Gods and Fighting Men by Lady I. A Gregory (novels in english TXT) 📖
- Author: Lady I. A Gregory
Book online «Gods and Fighting Men by Lady I. A Gregory (novels in english TXT) 📖». Author Lady I. A Gregory
He did not know Irish, but he was learning it at school, and all the
little boys he knew were learning it. In a little while he will know
enough stories of Finn and Oisin to tell them to his children some day.
It is the owners of the land whose children might never have known what
would give them so much happiness. But now they can read this book to
their children, and it will make Slieve-na-man, Allen, and Benbulben,
the great mountain that showed itself before me every day through all my
childhood and was yet unpeopled, and half the country-sides of south and
west, as populous with memories as are Dundealgan and Emain Macha and
Muirthemne; and after a while somebody may even take them to some famous
place and say, "This land where your fathers lived proudly and finely
should be dear and dear and again dear"; and perhaps when many names
have grown musical to their ears, a more imaginative love will have
taught them a better service.
X
I need say nothing about the translation and arrangement of this book
except that it is worthy to be put beside "Cuchulain of Muirthemne."
Such books should not be commended by written words but by spoken words,
were that possible, for the written words commending a book, wherein
something is done supremely well, remain, to sound in the ears of a
later generation, like the foolish sound of church bells from the tower
of a church when every pew is full.
W.B. YEATS.
CONTENTS
PART I. THE GODS
Book I. The Coming of the Tuatha de Danaan
Chap. I. The Fight with the Firbolgs
The Reign of Bres
Book II. Lugh of the Long Hand
Chap. I. The Coming of Lugh
The Sons of TuireannIII. The Great Battle of Magh Tuireadh
The Hidden House of Lugh
Book III. The Coming of the Gael
Chap. I. The Landing
The Battle of Tailltin
Book IV. The Ever-Living Living Ones
Chap. I. Bodb Dearg
The DagdaIII. Angus Og
The Morrigu Aine AoibhellVII. Midhir and Etain
VIII. Manannan
Manannan at play His Call to Bran His Three Calls to CormacXII. Cliodna's Wave
XIII. His Call to Connla
XIV. Tadg in Manannan's Islands
Laegaire in the Happy Plain
Book V. The Fate of The Children of Lir
PART II. THE FIANNA
Book I. Finn, Son of Cumhal
Chap. I. The Coming of Finn
Finn's HouseholdIII. Birth of Bran
Oisin's Mother The Best Men of the Fianna
Book II. Finn's Helpers
Chap. I. The Lad of the Skins
Black, Brown, and GreyIII. The Hound
Red Ridge
Book III. The Battle of the White Strand
Chap. I. The Enemies of Ireland
Cael and CredheIII. Conn Crither
Glas, Son of Dremen The Help of the Men of Dea The March of the FiannaVII. The First Fighters
VIII. The King of Ulster's Son
The High King's Son The King of Lochlann and his Sons Labran's JourneyXII. The Great Fight
XIII. Credhe's Lament
Book IV. Huntings and Enchantments
Chap. I. The King of Britain's Son
The Cave of CeiscoranIII. Donn, Son of Midhir
The Hospitality of Cuanna's House Cat-Heads and Dog-Heads Lomna's HeadVII. Ilbrec of Ess Ruadh
VIII. The Cave of Cruachan
The Wedding at Ceann Slieve The Shadowy One Finn's MadnessXII. The Red Woman
XIII. Finn and the Phantoms
XIV. The Pigs of Angus
The Hunt of Slieve Cuilinn
Book V. Oisin's Children
Book VI. Diarmuid
Chap. I. Birth of Diarmuid
How Diarmuid got his Love-SpotIII. The Daughter of King Under-Wave
The Hard Servant The House of the Quicken Trees
Book VII. Diarmuid and Grania
Chap. I. The Flight from Teamhair
The PursuitIII. The Green Champions
The Wood of Dubhros The Quarrel The WanderersVII. Fighting and Peace
VIII. The Boar of Beinn Gulbain
Book VIII. Cnoc-an-Air
Chap. I. Tailc, Son of Treon
Meargach's WifeIII. Ailne's Revenge
Book IX. The Wearing Away of the Fianna
Chap. I. The Quarrel with the Sons of Morna
Death of GollIII. The Battle of Gabhra
Book X. The End of the Fianna
Chap. I. Death of Bran
The Call of OisinIII. The Last of the Great Men
Book XI. Oisin and Patrick
Chap. I. Oisin's Story
Oisin in Patrick's HouseIII. The Arguments
Oisin's Laments GODS AND FIGHTING MEN. PART ONE: THE GODS. BOOK ONE: THE COMING OF THE TUATHA DE DANAAN. CHAPTER I. (THE FIGHT WITH THE FIRBOLGS)It was in a mist the Tuatha de Danaan, the people of the gods of Dana,
or as some called them, the Men of Dea, came through the air and the
high air to Ireland.
It was from the north they came; and in the place they came from they
had four cities, where they fought their battle for learning: great
Falias, and shining Gorias, and Finias, and rich Murias that lay to the
south. And in those cities they had four wise men to teach their young
men skill and knowledge and perfect wisdom: Senias in Murias; and Arias,
the fair-haired poet, in Finias; and Urias of the noble nature in
Gorias; and Morias in Falias itself. And they brought from those four
cities their four treasures: a Stone of Virtue from Falias, that was
called the Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny; and from Gorias they brought
a Sword; and from Finias a Spear of Victory; and from Murias the fourth
treasure, the Cauldron that no company ever went away from unsatisfied.
It was Nuada was king of the Tuatha de Danaan at that time, but
Manannan, son of Lir, was greater again. And of the others that were
chief among them were Ogma, brother to the king, that taught them
writing, and Diancecht, that understood healing, and Neit, a god of
battle, and Credenus the Craftsman, and Goibniu the Smith. And the
greatest among their women were Badb, a battle goddess; and Macha, whose
mast-feeding was the heads of men killed in battle; and the Morrigu,
the Crow of Battle; and Eire and Fodla and Banba, daughters of the
Dagda, that all three gave their names to Ireland afterwards; and Eadon,
the nurse of poets; and Brigit, that was a woman of poetry, and poets
worshipped her, for her sway was very great and very noble. And she was
a woman of healing along with that, and a woman of smith's work, and it
was she first made the whistle for calling one to another through the
night. And the one side of her face was ugly, but the other side was
very comely. And the meaning of her name was Breo-saighit, a fiery
arrow. And among the other women there were many shadow-forms and great
queens; but Dana, that was called the Mother of the Gods, was beyond
them all.
And the three things they put above all others were the plough and the
sun and the hazel-tree, so that it was said in the time to come that
Ireland was divided between those three, Coll the hazel, and Cecht the
plough, and Grian the sun.
And they had a well below the sea where the nine hazels of wisdom were
growing; that is, the hazels of inspiration and of the knowledge of
poetry. And their leaves and their blossoms would break out in the same
hour, and would fall on the well in a shower that raised a purple wave.
And then the five salmon that were waiting there would eat the nuts, and
their colour would come out in the red spots of their skin, and any
person that would eat one of those salmon would know all wisdom and all
poetry. And there were seven streams of wisdom that sprang from that
well and turned back to it again; and the people of many arts have all
drank from that well.
It was on the first day of Beltaine, that is called now May Day, the
Tuatha de Danaan came, and it was to the north-west of Connacht they
landed. But the Firbolgs, the Men of the Bag, that were in Ireland
before them, and that had come from the South, saw nothing but a mist,
and it lying on the hills.
Eochaid, son of Erc, was king of the Firbolgs at that time, and
messengers came to him at Teamhair, and told him there was a new race of
people come into Ireland, but whether from the earth or the skies or on
the wind was not known, and that they had settled themselves at Magh
Rein.
They thought there would be wonder on Eochaid when he heard that news;
but there was no wonder on him, for a dream had come to him in the
night, and when he asked his Druids the meaning of the dream, it is what
they said, that it would not be long till there would be a strong enemy
coming against him.
Then King Eochaid took counsel with his chief advisers, and it is what
they agreed, to send a good champion of their own to see the strangers
and to speak with them. So they chose out Sreng, that was a great
fighting man, and he rose up and took his strong red-brown shield, and
his two thick-handled spears, and his sword, and his head-covering, and
his thick iron club, and he set out from Teamhair, and went on towards
the place the strangers were, at Magh Rein.
But before he reached it, the watchers of the Tuatha de Danaan got sight
of him, and they sent out one of their own champions, Bres, with his
shield and his sword and his two spears, to meet him and to talk with
him.
So the two champions went one towards the other slowly, and keeping a
good watch on one another, and wondering at one another's arms, till
they came near enough for talking; and then they stopped, and each put
his shield before his body and struck it hard into the ground, and they
looked at one another over the rim. Bres was the first to speak, and
when Sreng heard it was Irish he was talking, his own tongue, he was
less uneasy, and they drew nearer, and asked questions as to one
another's family and race.
And after a while they put their shields away, and it was what Sreng
said, that he had raised his in dread of the thin, sharp spears Bres had
in his hand. And Bres said he himself was in dread of the thick-handled
spears he saw with Sreng, and he asked were all the arms of the Firbolgs
of the same sort. And Sreng took off the tyings of his spears to show
them better, and Bres wondered at them, being so strong and so heavy,
and so sharp at the sides though they had no points. And Sreng told him
the name of those spears was Craisech, and that they would break through
shields and crush flesh and bones, so that their thrust was death or
wounds that never healed. And then he looked at the sharp, thin,
hard-pointed spears that were with Bres. And in the end they made an
exchange of spears, the way the fighters on each side would see the
weapons the others were used to. And it is the message Bres sent to the
Firbolgs, that if they would give up one half of Ireland, his people
would be content
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