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

wait for the boar, but ran from him. "It is a

pity not to follow the advice of a good woman," said Diarmuid, "for

Grania bade me this morning to bring the Mor-alltach and the Gae Dearg

with me." Then he put his finger into the silken string of the Gae

Buidhe, and took a straight aim at the boar and hit him full in the

face; but if he did, the spear did not so much as give him a scratch.

Diarmuid was discouraged by that, but he drew the Beag-alltach, and made

a full stroke at the back of the boar, but neither did that make a wound

on him, but it made two halves of the sword. Then the boar made a brave

charge at Diarmuid, that cut the sod from under his feet and brought him

down; but Diarmuid caught hold of the boar on rising, and held on to

him, having one of his legs on each side of him, and his face to his

hinder parts. And the boar made away headlong down the hill, but he

could not rid himself of Diarmuid; and he went on after that to Ess

Ruadh, and when he came to the red stream he gave three high leaps over

it, backwards and forwards, but he could not put him from his back, and

he went back by the same path till he went up the height of the

mountain again. And at last on the top of the mountain he freed himself,

and Diarmuid fell on the ground. And then the boar made a rush at him,

and ripped him open, that his bowels came out about his feet. But if he

did, Diarmuid made a cast at him with the hilt of his sword that was in

his hand yet, and dashed out his brains, so that he fell dead there and

then. And Rath na h-Amhrann, the Rath of the Sword Hilt, is the name of

that place to this day.

 

It was not long till Finn and the Fianna of Ireland came to the place,

and the pains of death were coming on Diarmuid at that time. "It is well

pleased I am to see you that way, Diarmuid," said Finn; "and it is a

pity all the women of Ireland not to be looking at you now, for your

great beauty is turned to ugliness, and your comely shape to

uncomeliness." "For all that, you have power to heal me, Finn," said

Diarmuid, "if you had a mind to do it." "What way could I heal you?"

said Finn. "Easy enough," said Diarmuid, "for the time you were given

the great gift of knowledge at the Boinn, you got this gift with it,

that any one you would give a drink to out of the palms of your hands

would be young and well again from any sickness after it." "You are not

deserving of that drink from me," said Finn. "That is not true," said

Diarmuid; "it is well I deserve it from you; for the time you went to

the house of Dearc, son of Donnarthadh, and your chief men with you for

a feast, your enemies came round the house, and gave out three great

shouts against you, and threw fire and firebrands into it. And you rose

up and would have gone out, but I bade you to stop there at drinking and

pleasure, for that I myself would go out and put them down. And I went

out, and put out the flames, and made three red rushes round the house,

and I killed fifty in every rush, and I came in again without a wound.

And it is glad and merry and in good courage you were that night,

Finn," he said, "and if it was that night I had asked a drink of you,

you would have given it; and it would be right for you to give it to me

now." "That is not so," said Finn; "it is badly you have earned a drink

or any good thing from me; for the night you went to Teamhair with me,

you took Grania away from me in the presence of all the men of Ireland,

and you being my own guard over her that night."

 

"Do not blame me for that, Finn," said Diarmuid, "for what did I ever do

against you, east or west, but that one thing; and you know well Grania

put bonds on me, and I would not fail in my bonds for the gold of the

whole world. And you will know it is well I have earned a drink from

you, if you bring to mind the night the feast was made in the House of

the Quicken Tree, and how you and all your men were bound there till I

heard of it, and came fighting and joyful, and loosed you with my own

blood, and with the blood of the Three Kings of the Island of the

Floods; and if I had asked a drink of you that night, Finn, you would

not have refused it. And I was with you in the smiting of Lon, son of

Liobhan, and you are the man that should not forsake me beyond any other

man. And many is the strait has overtaken yourself and the Fianna of

Ireland since I came among you, and I was ready every time to put my

body and my life in danger for your sake, and you ought not to do this

unkindness on me now. And besides that," he said, "there has many a good

champion fallen through the things you yourself have done, and there is

not an end of them yet; and there will soon come great misfortunes on

the Fianna, and it is few of their seed will be left after them. And it

is not for yourself I am fretting, Finn," he said, "but for Oisin and

Osgar, and the rest of my dear comrades, and as for you, Oisin, you will

be left lamenting after the Fianna. And it is greatly you will feel the

want of me yet, Finn," he said; "and if the women of the Fianna knew I

was lying in my wounds on this ridge, it is sorrowful their faces would

be at this time."

 

And Osgar said then: "Although I am nearer in blood to you, Finn, than

to Diarmuid, grandson of Duibhne, I will not let you refuse him this

drink; and by my word," he said, "if any prince in the world would do

the same unkindness to Diarmuid that you have done, it is only the one

of us that has the strongest hand would escape alive. And give him a

drink now without delay," he said.

 

"I do not know of any well at all on this mountain," said Finn. "That is

not so," said Diarmuid, "for there is not nine footsteps from you the

well that has the best fresh water that can be found in the world."

 

Then Finn went to the well, and he took the full of his two hands of the

water. But when he was no more than half-way back, the thought of Grania

came on him, and he let the water slip through his hands, and he said he

was not able to bring it. "I give my word," said Diarmuid, "it was of

your own will you let it from you." Then Finn went back the second time

to get the water, but coming back he let it through his hands again at

the thought of Grania. And Diarmuid gave a pitiful sigh of anguish when

he saw that. "I swear by my sword and by my spear," said Osgar, "that if

you do not bring the water without any more delay, Finn, there will not

leave this hill but yourself or myself." Finn went back the third time

to the well after what Osgar said, and he brought the water to Diarmuid,

but as he reached him the life went out of his body. Then the whole

company of the Fianna that were there gave three great heavy shouts,

keening for Diarmuid.

 

And Osgar looked very fiercely at Finn, and it is what he said, that it

was a greater pity Diarmuid to be dead than if he himself had died. And

the Fianna of Ireland had lost their yoke of battle by him, he said.

"Let us leave this hill," said Finn then, "before Angus and the Tuatha

de Danaan come upon us, for although we have no share in the death of

Diarmuid, he would not believe the truth from us." "I give my word,"

said Osgar, "if I had thought it was against Diarmuid you made the hunt

of Beinn Gulbain, you would never have made it"

 

Then Finn and the Fianna went away from the hill, and Finn leading

Diarmuid's hound Mac an Chuill. But Oisin and Osgar and Caoilte and

Lugaidh's Son turned back again and put their four cloaks over Diarmuid,

and then they went after the rest of the Fianna.

 

And when they came to the Rath, Grania was out on the wall looking for

news of Diarmuid; and she saw Finn and the Fianna of Ireland coming

towards her. Then she said: "If Diarmuid was living, it is not led by

Finn that Mac an Chuill would be coming home." And she was at that time

heavy with child, and her strength went from her and she fell down from

the wall. And when Oisin saw the way she was he bade Finn and the others

to go on from her, but she lifted up her head and she asked Finn to

leave Mac an Chuill with her. And he said he would not, and that he did

not think it too much for him to inherit from Diarmuid, grandson of

Duibhne.

 

When Oisin heard that, he snatched the hound out of Finn's hand and gave

it to Grania, and then he followed after his people.

 

Then when Grania was certain of Diarmuid's death she gave out a long

very pitiful cry that was heard through the whole place, and her women

and her people came to her, and asked what ailed her to give a cry like

that. And she told them how Diarmuid had come to his death by the Boar

of Beinn Gulbain in the hunt Finn had made. "And there is grief in my

very heart," she said, "I not to be able to fight myself with Finn, and

I would not have let him go safe out of this place."

 

When her people heard of the death of Diarmuid they gave three great

heavy cries in the same way, that were heard in the clouds and the waste

places of the sky. And then Grania bade the five hundred that she had

for household to go to Beinn Gulbain for the body of Diarmuid.

 

And when they were bringing it back, she went out to meet them, and they

put down the body of Diarmuid, and it is what she said:

 

"I am your wife, beautiful Diarmuid, the man I would do no hurt to; it

is sorrowful I am after you to-night.

 

"I am looking at the hawk and the hound my secret love used to be

hunting with; she that loved the three, let her be put in the grave with

Diarmuid.

 

"Let us be glad to-night, let us make all welcome to-night, let us be

open-handed to-night, since we are sitting by the body of a king.

 

"And O Diarmuid," she said, "it is a hard bed Finn has given you, to be

lying on the stones and to be wet with the rain. Ochone!" she said,

"your blue eyes to be without sight, you that were friendly and generous

and pursuing. O love! O Diarmuid! it is a pity it is he sent you to your

death.

 

"You were a champion of the men of Ireland, their prop in the middle of

the fight; you were the head of every battle; your ways were glad and

pleasant.

 

"It is sorrowful I am, without mirth, without light, but only sadness

and grief and long dying; your harp used to be sweet to me, it wakened

my heart to gladness. Now my courage is fallen down, I not to hear you

but to be always remembering your ways. Och! my grief is going through

me.

 

"A thousand curses on the day when Grania gave you her love, that put

Finn of the princes from his wits; it is a sorrowful story your death is

to-day.

 

"Many heroes were great and strong about me in the beautiful plain;

their hands were good at wrestling and at battle; Ochone! that I did not

follow them.

 

"You were the man was best of the Fianna, beautiful Diarmuid, that

women