The Coming of Cuculain
Page 13
CHAPTER XI
THERE WAS WAR IN ULSTER
"Each spake words of high disdain And insult to his heart's best brother, They parted ne'er to meet again."
--COLERIDGE
It was on account of this that there arose at first that dissidenceand divergence of opinion in the great Council at Emain Macha betweenConcobar Mac Nessa and Fergus Mac Roy, Concobar standing for the lawwhich he had been sworn to safeguard and to execute, and Fergus castingover the lovers the shield of his name and fame, his authority and hisstrength, and the singular affection with which he was regarded by allthe Ultonians.
After Fergus had made that speech in disparagement and contempt of thesolemn enactment and decree in accordance with which Deirdre had beenimmured, Concobar did not immediately answer, for he knew that he washeated both on account of the abduction and on account of the words ofFergus. Then he said--
"The valour of the Red Branch, whereby we flourish so conspicuouslyherein the North, doth not spring out of itself, and doth not come bydiscipline, teaching, and example. It has its root in a virtue of whichthe bards indeed, for bardic reasons, make little mention though it holda firm place in the laws of the Ultonians both ancient and recent. This,our valour, and the famous kindred virtues through which we are strongand irresistible, so that the world has today nothing anywhere ofequal glory and power, spring from the chastity of our women, which isconspicuous and clear-shining, and in the modesty and shamefastness ofour young heroes, and the extreme rarity of lawless relations betweenmen and women in Ulla, the servile tribes excepted, of whom no manmaketh any account. Against such lawlessness our wise ancestors havedecreed terrible punishments. According to the laws of the Ultonians,those who offend in this respect are burned alive in the place of theburnings, and over their ashes are thrown the three throws of dishonour.And well I know that these laws ofttimes to the unthinking and to thosewho judge by their affections merely, seem harsh and unnatural. Yeatruly, were I not high King, I could weep, seeing gentle youths andmaidens, and men and women, whom the singing of Angus Ogue's birds havemade mad, led away by my orders to be devoured by flame. But so it isbest, for without chastity valour faileth in a nation, and lawlessnessin this respect begetteth sure and rapid decay, and I give not thisforth as an opinion but as a thing that I know, seeing it as clearlywith my mind, O Fergus, as I see with my eyes thy countenance and formand the foldings of thy fuan [Footnote: Mantle.] and the shape andornamentation of the wheel-brooch upon thy breast. Without chastitythere is no enduring valour in a nation. And thou, too, O Fergus,sitting there in the champion's throne, hast more than once or twiceheard me pronounce the dread sentence without word of protest ordissent. But now, because it toucheth thee thyself, strongly andfiercely thy voice of protest is lifted up, and unless I and thisCouncil can over-persuade thee, this thy rebellious purpose will be thyown undoing or that of the Red Branch. Are the sons of Usna dear only tothee? I say they are dearer to me, but the Red Branch is still dearer,and it is the destruction of the Red Branch which unwittingly thouwouldst Compass. Nor was that law concerning the inviolable virginityof the child of Felim foolish or unwise, for it was made solemnly by theUltonians in obedience to the united voice of the Druids of Ulla,men who see deeply into the hidden causes of things and the obscurerelations of events, of which we men of war have no perception."
So spoke Concobar, not threateningly like a sovereign king, butpleadingly. On the other hand Fergus Mac Roy, rearing his huge form,stood upon his feet, and said--
"To answer fine reasonings I have no skill, but I swear by the sun andthe wind and the earth and by my own right hand, which is a strongeroath than any, that I will bring back the sons of Usna into Ireland, andthat they shall live and flourish in their place and sit honourably inthis great hall of the Clanna Rury, whether it be pleasing to thee ordispleasing. For I take the Clan Usna under my protection from this dayforth, and well I know that there is not in Erin or in Alba a manborn of a woman, no nor the Tuatha De Danan themselves, who will breakthrough that protection!"
"I will break through it," said the King.
After that Fergus departed from Emain Macha and went away with hispeople into the east to his own country. There he debated and consideredfor a long time, but at last, so great was his affection for theClan Usna, that he went over the Moyle in ships to the country of theAlbanagh and brought home the sons of Usna, and they were slain byConcobar Mac Nessa, according as he had promised by the word ofhis mouth. Then Fergus rebelled against Concobar, drawing after himtwo-thirds of the Red Branch, and amongst them Duvac Dael Ulla andCormac Conlingas, Concobar's own son, and many other great men, butthe chiefest and best and most renowned of the Ultonians adhered tothe King. The whole province was shaken with war and there was greatshedding of blood, but in the end Concobar prevailed and drove outFergus Mac Roy. After that expulsion Fergus and three thousand of theRed Branch fled across the Shannon and came to Rath Cruhane, and enteredinto military service with Meave who was the queen of all the countrywest of the Shannon.
There is nothing told about Cuculain in connection with this war. It ishard to imagine him taking any side in such a war. But, in fact, hewas still a schoolboy under tutors and governors and could not lawfullyappear in arms, seeing that he was not yet knighted. He was either withthe smiths or, having procured a worthy hound to take his place, he hadgone back to the royal school at Emain Macha. But the time when Cuculainshould be knighted, that is to say, invested with arms, and solemnlyreceived into the Red Branch as man to the high King of all Ulla, nowdrew on, and such a knighting as that, and under such signs, omens,and portents, has never been recorded anywhere in the history of thenations.
In the meantime, Fergus and his exiles served Queen Meave and weresubduing all the rest of Ireland under her authority, so that Meave,Queen of Connaught, became very great and proud, and in the endmeditated the overthrow of Ulster and the conquest of the Red Branch.Queen Meave and Fergus leading the joined host of the four remainingprovinces, Meath, Connaught, Munster, and Leinster, certain of successowing to a strange lethargy which then fell on the Ultonians, did invadeUlster. But as they drew nigh to the mearings they found the in-gateof the province barred by one man. It is needless to mention that man'sname. It was Dethcaen's nursling, the ex-pupil of Fergus Mac Roy, thelittle boy Setanta grown into a terrible and irresistible hero. It wasby his defence of Ulster on that occasion against Fergus and Meaveand the four provinces, that Cuculain acquired his deathless glory andbecame the chief hero of the north-west of the world. So these chapterswhich relate to the abduction of Deirdre and the rebellion and expulsionof Fergus, are a vital portion of the whole story of Cuculain. We mustnow return to the hero's schoolboy days which, however, are drawing to amemorable conclusion.