Lady Augusta Gregory

by Irish Myths

  not a leader or a fighting man of them was without good armour

  to his skin, and a helmet on his head, a broad spear in his right

  hand, a heavy sword in his belt, a strong shield on his shoulder.

  And to attack the army of the Fomor that day was to strike the

  head against a rock, or to go up fighting against a fire.

  And the Men of Dea rose up and left Lugh and his nine comrades keeping him, and they went on to the battle; and Midhir was with them, and Bodb Dearg and Diancecht. And Badb and Macha

  and the Morrigu called out that they would go along with them.

  And it was a hard battle was fought, and for a while it was

  going against the Tuatha de Danaan; and Nuada of the Silver

  Hand their king, and Macha, daughter of Emmass, fell by Balor,

  King of the Fomor. And Cassmail fell by Octriallach, and the

  Dagda got a dreadful wound from a casting spear that was thrown

  by Ceithlenn, wife of Balor.

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  But when the battle was going on, Lugh broke away from those

  that were keeping him, and rushed out to the front of the Men of

  Dea. And then there was a fierce battle fought, and Lugh was

  heartening the men of Ireland to fight well, the way they would

  not be in bonds any longer. For it was better for them, he said, to

  die protecting their own country than to live under bonds and

  under tribute any longer. And he sang a song of courage to them,

  and the hosts gave a great shout as they went into battle, and then

  they met together, and each of them began to attack the other.

  And there was great slaughter, and laying low in graves, and

  many comely men fell there in the stall of death. Pride and shame

  were there side by side, and hardness and red anger, and there

  was red blood on the white skin of young fighting men. And the

  dashing of spear against shield, and sword against sword, and the

  shouting of the fighters, and the whistling of casting spears and

  the rattling of scabbards was like harsh thunder through the battle. And many slipped in the blood that was under their feet, and they fell, striking their heads one against another; and the river

  carried away bodies of friends and enemies together.

  Then Lugh and Balor met in the battle, and Lugh called out

  reproaches to him; and there was anger on Balor, and he said to

  the men that were with him: "Lift up my eyelid till I see this chatterer that is talking to me. " Then they raised Balor's eyelid, but Lugh made a cast of his red spear at him, that brought the eye out

  through the back of his head, so that it was towards his own army

  it fell, and three times nine of the Fomor died when they looked

  at it. And if Lugh had not put out that eye when he did, the whole

  of Ireland would have been burned in one flash. And after this,

  Lugh struck his head off.

  And as for Indech, son of De Domnann, he fell and was

  crushed in the battle, and blood burst from his mouth, and he

  called out for Leat Glas, his poet, as he lay there, but he was not

  able to help him. And then the Morrigu came into the battle, and

  she was heartening the Tuatha de Danaan to fight the battle well;

  and, as she had promised the Dagda, she took the full of her two

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  hands of Indech's blood, and gave it to the armies that were waiting at the ford of Unius; and it was called the Ford of Destruction from that day.

  And after that it was not a battle any more, but a rout, and the

  Fomor were beaten back to the sea. And Lugh and his comrades

  were following them, and they came up with Bres, son of Elathan,

  and no guard with him, and he said: "It is better for you to spare

  my life than to kill me. And if you spare me now," he said, "the

  cows of Ireland will never go dry. " "I will ask an advice about that

  from our wise men," said Lugh. So he told Maeltine Mor-Brethach,

  of the Great judgments, what Bres was after saying. But Maeltine

  said "Do not spare him for that, for he has no power over their offspring, though he has power so long as they are living."

  Then Bres said: "If you spare me, the men of Ireland will reap a

  harvest of com every quarter." But Maeltine said: "The spring is

  for ploughing and sowing, and the beginning of summer for the

  strength of com, and the beginning of autumn for its ripeness,

  and the winter for using it."

  "That does not save you," said Lugh then to Bres. But then to

  make an excuse for sparing him, Lugh said: "Tell us what is the

  best way for the men of Ireland to plough and to sow and to reap."

  "Let their ploughing be on a Tuesday, and their casting seed

  into the field on a Tuesday, and their reaping on a Tuesday," said

  Bres. So Lugh said that would do, and he let him go free after that.

  It was in this battle Ogma found Oma, the sword of Tethra, a

  king of the Fomor, and he took it from its sheath and cleaned it.

  And when the sword was taken out of the sheath, it told all the

  deeds that had been done by it, for there used to be that power

  in swords.

  And Lugh and the Dagda and Ogma followed after the Fomor,

  for they had brought away the Dagda's harp with them, that was

  called Uaitne. And they came to a feasting-house, and in it they

  found Bres and his father Elathan, and there was the harp hanging on the wall. And it was in that harp the Dagda had bound the music, so that it would not sound till he would call to it. And

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  sometimes it was called Dur-da-Bla, the Oak of Two Blossoms,

  and sometimes Coir-cethar-chuin, the Four-Angled Music.

  And when he saw it hanging on the wall it is what he said:

  "Come summer, come winter, from the mouth of harps and bags

  and pipes." Then the harp sprang from the wall, and came to the

  Dagda, and it killed nine men on its way.

  And then he played for them the three things harpers understand, the sleepy tune, and the laughing tune, and the crying tune. And when he played the crying tune, their tearful women

  cried, and then he played the laughing tune, till their women and

  children laughed; and then he played the sleepy tune, and all the

  hosts fell asleep. And through that sleep the three went away

  through the Fomor that would have been glad to harm them. And

  when all was over, the Dagda brought out the heifer he had got as

  wages from Bres at the time he was making his dun. And she

  called to her calf, and at the sound of her call all the cattle of Ireland the Fomor had brought away as tribute, were back in their fields again.

  And Ce, the Druid of Nuada of the Silver Hand, was wounded

  in the battle, and he went southward till he came to Cam Corrslebe. And there he sat down to rest, tired with his wounds and with the fear that was on him, and the journey. And he saw a

  smooth plain before him, and it full of flowers, and a great desire

  came on him to reach to that plain, and he went on till he came to

  it, and there he died. And when his grave was made there, a lake

  burst out over it and over the whole plain, and it was given the

  name of Loch Ce. And there were but four men of the Fomor left

  in Ireland after the battle, and they used to be going through the

  country, spoiling com and milk and fruit, and whatever
came

  from the sea, till they were driven out one Samhain night by the

  Morrigu and by Angus Og, that the Fomor might never be over

  Ireland again.

  And after the battle was won, and the bodies were cleared

  away, the Morrigu gave out the news of the great victory to the

  hosts and to the royal heights of Ireland and to its chief rivers and

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  its invers, and it is what she said: "Peace up to the skies, the skies

  down to earth, the earth under the skies; strength to every one."

  And as to the number of men that fell in the battle, it will not

  be known till we number the stars of the sky, or flakes of snow, or

  the dew on the grass, or grass under the feet of cattle , or the

  horses of the Son of Lir in a stormy sea.

  And Lugh was made king over the Men of Dea then, and it

  was at Nas he had his court.

  And while he was king, his foster-mother Taillte, daughter of

  Magh Mor, the Great Plain, died. And before her death she bade

  her husband Duach the Dark, he that built the Fort of the

  Hostages in Teamhair, to clear away the wood of Cuan, the way

  there could be a gathering of the people around her grave. So he

  called to the men of Ireland to cut down the wood with their

  wide-bladed knives and bill-hooks and hatchets, and within a

  month the whole wood was cut down.

  And Lugh buried her in the plain of Midhe, and raised a

  mound over her, that is to be seen to this day. And he ordered

  fires to be kindled, and keening to be made, and games and sports

  ·

  to be held in the summer of every year out of respect to her. And

  the place they were held got its name from her, that is Taillten.

  And as to Lugh's own mother, that was tall beautiful Ethlinn,

  she came to Teamhair after the battle of Magh Tuireadh, and he

  gave her in marriage to Tadg, son of Nuada. And the children that

  were born to them were Muime, mother of Finn, the Head of the

  Fianna of Ireland, and Tuiren, that was mother of Bran.

  CHAPTER I'V.

  THE HIDDEN HOUSE OF LUGH

  And after Lugh had held the kingship for a long time, the Dagda

  was made king in his place.

  And Lugh went away out of Ireland, and some said he died at

  Uisnech, the place where the five provinces meet, and the first

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  place there was ever a fire kindled in Ireland. It was by Mide, son

  of Brath, it was kindled, for the sons of Nemed, and it was burning through six years, and it was from that fire every chief fire was kindled in Ireland.

  But Lugh was seen again in Ireland at the time Conchubar and

  the Men of the Red Branch went following white birds southward

  to the Boinn at the time of Cuchulain's birth. And it was he came

  and kept watch over Cuchulain in his three days' sleep at the time

  of the War for the Bull of Cuailgne.

  And after that again he was seen by Conn of the Hundred Battles, and this is the way that happened.

  Conn was in Teamhair one time, and he went up in the early

  morning to the Rath of the Kings at the rising of the sun, and his

  three Druids with him, Maol and Bloc and Bhuice; and his three

  poets, Ethain and Corb and Cesarn. And the reason he had for

  going up there with them every day, was to look about on every

  side, the way if any men of the Sidhe would come into Ireland

  they would not come unknown to him. And on this day he

  chanced to stand upon a stone that was in the rath, and the stone

  screamed under his feet, that it was heard all over Teamhair and

  as far as Bregia.

  Then Conn asked his chief Druid how the stone came there,

  and what it screamed for. And the Druid said he would not

  answer that till the end of fifty-three days. And at the end of that

  time, Conn asked him again, and it is what the Druid said: "The

  Lia Fail is the name of the stone; it is out of Falias it was brought,

  and it is in Teamhair it was set up, and in Teamhair it will stay for

  ever. And as long as there is a king in Teamhair it is here will be

  the gathering place for games, and if there is no king to come to

  the last day of the gathering, there will be hardness in that year.

  And when the stone screamed under your feet," he said, "the

  number of the screams it gave was a foretelling of the number of

  kings of your race that would come after you . But it is not I

  myself will name them for you," he said.

  And while they were in the same place, there came a great mist

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  about them and a darkness, so that they could not know what

  way they were going, and they heard the noise of a rider coming

  towards them. "It would be a great grief to us," said Conn, "to be

  brought away into a strange country." Then the rider threw three

  spears at them and every one came faster than the other. "It is the

  wounding of a king indeed," said the Druids, "any one to cast at

  Conn of Teamhair. "

  The rider stopped casting his spears on that, and he came to

  them and bade Conn welcome, and asked him to come to his

  house. They went on then till they came to a beautiful plain, and

  there they saw a king's rath, and a golden tree at its door, and

  inside the rath a grand house with a roof of white bronze. So they

  went into the house, and the rider that had come to meet them

  was there before them, in his royal seat, and there had never been

  seen a man like him in Teamhair for comeliness or for beauty, or

  the wonder of his face.

  And there was a young woman in the house, having a band of

  gold on her head, and a silver vessel with hoops of gold beside

  her, and it full of red ale, and a golden bowl on its edge, and a

  golden cup at its mouth. She said then to the master of the house:

  "Who am I to serve drink to?" "Serve it to Conn of the Hundred

  Battles," he said, "for he will gain a hundred battles before he

  dies." And after that he bade her to pour out the ale for Art of the

  Three Shouts, the son of Conn; and after that he went through

  the names of all the kings of Ireland that would come after Conn,

  and he told what would be the length of their lifetime. And the

  young woman left the vessel with Conn, and the cup and the

  bowl, and she gave him along with that the rib of an ox and of a

  hog; twenty-four feet was the length of the ox-rib.

  And the master of the house told them the young woman was

  the Kingship of Ireland for ever. "And as for myself," he said, "I

  am Lugh of the Long Hand, son of Ethlinn. "

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  B O O K T H R E E :

  THE COMING OF THE GAEL

  CHAPTER I.

  THE LANDING

  It is not known, now, for what length of time the Tuatha de

  Danaan had the sway over Ireland, and it is likely it was a long

  time they had it, but they were put from it at last.

  It was at Inver Slane, to the north of Leinster, the sons of

  Gaedhal of the Shining Armour, the Very Gentle, that were called

  afterwards the Sons of the Gael, made their first attempt to land in

  Ireland to avenge It
h, one of their race that had come there one

  time and had met with his death.

  It is under the leadership of the sons of Miled they were, and it

  was from the south they came, and their Druids had told them

  there was no country for them to settle in till they would come to

  that island in the west. "And if you do not get possession of it

  yourselves," they said, "your children will get possession of it."

  But when the Tuatha de Danaan saw the ships coming, they

  flocked to the shore, and by their enchantments they cast such a

  cloud over the whole island that the sons of Miled were confused,

  and all they could see was some large thing that had the appearance of a pig.

  And when they were hindered from landing there by enchantments, they went sailing along the coast till at last they were able to make a landing at Inver Sceine in the west of Munster.

  From that they marched in good order as far as Slieve Mis.

  And there they were met by a queen of the Tuatha de Danaan, and

  a train of beautiful women attending on her, and her Druids and

  wise men following her. Amergin, one of the sons of Miled, spoke

  to her then, and asked her name, and she said it was Banba, wife

  of Mac Cuill, Son of the Hazel.

  They went on then till they came to Slieve Eibhline, and there

  THE COMING OF THE GAEL

  8 1

  another queen of the Tuatha de Danaan met them, and her

  women and her Druids after her, and they asked her name, and

  she said it was Fodhla, wife of Mac Cecht, Son of the Plough.

  They went on then till they came to the hill of Uisnech, and

  there they saw another woman coming towards them. And there

  was wonder on them while they were looking at her, for in the

  one moment she would be a wide-eyed most beautiful queen, and

  in another she would be a sharp-beaked, grey-white crow. She

  came on to where Eremon, one of the sons of Miled, was, and sat

  down before him, and he asked her who was she, and she said: "I

  am Eriu, wife of Mac Greine, Son of the Sun."

  And the names of those three queens were of ten given to Ireland in the after time.

  The Sons of the Gael went on after that to Teamhair, where the

  three sons of Cermait Honey-Mouth, son of the Dagda, that had

  the kingship between them at that time held their court. And

  these three were quarrelling with one another about the division