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

are to give on a hill must be given on the Hill of Miochaoin

in the north of Lochlann. And Miochaoin and his sons are under bonds not

to allow any shouts to be given on that hill; and it was with them my

father got his learning, and if I would forgive you his death, they

would not forgive you. And if you get through all your other voyages

before you reach to them, it is my opinion they themselves will avenge

him on you. And that is the fine I have asked of you," said Lugh.

 

There was silence and darkness on the sons of Tuireann when they heard

that. And they went to where their father was, and told him the fine

that had been put on them. "It is bad news that is," said Tuireann; "and

it is to your death and your destruction you will be going, looking for

those things. But for all that, if Lugh himself had a mind to help you,

you could work out the fine, and all the men of the world could not do

it but by the power of Manannan or of Lugh. Go then and ask the loan of

Manannan's horse, the Aonbharr, from Lugh, and if he has any wish to get

the fine, he will give it to you; but if he does not wish it he will say

the horse is not his, and that he would not give the loan of a loan. Ask

him then for the loan of Manannan's curragh, the Scuabtuinne, the

Sweeper of the Waves. And he will give that, for he is under bonds not

to refuse a second request, and the curragh is better for you than the

horse," he said.

 

So the sons of Tuireann went to where Lugh was, and they saluted him,

and they said they could not bring him the fine without his own help,

and for that reason it would be well for them to get a loan of the

Aonbharr. "I have that horse only on loan myself," said Lugh, "and I

will not give a loan of a loan."

 

"If that is so, give us the loan of Manannan's curragh," said Brian. "I

will give that," said Lugh. "What place is it?" said they. "At Brugh na

Boinn," said Lugh.

 

Then they went back again to where Tuireann was, and his daughter Ethne,

their sister, with him, and they told him they had got the curragh. "It

is not much the better you will be for it," said Tuireann, "although

Lugh would like well to get every part of this fine he could make use of

before the battle with the Fomor. But he would like yourselves to come

to your death looking for it."

 

Then they went away, and they left Tuireann sorrowful and lamenting, and

Ethne went with them to where the curragh was. And Brian got into it,

and he said: "There is place but for one other person along with me

here." And he began to find fault with its narrowness. "You ought not to

be faulting the curragh," said Ethne; "and O my dear brother," she said,

"it was a bad thing you did, to kill the father of Lugh of the Long

Hand; and whatever harm may come to you from it, it is but just." "Do

not say that, Ethne," they said, "for we are in good heart, and we will

do brave deeds. And we would sooner be killed a hundred times over,"

they said, "than to meet with the death of cowards." "My grief," said

Ethne, "there is nothing more sorrowful than this, to see you driven out

from your own country."

 

Then the three pushed out their curragh from the beautiful clear-bayed

shore of Ireland. "What course shall we take first?" said they. "We will

go look for the apples," said Brian, "as they were the first thing we

were bade bring. And so we ask of you, curragh of Manannan that is under

us, to sail to the Garden in the East of the World."

 

And the curragh did not neglect that order, but it sailed forward over

the green-sided waves and deep places till it came to its harbour in the

east of the world.

 

And then Brian asked his brothers: "What way have you a mind to get into

the garden? for I think," he said, "the king's champions and the

fighting men of the country are always guarding it, and the king himself

is chief over them." "What should we do," said his brothers, "but to

make straight at them and attack them, and bring away the apples or fall

ourselves, since we cannot escape from these dangers that are before us

without meeting our death in some place." "It would be better," said

Brian, "the story of our bravery and our craftiness to be told and to

live after us, than folly and cowardice to be told of us. And what is

best for us to do now," he said, "is to go in the shape of swift hawks

into the garden, and the watchers have but their light spears to throw

at us, and let you take good care to keep out of their reach; and after

they have thrown them all, make a quick flight to the apples and let

each of you bring away an apple of them in your claws, and I will bring

away the third."

 

They said that was a good advice, and Brian struck himself and the

others with his Druid rod, and changed them into beautiful hawks. And

they flew towards the garden, and the watchers took notice of them and

shouted on every side of them, and threw showers of spears and darts,

but the hawks kept out of their reach as Brian had bade them, till all

the spears were spent, and then they swept down bravely on the apples,

and brought them away with them, without so much as a wound.

 

And the news went through the city and the whole district, and the king

had three wise, crafty daughters, and they put themselves into the shape

of three ospreys, and they followed the hawks to the sea, and sent

flashes of lightning before them and after them, that scorched them

greatly.

 

"It is a pity the way we are now," said the sons of Tuireann, "for we

will be burned through and through with this lightning if we do not get

some relief." "If I can give you relief I will do it," said Brian. With

that he struck himself and his brothers with the Druid rod, and they

were turned into three swans, and they went down quickly into the sea,

and the ospreys went away from them then, and the sons of Tuireann went

into their boat.

 

After that they consulted together, and it is what they agreed, to go to

Greece and to bring away the skin of the pig, with or without leave. So

they went forward till they came near to the court of the King of

Greece.

 

"What appearance should we put on us going in here?" said Brian. "What

appearance should we go in with but our own?" said the others. "That is

not what I think best," said Brian; "but to go in with the appearance of

poets from Ireland, the way the high people of Greece will hold us in

respect and in honour." "It would be hard for us to do that," they said,

"and we without a poem, and it is little we know how to make one."

 

However, they put the poet's tie on their hair, and they knocked at the

door of the court, and the door-keeper asked who was in it. "We are

poets of Ireland," said Brian, "and we are come with a poem to the

king."

 

The door-keeper went in and told the king that there were poets from

Ireland at the door. "Let them in," said the king, "for it is in search

of a good man they came so far from their own country." And the king

gave orders that everything should be well set out in the court, the way

they would say they had seen no place so grand in all their travels.

 

The sons of Tuireann were let in then, having the appearance of poets,

and they fell to drinking and pleasure without delay; and they thought

they had never seen, and there was not in the world, a court so good as

that or so large a household, or a place where they had met with better

treatment.

 

Then the king's poets got up to give out their poems and songs. And then

Brian, son of Tuireann, bade his brothers to say a poem for the king.

"We have no poem," said they; "and do not ask any poem of us, but the

one we know before, and that is to take what we want by the strength of

our hand if we are the strongest, or to fall by those that are against

us if they are the strongest." "That is not a good way to make a poem,"

said Brian. And with that he rose up himself and asked a hearing. And

they all listened to him, and it is what he said:

 

"O Tuis, we do not hide your fame; we praise you as the oak among kings;

the skin of a pig, bounty without hardness, this is the reward I ask for

it.

 

"The war of a neighbour against an ear; the fair ear of his neighbour

will be against him; he who gives us what he owns, his court will not be

the scarcer for it.

 

"A raging army and a sudden sea are a danger to whoever goes against

them. The skin of a pig, bounty without hardness, this is the reward I

ask, O Tuis."

 

"That is a good poem," said the king; "but I do not know a word of its

meaning." "I will tell you its meaning," said Brian. "'O Tuis, we do not

hide your fame; we praise you as the oak above the kings.' That is, as

the oak is beyond the kingly trees of the wood, so are you beyond the

kings of the world for open-handedness and for grandeur.

 

"'The skin of a pig, bounty without hardness.' That is, the skin of a

pig you own is what I would wish to get from you as a reward for my

poem.

 

"'The war of a neighbour against an ear, the fair ear of his neighbour

will be against him.' That is, you and I will be by the ears about the

skin, unless I get it with your consent.

 

"And that is the meaning of the poem," said Brian.

 

"I would praise your poem," said the king, "if there was not so much

about my pig-skin in it; and you have no good sense, man of poetry," he

said, "to be asking that thing of me, and I would not give it to all

the poets and the learned men and the great men of the world, since they

could not take it away without my consent. But I will give you three

times the full of the skin of gold as the price of your poem," he said.

 

"May good be with you, king," said Brian, "and I know well it was no

easy thing I was asking, but I knew I would get a good ransom for it.

And I am that covetous," he said, "I will not be satisfied without

seeing the gold measured myself into the skin."

 

The king sent his servants with them then to the treasure-house to

measure the gold. "Measure out the full of it to my brothers first,"

said Brian, "and then give good measure to myself, since it was I made

the poem."

 

But when the skin was brought out, Brian made a quick sudden snatch at

it with his left hand, and drew his sword and made a stroke at the man

nearest him, and made two halves of him. And then he kept a hold of the

skin and put it about himself, and the three of them rushed out of the

court, cutting down every armed man before them, so that not one escaped

death or wounding. And then Brian went to where the king himself was,

and the king made no delay in attacking him, and they made a hard fight

of it, and at the end the King of Greece fell by the hand of Brian, son

of Tuireann.

 

The three brothers rested for a while after that, and then they said

they would go and look for some other part of the fine. "We will go to

Pisear, King of Persia," said Brian, "and ask him for the spear."

 

So they went into their boat, and they left the blue streams