Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race Part 10

Eber was slain, and Eremon became sole King of Ireland, which he ruled from Tara, the traditional seat of that central authority which was always a dream of the Irish mind, but never a reality of Irish history.

*Tiernmas and Crom Cruach*

Of the kings who succeeded Eremon, and the battles they fought and the forests they cleared away and the rivers and lakes that broke out in their reign, there is little of note to record till we come to the reign of Tiernmas, fifth in succession from Eremon. He is said to have introduced into Ireland the worship of Crom Cruach, on Moyslaught (The Plain of Adoration(116)), and to have perished himself with three-fourths of his people while worshipping this idol on November Eve, the period when the reign of winter was inaugurated. Crom Cruach was no doubt a solar deity, but no figure at all resembling him can be identified among the Danaan divinities. Tiernmas also, it is said, found the first gold-mine in Ireland, and introduced variegated colours into the clothing of the people. A slave might wear but one colour, a peasant two, a soldier three, a wealthy landowner four, a provincial chief five, and an Ollav, or royal person, six. Ollav was a term applied to a certain Druidic rank; it meant much the same as doctor, in the sense of a learned mana master of science. It is a characteristic trait that the Ollav is endowed with a distinction equal to that of a king.

*Ollav Fola*

The most distinguished Ollav of Ireland was also a king, the celebrated Ollav Fola, who is supposed to have been eighteenth from Eremon and to have reigned about 1000 B.C. He was the Lycurgus or Solon of Ireland, giving to the country a code of legislature, and also subdividing it, under the High King at Tara, among the provincial chiefs, to each of whom his proper rights and obligations were allotted. To Ollav Fola is also attributed the foundation of an inst.i.tution which, whatever its origin, became of great importance in Irelandthe great triennial Fair or Festival at Tara, where the sub-kings and chiefs, bards, historians, and musicians from all parts of Ireland a.s.sembled to make up the genealogical records of the clan chieftainships, to enact laws, hear disputed cases, settle succession, and so forth; all these political and legislative labours being lightened by song and feast. It was a stringent law that at this season all enmities must be laid aside; no man might lift his hand against another, or even inst.i.tute a legal process, while the a.s.sembly at Tara was in progress. Of all political and national inst.i.tutions of this kind Ollav Fola was regarded as the traditional founder, just as Goban the Smith was the founder of artistry and handicraft, and Amergin of poetry. But whether the Milesian king had any more objective reality than the other more obviously mythical figures it is hard to say. He is supposed to have been buried in the great tumulus at Loughcrew, in Westmeath.

*Kimbay and the Founding of Emain Macha*

With Kimbay (_Cimbaoth_), about 300 B.C., we come to a landmark in history. All the historical records of the Irish, prior to Kimbay, were dubiousso, with remarkable critical ac.u.men for his age, wrote the eleventh-century historian Tierna of Clonmacnois.(117) There is much that is dubious in those that follow, but we are certainly on firmer historical ground. With the reign of Kimbay one great fact emerges into light: we have the foundation of the kingdom of Ulster at its centre, Emain Macha, a name redolent to the Irish student of legendary splendour and heroism.

Emain Macha is now represented by the gra.s.sy ramparts of a great hill-fortress close to Ard Macha (Armagh). According to one of the derivations offered in Keatings History of Ireland, _Emain_ is derived from _eo_, a bodkin, and _muin_, the neck, the word being thus equivalent to brooch, and Emain Macha means the Brooch of Macha. An Irish brooch was a large circular wheel of gold or bronze, crossed by a long pin, and the great circular rampart surrounding a Celtic fortress might well be imaginatively likened to the brooch or a giantess guarding her cloak, or territory.(118) The legend of Macha tells that she was the daughter of Red Hugh, an Ulster prince who had two brothers, Dithorba and Kimbay. They agreed to enjoy, each in turn, the sovranty of Ireland. Red Hugh came first, but on his death Macha refused to give up the realm and fought Dithorba for it, whom she conquered and slew. She then, in equally masterful manner, compelled Kimbay to wed her, and ruled all Ireland as queen. I give the rest of the tale in the words of Standish OGrady:

The five sons of Dithorba, having been expelled out of Ulster, fled across the Shannon, and in the west of the kingdom plotted against Macha.

Then the Queen went down alone into Connacht and found the brothers in the forest, where, wearied with the chase, they were cooking a wild boar which they had slain, and were carousing before a fire which they had kindled.

She appeared in her grimmest aspect, as the war-G.o.ddess, red all over, terrible and hideous as war itself but with bright and flashing eyes. One by one the brothers were inflamed by her sinister beauty, and one by one she overpowered and bound them. Then she lifted her burthen of champions upon her back and returned with them into the north. With the spear of her brooch she marked out on the plain the circuit of the city of Emain Macha, whose ramparts and trenches were constructed by the captive princes, labouring like slaves under her command.

The underlying idea of all this cla.s.s of legend, remarks Mr. OGrady, is that if men cannot master war, war will master them; and that those who aspired to the Ard-Rieship [High-Kingship] of all Erin must have the war-G.o.ds on their side.(119)

Macha is an instance of the intermingling of the attributes of the Danaan with the human race of which I have already spoken.

*Laery and Covac*

The next king who comes into legendary prominence is Ugainy the Great, who is said to have ruled not only all Ireland, but a great part of Western Europe, and to have wedded a Gaulish princess named Kesair. He had two sons, Laery and Covac. The former inherited the kingdom, but Covac, consumed and sick with envy, sought to slay him, and asked the advice of a Druid as to how this could be managed, since Laery, justly suspicious, never would visit him without an armed escort. The Druid bade him feign death, and have word sent to his brother that he was on his bier ready for burial. This Covac did, and when Laery arrived and bent over the supposed corpse Covac stabbed him to the heart, and slew also one of his sons, Ailill,(120) who attended him. Then Covac ascended the throne, and straightway his illness left him.

*Legends of Maon, Son of Ailill*

He did a brutal deed, however, upon a son of Ailills named Maon, about whom a number of legends cl.u.s.ter. Maon, as a child, was brought into Covacs presence, and was there compelled, says Keating, to swallow a portion of his fathers and grandfathers hearts, and also a mouse with her young. From the disgust he felt, the child lost his speech, and seeing him dumb, and therefore innocuous, Covac let him go. The boy was then taken into Munster, to the kingdom of Feramorc, of which Scoriath was king, and remained with him some time, but afterwards went to Gaul, his great-grandmother Kesairs country, where his guards told the king that he was heir to the throne of Ireland, and he was treated with great honour and grew up into a n.o.ble youth. But he left behind him in the heart of Moriath, daughter of the King of Feramorc, a pa.s.sion that could not be stilled, and she resolved to bring him back to Ireland. She accordingly equipped her fathers harper, Craftiny, with many rich gifts, and wrote for him a love-lay, in which her pa.s.sion for Maon was set forth, and to which Craftiny composed an enchanting melody. Arrived in France, Craftiny made his way to the kings court, and found occasion to pour out his lay to Maon. So deeply stirred was he by the beauty and pa.s.sion of the song that his speech returned to him and he broke out into praises of it, and was thenceforth dumb no more. The King of Gaul then equipped him with an armed force and sent him to Ireland to regain his kingdom. Learning that Covac was at a place near at hand named Dinrigh, Maon and his body of Gauls made a sudden attack upon him and slew him there and then, with all his n.o.bles and guards. After the slaughter a Druid of Covacs company asked one of the Gauls who their leader was. The Mariner (_Loingseach_), replied the Gaul, meaning the captain of the fleet_i.e._, Maon. Can he speak? inquired the Druid, who had begun to suspect the truth. He does speak (_Labraidh_), said the man; and henceforth the name Labra the Mariner clung to Maon son of Ailill, nor was he known by any other. He then sought out Moriath, wedded her, and reigned over Ireland ten years.

From this invasion of the Gauls the name of the province of Leinster is traditionally derived. They were armed with spears having broad blue-green iron heads called _laighne_ (p.r.o.nounced lyna), and as they were allotted lands in Leinster and settled there, the province was called in Irish _Laighin_ (Ly-in) after themthe Province of the Spearmen.(121)

Of Labra the Mariner, after his accession, a curious tale is told. He was accustomed, it is said, to have his hair cropped but once a year, and the man to do this was chosen by lot, and was immediately afterwards put to death. The reason of this was that, like King Midas in the similar Greek myth, he had long ears like those of a horse, and he would not have this deformity known. Once it fell, however, that the person chosen to crop his hair was the only son of a poor widow, by whose tears and entreaties the king was prevailed upon to let him live, on condition that he swore by the Wind and Sun to tell no man what he might see. The oath was taken, and the young man returned to his mother. But by-and-by the secret so preyed on his mind that he fell into a sore sickness, and was near to death, when a wise Druid was called in to heal him. It is the secret that is killing him, said the Druid, and he will never be well till he reveals it. Let him therefore go along the high-road till he come to a place where four roads meet. Let him there turn to the right, and the first tree he shall meet on the road, let him tell his secret to that, and he shall be rid of it, and recover. So the youth did; and the first tree was a willow. He laid his lips close to the bark, whispered his secret to it, and went home, light-hearted as of old. But it chanced that shortly after this the harper Craftiny broke his harp and needed a new one, and as luck would have it the first suitable tree he came to was the willow that had the kings secret. He cut it down, made his harp from it, and performed that night as usual in the kings hall; when, to the amazement of all, as soon as the harper touched the strings the a.s.sembled guests heard them chime the words, Two horses ears hath Labra the Mariner. The king then, seeing that the secret was out, plucked off his hood and showed himself plainly; nor was any man put to death again on account of this mystery. We have seen that the compelling power of Craftinys music had formerly cured Labras dumbness. The sense of something magical in music, as though supernatural powers spoke through it, is of constant recurrence in Irish legend.

*Legend-Cycle of Conary Mor*

We now come to a cycle of legends centering on, or rather closing with, the wonderful figure of the High King Conary Mora cycle so charged with splendour, mystery, and romance that to do it justice would require far more s.p.a.ce than can be given to it within the limits of this work.(122)

*Etain in Fairyland*

The preliminary events of the cycle are transacted in the Land of Youth, the mystic country of the People of Dana after their dispossession by the Children of Miled. Midir the Proud son of the Dagda, a Danaan prince dwelling on Slieve Callary, had a wife named Fuamnach. After a while he took to himself another bride, Etain, whose beauty and grace were beyond compare, so that as fair as Etain became a proverbial comparison for any beauty that exceeded all other standards. Fuamnach therefore became jealous of her rival, and having by magic art changed her into a b.u.t.terfly, she raised a tempest that drove her forth from the palace, and kept her for seven years buffeted hither and thither throughout the length and breadth of Erin. At last, however, a chance gust of wind blew her through a window of the fairy palace of Angus on the Boyne. The immortals cannot be hidden from each other, and Angus knew what she was. Unable to release her altogether from the spell of Fuamnach, he made a sunny bower for her, and planted round it all manner of choice and honey-laden flowers, on which she lived as long as she was with him, while in the secrecy of the night he restored her to her own form and enjoyed her love.

In time, however, her refuge was discovered by Fuamnach; again the magic tempest descended upon her and drove her forth; and this time a singular fate was hers. Blown into the palace of an Ulster chieftain named Etar, she fell into the drinking-cup of Etars wife just as the latter was about to drink. She was swallowed in the draught, and in due time, having pa.s.sed into the womb of Etars wife, she was born as an apparently mortal child, and grew up to maidenhood knowing nothing of her real nature and ancestry.

*Eochy and Etain*

About this time it happened that the High King of Ireland, Eochy,(123) being wifeless and urged by the n.o.bles of his land to take a queenfor without thou do so, they said, we will not bring our wives to the a.s.sembly at Tarasent forth to inquire for a fair and n.o.ble maiden to share his throne. The messengers report that Etain, daughter of Etar, is the fairest maiden in Ireland, and the king journeys forth to visit her. A piece of description here follows which is one of the most highly wrought and splendid in Celtic or perhaps in any literature. Eochy finds Etain with her maidens by a spring of water, whither she had gone forth to wash her hair:

A clear comb of silver was held in her hand, the comb was adorned with gold; and near her, as for washing, was a bason of silver whereon four birds had been chased, and there were little bright gems of carbuncles on the rims of the bason. A bright purple mantle waved round her; and beneath it was another mantle ornamented with silver fringes: the outer mantle was clasped over her bosom with a golden brooch. A tunic she wore with a long hood that might cover her head attached to it; it was stiff and glossy with green silk beneath red embroidery of gold, and was clasped over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with marvellously wrought clasps of silver and gold; so that men saw the bright gold and the green silk flashing against the sun. On her head were two tresses of golden hair, and each tress had been plaited into four strands; at the end of each strand was a little ball of gold. And there was that maiden undoing her hair that she might wash it, her two arms out through the armholes of her smock. Each of her two arms was as white as the snow of a single night, and each of her cheeks was as rosy as the foxglove. Even and small were the teeth in her head, and they shone like pearls. Her eyes were as blue as a hyacinth, her lips delicate and crimson; very high, soft and white were her shoulders. Tender, polished and white were her wrists; her fingers long and of great whiteness; her nails were beautiful and pink. White as snow, or the foam of a wave, was her neck; long was it, slender, and as soft as silk. Smooth and white were her thighs; her knees were round and firm and white; her ankles were as straight as the rule of a carpenter. Her feet were slim and as white as the oceans foam; evenly set were her eyes; her eyebrows were of a bluish black, such as you see upon the sh.e.l.l of a beetle. Never a maid fairer than she, or more worthy of love, was till then seen by the eyes of men; and it seemed to them that she must be one of those that have come from the fairy mounds.(124)

The king wooed her and made her his wife, and brought her back to Tara.

*The Love-Story of Ailill*

It happened that the king had a brother named Ailill, who, on seeing Etain, was so smitten with her beauty that he fell sick of the intensity of his pa.s.sion and wasted almost to death. While he was in this condition Eochy had to make a royal progress through Ireland. He left his brotherthe cause of whose malady none suspectedin Etains care, bidding her do what she could for him, and, if he died, to bury him with due ceremonies and erect an Ogham stone above his grave.(125) Etain goes to visit the brother; she inquires the cause of his illness; he speaks to her in enigmas, but at last, moved beyond control by her tenderness, he breaks out in an avowal of his pa.s.sion. His description of the yearning of hopeless love is a lyric of extraordinary intensity. It is closer than the skin, he cries, it is like a battle with a spectre, it overwhelms like a flood, it is a weapon under the sea, it is a pa.s.sion for an echo.

By a weapon under the sea the poet means that love is like one of the secret treasures of the fairy-folk in the kingdom of Manananas wonderful and as unattainable.

Etain is now in some perplexity; but she decides, with a kind of nave good-nature, that although she is not in the least in love with Ailill, she cannot see a man die of longing for her, and she promises to be his.

Possibly we are to understand here that she was prompted by the fairy nature, ignorant of good and evil, and alive only to pleasure and to suffering. It must be said, however, that in the Irish myths in general this, as we may call it, fairy view of morality is the one generally prevalent both among Danaans and mortalsboth alike strike one as morally irresponsible.

Etain now arranges a tryst with Ailill in a house outside of Tarafor she will not do what she calls her glorious crime in the kings palace. But Ailill on the eve of the appointed day falls into a profound slumber and misses his appointment. A being in his shape does, however, come to Etain, but merely to speak coldly and sorrowfully of his malady, and departs again. When the two meet once more the situation is altogether changed. In Ailills enchanted sleep his unholy pa.s.sion for the queen has pa.s.sed entirely away. Etain, on the other hand, becomes aware that behind the visible events there are mysteries which she does not understand.

*Midir the Proud*

The explanation soon follows. The being who came to her in the shape of Ailill was her Danaan husband, Midir the Proud. He now comes to woo her in his true shape, beautiful and n.o.bly apparelled, and entreats her to fly with him to the Land of Youth, where she can be safe henceforward, since her persecutor, Fuamnach, is dead. He it was who shed upon Ailills eyes the magic slumber. His description of the fairyland to which he invites her is given in verses of great beauty:

*The Land of Youth*

O fair-haired woman, will you come with me to the marvellous land, full of music, where the hair is primrose-yellow and the body white as snow?

There none speaks of mine or thinewhite are the teeth and black the brows; eyes flash with many-coloured lights, and the hue of the foxglove is on every cheek.

Pleasant to the eye are the plains of Erin, but they are a desert to the Great Plain.

Heady is the ale of Erin, but the ale of the Great Plain is headier.

It is one of the wonders of that land that youth does not change into age.

Smooth and sweet are the streams that flow through it; mead and wine abound of every kind; there men are all fair, without blemish; there women conceive without sin.

We see around us on every side, yet no man seeth us; the cloud of the sin of Adam hides us from their observation.

O lady, if thou wilt come to my strong people, the purest of gold shall be on thy headthy meat shall be swines flesh unsalted,(126) new milk and mead shall thou drink with me there, O fair-haired woman.

I have given this remarkable lyric at length because, though Christian and ascetic ideas are obviously discernible in it, it represents on the whole the pagan and mythical conception of the Land of Youth, the country of the Dead.

Etain, however, is by no means ready to go away with a stranger and to desert the High King for a man without name or lineage. Midir tells her who he is, and all her own history of which, in her present incarnation, she knows nothing; and he adds that it was one thousand and twelve years from Etains birth in the Land of Youth till she was born a mortal child to the wife of Etar. Ultimately Etain agrees to return with Midir to her ancient home, but only on condition that the king will agree to their severance, and with this Midir has to be content for the time.

*A Game of Chess*

Shortly afterwards he appears to King Eochy, as already related,(127) on the Hill of Tara. He tells the king that he has come to play a game of chess with him, and produces a chessboard of silver with pieces of gold studded with jewels. To be a skilful chess-player was a necessary accomplishment of kings and n.o.bles in Ireland, and Eochy enters into the game with zest. Midir allows him to win game after game, and in payment for his losses he performs by magic all kinds of tasks for Eochy, reclaiming land, clearing forests, and building causeways across bogshere we have a touch of the popular conception of the Danaans as earth deities a.s.sociated with agriculture and fertility. At last, having excited Eochys cupidity and made him believe himself the better player, he proposes a final game, the stakes to be at the pleasure of the victor after the game is over. Eochy is now defeated.

My stake is forfeit to thee, said Eochy.

Had I wished it, it had been forfeit long ago, said Midir.

What is it that thou desirest me to grant? said Eochy.

That I may hold Etain in my arms and obtain a kiss from her, said Midir.

The king was silent for a while; then he said: One month from to-day thou shalt come, and the thing thou desirest shall be granted thee.

*Midir and Etain*

Eochys mind foreboded evil, and when the appointed day came he caused the palace of Tara to be surrounded by a great host of armed men to keep Midir out. All was in vain, however; as the king sat at the feast, while Etain handed round the wine, Midir, more glorious than ever, suddenly stood in their midst. Holding his spears in his left hand, he threw his right around Etain, and the couple rose lightly in the air and disappeared through a roof-window in the palace. Angry and bewildered, the king and his warriors rushed out of doors, but all they could see was two white swans that circled in the air above the palace, and then departed in long, steady flight towards the fairy mountain of Slievenamon. And thus Queen Etain rejoined her kindred.

*War with Fairyland*