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

hundred men, and he said:

 

"What is the cause of your delay in giving battle?"

 

"Waiting for you I was," said Lugh.

 

Then the kings and chief men of the men of Ireland took their armour on

them, and they raised the points of their spears over their heads, and

they made close fences of their shields. And they attacked their enemies

on Magh Mor an Aonaigh, and their enemies answered them, and they threw

their whining spears at one another, and when their spears were broken

they drew their swords from their blue-bordered sheaths and began to

strike at one another, and thickets of brown flames rose above them from

the bitterness of their many-edged weapons.

 

And Lugh saw the battle pen where Bres, son of Elathan, was, and he made

a fierce attack on him and on the men that were guarding him, till he

had made an end of two hundred of them.

 

When Bres saw that, he gave himself up to Lugh's protection. "Give me my

life this time," he said, "and I will bring the whole race of the Fomor

to fight it out with you in a great battle; and I bind myself to that,

by the sun and the moon, the sea and the land," he said.

 

On that Lugh gave him his life, and then the Druids that were with him

asked his protection for themselves. "By my word," said Lugh, "if the

whole race of the Fomor went under my protection they would not be

destroyed by me." So then Bres and the Druids set out for their own

country.

 

Now as to Lugh and the sons of Tuireann. After the battle of Magh Mor an

Aonaigh, he met two of his kinsmen and asked them did they see his

father in the fight. "We did not," said they. "I am sure he is not

living," said Lugh; "and I give my word," he said, "there will no food

or drink go into my mouth till I get knowledge by what death my father

died."

 

Then he set out, and the Riders of the Sidhe after him, till they came

to the place where he and his father parted from one another, and from

that to the place where his father went into the shape of a pig when he

saw the sons of Tuireann.

 

And when Lugh came to that place the earth spoke to him, and it said:

"It is in great danger your father was here, Lugh, when he saw the sons

of Tuireann before him, and it is into the shape of a pig he had to go,

but it is in his own shape they killed him."

 

Then Lugh told that to his people, and he found the spot where his

father was buried, and he bade them dig there, the way he would know by

what death the sons of Tuireann had made an end of him.

 

Then they raised the body out of the grave and looked at it, and it was

all one bed of wounds. And Lugh said: "It was the death of an enemy the

sons of Tuireann gave my dear father." And he gave him three kisses, and

it is what he said: "It is bad the way I am myself after this death, for

I can hear nothing with my ears, and I can see nothing with my eyes, and

there is not a living pulse in my heart, with grief after my father. And

you gods I worship," he said, "it is a pity I not to have come here the

time this thing was done. And it is a great thing that has been done

here," he said, "the people of the gods of Dana to have done treachery

on one another, and it is long they will be under loss by it and be

weakened by it. And Ireland will never be free from trouble from this

out, east and west," he said.

 

Then they put Cian under the earth again, and after that there was

keening made over his grave, and a stone was raised on it, and his name

was written in Ogham, And Lugh said: "This hill will take its name from

Cian, although he himself is stripped and broken. And it was the sons of

Tuireann did this thing," he said, "and there will grief and anguish

fall on them from it, and on their children after them. And it is no

lying story I am telling you," he said; "and it is a pity the way I am,

and my heart is broken in my breast since Cian, the brave man, is not

living."

 

Then he bade his people to go before him to Teamhair, "But do not tell

the story till I tell it myself," he said.

 

And when Lugh came to Teamhair he sat in the high seat of the king, and

he looked about him and he saw the three sons of Tuireann. And those

were the three that were beyond all others at Teamhair at that time for

quickness and skill, for a good hand in battle, for beauty and an

honourable name.

 

Then Lugh bade his people to shake the chain of silence, and they did

so, and they all listened. And Lugh said: "What are your minds fixed on

at this time, Men of Dea?" "On yourself indeed," said they. "I have a

question to ask of you," he said. "What is the vengeance each one of you

would take on the man that would kill your father?"

 

There was great wonder on them when they heard that, and one of the

chief men among them said: "Tell us was it your own father that was

killed?" "It was indeed," said Lugh; "and I see now in this house," he

said, "the men that killed him, and they know themselves what way they

killed him better than I know it." Then the king said: "It is not a

death of one day only I would give the man that had killed my father, if

he was in my power, but to cut off one of his limbs from day to day till

I would make an end of him." All the chief men said the same, and the

sons of Tuireann like the rest.

 

"There are making that answer," said Lugh, "the three men that killed my

father; and let them pay the fine for him now, since you are all

together in the one place. And if they will not," he said, "I will not

break the protection of the king's house, but they must make no attempt

to quit this house till they have settled with me."

 

"If it was I myself had killed your father," said the king, "I would be

well content you to take a fine from me for him."

 

"It is at us Lugh is saying all this," said the sons of Tuireann among

themselves. "Let us acknowledge the killing of his father to him," said

Iuchar and Iucharba. "I am in dread," said Brian, "that it is wanting an

acknowledgment from us he is, in the presence of all the rest, and that

he will not let us off with a fine afterwards." "It is best to

acknowledge it," said the others; "and let you speak it out since you

are the eldest."

 

Then Brian, son of Tuireann, said: "It is at us you are speaking, Lugh,

for you are thinking we went against the sons of Cainte before now; and

we did not kill your father," he said, "but we will pay the fine for him

the same as if we did kill him." "I will take a fine from you that you

do not think of," said Lugh, "and I will say here what it is, and if it

is too much for you, I will let you off a share of it." "Let us hear it

from you," said they. "Here it is," said Lugh; "three apples, and the

skin of a pig, and a spear, and two horses, and a chariot, and seven

pigs, and a dog's whelp, and a cooking-spit, and three shouts on a hill.

That is the fine I am asking," he said; "and if it is too much for you,

a part of it will be taken off you presently, and if you do not think it

too much, then pay it"

 

"It is not too much," said Brian, "or a hundred times of it would not be

too much. And we think it likely," he said, "because of its smallness

that you have some treachery towards us behind it." "I do not think it

too little of a fine," said Lugh; "and I give you the guarantee of the

Tuatha de Danaan I will ask no other thing, and I will be faithful to

you, and let you give the same pledge to me." "It is a pity you to ask

that," said Brian, "for our own pledge is as good as any pledge in the

world." "Your own pledge is not enough," said Lugh, "for it is often the

like of you promised to pay a fine in this way, and would try to back

out of it after."

 

So then the sons of Tuireann bound themselves by the King of Ireland,

and by Bodb Dearg, son of the Dagda, and by the chief men of the Tuatha

de Danaan, that they would pay that fine to Lugh.

 

"It would be well for me now," said Lugh, "to give you better knowledge

of the fine." "It would be well indeed," said they.

 

"This is the way of it then," said Lugh. "The three apples I asked of

you are the three apples from the Garden in the East of the World, and

no other apples will do but these, for they are the most beautiful and

have most virtue in them of the apples of the whole world. And it is

what they are like, they are of the colour of burned gold, and they are

the size of the head of a child a month old, and there is the taste of

honey on them, and they do not leave the pain of wounds or the vexation

of sickness on any one that eats them, and they do not lessen by being

eaten for ever. And the skin I asked of you," he said, "is the pig skin

of Tuis, King of Greece, and it heals all the wounds and all the

sickness of the world, and whatever danger a man may be in, if it can

but overtake the life in him, it will cure him; and it is the way it was

with that pig, every stream of water it would go through would be turned

into wine to the end of nine days after, and every wound it touched was

healed; and it is what the Druids of Greece said, that it is not in

itself this virtue was, but in the skin, and they skinned it, and the

skin is there ever since. And I think, too, it will not be easy for you

to get it, with or without leave."

 

"And do you know what is the spear I am asking of you?" he said. "We do

not," said they. "It is a very deadly spear belonging to the King of

Persia, the Luin it is called, and every choice thing is done by it, and

its head is kept steeped in a vessel of water, the way it will not burn

down the place where it is, and it will be hard to get it. And do you

know what two horses and what chariot I am asking of you? They are the

chariot and the two wonderful horses of Dobar, King of Siogair, and the

sea is the same as land to them, and there are no faster horses than

themselves, and there is no chariot equal to that one in shape and in

strength.

 

"And do you know what are the seven pigs I asked of you? They are the

pigs of Easal, King of the Golden Pillars; and though they are killed

every night, they are found alive again the next day, and there will be

no disease or no sickness on any person that will eat a share of them.

 

"And the whelp I asked of you is Fail-Inis, the whelp belonging to the

King of Ioruaidh, the Cold Country. And all the wild beasts of the world

would fall down at the sight of her, and she is more beautiful than the

sun in his fiery wheels, and it will be hard to get her.

 

"And the cooking-spit I asked of you is a spit of the spits of the women

of Inis Cenn-fhinne, the Island of Caer of the Fair Hair. And the three

shouts you