by Irish Myths
IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS
itself again." "Another gift to them from me," said Bodb Dearg, "a
good musician that I have, Fertuinne, son of Trogain; and although there were women in the sharpest pains of childbirth, and brave men wounded early in the day, in a place where there were
saws going through wood, they would sleep at the sweetness of
the music he makes. And whatever house he may be in, the people of the whole country round will hear him. "
So they stopped in Brugh na Boinne three days and three
nights, and when they left it, Angus bade them bring away from
the oak-wood three apple-trees, one in full bloom, and one shedding its blossom, and the third covered with ripe fruit.
They went then to their own dun that was given them, and it
is a good place they had there, and a troop of young men, and
great troops of horses and of greyhounds; and they had three sorts
of music that comely kings liked to be listening to, the music of
harps and of lutes, and the chanting of Trogain's son; and there
were three great sounds, the tramping on the green, and the
uproar of racing, and the lowing of cattle; and three other sounds,
the grunting of good pigs with the fat thick on them, and the
voices of the crowd on the green lawn, and the noise of men
drinking inside the house. And as to Eochaid, it was said of him
that he never took a step backwards in flight, and his house was
never without music or drinking of ale. And it was said of Fiacha
that there was no man of his time braver than himself, and that he
never said a word too much. And as to Ruide, he never refused
any one, and never asked anything at all of any man.
And when their lifetime was over, they went back to the
Tuatha de Danaan, for they belonged to them through their wives,
and there they have stopped ever since.
And Bodb Dearg had a daughter, Scathniamh, the Flower of
Brightness, that gave her love to Caoilte in the time of the Fianna;
and they were forced to part from one another, and they never
met again till the time Caoilte was old and withered, and one of
the last that was left of the Fianna. And she came to him out of
the cave of Cruachan, and asked him for the bride-price he had
THE EVER-LIVING LIVING ONES
9 1
promised her, and that she was never able to come and ask for till
then. And Caoilte went to a cairn that was near and that was full
up of gold, that was wages earned by Conan Maol and hidden
there, and he gave the gold to Bodb Dearg's daughter. And the
people that were there wondered to see the girl so young and
comely, and Caoilte so grey and bent and withered. "There is no
wonder in that," said Caoilte, "for I am of the sons of Miled that
wither and fade away, but she is of the Tuatha de Danaan that
never change and that never die. "
CHAPTER II.
THE DAGDA
And it was at Brugh na Boinne the Dagda, the Red Man of all
Knowledge, had his house. And the most noticeable things in it
were the Hall of the Morrigu, and the Bed of the Dagda, and the
Birthplace of Cermait Honey-Mouth, and the Prison of the Grey
of Macha that was Cuchulain's horse afterwards. And there was a
little hill by the house that was called the Comb and the Casket of
the Dagda's wife; and another that was called the Hill of Dabilla,
that was the little hound belonging to Boann. And the Valley of
the Mata was there, the Sea-Turtle that could suck down a man
in armour.
And it is likely the Dagda put up his cooking oven there, that
Druimne, son of Luchair, made for him at Teamhair. And it is the
way it was, the axle and the wheel were of wood, and the body
was iron, and there were twice nine wheels in its axle, that it
might tum the faster; and it was as quick as the quickness of a
stream in turning, and there were three times nine spits from it,
and three times nine pots. And it used to lie down with the cinders and to rise to the height of the roof with the flame.
The Dagda himself made a great vat one time for Ainge, his
daughter, but she was not well satisfied with it, for it would not
stop from dripping while the sea was in flood, though it would
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IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS
not lose a drop during the ebb-tide. And she gathered a bundle of
twigs to make a new vat for herself, but Gaible, son of Nuada of
the Silver Hand, stole it from her and hurled it away. And in the
place where it fell a beautiful wood grew up, that was called
Gaible's Wood.
And the Dagda had his household at Brugh na Boinne, and his
steward was Dichu , and Len Linfiaclach was the smith of the
Brugh. It was he lived in the lake, making the bright vessels of
Fand, daughter of Flidhais; and every evening when he left off
work he would make a cast of the anvil eastward to Indeoin na
Dese, the Anvil of the Dese, as far as the Grave End. Three showers it used to cast, a shower of fire, and a shower of water, and a shower of precious stones of pure purple.
But Tuirbe, father of Goibniu the Smith, used to throw better
again, for he would make a cast of his axe from Tulach na Bela,
the Hill of the Axe, in the face of the flood tide, and he would put
his order on the sea, and it would not come over the axe.
And Corann was the best of the harpers of the household; he
was harper to the Dagda's son, Diancecht. And one time he called
with his harp to Cailcheir, one of the swine of Debrann. And it
ran northward with all the strength of its legs, and the champions
of Connacht were following after it with all their strength of running, and their hounds with them, till they got as far as Ceis Corain, and they gave it up there, all except Niall that went on
the track of the swine till he found it in the oak-wood of Tarba,
and then it made away over the plain of Ai, and through a lake.
And Niall and his hound were drowned in following it through
the lake. And the Dagda gave Corann a great tract of land for
doing his harping so well.
But however great a house the Dagda had, Angus got it away
from him in the end, through the help of Manannan, son of Lir.
For Manannan bade him to ask his father for it for the length of a
day and a night, and that he by his art would take away his power
of refusing. So Angus asked for the Brugh, and his father gave it
to him for a day and a night. But when he asked it back again, it is
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93
what Angus said, that it had been given to him for ever, for the
whole of life and time is made up of a day and a night, one following after the other.
So when the Dagda heard that he went away and his people
and his household with him, for Manannan had put an enchantment on them all.
But Dichu the Steward was away at the time, and his wife and
his son, for they were gone out to get provisions for a feast for
Manannan and his friends. And when he came back and knew his
master was gone, he took service with Angus.
And Angus stopped in Brugh na Boinne, and some say he is
there to this day, with the hidden walls about him, drinking Goibniu's ale and eating t
he pigs that never fail.
As to the Dagda, he took no revenge, though he had the name
of being revengeful and quick in his temper. And some say it was
at Teamhair he made his dwelling-place after that, but wherever it
was, a great misfortune came on him.
It chanced one time Corrgenn, a great man of Connacht, came
to visit him, and his wife along with him. And while they were
there, Corrgenn got it in his mind that there was something that
was not right going on between his wife and Aedh, one of the sons
of the Dagda. And great jealousy and anger came on him, and he
struck at the young man and killed him before his fathers face.
Every one thought the Dagda would take Corrgenn's life then
and there in revenge for his son's life. But he would not do that,
for he said if his son was guilty, there was no blame to be put on
Corrgenn for doing what he did. So he spared his life for that
time, but if he did, Corrgenn did not gain much by it. For the
punishment he put on him was to take the dead body of the
young man on his back, and never to lay it down till he would
find a stone that would be its very fit in length and in breadth,
and that would make a gravestone for him; and when he had
found that, he could bury him in the nearest hill.
So Corrgenn had no choice but to go, and he set out with his
load; but he had a long way to travel before he could find a stone
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IRISH MITHS AND LEGENDS
that would fit, and it is where he found one at last, on the shore of
Loch Feabhail. So then he left the body up on the nearest hill, and
he went down and raised the stone and brought it up and dug a
grave and buried the Dagda's son. And it is many an Ochone ! he
gave when he was putting the stone over him, and when he had
that done he was spent, and he dropped dead there and then.
And the Dagda brought his two builders, Garbhan and Imheall, to the place, and he bade them build a rath there round the grave. It was Garbhan cut the stones and shaped them, and Imheall set them all round the house till the work was finished, and then he closed the top of the house with a slab. And the place was
called the Hill of Aileac, that is, the Hill of Sighs and of a Stone,
for it was tears of blood the Dagda shed on account of the death
of his son.
CHAPTER III.
ANGUS OG
And as to Angus Og, son of the Dagda, sometimes he would come
from Brugh na Boinn and let himself be seen upon the earth.
It was a long time after the coming of the Gael that he was
seen by Cormac, King of Teamhair, and this is the account he
gave of him.
He was by himself one day in his Hall of judgment, for he
used to be often reading the laws and thinking how he could best
carry them out. And on a sudden he saw a stranger, a very comely
young man, at the end of the hall; and he knew on the moment it
was Angus Og, for he had often heard his people talking of him,
but he himself used to be saying he did not believe there was any
such person at all. And when his people came back to the hall, he
told them how he had seen Angus himself, and had talked with
him, and Angus had told him his name, and had foretold what
would happen him in the future. "And he was a beautiful young
man," he said, "with high looks, and his appearance was more
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95
beautiful than all beauty, and there were ornaments of gold on his
dress; in his hand he held a silver harp with strings of red gold,
and the sound of its strings was sweeter than all music under the
sky; and over the harp were two birds that seemed to be playing
on it. He sat beside me pleasantly and played his sweet music to
me, and in the end he foretold things that put drunkenness on
my wits."
The birds, now, that used to be with Angus were four of his
kisses that turned into birds and that used to be coming about the
young men of Ireland, and crying after them. "Come, come," two
of them would say, and "I go, I go," the other two would say, and
it was hard to get free of them. But as to Angus, even when he
was in his young youth, he used to be called the Frightener, or
Disturber; for the plough teams of the world, and every sort of
cattle that is used by men, would make away in terror before him.
And one time he appeared in the shape of a land-holder to two
men, Ribh and Eacho, that were looking for a place to settle in.
The first place they chose was near Bregia on a plain that was
belonging to Angus; and it was then he came to them, leading his
horse in his hand, and told them they should not stop there. And
they said they could not carry away their goods without horses.
Then he gave them his horse, and bade them to put all they had a
mind to on that horse and he would carry it, and so he did. But
the next place they chose was Magh Find, the Fine Plain, that was
the playing ground of Angus and of Midhir. And that time Midhir
came to them in the same way and gave them a horse to put their
goods on, and he went on with them as far as Magh Dairbthenn.
And there were many women loved Angus, and there was one
Enghi, daughter of Elcmair, loved him though she had not seen
him. And she went one time looking for him to the gathering for
games between Cletech and Sidhe in Braga; and the bright troops
of the Sidhe used to come to that gathering every Samhain evening, bringing a moderate share of food with them, that is, a nut.
And the sons of Derc came from the north, out of Sidhe Findabrach, and they went round about the young men and women
IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS
without their knowledge and they brought away Elcmair's daughter. There were great lamentations made then, and the name the place got was Cnoguba, the Nut Lamentation, from the crying
there was at that gathering.
And Derbrenn, Eochaid Fedlech's daughter, was another that
was loved by Angus, and she had six fosterlings, three boys and
three girls. But the mother of the boys, Dalb Garb, the Rough, put
a spell on them she made from a gathering of the nuts of Caill
Ochuid, that turned them into swine.
And Angus gave them into the care of Buichet, the Hospitaller
of Leinster, and they stopped a year with him. But at the end of
that time there came a longing on Buichet's wife to eat a bit of the
flesh of one of them. So she gathered a hundred armed men and a
hundred hounds to take them. But the pigs made away, and went
to Brugh na Boinn, to Angus, and he bade them welcome, and
they asked him to give them his help. But he said he could not do
that till they had shaken the Tree of Tarbga, and eaten the salmon
of Inver Umaill.
So they went to Glascarn, and stopped a year in hiding with
Derbrenn. And then they shook the Tree of Tarbga, and they went
on towards Inver Umaill. But Maeve gathered the men of Connacht to hunt them, and they all fell but one, and their heads were put in a mound, and it got the name of Duma Selga, the
Mound of the Hunting.
And it was in the time of Maeve of Cruachan that Angus set
his love on Caer Ormaith, of the Provi
nce of Connacht, and
brought her away to Brugh na Boinn.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MORRIGU
As to the Morrigu, the Great Queen, the Crow of Battle, where she
lived after the coming of the Gael is not known, but before that
time it was in Teamhair she lived. And she had a great cooking-spit
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97
there, that held three sorts of food on it at the one time: a piece of
raw meat, and a piece of dressed meat, and a piece of butter. And
the raw was dressed, and the dressed was not burned, and the
butter did not melt, and the three together on the spit.
Nine men that were outlaws went to her one time and asked
for a spit to be made for themselves. And they brought it away
with them, and it had nine ribs in it, and every one of the outlaws
would carry a rib in his hand wherever he would go, till they
would all meet together at the close of day. And if they wanted the
spit to be high, it could be raised to a man's height, and at another
time it would not be more than the height of a fist over the fire,
without breaking and without lessening.
And Mechi, the son the Morrigu had, was killed by Mac Cecht
on Magh Mechi, that till that time had been called Magh Fertaige.
Three hearts he had, and it is the way they were, they had the
shapes of three serpents through them. And if Mechi had not met
with his death, those serpents in him would have grown, and
what they left alive in Ireland would have wasted away. And Mac
Cecht burned the three hearts on Magh Luathad, the Plain of
Ashes, and he threw the ashes into the stream; and the rushing
water of the stream stopped and boiled up, and every creature in
it died.
And the Morrigu used often to be meddling in Ireland in
Cuchulain's time, stirring up wars and quarrels. It was she came
and roused up Cuchulain one time when he was but a lad, and
was near giving in to some enchantment that was used against
him. "There is not the making of a hero in you," she said to him,
"and you lying there under the feet of shadows. " And with that
Cuchulain rose up and struck off the head of a shadow that was
standing over him, with his hurling stick. And the time Conchubar was sending out Finched to rouse up the men of Ulster at the time of the war for the Bull of Cuailgne, he bade him to go to that
