Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race Part 23

In the following rendering I have omitted the verses given by Joyce at the end of each adventure. They merely recapitulate the prose narrative, and are not found in the earliest ma.n.u.script authorities.

*The Island of the Slaves*

Maeldun and his crew had rowed all day and half the night when they came to two small bare islands with two forts in them, and a noise was heard from them of armed men quarrelling. Stand off from me, cried one of them, for I am a better man than thou. Twas I slew Ailill of the Edge-of-Battle and burned the church of Doocloone over him, and no kinsman has avenged his death on me. And _thou_ hast never done the like of that.

Then Maeldun was about to land, and German(194) and Diuran the Rhymer cried that G.o.d had guided them to the spot where they would be. But a great wind arose suddenly and blew them off into the boundless ocean, and Maeldun said to his foster-brothers: Ye have caused this to be, casting yourselves on board in spite of the words of the Druid. And they had no answer, save only to be silent for a little s.p.a.ce.

*The Island of the Ants*

They drifted three days and three nights, not knowing whither to row, when at the dawn of the third day they heard the noise of breakers, and came to an island as soon as the sun was up. Here, ere they could land, they met a swarm of ferocious ants, each the size of a foal, that came down the strand and into the sea to get at them; so they made off quickly, and saw no land for three days more.

*The Island of the Great Birds*

This was a terraced island, with trees all round it, and great birds sitting on the trees. Maeldun landed first alone, and carefully searched the island for any evil thing, but finding none, the rest followed him, and killed and ate many of the birds, bringing others on board their boat.

*The Island of the Fierce Beast*

A great sandy island was this, and on it a beast like a horse, but with clawed feet like a hounds. He flew at them to devour them, but they put off in time, and were pelted by the beast with pebbles from the sh.o.r.e as they rowed away.

*The Island of the Giant Horses*

A great, flat island, which it fell by lot to German and Diuran to explore first. They found a vast green racecourse, on which were the marks of horses hoofs, each as big as the sail of a ship, and the sh.e.l.ls of nuts of monstrous size were lying about, and much plunder. So they were afraid, and took ship hastily again, and from the sea they saw a horse-race in progress and heard the shouting of a great mult.i.tude cheering on the white horse or the brown, and saw the giant horses running swifter than the wind.(195) So they rowed away with all their might, thinking they had come upon an a.s.sembly of demons.

*The Island of the Stone Door*

A full week pa.s.sed, and then they found a great, high island with a house standing on the sh.o.r.e. A door with a valve of stone opened into the sea, and through it the sea-waves kept hurling salmon into the house. Maeldun and his party entered, and found the house empty of folk, but a great bed lay ready for the chief to whom it belonged, and a bed for each three of his company, and meat and drink beside each bed. Maeldun and his party ate and drank their fill, and then sailed off again.

*The Island of the Apples*

By the time they had come here they had been a long time voyaging, and food had failed them, and they were hungry. This island had precipitous sides from which a wood hung down, and as they pa.s.sed along the cliffs Maeldun broke off a twig and held it in his hand. Three days and nights they coasted the cliff and found no entrance to the island, but by that time a cl.u.s.ter of three apples had grown on the end of Maelduns rod, and each apple sufficed the crew for forty days.

*The Island of the Wondrous Beast*

This island had a fence of stone round it, and within the fence a huge beast that raced round and round the island. And anon it went to the top of the island, and then performed a marvellous feat, viz., it turned its body round and round inside its skin, the skin remaining unmoved, while again it would revolve its skin round and round the body. When it saw the party it rushed at them, but they escaped, pelted with stones as they rowed away. One of the stones pierced through Maelduns shield and lodged in the keel of the boat.

*The Island of the Biting Horses*

Here were many great beasts resembling horses, that tore continually pieces of flesh from each others sides, so that all the island ran with blood. They rowed hastily away, and were now disheartened and full of complaints, for they knew not where they were, nor how to find guidance or aid in their quest.

*The Island of the Fiery Swine*

With great weariness, hunger, and thirst they arrived at the tenth island, which was full of trees loaded with golden apples. Under the trees went red beasts, like fiery swine, that kicked the trees with their legs, when the apples fell and the beasts consumed them. The beasts came out at morning only, when a mult.i.tude of birds left the island, and swam out to sea till nones, when they turned and swam inward again till vespers, and ate the apples all night.

Maeldun and his comrades landed at night, and felt the soil hot under their feet from the fiery swine in their caverns underground. They collected all the apples they could, which were good both against hunger and thirst, and loaded their boat with them and put to sea once more, refreshed.

*The Island of the Little Cat*

The apples had failed them when they came hungry and thirsting to the eleventh island. This was, as it were, a tall white tower of chalk reaching up to the clouds, and on the rampart about it were great houses white as snow. They entered the largest of them, and found no man in it, but a small cat playing on four stone pillars which were in the midst of the house, leaping from one to the other. It looked a little on the Irish warriors, but did not cease from its play. On the walls of the houses there were three rows of objects hanging up, one row of brooches of gold and silver, and one of neck-torques of gold and silver, each as big as the hoop of a cask, and one of great swords with gold and silver hilts. Quilts and shining garments lay in the room, and there, also, were a roasted ox and a flitch of bacon and abundance of liquor. Hath this been left for us? said Maeldun to the cat. It looked at him a moment, and then continued its play. So there they ate and drank and slept, and stored up what remained of the food. Next day, as they made to leave the house, the youngest of Maelduns foster-brothers took a necklace from the wall, and was bearing it out when the cat suddenly leaped through him like a fiery arrow, and he fell, a heap of ashes, on the floor. Thereupon Maeldun, who had forbidden the theft of the jewel, soothed the cat and replaced the necklace, and they strewed the ashes of the dead youth on the sea-sh.o.r.e, and put to sea again.

*The Island of the Black and the White Sheep*

This had a brazen palisade dividing it in two, and a flock of black sheep on one side and of white sheep on the other. Between them was a big man who tended the flocks, and sometimes he put a white sheep among the black, when it became black at once, or a black sheep among the white, when it immediately turned white.(196) By way of an experiment Maeldun flung a peeled white wand on the side of the black sheep. It at once turned black, whereat they left the place in terror, and without landing.

*The Island of the Giant Cattle*

A great and wide island with a herd of huge swine on it. They killed a small pig and roasted it on the spot, as it was too great to carry on board. The island rose up into a very high mountain, and Diuran and German went to view the country from the top of it. On their way they met a broad river. To try the depth of the water German dipped in the haft of his spear, which at once was consumed as with liquid fire. On the other bank was a huge man guarding what seemed a herd of oxen. He called to them not to disturb the calves, so they went no further and speedily sailed away.

*The Island of the Mill*

Here they found a great and grim-looking mill, and a giant miller grinding corn in it. Half the corn of your country, he said, is ground here.

Here comes to be ground all that men begrudge to each other. Heavy and many were the loads they saw going to it, and all that was ground in it was carried away westwards. So they crossed themselves and sailed away.

*The Island of the Black Mourners*

An island full of black people continually weeping and lamenting. One of the two remaining foster-brothers landed on it, and immediately turned black and fell to weeping like the rest. Two others went to fetch him; the same fate befell them. Four others then went with their heads wrapped in cloths, that they should not look on the land or breathe the air of the place, and they seized two of the lost ones and brought them away perforce, but not the foster-brother. The two rescued ones could not explain their conduct except by saying that they had to do as they saw others doing about them.

*The Island of the Four Fences*

Four fences of gold, silver, bra.s.s, and crystal divided this island into four parts, kings in one, queens in another, warriors in a third, maidens in the fourth.

On landing, a maiden gave them food like cheese, that tasted to each man as he wished it to be, and an intoxicating liquor that put them asleep for three days. When they awoke they were at sea in their boat, and of the island and its inhabitants nothing was to be seen.

The Island of the Gla.s.s Bridge

Here we come to one of the most elaborately wrought and picturesque of all the incidents of the voyage. The island they now reached had on it a fortress with a brazen door, and a bridge of gla.s.s leading to it. When they sought to cross the bridge it threw them backward.(197) A woman came out of the fortress with a pail in her hand, and lifting from the bridge a slab of gla.s.s she let down her pail into the water beneath, and returned to the fortress. They struck on the brazen portcullis before them to gain admittance, but the melody given forth by the smitten metal plunged them in slumber till the morrow morn. Thrice over this happened, the woman each time making an ironical speech about Maeldun. On the fourth day, however, she came out to them over the bridge, wearing a white mantle with a circlet of gold on her hair, two silver sandals on her rosy feet, and a filmy silken smock next her skin.

My welcome to thee, O Maeldun, she said, and she welcomed each man of the crew by his own name. Then she took them into the great house and allotted a couch to the chief, and one for each three of his men. She gave them abundance of food and drink, all out of her one pail, each man finding in it what he most desired. When she had departed they asked Maeldun if they should woo the maiden for him. How would it hurt you to speak with her? says Maeldun. They do so, and she replies: I know not, nor have ever known, what sin is. Twice over this is repeated.

To-morrow, she says at last, you shall have your answer. When the morning breaks, however, they find themselves once more at sea, with no sign of the island or fortress or lady.

*The Island of the Shouting Birds*

They hear from afar a great cry and chanting, as it were a singing of psalms, and rowing for a day and night they come at last to an island full of birds, black, brown, and speckled, all shouting and speaking. They sail away without landing.

*The Island of the Anchorite*

Here they found a wooded island full of birds, and on it a solitary man, whose only clothing was his hair. They asked him of his country and kin.

He tells them that he was a man of Ireland who had put to sea(198) with a sod of his native country under his feet. G.o.d had turned the sod into an island, adding a foots breadth to it and one tree for every year. The birds are his kith and kin, and they all wait there till Doomsday, miraculously nourished by angels. He entertained them for three nights, and then they sailed away.

*The Island of the Miraculous Fountain*

This island had a golden rampart, and a soft white soil like down. In it they found another anchorite clothed only in his hair. There was a fountain in it which yields whey or water on Fridays and Wednesdays, milk on Sundays and feasts of martyrs, and ale and wine on the feasts of Apostles, of Mary, of John the Baptist, and on the high tides of the year.

*The Island of the Smithy*

As they approached this they heard from afar as it were the clanging of a tremendous smithy, and heard men talking of themselves. Little boys they seem, said one, in a little trough yonder. They rowed hastily away, but did not turn their boat, so as not to seem to be flying; but after a while a giant smith came out of the forge holding in his tongs a huge ma.s.s of glowing iron, which he cast after them, and all the sea boiled round it, as it fell astern of their boat.

*The Sea of Clear Gla.s.s*