

Fianna of Ireland, and he said he did not, and they ate their food and

spent the night there.

 

He rose up again with the early light of the morrow and went back to the

hill, and when he got there he struck a great blow on his shield that

set the strand shaking with the sound. And Dubh-chosach heard it, and he

said he himself would go fight with Diarmuid, and he went on shore there

and then.

 

And he and Diarmuid threw the arms out of their hands and rushed on one

another like wrestlers, straining their arms and their sinews, knotting

their hands on one another's backs, fighting like bulls in madness, or

like two daring hawks on the edge of a cliff. But at the last Diarmuid

raised up Dubh-chosach on his shoulder and threw his body to the ground,

and bound him fast and firm on the spot. And Fionn-chosach and

Treun-chosach came one after the other to fight with him then, and he

put the same binding on them; and he said he would strike the heads off

them, only he thought it a worse punishment to leave them in those

bonds. "For there is no one can free you," he said. And he left them

there, worn out and sorrowful.

 

The next morning after that, Diarmuid told Grania the whole story of the

strangers from beginning to end, and of all he had done to them, and how

on the fifth day he had put their kings in bonds. "And they have three

fierce hounds in a chain ready to hunt me," he said. "Did you take the

heads off those three kings?" said Grania, "I did not," said Diarmuid,

"for there is no man of the heroes of Ireland can loosen those bonds but

four only, Oisin, son of Finn, and Osgar, son of Oisin, and Lugaidh's

Son of the Strong Hand, and Conan, son of Morna; and I know well," he

said, "none of those four will do it. But all the same, it is short till

Finn will get news of them, and it is best for us to be going from this

cave, or Finn and the three hounds might come on us."

 

After that they left the cave, and they went on till they came to the

bog of Finnliath. Grania began to fall behind them, and Muadhan put her

on his back and carried her till they came to the great Slieve Luachra.

Then Diarmuid sat down on the brink of the stream that was flowing

through the heart of the mountain, and Grania was washing her hands, and

she asked his knife from him to cut her nails with.

 

As to the strangers, as many of them as were alive yet, they came to the

hill where their three leaders were bound, and they thought to loose

them; but it is the way those bonds were, all they did by meddling with

them was to draw them tighter.

 

And they were not long there till they saw a woman coming towards them

with the quickness of a swallow or a weasel or a blast of wind over bare

mountain-tops. And she asked them who was it had done that great

slaughter on them. "Who are you that is asking that?" said they. "I am

the Woman of the Black Mountain, the woman-messenger of Finn, son of

Cumhal," she said; "and it is looking for you Finn sent me." "Indeed we

do not know who it was did this slaughter," they said, "but we will tell

you his appearance. A young man he was, having dark curling hair and

ruddy cheeks. And it is worse again to us," they said,