But one day a restless spirit seized on Grania, and she told Diarmid
that it was a shame to them that the two greatest men in Erin, Cormac
and Fionn, had never visited their house, and she wished to give a
splendid feast and to bid them to it. And this was done: for a year
Grania and her daughter were preparing the feast, and when it was
ready the guests came, and stayed feasting for a year.
It was on the last day of the year that in his sleep Diarmid heard the
voice of a dog that caused him to start and to wake Grania. 'What is
the matter?' said she, and Diarmid told her. 'May you be kept safely,'
answered Grania; 'lie down again.' So Diarmid lay down, but no sleep
would come to him, and by-and-by he heard the hound's voice again, but
again Grania kept him from seeking it. This time he fell into a deep
slumber, and a third time the hound bayed, and he woke and said to
Grania, 'Now it is day, and I will go.' 'Well, then,' said she, 'take
your large sword and the red javelin.' But Diarmid answered, 'No, I
will take the little sword that bites, and the small javelin, and my
favourite hound on a chain.'
So he went without stopping to the top of a mountain, where Fionn
stood alone. Diarmid asked if he was hunting, and Fionn said no, but
that after midnight a company of Fenians had come out, and one of the
hounds had crossed the track of the wild boar of Ben Gulbain, which
had slain thirty Fenians that morning.
'He is even now coming up this mountain against us,' added he, 'so let
us leave the place.'
'I will never leave the place for him,' answered Diarmid.
'Know you not that when you were a child a wizard prophesied that you
should live as long as a green boar without ears or tail, and that it
was by him that you should fall at last?'
'No, I knew nothing of these things, but for all that I will not leave
the mountain,' answered Diarmid. And Fionn went his way, and Diarmid
stood alone on the top. 'It was to slay me that you made this hunt, O
Fionn; and if it is fated that I die here, die I must.'
The wild boar came tearing up the mountain, and behind him followed
the Fenians. Diarmid slipped his hound, but it profited him nothing,
for he did not await the boar, but fled before him. 'Woe unto him that
doeth not the counsel of a good wife,' said Diarmid to himself, 'for
Grania bade me take my best hound and my red javelin.' Then he aimed
carefully at the boar's head, and smote him in the middle of his
forehead; but he did not so much as cut one of his bristles, far less
pierce his skin. At that Diarmid felt his heart quail like those of
weaker men, and he drew his sword and dealt the boar a stout blow, but
the sword broke in two; and the beast stood unharmed. With a spring he
threw himself upon Diarmid, so that he tripped and fell, and somehow
when he rose up he was sitting astride the back of the boar, with his
face looking towards the tail. The boar tried to fling him off but
could not, though he rushed down the hill and jumped three times
backwards and forwards out of the river at the foot; but Diarmid never
stirred, and at last the boar dashed up the hill again, and Diarmid
fell from his back. Then the boar sprang upon Diarmid with a mighty
spring, and wounded him mortally; but Diarmid swung his broken
sword about his head as he lay, and hit the boar such a blow on his
head that where he stood there he fell dead.
[Illustration: The Death of Diarmid]
Not long after that Fionn and his Fenians came up and watched Diarmid,
who was dying fast. 'It pleases me well to see you in that plight, O
Diarmid,' said Fionn, 'and I grieve that all the fair women of Erin
cannot see you also.'
'If you wished you could still heal me, O Fionn,' answered Diarmid.
'How could I heal you, O Diarmid?'
'Easily,' answered Diarmid. 'Was it not given to you that whoever
should drink from the palms of your hands should become young and
whole again?'
'You have not deserved that I should give you that drink,' said Fionn.
'That is not true, O Fionn, well have I deserved it of you. Was it not
I who avenged you and slew fifty of your enemies who tried to set on
fire the house wherein you were holding your great feast? Had I asked
you for such a drink then, you would have given it to me, and now I
deserve it no less.'
'Not so,' answered Fionn; 'you have deserved ill at my hands since
that time, and little reason have I to give you drinks or any good
thing. For did you not bear away Grania from me before all the men of
Erin the night you were set as guard over her in Tara?'
'The guilt of that was not mine, O Fionn, but Grania besought me, else
I would not have failed to keep my charge for all the bonds in the
world. And well do I deserve you should give me a drink, for many is
the day since I came among the Fenians in which I have perilled my
life for your sake. Therefore you should not do me this foul
treachery. And soon a dire defeat will come upon the Fenians, and few
children will be left to them to carry on the race. It is not for you
that I grieve, O Fionn, but for Ossian and for Oscar, and for the
rest of my faithful comrades. And you shall lack me sorely yet, O
Fionn.'
'I am near of kin to you, O Fionn,' said Oscar, 'but you shall not do
Diarmid this wrong. Further, I swear that were any other prince in the
world to have done this to Diarmid, we would have seen whose hand was
strongest and who should bring him a drink.'
'I know no well upon this mountain,' answered Fionn.
'That is not true,' replied Diarmid, 'for nine paces from this is the
best well of pure water in the world.'
So Fionn went to the well and filled his palms with water; but he had
only come half way to where Diarmid lay when he let the water run down
between his fingers. 'The water would not stay in my hands,' he said,
as he reached the rest.
'You spilt it of your will,' answered Diarmid.
For the second time Fionn set out to fetch the water, but returning he
thought of Grania, and let it run upon the ground. Diarmid saw and
sighed piteously. 'I swear by my sword,' cried Oscar, 'that if this
time you bring not that water either you or I, O Fionn, shall leave
our body here.'
And Fionn trembled when he heard those words, and brought back the
water, but as he came to his side the life went out of Diarmid. And
the company of the Fenians raised three exceeding great cries; while
Oscar looked fiercely at Fionn, and told him it had been better for
the Fenians had Fionn himself died, and not Diarmid. Then Fionn left
the top of the mountain, leading Diarmid's hound, and his Fenians came
after. But Ossian and Oscar and two others returned and laid their
four mantles over Diarmid, and when they had done that they went their
ways after Fionn.
Now Grania was standing on the ramparts of her house when she saw
Fionn and the Fenians approaching. She said to herself that if Diarmid
were alive it was not Fionn who would lead his hound, and at this
thought she swooned and fell heavily over the battlements. Ossian's
heart was full of pity, and he bade Fionn and the Fenians to go, and
ran himself to help her, but she lifted her head and begged that Fionn
would leave her the hound of Diarmid. Fionn said No, he would not; but
Ossian took the stag-hound from Fionn's hand and put it into Grania's,
and then followed after the Fenians.
When they had gone, Grania uttered a loud and grievous cry that was
heard far round, so that the people came to her and asked her what was
the matter, and when she told them that Diarmid was dead they sat down
and wailed also. After that Grania sent five hundred men to bring her
the body of Diarmid.
That night it was shown to Angus in a dream that Diarmid was dead on
Ben Gulbain; and he was carried by the wind, and reached the place at
the same moment as Grania's men, who knew him, and held out the
insides of their shields to him in token of peace. And they sent up
three exceeding great cries, which were heard even at the gates of
heaven.
Then Angus spoke: 'There has not been one night since I took you, an
infant of nine months old, to the Boyne that I have not watched over
you, O Diarmid, until last night, when Fionn did you basely to death,
for all you were at peace with him.' And he told Grania's men he
himself would bear Diarmid's body to the Boyne. So the dead man was
placed on a gilded bier with his javelins over him pointed upwards,
and the men of Grania returned to their mistress, and said as Angus
had bade them.
The first thing she did was to send messengers to her sons, who lived
each in his own house, and bade them come with their followings to the
house of Grania, for that their father Diarmid had been foully slain
by Fionn. They all came forthwith, and after they had eaten and drunk
she pointed to the weapons and arms of Diarmid, and said they were
theirs, and by them they should learn all arts of brave men, till they
should reach their full strength, and after that they should avenge
themselves on Fionn.
The sayings of Grania were whispered in the ears of Fionn, and a great
fear fell upon him. He called his Fenians together, and told them how
the sons of Diarmid had gone to their mother, and returned to their
own homes again. 'It is to rebel against me that they have done this,'
and he asked counsel in the matter. 'The guilt is yours and no other
man's,' spoke Ossian, 'and we will not stand by you, for you slew
Diarmid in time of peace.'
Without Ossian, Oscar, and their men Fionn knew that he could not
conquer Grania, and resolved to try what cunning would do. So he
slipped away secretly, and went to her house, and greeted her with
soft words, in reply to her bitter ones. But so cunning was he that at
last her wrath broke down, and she agreed to go with him back to his
Fenians.
It was a long while before the Fenians knew who that could be walking
by the side of Fionn, but when they did they laughed and mocked till
Grania bowed her head for shame. 'This time, O Fionn, you will guard
her well,' said Ossian.
For seven years the sons of Diarmid exercised themselves in all the
skill of a warrior, and then they came back to Grania's house. There
they learned how long ago Grania had fled with Fionn, and in wrath
they set out to seek Fionn, and proclaimed battle against him. Fionn
sent Dearing to ask how many men it would take to fight them, and they
answered that each one of them would fight a hundred. So Fionn brought
four hundred men, and the young men rushed under them and through them
and over them, till there was not a man left. 'What shall we do
concerning these youths, O Grania,' said Fionn, 'for I have not men
enough to go through many such fights?'
'I will visit them,' answered Grania, 'and will try to make peace
between you.'
And Fionn bade her offer them terms such as no man then living would
refuse, yet for long the young men did refuse them. But at the last
the prayers of Grania prevailed, and peace was made, and Fionn and
Grania lived together till they died.[3]
[Footnote 3: From the Transactions of the Ossianic Society.]