THE RETURN OF CUCULAIN
“The golden gates of sleep unbar
When strength and beauty met together
Kindle their image like a star
In a sea of glassy weather.”
SHELLEY.
Then Laeg harnessed the horses and yoked the chariot. To the brazen
peaks of the chariot he fastened the heads of Foil and of Tuatha, with
Foil’s on the left hand and Tuatha’s on the right; and the long-haired
head of the water-wizard he made fast by its own hair to the ornament of
silver that was at the forward extremity of the great chariot pole. When
this was done, and when he had secured his master’s weapons and warlike
equipments in their respective places, the youths ascended the chariot,
and Laeg shook the ringing reins and called to the steeds to go, and
they went, and soon they were on the hard highway straining forward to
the north. The sound of the war-car behind them outroared the roaring
of the flames. Cuculain was a pale red all over, for ere the last combat
was at an end that pool of the Boyne was like one bath of blood. His
eyes blazed terribly in his head, and his face was fearful to look upon.
Like a reed in a river so he quaked and trembled, and there went out
from him a moaning like the moaning of winds through deep woods or
desolate glens, or over the waste places of the earth when darkness is
abroad. For the war-fury which the Northmen named after the Barserkers
enwrapped and inflamed him, body and spirit, owing to those strenuous
combats, and owing to the venom and the poison which exhaled from those
children of sorcery, that spawn of Death and Hell, so that his gentle
mind became as it were the meeting-place of storms and the confluence of
shouting seas. A man ran before him whose bratta on the wind roared
like fire, and there was a sound of voices calling and acclaiming, and a
noontide darkness descended upon him and accompanied him as he went, and
all became obscure and shapeless, and all the ways were murk. And
the mind of Laeg, too, was disturbed and shaken loose from its strong
foundations.
“But now,” said Cuculain, “there ran a man before us. Him I do not see,
but what is this herd of monstrous deer, sad-coloured and livid, as with
horns and hoofs of iron? I have not seen such at any time. Lurid fire
plays round them as they flee.”
“No deer of the earth are they,” said Laeg. “They are the enchanted herd
of Slieve Fuad, and from their abode subterrene they have come up late
into the world surrounded by night that they may graze upon Eiriu’s
plains, and it is not lawful even to look upon them.”
“Pursue and run down those deer,” said Cuculain.
“There is fear upon me,” said Laeg.
“Alive or dead thou shalt come with me on this adventure, though it lead
us into the mighty realms of the dead,” cried Cuculain.
Laeg relaxed his hands upon the reins and let the steeds go, and they
chased the enchanted herd of Slieve Fuad. There was no hunting seen like
that before in Erin. So vehement was the chase that a twain of the herd
was run down and they upon their knees and sobbing. Cuculain sprang from
the chariot and he made fast one of the deer to the pole of the chariot
to run before, and on to the hinder part of it to run behind. So they
went northward again with a deer of the herd of Hell running before them
and another following behind.
“What are those birds whiter than snow and more brilliant than stars,”
said then Cuculain, “which are before us upon the plain, as if Heaven
with its astral lights and splendour were outspread before us there?”
“They are the wild geese of the enchanted flocks of Lir,” answered Laeg.
“From his vast and ever-during realms beneath the sea they have come up
through the dim night to feed on Banba’s plains. Have nought to do with
those birds, dear master.”
Cuculain stood up in his chariot with his sling in his hand, and he
fitted thereto small bolts, and slang. He did not make an end before he
had overthrown and laid low three score of the birds of Lir.
“Go bring me those birds,” said he to Laeg. The horses were plunging
terribly when he said that.
“I may not, O my master,” said Laeg. “For even now, and with the reins
in my hand, I am unable to restrain their fury and their madness, to
such a degree have their noble minds been disturbed by the sorcery and
the druidism and the enchantment with which they are surrounded. And
I fear that soon the brazen wheels will fail me, or that the axle-tree
will fail me by reason of their collidings with the rocks and cliffs of
the land, when the horses shall have escaped from my control and shall
have rushed forth like hurricanes over the earth.”
Forthwith Cuculain sprang out in front of the chariot, and seized them
by their mouths and they in their rearing, and with his hands bowed down
their heads to the earth, and they knew their master and stood still
while they quaked. Laeg collected the birds, and Cuculain secured
them to the chariot and to the harness. The birds returned to life
and Cuculain cut the binding cords, so that the birds flew over and on
either side of the chariot, and singing besides.
In that manner, speeding northward, Cuculain and Laeg drew nigh to
Emain Macha. Concobar and the Ultonians happened at that very time to
be seeking a druidic response from the prophetess Lavarcam concerning
Cuculain and concerning Laeg, for their minds misgave them that beyond
the mearings of the Province the lads had come to some hurt, and
Lavarcam, answering them, said:
“Look to yourselves now ye children of Rury,
Your destruction and the end of your career are at hand.
Close all gates, shoot every bar.
For Dethcaen’s nursling, Sualtam’s son, draweth nigh.
“Verily he is not hurt, but he hath wounded.
Champions the mightiest
he hath victoriously overthrown.
Though he come swiftly it is not in flight.
Take good heed now while there is time.
He cometh like night in raiment of darkness,
Starry singing flocks are round his head,
Soon,O Concobar, his unendurable hand will be upon you;
Soon your dead will outnumber your living.”
“Close all the gates of Emain,” cried Concobar, “and treble-bar all
with bars. Look to your weapons ye heroes of the Red Branch. Man the
ramparts, and let every bridge be raised.”
So the high king shouted, and his voice rang through the vast and high
dun and rolled along the galleries and far-stretching corridors, and was
heard by the women of Ulla in their secluded chambers. And at the same
time the watchman from the watch-tower cried out. Then the women held
council together, and they said:
“Moats and ramparts and strong doors will not repel Cuculain. He will
surely o’erleap the moat and burst through the doors and slay many.”
And as they debated together they said that they alone would save the
city and defeat the war-demons who had Cuculain in their power. For they
said--“His virginity is with him, and his beautiful shamefastness, and
his humility and reverence for women, whether they be old or young, and
whether they be comely or not comely. And this was his way always, and
now more than formerly since young love hath descended upon him in the
form of Emer, daughter of Fargal Manach, King of Lusk in the south.”
Then the women of the Ultonians did a great and memorable deed, and such
as was not known to have been done at any time in Erin.
They bade all the men retire into the dun after they had lowered the
bridge; and when that was done three tens of them, such as were the most
illustrious in rank and famous for accomplishments, and they all in the
prime of their youth and beauty, and clad only in the pure raiment of
their womanhood, came forth out of the quarters of the women, and in
that order, in spite of shame they went to meet him. When Cuculain saw
them advancing towards him in lowly wise, with exposed bosom and hands
crossed on their breasts, his weapons fell from his hands and the
war-demons fled out of him, and low in the chariot he bent down his
noble head. By them he was conducted into the dun, into a chamber which
they had prepared for him, and they drew water and filled his kieve, and
there Laeg ministered to him. He was like one fiery glowing mass--like
iron plucked red out of the furnace.
When he had entered his bath the water boiled around him. After he had
bathed and when he became calm and cool Laeg put upon him his beautiful
banqueting attire, and he came into the great hall lowly and blushing.
All were acclaiming and praising him, and he passed up the great
hall and made a reverence to the King, and he sat down at the King’s
footstool. All who saw him marvelled then more at his beauty than at his
deeds. He was sick after that, and came very near to death, but in
the end he fell into a very deep sleep from which he awoke whole and
refreshed, though it was the opinion of many that he would surely die.
Cuculain was seventeen years of age when he did these feats.
End of Project Gutenberg’s The Coming of Cuculain, by Standish O’Grady