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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IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS
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
LUGH OF THE LONG HAND
75
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
76
IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS
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
LUGH OF THE LONG HAND
77
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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IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS
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
LUGH OF THE LONG HAND
79
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. "
80
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
