ACROSS THE MEARINGS AND AWAY
“Say, rushed the bold eagle exultingly forth.
From his home, in the dark rolling clouds of the North?”
CAMPBELL.
As for the boys, they proceeded joyfully after that pleasant skirmish
and friendly encounter, both on account of the discomfiture of him who
was reckoned the prime champion of the Ultonians, and because they were
at large in Erin, with no one to direct them, or to whom they should
render an account; and their happiness, too, was increased by the
mettle, power and gallant action of the steeds, and by the clanking of
the harness and the brazen chains, and the ringing of the weapons of
war, and the roar of the revolving wheels, and owing to the velocity of
their motion and the rushing of the wind upon their temples and through
their hair.
Then Cuculain stood up in the chariot, and surveyed the land on all
sides, and said--
“What is that great, firm-based, indestructible mountain upon our left
hand, one of a noble range which, rising from the green plain, runs
eastward. The last peak there is the mountain of which I speak, whose
foot is in the Ictian sea and whose head neighbours the firmament.”
And Laeg said, “Men call it Slieve Modurn, after a giant of the elder
time, when men were mightier and greater than they are now. He was of
the children of Brogan, uncle of Milesius, and his brothers were
Fuad and Eadar and Breagh, and all these being very great men
are commemorated in the names of noble mountains and sea-dividing
promontories.”
“Guide thither the horses,” said Cuculain. “It is right that those who
take the road against an enemy should first spy out the land, choosing
judiciously their point of onset, and Slieve Modurn yonder commands a
most brave prospect.”
Laeg did so. There, in a green valley, they unharnessed the horses and
tethered them to graze, and they themselves climbed the mountain and
stood upon the top in the most clear air. Thence Laeg showed him the
green plain of Meath extending far and wide, and the great streams of
Meath where they ran, the Boyne and the Blackwater, the Liffey and the
Royal Rye, and his own stream the Nanny Water, clear and sparkling,
which was very dear to Laeg, because he had snared fish there and
erected dams, and had done divers boyish feats upon its shores.
Cuculain said, “I see a beautiful green hill, shaped like an inverted
ewer, on the south shore of the Boyne. There is a noble palace there.
I see the flashing of its lime-white sides, and the colours of the
variegated roof and around it are other beautiful houses. How is that
city named O Laeg, and who dwells there?”
“That is the hill of Temair,” answered Laeg, “Tara’s high citadel. Well
may that city be beautiful, for the seat of Erin’s high sovereignty is
there. The man who holds it is Arch-king of all Erin.”
“Westward by south,” said Cuculain, “I see another city widely built,
and unenclosed by ramparts and defensive works, and hard by there is a
most smooth plain. At one end of the plain I see a glittering, and also
at the other.”
And Laeg said, “That is the hill of Talteen, so named because the mother
of far-shooting Lu, the Deliverer, is worshipped there, and every year,
when the leaves change their colour, games and contests of skill are
celebrated there in her honour. So it was enjoined on the men of Erin
by her famous son. Chariot races are run there on that smooth plain.
The glittering points on either side of it are the racing pillars of
burnished brass, the starting-post, and that which the charioteers graze
with the glowing axle. Many a noble chariot has been broken, and many
a gallant youth slain at the further of those twain. It was there that
Concobar raced his steeds against the woman with child, concerning which
things there are rumours and prophesyings.”
So Cuculain questioned Laeg concerning the cities of Meath, and
concerning the noble raths and duns where the kings and lords and
chief men of Meath dwelt prosperously, rejoicing in their great wealth.
Cuculain said, “None of these kings and lords and chief men whom thou
hast enumerated have at any time injured my nation, and there is not one
upon whom I might rightly take vengeance. But I see one other splendid
dun, and of this thou hast said no word, though thrice I have questioned
thee concerning it.”
Laeg grew pale at these words, and he said,
“What dun is that, my master?”
Cuculain said, “O fox that thou art, right well thou knowest. It is not
a little or mean one, but great, proud, and conspicuous, and vauntingly
it rears its head like a man who has never known defeat, but on the
contrary has caused many widows to lament. Its white sides flashed
against the dark waters of the Boyne, and its bright roofs glitter above
the green woods. There is a stream that runs into the Boyne beside it,
and there are bulwarks around it, and great strong barriers.”
Laeg answered, “That is the dun of the sons of Nectan.”
“Let us now leave Slieve Modurn,” said Cuculain, “and guide thither my
horses, for I shall lay waste that dun, and burn it with fire, after
having slain the men who dwell there.”
Then Laeg clasped his comrade’s knees, and said, “Take the road, dear
master, against the royalest dun in all Meath, but pass by that dun.
The men are not alive to-day who at any time approached it with warlike
intent. Those who dwell there are sorcerers and enchanters, lords of all
the arts of poison and of war.”
Cuculain answered, “I swear by my gods that Dun-Mic-Nectan is the only
dun in all Meath which shall hear my warlike challenge this day. Descend
the hill now, for verily thither shalt thou fare, and that whether thou
art willing or unwilling.”
Now, for the first time, his valour and his destructive wrath were
kindled in the soul of Dethcaen’s nursling. Laeg saw the tokens of it,
and feared and obeyed. Unwillingly he came down the slopes of Slieve
Modurn, and unwillingly harnessed the horses and yoked the chariot,
and yoked the horses. Southwards, then, they fared swiftly through the
night, and the intervening nations heard them as they went. When they
arrived at the dun of the sons of Nectan it was twilight and the dawning
of the day. Before the dun there was a green and spacious lawn in full
view of the palace, and on the lawn a pillar and on the pillar a huge
disc of shining bronze. Cuculain descended and examined the disc, and
there was inscribed on it in ogham a curse upon the man who should enter
that lawn and depart again without battle and single combat with the men
of the dun. Cuculain took the disc from its place and cast it from him
southwards. The brazen disc skimmed low across the plain and then soared
on high until it showed to those who looked a full, bright face, like
the moon’s, after which, pausing one moment, it fell sheer down and sank
into the dark waters of the Boyne, without a sound, or at all disturbing
the tranquil surface of the great stream, and was no more seen.
“That bright lure,” said Cuculain, “shall no more be a cause of death to
brave men. This lawn, O Laeg, is surely the richest of all the lawns in
the world. Close-enwoven and thick is the mantle of short green grass
which it wears, decked all over with red-petalled daisies and bright
flowers more numerous than the stars on a frosty night.”
“That is not surprising,” said Laeg, “for the lawn is enriched and made
fat by the blood that has been shed abundantly now for a long time, the
blood of heroes and valiant men--slain here by the people of the dun.
Very rich too, are the men, both on account of their strippings of the
slain, and on account of the druidic well of magic which is within the
dun. For the people come from far and near to pay their vows at that
well, and they give costly presents to those sorcerers who are priests
and custodians of the same.”
“Noble, indeed, is the dun,” said Cuculain. “But it is yet early, for
the sun is not yet risen from his red-flaming eastern couch, and the
people of the dun, too, are in their heavy slumber. I would repose now
for a while and rest myself before the battles and hard combats which
await me this day. Wherefore, good Laeg, let down the sides and seats
of the chariot, that I may repose myself for a little and take a short
sleep.”
For just then precisely an unwonted drowsiness and desire for slumber
possessed Cuculain.
“Witless and devoid of sense art thou,” answered Laeg, “for who but
an idiot would think of sweet sleep and agreeable repose in a hostile
territory, much more in full view of those who look out from a foeman’s
dun, and that dun, Dun-Mic-Nectan?”
“Do as I bid thee,” said Cuculain. “For one day, if for no other, thou
shalt obey my commands.”
Laeg unyoked the chariot and turned the great steeds forth to graze on
the druidic lawn, which was never done before at any time. He let
down the chariot and arranged it as a couch, and his young master laid
himself therein, composing his limbs and pillowing tranquilly his head,
and he closed his immortal eyes. Very soon sweet slumber possessed him.
Laeg meanwhile kept watch and ward, and his great heart in his breast
continually trembled like the leaf of the poplar tree, or like a rush in
a flooded stream. The awakening birds unconscious sang in the trees, the
dew glittered on the grass; hard by the royal Boyne rolled silently.
The son of Sualtam slumbered without sound or motion, and the charioteer
stood beside him upright, like a pillar, his grey bright eyes fixed upon
the house of the sorcerers, the merciless, bloody, and ever-victorious
sons of Nectan, the son of Labrad.
Of the people of the dun, Foil, son of Nectan, was the first to awake.
It was his custom to wander forth by himself early in the morning,
devising snares and stratagems by which he might take and destroy men at
his leisure. He was more cruel than anything. By him the great door of
the dun, bound and rivetted with brass, was flung open. With one hand he
backshot the bar, which rushed into its chamber with a roar and crash
as of a great house when it falls, and with the other he drew back the
door. It grated on its brazen hinges, and on the iron threshold, with a
noise like thunder. Then Foil stood black and huge in the wide doorway
of the dun, and he looked at Laeg and Laeg looked at him. The man
was ugly and fierce of aspect. His hair was thick and black; he was
bull-necked and large-eared. His mantle was black, bordered with dark
red; his tunic, a dirty yellow, was splashed with recent blood. There
were great shoes on his feet soled with wood and iron. In his hand he
bore a staff of quick-beam, as it were a full-grown tree without its
branches. He being thus, strode forward in an ungainly manner to Laeg,
and with a surly voice bade him drive the horses off the lawn.
“Drive them off thyself,” said Laeg.
He sought to do that, but owing to the behaviour of the steeds, he
desisted right soon, and turned again to Laeg.
“Who is the sleeping youth?” said he, “and wherefore hath he come hither
in an evil hour?”
“He is a certain mild and gentle youth of the Ultonians,” replied Laeg,
“who yester morning prosperously assumed his arms of chivalry for the
first time, and hath come hither to prove his valour upon the sons of
Nectan.”
“Many youths of his nation have come hither with the same intent,” said
the giant, “but they did not return.”
“This youth will,” said Laeg, “after having slain the sons of Nectan,
and after having sacked their dun and burned it with fire.”
Foil hearing that word became very angry, and he gripped his great
staff and advanced to make a sudden end of Laeg first, and then of the
sleeper, Laeg, on his side, drew Cuculain’s sword. Hardly and using all
his strength, could he do so and at the same time hold himself in an
attitude of defence and attack, but he succeeded. His aspect, too, was
high and warlike, and his eyes shone menacingly the while his heart
trembled, for he knew too well that he was no match for the man.
“Go back now for thy weapons of war,” he cried, “and all thy
war-furniture, and thy instruments of sorcery and enchantment. Truly
thou art in need of them all.”
When Foil saw how the enormous sword flashed in the lad’s hand, and saw
the fierceness of his visage and heard his menacing words, he returned
to the dun. The people of the dun were now awake, and they clustered
like bees on the slope of the mound, and in the covered ways beneath
the eaves and along the rampart, and they hissed and roared and shouted
words of insult and contumely, lewd and gross, concerning Laeg and
concerning that other youth who slept in such a place and at such a
time. But Laeg stood still and silent, with his eyes fixed on the dun,
and with the point of his sword leaning on the ground, for his right
hand was weary on account of its great weight. Very ardently he longed
that his master should awake out of that unreasonable slumber. Yet he
made no attempt to rouse him, for it was unlawful to awake Cuculain
when he slept. Conspicuous amongst the people of the dun were Foil’s
brethren, Tuatha and Fenla, Tuatha vast in bulk, and Fenla, tall and
swift, wearing a mantle of pale blue. Around Fenla stood the three
cup-bearers, who drew water from the magic well, Flesc, Lesc, and Leam
were their names. At the same time that Foil reappeared in the doorway
of the dun, fully armed and equipped for battle, Cuculain awoke and
sat up. At first he was dazed and bewildered, for divine voices were
sounding in his ears, and fleeting visionary presences were departing
from him. Then he heard the people how they shouted and saw his enemy
descending the slope of the dun, sights and sounds indeed diverse from
those his dreams and visions. With a cry he started from his bed, like
a deer starting from his lair, and the people of the dun fell suddenly
silent when they beheld the velocity of his movements, the splendour of
his beauty, and the rapidity with which he armed himself and stood forth
for war.
“That champion is Foil, son of Nectan,” said Laeg, “and there is not
one in the world with whom it is more difficult to contend both in other
respects and chiefly in this, that there is but one weapon wherewith he
may be slain. To all others he is invulnerable. That weapon is an iron
ball having magic properties, and no man knows where to look for it,
or where the man hath hidden it away. And O my dear master, thou goest
forth to certain death going forth against that man.”
“Have no fear on that account,” said Cuculain, “for it has been revealed
to me where he hides it. It is a ges to him to wear it always on his
breast above his armour, but beneath his mantle and tunic. There it is
suspended by a strong chain of brass around his neck. With that ball I
shall slay him in the manner in which I have been directed by those who
visited me while I slept.”
Then they fought, and in the first close so vehement was the onset of
Foil, that Cuculain could do no more than defend himself, and around the
twain sparks flew up in showers as from a smithy where a blacksmith and
his lusty apprentices strongly beat out the red iron. The second was
similar to the first, and equally without results. In the third close
Cuculain, having sheathed his sword, sprang upwards and dashed his
shield into the giant’s face, and at the same time he tore from its
place of concealment the magic ball, rending mightily the brazen chain.
And he leaped backwards, and taking a swift aim, threw. The ball flew
from the young hero’s hand like a bolt from a sling, and it struck the
giant in the middle of the forehead below the rim of his helmet, but
above his blazing eyes, and the ball crashed through the strong frontal
bone, and tore its way through the hinder part of his head, and went
forth, carrying the brains with it in its course, so that there was a
free tunnel and thoroughfare for all the winds of heaven there. With a
crash and a ringing, armour and weapons, the giant fell upon the
plain and his blood poured forth in a torrent there where he himself
invulnerable had shed the blood of so many heroes. Laeg rejoiced greatly
at that feat, and with a loud voice bade the men of the dun bring forth
their next champion. This was Tuatha the second son of Nectan, and the
fiercest of the three, he buffeted his esquires and gillas, while they
armed him, so that it was a sore task for them to clasp and strap and
brace his armour upon him that day, for their faces were bloody from his
hands, and the floor of the armoury was strewn with their teeth. That
armour was a marvel and astonishment to all who saw it, so many thick,
hard skins of wild oxen of the mountains had been stitched together to
furnish forth the champion’s coat of mail. It was strengthened, too,
with countless bars and rings of brass sewed fast to it all over, and
it encompassed the whole of his mighty frame, from his shoulders to his
feet. The helmet and neckpiece were one, wrought in like manner, only
stronger. The helmet covered his face. There was no opening there
save breathing slits and two round holes through which his eyes shone
terribly. On his feet were strong shoes bound with brass. To any other
man but himself this armour would have been an encumbrance, for it was
good and sufficient loading for a car drawn by one yoke of oxen; but so
clad, this man was aware of no unusual weight. When they had clasped him
and braced him to his satisfaction, and, indeed, that was not easy, they
put upon him his tunic of dusky grey, and over that his mantle of dark
crimson, and fastened it on his breast with a brooch whose wheel alone
would task one man’s full strength to lift from the ground.
Then Tuatha went forth out of the dun, and when his people saw him they
shouted mightily, for before that they had been greatly dismayed, and
cast down on account of the slaying of Foil, whom till then they had
deemed invincible. They were all males dwelling here together in sorcery
and common lust for blood. No woman brightened their dark assemblies
and the voice of a child was never heard within the dun or around it. So
they rejoiced greatly when they beheld Tuatha and saw him how wrathfully
he came forth, breathing slaughter, and heard his voice; for terribly
he shouted as he strode down from the dun, and he banned and cursed
Cuculain and Laeg, and devoted them to his gloomy gods. Beneath his feet
the massive timbers of the drawbridge bent and creaked.
Said Laeg, “This man, O dear Setanta, is far more terrible than the
first, for he is said to be altogether invulnerable and proof against
any weapon that was ever made.”
“It is not altogether thus,” said Cuculain, “but if the man escapes the
first stroke he is thenceforward invincible, and surely slays his foe.
Therefore give into my hand Concobar’s unendurable and mighty ashen
spear, for I must make an end of him at one cast or not at all.”
Tuatha now rushed upon Cuculain, flinging darts, of which he carried
many in his left hand. Not one of them did Cuculain attempt to take upon
his shield, but altogether eluded them, for now he swerved to one side
and now to another, and now he dropped on one knee and again sprang
high in air, so that the missile hurtled and hissed between his gathered
feet. Truly since the beginning of the world there was not, and to the
end of the world there will not be, a better leaper than thy nursling,
daughter of Cathvah; and behind him all the lawn was as it were sown
thick with spears, and these so buried in the earth that two-thirds of
their length was concealed and a third only projected slantwise from the
green and glittering sward. When the man with all his force, fury, and
venom had discharged his last shaft and seen it, too, shoot screaming
beneath the aerial feet of the hero, he roared so terribly that the
shores and waters of the Boyne and the surrounding woods and groves
returned a hollow moan, and, laying his right hand on the hand-grip of
his sword, he rushed upon Cuculain. At that moment Cuculain poised the
broad-bladed spear of Concobar Mac Nessa and cast it at the man, who was
now very near, and came rushing on like a storm, having his vast sword
drawn and flashing. That cast no one could rightly blame whether as to
force or direction, for the brazen blade caught the son of Nectan full
on breast under the left pap and tore through his thick and strong
armour and burst three rib bones, and fixed itself in his heart, so that
he fell first upon his knees, stumbling forward, and then rolled over
on the plain and a torrent of black blood gushed from his mouth and
nostrils.
“That was indeed a brave cast,” said Laeg, “for the coat is the
thickness of seven bulls’ hides, and plated besides, and the rib-bones,
through which Concobar’s great spear impelled by thee hath burst his
victorious way, are stronger than the thigh-bones of a horse; but pluck
out the spear now, for it is beyond my power to do so, and stand well
upon thy guard, for the two combats past will be as child’s play to
that which now awaits thee. Fenla, the third son of Nectan, is preparing
himself for battle. He is called the Swallow, because there is not a
man in the world swifter to retreat, or swifter to pursue. He is more at
home in the water than on the dry land, for through it he dives like a
water-dog, and glides like an eel, and rushes like a salmon when in the
spring-time he seeks the upper pools. Greatly I fear that his challenge
and defiance will be to do battle with him there, where no man born of
woman can meet him and live.”
“Say not so, O Laeg,” said Cuculain, “and be not so afraid and cast
down, but still keep a cheerful heart in thy breast and a high and brave
countenance before the people of the dun. For my tutor Fergus paid a
good heed to my education in the whole art of war and especially as to
swimming. He is himself a most noble swimmer and I have profited by his
instructions. Once he put me to the test. It was in the great swimming
bath in the Callan, dug out, it is said, by the Firbolgs in the ancient
days, and the trial was in secret and its issue has not been revealed to
this day. On that occasion I swam round the bath holding two well-grown
boys in my right arm and two in my left, and there was a fifth sitting
on my shoulders with his hands clasped on my forehead, and my back was
not wetted by the Callan. Therefore dismiss thy fear and answer thou
their challenge with a strong voice and a cheerful countenance.”
Laeg did that and he answered their challenge with a voice that rang,
striking fear into the hearts of those who heard him. Forthwith, then,
Fenla, wearing sword and shield, sprang at a bound over the rampart and
foss, and his course thence to the Boyne was like a flash of blue and
white and he plunged into the dark stream like a bright spear, and
diving beneath the flood he emerged a great way off, and cried aloud for
his foe.
“I am here,” cried Cuculain, at his side. “Cease thy shouting and look
to thyself, for it is not my custom to take advantage of any man.”
Marvellous and terrible was the battle which then ensued between these
champions. For the spray and the froth and the flying spume of the
convulsed and agitated waters around that warring twain, rose in white
clouds, and owing to the fierceness of the combat and the displacement
of the waters around them, the Boyne on either hand beat her green
margin with sudden and unusual billows, for the divine river was taken
with a great surprise on that occasion. Amid the roar of the waters ever
sounded the dry clash of the meeting swords and the clang of the smitten
shields and the ringing of helmets. Sometimes one champion would dive
seeking an advantage, and the other would dive too, in order to elude
or meet the assault. Then the frothing surface of the stream would
clear itself, and the Boyne run dark as before, though the mounted water
showed that the combat still raged in its depths. The swallows, too, had
been scared away, returning, skimmed the surface, and the bird which
is the most beautiful of all darted a bright streak low across the dark
water. Anon the submerged champions, coming to the surface for breath,
renewed their deadly combat amid foaming waters and clouds of spray.
The full particulars of this combat are not related, only that the
wizard-champion grew weaker, while his vigour and strength continued
unabated with the son of Sualtam, and that in the end he slew the other,
and in the sight of all he cut off his head and flung it from the middle
Boyne to the shore, and that the headless trunk of Fenla, son of Nectan,
floated down-stream to the sea. When the people of the dun saw that,
they brake forth west-ward and fled. Then Cuculain and Laeg invaded the
dun, and they burst open the doors of the strong chambers, and of the
dungeons beneath the earth, and let loose the prisoners and the hostages
and the prepared victims, and they broke the idols and the instruments
of sorcery, and filled in the well. After that they replenished the
vacant places of the war-car with things the most precious and such as
were portable, and gave all the rest to the liberated captives for a
prey. Last of all they applied fire to the vast dun, and quickly the
devouring flames shot heavenward, fed with pine and red yew, and rolled
forth a mighty pillar of black smoke, reddened with rushing sparks and
flaming embers. The men of Tara saw it, and the men of Tlatga, and
of Tailteen, and of Ben-Eadar, and they consulted their prophets and
wizards as to what this portent might mean, for it was not a little
smoke that the burning of Dun-Mic-Nectan sent forth that day.