How Ethne Quitted Fairyland
By the banks of the River Boyne, where rises the great Fairy Mound now
called Newgrange, there stood long ago the shining Palace of a prince
of the People of Dana, named Angus. Of him it is that the lines are
written--
"By the dark rolling waters of the Boyne
Where Angus Óg magnificently dwells."
When the Milesian race invaded Ireland, and after long fighting
subdued the Danaans in spite of all their enchantments and all their
valour, the Danaans wrought for themselves certain charms by which
they and all their possessions became invisible to mortals, and thus
they continued to lead their old joyous life in the holy places of the
land, and their palaces and dancing-places and folk-motes seem to the
human eye to be merely a green mound or rath, or a lonely hillside, or
a ruined shrine with nettles and foxgloves growing up among its broken
masonry.
Now, after Angus and his folk had thus retreated behind the veil of
invisibility, it happened that the steward of his palace had a
daughter born to him whose name was Ethne. On the same day Fand, the
wife of Mananan the Sea God, bore him a daughter, and since Angus was
a friend of Mananan and much beloved by him, the child of the Sea God
was sent to Brugh na Boyna, the noble dwelling-place of Angus, to be
fostered and brought up, as the custom was. And Ethne became the
handmaid of the young princess of the sea.
In time Ethne grew into a fair and stately maiden Now in the Brugh of
Angus there were two magical treasures, namely, an ale-vat which could
never be emptied, and two swine whereof one was ever roasted and ready
to be eaten while the other lived, and thus they were, day and day
about. There was therefore always a store of food of faery, charged
with magical spells, by eating of which one could never grow old or
die. It came to be noticed that after Ethne had grown up she never ate
or drank of the fairy food, or of any other, yet she continued to seem
healthy and well-nourished. This was reported to Angus, and by him to
Mananan, and Mananan by his wisdom discovered the cause of it. One of
the lords of the Danaans, happening to be on a visit with Angus, was
rendered distraught by the maiden's beauty, and one day he laid hands
upon her and strove to carry her away to his own dwelling. Ethne
escaped from him, but the blaze of resentment at the insult that lit
up in her soul consumed in her the fairy nature, that knows not of
good or evil, and the nature of the children of Adam took its place.
Thenceforth she ate not of the fairy food, which is prohibited to man,
and she was nourished miraculously by the will of the One God. But
after a time it chanced that Mananan and Angus brought from the Holy
Land two cows whose milk could never run dry. In this milk there was
nothing of the fairy spell, and Ethne lived upon it many long years,
milking the cows herself, nor did her youth and beauty suffer any
change.
Now it happened that on one very hot day the daughter of Mananan went
down to bathe in the waters of the Boyne, and Ethne and her other
maidens along with her. After they had refreshed themselves in the
cool, amber-coloured water, they arrayed themselves in their silken
robes and trooped back to the Brugh again; but ere they entered it,
they discovered that Ethne was not among them.
So they went back, scattering themselves along the bank and searching
in every quiet pool of the river and in every dark recess among the
great trees that bordered it, for Ethne was dearly loved by all of
them; but neither trace nor tidings of her could they find, and they
went sorrowfully home without her, to tell the tale to Angus and to
her father.
What had befallen Ethne was this. In taking off her garments by the
riverside she had mislaid her fairy charm, and was become as a mortal
maid. Nothing could she now see of her companions, and all around was
strange to her. The fairy track that had led to the riverside was
overgrown with briars, the palace of Angus was but a wooded hill. She
knew not where she was, and pierced with sudden terror she fled wildly
away, seeking for the familiar places that she had known in the fairy
life, but which were now behind the Veil. At length she came to a high
wall wherein was a wicket gate, and through it she saw a garden full
of sweet herbs and flowers, which surrounded a steep-roofed building
of stone. In the garden she saw a man in a long brown robe tied about
his waist with a cord. He smiled at her and beckoned her to come in
without fear. He was a monk of the holy Patrick, and the house was a
convent church.
When the monk had heard her tale, he marvelled greatly and brought her
to St Patrick himself, who instructed her in the Faith, and she
believed and was baptized.
[Illustration: "She heard her own name called again and again"]
But not long thereafter, as she was praying in the church by the
Boyne, the sky darkened and she heard a sound without like the rushing
of a great wind, and mingled in it were cries and lamentations, and
her own name called again and again in a multitude of voices, thin and
faint as the crying of curlews upon the moor. She sprang up and gazed
around, calling in return, but nothing could she see, and at last the
storm of cries died away, and everything was still again around the
church except the singing voice of Boyne and the humming of the garden
bees.
Then Ethne sank down swooning, and the monks bore her out into the
air, and it was long until her heart beat and her eyes unclosed again.
In that hour she fell into a sickness from which she never recovered.
In no long time she died with her head upon the breast of the holy
Patrick, and she was buried in the church where she had first been
received by the monk; and the church was called Killethne, or the
Church of Ethne, from that day forward until now.
THE HIGH DEEDS OF FINN