THE KNIGHTING OF CUCULAIN
“Then felt I like a watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken.”
KEATS.
The prophecies concerning the coming of some extraordinary warrior
amongst the Red Branch had been many and ancient, and by certain signs
Concobar believed that his time was now near. Often he contemplated his
nephew, observed his beauty, his strength, and his unusual proficiency
in all martial exercises, and mused deeply considering the omens. But
when he saw him slinging and charioteering amongst the rest, shooting
spears and casting battle-stones at a mark before the palace upon the
lawn, and saw him eating and drinking before him nightly in the hall
like another, and heard his clear voice and laughter amongst the boys,
his schoolfellows and comrades, then the thought or the faint surmise or
wish that his nephew might be that promised one passed out of his mind,
for the prophesyings and the rumours had been very great, and men
looked for one who should resemble Lu the Long-Handed, son of Ethlend,
[Footnote: This great deity resembled the Greek Phoebus Apollo. He led
the rebellion of the gods against the Fomorian giants who had previously
reduced them to a condition of intolerable slavery. Some say that he was
Cuculain’s true father. His favourite weapon was the sling, likened here
to the rainbow. It was not a thong or cord sling, but a pliant rod such
as boys in Ireland still make. The milky way was his chain.] whose sling
was like the cloud bow, who thundered and lightened against the giants
of the Fomoroh, who was all power and all skill, whose chain wherewith
he used to confine Tuatha De Danan and Milesians, spanned the midnight
sky. The rumours and prophecies were indeed exceeding great and
Cuculain, though he far surpassed the rest, was but a boy like others.
He stood at the head of Concobar’s horses when the King ascended his
chariot. His shoulder was warm and firm to the touch when the King
lightly laid his hand upon him.
One night there were terrible portents. All Ireland quaked; there was
a druidic storm under bright stars; the buildings rocked; a brazen
clangour sounded from the Tec Brac; there were mighty tramplings and
cries and a four-footed thunder of giant hoofs, and they went round
Ireland three times, only the third time swifter and like a hurricane
of sound. Cuculain was abroad that night. There was deep sleep upon the
people of Emain, only the chiefs were awake and aware. Cuculain was sick
after that. The Druids stood around his bed.
“The world labours with the new birth,” said Concobar. “Maybe my nephew
is the forerunner, the herald and announcer of the coming god!”
One evening, after supper, when the lad came to bid his uncle good-night
as his custom was, he said, “If it be pleasing to thee, my Uncle
Concobar, I would be knighted on the morrow, for I am now of due age,
and owing to the instructions of my tutor, Fergus Mac Roy, and thyself,
and my other teachers and instructors, I am thought to be sufficiently
versed in martial exercises, and able to play a man’s part amongst the
Red Branch.”
He was now a man’s full height, but his face was a boy’s face, and his
strength and agility amazed all who observed him in his exercises.
“Has thou heard what Cathvah has predicted concerning the youth who is
knighted on that day?” said the King.
“Yes,” answered the lad.
“That he will be famous and short-lived and unhappy?”
“Truly,” he replied.
“And doth thy purpose still hold?”
“Yes,” he answered, “but whether it be mine I cannot tell.”
Concobar, though unwilling, yielded to that request.
Loegairey, the Victorious, son of Conud, son of Iliach, the second best
knight of the Red Branch and the most devoted to poetry of them all
came that night into the hall while the rest slumbered. The candles
were flickering in their sockets. Darkness invested the rest of the vast
hollow-sounding chamber, but there was light around the throne and couch
of the King, owing to the splendour of the pillars and of the canopy
shining with bronze, white and red, and silver and gold, and glittering
with carbuncles and diamonds, and owing to the light which always
surrounded the King and encircled his regal head like a luminous cloud,
seen by many. He was looking straight out before him with bright eyes,
considering and consulting for the Red Branch while they slept. Two
great men having their swords drawn in their hands, stood behind him, on
the right and on the left, like statues, motionless and silent.
Loegairey drew nigh to the King. Distraction and amazement were in his
face. His dense and lustrous hair was dishevelled and in agitation round
his neck and huge shoulders. He held in his hand two long spears with
rings of walrus tooth where the timber met the shank of the flashing
blades; they trembled in his hand. His lips were dry, his voice very
low.
“There are horses in the stable of Macha,” he said.
“I know it,” answered the King.
Concobar called for water, and when he had washed his hands and his
face, he took from its place the chess-board of the realm, arranged the
men, and observed their movements and combinations. He closed the board
and put the men in their net of bronze wire, and restored all to their
place.
“Great things will happen on the morrow, O grandson of Iliach,” he said.
“Take candles and go before me to the boys’ dormitory.”
They went to the boys’ dormitory and to the couch of Cuculain. Cuculain
and Laeg were asleep together there. Their faces towards each other and
their hair mingled together. Cuculain’s face was very tranquil, and his
breathing inaudible, like an infant’s.
“O sweet and serene face,” murmured the King, “I see great clouds of
sorrow coming upon you.”
They returned to the hall.
“Go now to thy rest and thy slumber, O Loegairey,” said the King. “When
the curse of Macha descends upon us I know one who will withstand it.”
“Surely it is not that stripling?” said Loegairey. But the King made no
answer.
On the morrow there was a great hosting of the Red Branch on the plain
of the Assemblies. It was May-Day morning and the sun shone brightly,
but at first through radiant showers. The trees were putting forth young
buds; the wet grass sparkled. All the martial pomp and glory of the
Ultonians were exhibited that day. Their chariots and war-horses ringed
the plain. All the horses’ heads were turned towards the centre where
were Concobar Mac Nessa and the chiefs of the Red Branch. The plain
flashed with gold, bronze, and steel, and glowed with the bright mantles
of the innumerable heroes, crimson and scarlet, blue, green, or purple.
The huge brooches on their breasts of gold and silver or gold-like
bronze, were like resplendent wheels. Their long hair, yellow for the
most part, was bound with ornaments of gold. Great, truly, were those
men, their like has not come since upon the earth. They were the heroes
and demigods of the heroic age of Erin, champions who feared nought
beneath the sun, mightiest among the mighty, huge, proud, and
unconquerable, and loyal and affectionate beyond all others; all of
the blood of Ir, [Footnote: On account of their descent from Ir, son of
Milesius, the Red Branch were also called the Irians.] son of Milesius,
the Clanna Rury of great renown, rejoicing in their valour, their
splendour, their fame and their peerless king. Concobar had no crown. A
plain circle of beaten gold girt his broad temples. In the naked glory
of his regal manhood he stood there before them all, but even so a
stranger would have swiftly discovered the captain of the Red
Branch, such was his stature, his bearing, such his slowly-turning,
steady-gazing eyes and the majesty of his bearded countenance. His
countenance was long, broad above and narrow below, his nose eminent,
his beard bipartite, curling and auburn in hue, his form without any
blemish or imperfection.
Cuculain came forth from the palace. He wore that day a short mantle of
pale-red silk bordered with white thread and fastened on the breast
with a small brooch like a wheel of silver. The hues upon that silk were
never the same. His tunic of fine linen was girt at the waist with a
leathern zone, stained to the resemblance of the wild-briar rose. It
descended to but did not pass his beautiful knees, falling into many
plaits. The tunic was cut low at the neck, exposing his throat and the
knot in the throat and the cup-shaped indentation above the breast. On
his feet were comely shoes sparkling with bronze plates. They took the
colour of everything which they approached. His hair fell in many curls
over the pale-red mantle, without adornment or confinement. It was the
colour of the flower which is named after the dearest Disciple, but
which was called sovarchey by the Gael. A tinge of red ran through the
gold. As to his eyes, no two men or women could agree concerning their
colour, for some said they were blue, and some grey, and others hazel;
and there were those who said that they were blacker than the blackest
night that was ever known. Yet again, there were those who said that
they were of all colours named and nameless. They were soft and liquid
splendours, unfathomable lakes of light above his full and ruddy
cheeks, and beneath his curved and most tranquil brows. In form he was
symmetrical, straight and pliant as a young fir tree when the sweet
spring sap fills its veins. So he came to that assembly, in the glory of
youth, beauty, strength, valour, and beautiful shame-fastness, yet proud
in his humility and glittering like the morning star. Choice youths, his
comrades, attended him. The kings held their breaths when he drew nigh,
moving white knee after white knee over the green and sparkling grass.
When the other rites had been performed and the due sacrifices and
libations made, and after Cuculain had put his right hand into the right
hand of the King and become his man, Concobar gave him a shield,
two spears and a sword, weapons of great price and of thrice proved
excellence--a strong man’s equipment. Cuculain struck the spears
together at right angles and broke them. He clashed the sword flat-wise
on the shield. The sword leaped into small pieces and the shield was
bent inwards and torn.
“These are not good weapons, my King,” said the boy. Then the King gave
him others, larger and stronger and worthy of his best champions. These,
too, the boy broke into pieces in like manner.
“Son of Nessa, these are still worse,” he said, “nor is it well done, O
Captain of the Red Branch, to make me a laughing-stock in the presence
of this great hosting of the Ultonians.”
Concobar Mac Nessa exulted exceedingly when he beheld the amazing
strength and the waywardness of the boy, and beneath delicate brows his
eyes glittered like glittering swords as he glanced proudly round on
the crowd of martial men that surrounded him. Amongst them all he seemed
himself a bright torch of valour and war, more pure and clear than
polished steel. He then beckoned to one of his knights, who hastened
away and returned bringing Concobar’s own shield and spears and sword
out of the Tec Brac, where they were kept, an equipment in reserve. And
Cuculain shook them and bent them and clashed them together, but they
held firm.
“These are good arms, O son of Nessa,” said Cuculain.
“Choose now thy charioteer,” said the King, “for I will give thee also
war-horses and a chariot.”
He caused to pass before Cuculain all the boys who in many and severe
tests had proved their proficiency in charioteering, in the management
and tending of steeds, in the care of weapons and steed-harness, and
all that related to charioteering science. Amongst them was Laeg, with
a pale face and dejected, his eyes red and his cheeks stained from much
weeping. Cuculain laughed when he saw him, and called him forth from
the rest, naming him by his name with a loud, clear voice, heard to the
utmost limit of the great host.
“There was fear upon thee,” said Cuculain.
“There is fear upon thyself,” answered Laeg. “It was in thy mind that I
would refuse.”
“Nay, there is no such fear upon me,” said Cuculain.
“Then there is fear upon me,” said Laeg. “A charioteer needs a champion
who is stout and a valiant and faithful. Yea, truly there is fear upon
me,” answered Laeg.
“Verily, dear comrade and bed-fellow,” answered Cuculain, “it is through
me that thou shalt get thy death-wound, and I say not this as a vaunt,
but as a prophecy.”
And that prophecy was fulfilled, for the spear that slew Laeg went
through his master.
After that Laeg stood by Cuculain’s side and held his peace, but his
face shone with excess of joy and pride. He wore a light graceful frock
of deerskin, joined in the front with a twine of bronze wire, and a
short, dark-red cape, secured by a pin of gold with a ring to it. A band
of gold thread confined his auburn hair, rising into a peak behind his
head. In his hands he held a goad of polished red-yew, furnished with
a crooked hand-grip of gold, and pointed with shining bronze, and where
the bronze met the timber there was a circlet of diamond of the diamonds
of Banba. He had also a short-handled scourge with a haft of walrus
tooth, and the rope, cord, and lash of that scourge were made of
delicate and delicately-twisted thread of copper. This equipment was the
equipment of a proved charioteer; the apprentices wore only grey capes
with white fringes, fastened by loops of red cord.
Laeg was one of three brothers, all famous charioteers. Id and Sheeling
were the others. They were all three sons of the King of Gabra, whose
bright dun arose upon a green and sloping hill over against Tara
towards the rising of the sun. Thence sprang the beautiful stream of the
Nemnich, rich in lilies and reeds and bulrushes, which to-day men call
the Nanny Water. Laeg was grey-eyed and freckled.
Then there were led forward by two strong knights a pair of great and
spirited horses and a splendid war-car. The King said, “They are
thine, dear nephew. Well I know that neither thou, nor Laeg, will be a
dishonour to this war equipage.”
Cuculain sprang into the car, and standing with legs apart, he stamped
from side to side and shook the car mightily, till the axle brake, and
the car itself was broken in pieces.
“It is not a good chariot,” said the lad.
Another was led forward, and he broke it in like manner.
“Give me a sound chariot, High Lord of the Clanna Rury, or give me
none,” he said. “No prudent warrior would fight from such brittle
foothold.”
He brake in succession nine war chariots, the greatest and strongest in
Emain. When he broke the ninth the horses of Macha neighed from their
stable. Great fear fell upon the host when they heard that unusual noise
and the reverberation of it in the woods and hills.
“Let those horses be harnessed to the Chariot of Macha,” cried Concobar,
“and let Laeg, son of the King of Gabra, drive them hither, for those
are the horses and that the chariot which shall be given this day to
Cuculain.”
Then, son of Sualtam, how in thy guileless breast thy heart leaped, when
thou heardest the thundering of the great war-car and the wild neighing
of the immortal steeds, as they broke from the dark stable into the
clear-shining light of day, and heard behind them the ancient roaring
of the brazen wheels as in the days when they bore forth Macha and her
martial groom against the giants of old, and mightily established in
Eiriu the Red Branch of the Ultonians! Soon they rushed to view from
the rear of Emain, speeding forth impetuously out of the hollow-sounding
ways of the city and the echoing palaces into the open, and behind them
in the great car green and gold, above the many-twinkling wheels, the
charioteer, with floating mantle, girt round the temples with the gold
fillet of his office, leaning backwards and sideways as he laboured
to restrain their fury unrestrainable; a grey long-maned steed,
whale-bellied, broad-chested, with mane like flying foam, under one
silver yoke, and a black lustrous, tufty-maned steed under the other,
such steeds as in power, size, and beauty the earth never produced
before and never will produce again.
Like a hawk swooping along the face of a cliff when the wind is high, or
like the rush of March wind over the smooth plain, or like the fleetness
of the stag roused from his lair by the hounds and covering his first
field, was the rush of those steeds when they had broken through the
restraint of the charioteer, as though they galloped over fiery flags,
so that the earth shook and trembled with the velocity of their motion,
and all the time the great car brayed and shrieked as the wheels
of solid and glittering bronze went round, and strange cries and
exclamations were heard, for they were demons that had their abode in
that car.
The charioteer restrained the steeds before the assembly, but
nay-the-less a deep purr, like the purr of a tiger, proceeded from the
axle. Then the whole assembly lifted up their voices and shouted for
Cuculain, and he himself, Cuculain, the son of Sualtam, sprang into
his chariot, all armed, with a cry as of a warrior springing into his
chariot in the battle, and he stood erect and brandished his spears, and
the war sprites of the Gael shouted along with him, for the Bocanahs and
Bananahs and the Geniti Glindi, the wild people of the glens, and the
demons of the air, roared around him, when first the great warrior of
the Gael, his battle-arms in his hands, stood equipped for war in his
chariot before all the warriors of his tribe, the kings of the Clanna
Rury and the people of Emain Macha. Then, too, there sounded from the
Tec Brac the boom of shields, and the clashing of swords and the cries
and shouting of the Tuatha De Danan, who dwelt there perpetually; and Lu
the Long-Handed, the slayer of Balor, the destroyer of the Fomoroh, the
immortal, the invisible, the maker and decorator of the Firmament, whose
hound was the sun and whose son the viewless wind, thundered from heaven
and bent his sling five-hued against the clouds; and the son of the
illimitable Lir [Footnote: Mananan mac Lir, the sea-god.] in his mantle
blue and green, foam-fringed passed through the assembly with a roar of
far-off innumerable waters, and the Mor Reega stood in the midst with a
foot on either side of the plain, and shouted with the shout of a host,
so that the Ultonians fell down like reaped grass with their faces to
the earth, on account of the presence of the Mor Reega, and on account
of the omens and great signs.
Cuculain bade Laeg let the steeds go. They went like a storm and three
times encircled Emain Macha. It was the custom of the Ultonians to march
thrice round Emain ere they went forth to war.
Then said Cuculain--“Whither leads the great road yonder?”
“To Ath-na-Forairey and the borders of the Crave Rue.”
“And wherefore is it called the Ford of the Watchings?” said Cuculain.
“Because,” answered Laeg, “there is always one of the King’s knights
there, keeping watch and ward over the gate of the province.”
“Guide thither the horses,” said Cuculain, “for I will not lay aside my
arms till I have first reddened them in the blood of the enemies of my
nation. Who is it that is over the ward there this day?”
“It is Conall Carnach,” said Laeg.
As they drew nigh to the ford, the watchman from his high watch-tower on
the west side of the dun sent forth a loud and clear voice--
“There is a chariot coming to us from Emain Macha,” he said. “The
chariot is of great size; I have not seen its like in all Eiriu. In
front of it are two horses, one black and one white. Great is their
trampling and their glory and the shaking of their heads and necks.
I liken their progress to the fall of water from a high cliff or the
sweeping of dust and beech-tree leaves over a plain, when the March wind
blows hard, or to the rapidity of thunder rattling over the firmament. A
man would say that there were eight legs under each horse, so rapid and
indistinguishable is the motion of their limbs and hoofs. Identify those
horses, O Conall, and that chariot, for to me they are unknown.”
“And to me likewise,” said Conall. “Who are in the chariot? Moderate, O
man, the extravagance of thy language, for thou art not a prophet but a
watchman.”
“There are two beardless youths in the chariot,” answered the watchman,
“but I am unable to identify them on account of the dust and the rapid
motion and the steam of the horses. I think the charioteer is Laeg, the
son of the King of Gabra, for I know his manner of driving. The boy who
sits in front of him and below him on the champion’s seat I do not know,
but he shines like a star in the cloud of dust and steam.” Then a young
man who stood near to Conall Carna, wearing a short, red cloak with a
blue hood to it, and a tassel at the point of the hood, said to Conall--
“If it be my brother that charioteers sure am I that it is Cuculain who
is in the fighter’s seat, for many a time have I heard Laeg utter foul
scorn of the Red Branch, none excepted, when compared with Sualtam’s
son. For no other than him would he deign to charioteer. Truly though he
is my own brother there is not such a boaster in the North.”
Then the watchman cried out again--
“Yea, the charioteer is the son of the King of Gabra, and it is
Cuculain, the son of Sualtam, who sits in the fighter’s seat. He has
Concobar’s own shield on his breast, and his two spears in his hand.
Over Bray Ros, over Brainia, they are coming along the highway, by the
foot of the Town of the Tree; it is gifted with victories.”
“Have done, O talkative man,” cried Conall, “whose words are like the
words of a seer, or the full-voiced intonement of a chief bard.”
When the chariot came to the ford, Conall was amazed at the horses and
the chariot, but he dissembled his amazement before his people, and when
he saw Cuculain armed, he laughed and said,--
“Hath the boy indeed taken arms?”
And Cuculain said, “It is as thou seest, O son of Amargin; and moreover,
I have sworn not to let them back into the Chamber-of-Many-Colours
[Footnote: Tec Brac or Speckled House, the armoury of the Ultonians.]
until I shall have first reddened them in the blood of the enemies of
Ulla.”
Then Conall ceased laughing and said, “Not so, Setanta, for verily thou
shalt not be permitted;” and the great Champion sprang forward to lay
his fearless, never-foiled, and all conquering hands on the bridles
of the horses, but at a nod from Cuculain, Laeg let the steeds go, and
Conall sprang aside out of the way, so terrible was the appearance of
the horses as they reared against him. “Harness my horses and yoke my
chariot,” cried Conall, “for if this mad boy goes into the enemies’
country and meets with harm there, verily I shall never be forgiven by
the Ultonians.”
His horses were harnessed and his chariot yoked,--illustrious too were
those horses, named and famed in many songs--and Conall and Ide in their
chariot dashed through the ford enveloped with rainbow-painted clouds
of foam and spray, and like hawks on the wing they skimmed the plain,
pursuing the boys. Laeg heard the roar and trampling, and looking back
over his shoulder, said,--
“They are after us, dear master, namely the great son of Amargin and my
haughty brother Ide, who hath ever borne himself to me as though I were
a wayward child. They would spoil upon us this our brave foray. But they
will overtake the wind sooner than they will overtake the Liath Macha
and Black Shanglan, whose going truly is like the going of eagles. O
storm-footed steeds, great is my love for you, and inexpressible my
pride in your might and your beauty, your speed and your terror, and
sweet docility and affection.”
“Nevertheless, O Laeg,” said Cuculain, “slacken now their going, for
that Champion will be an impediment to us in our challengings and our
fightings; for when we stop for that purpose he will overtake us, and,
be our feats what they may, his and not ours will be the glory. Slacken
the going of the horses, for we must rid ourselves of the annoyance and
the pursuit of these gadflies.”
Laeg slackened the pace, and as they went Cuculain leaped lightly from
his seat and as lightly bounded back again, holding a great pebble in
his hand, such as a man using all his strength could with difficulty
raise from the ground, and sat still, rejoicing in his purpose, and
grasping the pebble with his five fingers.
Conall and Ide came up to them after that, and Conall, as the senior and
the best man amongst the Ultonians, clamorously called to them to turn
back straightway, or he would hough their horses, or draw the linch-pins
of their wheels, or in some other manner bring their foray to naught.
Cuculain thereupon stood upright in the car, and so standing, with feet
apart to steady him in his throwing and in his aim, dashed the stone
upon the yoke of Conall’s chariot between the heads of the horses and
broke the yoke, so that the pole fell to the ground and the chariot
tilted forward violently. Then the charioteer fell amongst the horses,
and Conall Carna, the beauty of the Ultonians the battle-winning and
ever-victorious son of Amargin, was shot out in front upon the road, and
fell there upon his left shoulder, and his beautiful raiment was defiled
with dust; and when he arose his left hand hung by his side, for the
shoulder-bone was driven from the socket, owing to the violence of the
fall.
“I swear by all my gods,” he cried, “that if a step would save thy head
from the hands of the men of Meath, I would not take it.”
Cuculain laughed and replied, “Good, O Conall, and who asked thee to
take it, or craved of thee any succour or countenance? Was it a straight
shot? Are there the materials of a fighter in me at all, dost thou
think? Thou art in my debt now too, O Conall. I have saved thee a
broken vow, for it is one of the oaths of our Order not to enter hostile
territory with brittle chariot-gear!”
Then the boys laughed at him again, and Laeg let go the steeds, and
very soon they were out of sight. Conall returned slowly with his broken
chariot to Ath-na-Forairey and sent for Fingin of Slieve Fuad, who was
the most cunning physician and most expert of bone-setters amongst the
Ultonians. Conall’s messengers experienced no difficulty in finding the
house of the leech, which was very recognisable on account of its shape
and appearance, and because it had wide open doors, four in number,
affording a liberal ingress and free thoroughfare to all the winds. Also
a stream of pure water ran through the house, derived from a well of
healing properties, which sprang from the side of the uninhabited hill.
Such were the signs that showed the house of a leech.
When they drew nigh they heard the voice of one man talking and of
another who laughed. It happened that that day there had been borne
thither a champion, in whose body there was not one small bone unbroken
or uninjured. The man’s bruises and fractures had been dressed and set
by Fingin and his intelligent and deft-handed apprentices, and he lay
now in his bed of healing listening joyfully to the conversation of
the leech, who was beyond all others eloquent and of most agreeable
discourse.
When Conall’s messengers related the reason of their coming, Fingin
cried to his young men, “Harness me my horses and yoke my chariot. There
are few,” he said, “in Erin for whom I would leave my own house, but
that youth is one of them. His father Amargin was well known to me. He
was a warrior grim and dour exceedingly, and he ever said concerning
the boy, ‘This hound’s whelp that I have gotten is too fine and sleek
to hold bloody gaps or hunt down a noble prey. He will be a women’s
playmate and not a peer amongst Heroes.’ And that fear was ever upon him
till the day when Conall came red out of the Valley of the Thrush, and
his track thence to Rath-Amargin was one straight path of blood, and
he with his shield-arm hacked to the bone, his sword-arm swollen and
bursting, and the flame of his valour burning bright in his splendid
eyes. Then, for the first time, the old man smiled upon him, and he
said, ‘That arm, my son, has done a man’s work to-day.’”