THE SMITH’S SUPPER PARTY
“Bearing on shoulders immense
Atlantean the weight,
Well nigh not to be borne,
Of the too vast orb of her fate.”
MATTHEW ARNOLD.
One day, in the forenoon, a man came to Emain Macha. He was grim and
swarthy, with great hands and arms. He made no reverence to Concobar or
to any of the Ultonians, but standing stark before them, spake thus, not
fluently:--“My master, Culain, high smith of all Ulster, bids thee to
supper this night, O Concobar; and he wills thee to know that because
he has not wide territories, and flocks, and herds, and tribute-paying
peoples, only the implements of his industry, his anvils and hammers and
tongs, and the slender profits of his labour, he feareth to feast all
the Red Branch, who are by report mighty to eat and to drink; he would
not for all Ireland bring famine upon his own industrious youths, his
journeymen and his apprentices. Come therefore with a choice selection
of thy knights, choosing those who are not great eaters, and drinkers,
and you shall all have a fair welcome, a goodly supper, and a
proportionate quantity of drink.” That speech was a cause of great mirth
to the Ultonians; nevertheless they restrained their laughter, so that
the grim ambassador, who seemed withal to be a very angry man, saw
nothing but grave countenances. Concobar answered him courteously,
saying that he accepted the invitation, and that he would be mindful of
the smith’s wishes. When the man departed the Red Branch gave a loose
rein to their mirth, each man charging the other with being in especial
the person whose presence would be a cause of sorrow to the smith.
Culain was a mighty craftsman in those days. It was he who used to make
weapons, armour, and chariots for the Ultonians, and there was never in
Ireland a better smith than he. In his huge and smoky dun the ringing of
hammers and the husky roar of the bellows seldom ceased; even at night
the red glare of his furnaces painted far and wide the barren moor
where he dwelt. Herdsmen and shepherds who, in quest of estrays, found
themselves unawares in this neighbourhood, fled away praying to their
gods, and, as they ran, murmured incantations.
In the afternoon Concobar, having made as good a selection as he could
of his chief men, set forth to go. As they passed through the lawn he
saw Setanta playing with his comrades. He stopped for a while to look,
and then called the lad, who came at once and stood erect and silent
before the King. He was now full ten years of age, straight and
well-made and with sinews as hard as tempered steel. When he saw the
company looking at him, he blushed, and his blushing became him well.
“Culain the smith,” said Concobar, “hath invited us to a feast. If it is
pleasing to thee, come too.”
“It is pleasing indeed,” replied the boy, for he ardently desired to see
the famous artificer, his people, his furnaces, and his engines. “But
let me first, I pray thee, see this our game brought to an end, for the
boys await my return. After that I will follow quickly, nor can I lose
my way upon the moor, for the road hence to the smith’s dun is well
trodden and scored with wheels, and the sky too at night is red above
the city.”
Concobar gave him permission, and Setanta hastened back to his
playmates, who hailed him gladly in his returning, for they feared that
the King might have taken him away from them.
The King and his great men went away eastward after that and they
conversed eagerly by the way, talking sometimes of a certain recent
great rebellion of the non-Irian kings of Ulla, [Footnote: The Ultonians
were descended from Ir, son of Milesius.] and of each other’s prowess
and the prowess of the insurgents, and sometimes of the smith and his
strange and unusual invitation.
“Say no word and do no thing,” said Concobar, “at which even a very
angry and suspicious man might take offence, for as to our host and his
artificers, their ways are not like ours, or their thoughts like our
thoughts, and they are a great and formidable people.”
The Red Branch did not relish that speech, for they thought that
under the measureless canopy of the sky there were no people great or
formidable but themselves.