There was a king in Erin long ago, and this king went out hunting one
day, but saw nothing till near sunset, when what should come across him
but a black pig.
"Since I've seen nothing all day but this black pig, I'll be at her
now," said the king; so he put spurs to his horse and raced after the
pig.
When the pig was on a hill he was in the valley behind her; when he was
on a hill, the pig was in the valley before him. At last they came to
the sea-side, and the pig rushed out into the deep water straight from
the shore. The king spurred on his horse and followed the black pig
through the sea till his horse failed under him and was drowned.
Then the king swam on himself till he was growing weak, and said: "It
was for the death of me that the black pig came in my way."
But he swam on some distance yet, till at last he saw land. The pig went
up on an island; the king too went on shore, and said to himself: "Oh!
it is for no good that I came here; there is neither house nor shelter
to be seen." But he cheered up after a while, walked around, and said:
"I'm a useless man if I can't find shelter in some place."
After going on a short space he saw a great castle in a valley before
him. When he came to the front of the castle he saw that it had a low
door with a broad threshold all covered with sharp-edged razors, and a
low lintel of long-pointed needles. The path to the castle was covered
with gravel of gold. The king came up, and went in with a jump over the
razors and under the needles. When inside he saw a great fire on a broad
hearth, and said to himself, "I'll sit down here, dry my clothes, and
warm my body at this fire."
As he sat and warmed himself, a table came out before him with every
sort of food and drink, without his seeing any one bring it.
"Upon my honor and power," said the king of Erin, "there is nothing bad
in this! I'll eat and drink my fill."
Then he fell to, and ate and drank his fill. When he had grown tired, he
looked behind him, and if he did he saw a fine room, and in it a bed
covered with gold. "Well," said he, "I'll go back and sleep in that bed
a while, I'm so tired."
He stretched himself on the bed and fell asleep. In the night he woke
up, and felt the presence of a woman in the room. He reached out his
hand towards her and spoke, but got no answer; she was silent.
When morning came, and he made his way out of the castle, she spread a
beautiful garden with her Druidic spells over the island,--so great that
though he travelled through it all day he could not escape from it. At
sunset he was back at the door of the castle; and in he went over the
razors and under the needles, sat at the fire, and the table came out
before him as on the previous evening. He ate, drank, and slept on the
bed; and when he woke in the night, there was the woman in the room; but
she was silent and unseen as before.
When he went out on the second morning the king of Erin saw a garden
three times more beautiful than the one of the day before. He travelled
all day, but could not escape,--could not get out of the garden. At
sunset he was back at the door of the castle; in he went over the razors
and under the needles, ate, drank, and slept, as before.
In the middle of the night he woke up, and felt the presence of the
woman in the room. "Well," said he, "it is a wonderful thing for me to
pass three nights in a room with a woman, and not see her nor know who
she is!"
"You won't have that to say again, king of Erin," answered a voice. And
that moment the room was filled with a bright light, and the king looked
upon the finest woman he had ever seen. "Well, king of Erin, you are on
Lonesome Island. I am the black pig that enticed you over the land and
through the sea to this place, and I am queen of Lonesome Island. My two
sisters and I are under a Druidic spell, and we cannot escape from this
spell till your son and mine shall free us. Now, king of Erin, I will
give you a boat to-morrow morning, and do you sail away to your own
kingdom."
In the morning she went with him to the seashore to the boat. The king
gave the prow of the boat to the sea, and its stern to the land; then he
raised the sails, and went his way. The music he had was the roaring of
the wind with the whistling of eels, and he broke neither oar nor mast
till he landed under his own castle in Erin.
Three quarters of a year after, the queen of Lonesome Island gave birth
to a son. She reared him with care from day to day and year to year till
he was a splendid youth. She taught him the learning of wise men one
half of the day, and warlike exercises with Druidic spells the other
half. One time the young man, the prince of Lonesome Island, came in
from hunting, and found his mother sobbing and crying.
"Oh! what has happened to you, mother?" he asked.
"My son, great grief has come on me. A friend of mine is going to be
killed to-morrow."
"Who is he?"
"The king of Erin. The king of Spain has come against him with a great
army. He wishes to sweep him and his men from the face of the earth, and
take the kingdom himself."
"Well, what can we do? If I were there, I'd help the king of Erin."
"Since you say that, my son, I'll send you this very evening. With the
power of my Druidic spells, you'll be in Erin in the morning."
The prince of Lonesome Island went away that night, and next morning at
the rising of the sun he drew up his boat under the king's castle in
Erin. He went ashore, and saw the whole land black with the forces of
the king of Spain, who was getting ready to attack the king of Erin and
sweep him and his men from the face of the earth.
The prince went straight to the king of Spain, and said, "I ask one
day's truce."
"You shall have it, my champion," answered the king of Spain.
The prince then went to the castle of the king of Erin, and stayed there
that day as a guest. Next morning early he dressed himself in his
champion's array, and, taking his nine-edged sword, he went down alone
to the king of Spain, and, standing before him, bade him guard himself.
They closed in conflict, the king of Spain with all his forces on one
side, and the prince of Lonesome Island on the other. They fought an
awful battle that day from sunrise till sunset. They made soft places
hard, and hard places soft; they made high places low, and low places
high; they brought water out of the centre of hard gray rocks, and made
dry rushes soft in the most distant parts of Erin till sunset; and when
the sun went down, the king of Spain and his last man were dead on the
field.
Neither the king of Erin nor his forces took part in the battle. They
had no need, and they had no chance.
Now the king of Erin had two sons, who were such cowards that they hid
themselves from fright during the battle; but their mother told the king
of Erin that her elder son was the man who had destroyed the king of
Spain and all his men.
There was great rejoicing and a feast at the castle of the king of Erin.
At the end of the feast the queen said: "I wish to give the last cup to
this stranger who is here as a guest;" and taking him to an adjoining
chamber which had a window right over the sea, she seated him in the
open window and gave him a cup of drowsiness to drink. When he had
emptied the cup and closed his eyes, she pushed him out into the
darkness.
The prince of Lonesome Island swam on the water for four days and
nights, till he came to a rock in the ocean, and there he lived for
three months, eating the seaweeds of the rock, till one foggy day a
vessel came near and the captain cried out: "We shall be wrecked on this
rock!" Then he said, "There is some one on the rock; go and see who it
is."
They landed, and found the prince, his clothes all gone, his body black
from the seaweed, which was growing all over it.
"Who are you?" asked the captain.
"Give me first to eat and drink, and then I'll talk," said he.
They brought him food and drink; and when he had eaten and drunk, the
prince said to the captain: "What part of the world have you come from?"
"I have just sailed from Lonesome Island," said the captain. "I was
obliged to sail away, for fire was coming from every side to burn my
ship."
"Would you like to go back?"
"I should indeed."
"Well, turn around; you'll have no trouble if I am with you."
The captain returned. The queen of Lonesome Island was standing on the
shore as the ship came in.
"Oh, my child!" cried she, "why have you been away so long?"
"The queen of Erin threw me into the sea after I had kept the head of
the king of Erin on him, and saved her life too."
"Well, my son, that will come up against the queen of Erin on another
day."
Now, the prince lived on Lonesome Island three years longer, till one
time he came home from hunting, and found his mother wringing her hands
and shedding bitter tears.
"Oh! what has happened?" asked he.
"I am weeping because the king of Spain has gone to take vengeance on
the king of Erin for the death of his father, whom you killed."
"Well, mother, I'll go to help the king of Erin, if you give me leave."
"Since you have said it, you shall go this very night."
He went to the shore. Putting the prow of his bark to the sea and her
stern to land, he raised high the sails, and heard no sound as he went
but the pleasant wind and the whistling of eels, till he pulled up his
boat next morning under the castle of the king of Erin and went on
shore.
The whole country was black with the troops of the king of Spain, who
was just ready to attack, when the prince stood before him, and asked a
truce till next morning.
"That you shall have, my champion," answered the king. So there was
peace for that day.
Next morning at sunrise, the prince faced the king of Spain and his
army, and there followed a struggle more terrible than that with his
father; but at sunset neither the king of Spain nor one of his men was
left alive.
The two sons of the king of Erin were frightened almost to death, and
hid during the battle, so that no one saw them or knew where they were.
But when the king of Spain and his army were destroyed, the queen said
to the king: "My elder son has saved us." Then she went to bed, and
taking the blood of a chicken in her mouth, spat it out, saying: "This
is my heart's blood; and nothing can cure me now but three bottles of
water from Tubber Tintye, the flaming well."
When the prince was told of the sickness of the queen of Erin, he came
to her and said: "I'll go for the water if your two sons will go with
me."
"They shall go," said the queen; and away went the three young men
towards the East, in search of the flaming well.
In the morning they came to a house on the roadside; and going in, they
saw a woman who had washed herself in a golden basin which stood before
her. She was then wetting her head with the water in the basin, and
combing her hair with a golden comb. She threw back her hair, and
looking at the prince, said: "You are welcome, sister's son. What is on
you? Is it the misfortune of the world that has brought you here?"
"It is not; I am going to Tubber Tintye for three bottles of water."
"That is what you'll never do; no man can cross the fiery river or go
through the enchantments around Tubber Tintye. Stay here with me, and
I'll give you all I have."
"No, I cannot stay, I must go on."
"Well, you'll be in your other aunt's house to-morrow night, and she
will tell you all."
Next morning, when they were getting ready to take the road, the elder
son of the queen of Erin was frightened at what he had heard, and said:
"I am sick; I cannot go farther."
"Stop here where you are till I come back," said the prince. Then he
went on with the younger brother, till at sunset they came to a house
where they saw a woman wetting her head from a golden basin, and combing
her hair with a golden comb. She threw back her hair, looked at the
prince, and said: "You are welcome, sister's son! What brought you to
this place? Was it the misfortune of the world that brought you to live
under Druidic spells like me and my sisters?" This was the elder sister
of the queen of the Lonesome Island.
"No," said the prince; "I am going to Tubber Tintye for three bottles of
water from the flaming well."
"Oh, sister's son, it's a hard journey you're on! But stay here
to-night; to-morrow morning I'll tell you all."
In the morning the prince's aunt said: "The queen of the Island of
Tubber Tintye has an enormous castle, in which she lives. She has a
countless army of giants, beasts, and monsters to guard the castle and
the flaming well. There are thousands upon thousands of them, of every
form and size. When they get drowsy, and sleep comes on them, they sleep
for seven years without waking. The queen has twelve attendant maidens,
who live in twelve chambers. She is in the thirteenth and innermost
chamber herself. The queen and the maidens sleep during the same seven
years as the giants and beasts. When the seven years are over, they all
wake up, and none of them sleep again for seven other years. If any man
could enter the castle during the seven years of sleep, he could do what
he liked. But the island on which the castle stands is girt by a river
of fire and surrounded by a belt of poison-trees."
The aunt now blew on a horn, and all the birds of the air gathered
around her from every place under the heavens, and she asked each in
turn where it dwelt, and each told her; but none knew of the flaming
well, till an old eagle said: "I left Tubber Tintye to-day."
"How are all the people there?" asked the aunt.
"They are all asleep since yesterday morning," answered the old eagle.
The aunt dismissed the birds; and turning to the prince, said, "Here is
a bridle for you. Go to the stables, shake the bridle, and put it on
whatever horse runs out to meet you."
Now the second son of the queen of Erin said: "I am too sick to go
farther."
"Well, stay here till I come back," said the prince, who took the bridle
and went out.
The prince of the Lonesome Island stood in front of his aunt's stables,
shook the bridle, and out came a dirty, lean little shaggy horse.
"Sit on my back, son of the king of Erin and the queen of Lonesome
Island," said the little shaggy horse.
This was the first the prince had heard of his father. He had often
wondered who he might be, but had never heard who he was before.
He mounted the horse, which said: "Keep a firm grip now, for I shall
clear the river of fire at a single bound, and pass the poison-trees;
but if you touch any part of the trees, even with a thread of the
clothing that's on you, you'll never eat another bite; and as I rush by
the end of the castle of Tubber Tintye with the speed of the wind, you
must spring from my back through an open window that is there; and if
you don't get in at the window, you're done for. I'll wait for you
outside till you are ready to go back to Erin."
The prince did as the little horse told him. They crossed the river of
fire, escaped the touch of the poison-trees, and as the horse shot past
the castle, the prince sprang through the open window, and came down
safe and sound inside.
The whole place, enormous in extent, was filled with sleeping giants and
monsters of sea and land,--great whales, long slippery eels, bears, and
beasts of every form and kind. The prince passed through them and over
them till he came to a great stairway. At the head of the stairway he
went into a chamber, where he found the most beautiful woman he had ever
seen, stretched on a couch asleep. "I'll have nothing to say to you,"
thought he, and went on to the next; and so he looked into twelve
chambers. In each was a woman more beautiful than the one before. But
when he reached the thirteenth chamber and opened the door, the flash of
gold took the sight from his eyes. He stood a while till the sight came
back, and then entered. In the great bright chamber was a golden couch,
resting on wheels of gold. The wheels turned continually; the couch went
round and round, never stopping night or day. On the couch lay the queen
of Tubber Tintye; and if her twelve maidens were beautiful, they would
not be beautiful if seen near her. At the foot of the couch was Tubber
Tintye itself,--the well of fire. There was a golden cover upon the
well, and it went around continually with the couch of the queen.
"Upon my word," said the prince, "I'll rest here a while." And he went
up on the couch, and never left it for six days and nights.
On the seventh morning he said, "It is time for me now to leave this
place." So he came down and filled the three bottles with water from the
flaming well. In the golden chamber was a table of gold, and on the
table a leg of mutton with a loaf of bread; and if all the men in Erin
were to eat for a twelvemonth from the table, the mutton and the bread
would be in the same form after the eating as before.
The prince sat down, ate his fill of the loaf and the leg of mutton, and
left them as he had found them. Then he rose up, took his three bottles,
put them in his wallet, and was leaving the chamber, when he said to
himself: "It would be a shame to go away without leaving something by
which the queen may know who was here while she slept." So he wrote a
letter, saying that the son of the king of Erin and the queen of the
Lonesome Island had spent six days and nights in the golden chamber of
Tubber Tintye, had taken away three bottles of water from the flaming
well, and had eaten from the table of gold. Putting this letter under
the pillow of the queen, he went out, stood in the open window, sprang
on the back of the lean and shaggy little horse, and passed the trees
and the river unharmed.
When they were near his aunt's house, the horse stopped, and said: "Put
your hand into my ear, and draw out of it a Druidic rod; then cut me
into four quarters, and strike each quarter with the rod. Each one of
them will become the son of a king, for four princes were enchanted and
turned into the lean little shaggy horse that carried you to Tubber
Tintye. When you have freed the four princes from this form you can free
your two aunts from the spell that is on them, and take them with you to
Lonesome Island."
The prince did as the horse desired; and straightway four princes stood
before him, and thanking him for what he had done, they departed at
once, each to his own kingdom.
The prince removed the spell from his aunts, and, travelling with them
and the two sons of the queen of Erin, all soon appeared at the castle
of the king.
When they were near the door of their mother's chamber, the elder of the
two sons of the queen of Erin stepped up to the prince of Lonesome
Island, snatched the three bottles from the wallet that he had at his
side, and running up to his mother's bed, said: "Here, mother, are the
three bottles of water which I brought you from Tubber Tintye."
"Thank you, my son; you have saved my life," said she.
The prince went on his bark and sailed away with his aunts to Lonesome
Island, where he lived with his mother seven years.
When seven years were over, the queen of Tubber Tintye awoke from her
sleep in the golden chamber; and with her the twelve maidens and all the
giants, beasts, and monsters that slept in the great castle.
When the queen opened her eyes, she saw a boy about six years old
playing by himself on the floor. He was very beautiful and bright, and
he had gold on his forehead and silver on his poll. When she saw the
child, she began to cry and wring her hands, and said: "Some man has
been here while I slept."
Straightway she sent for her Seandallglic (old blind sage), told him
about the child, and asked: "What am I to do now?"
The old blind sage thought a while, and then said: "Whoever was here
must be a hero; for the child has gold on his forehead and silver on his
poll, and he never went from this place without leaving his name behind
him. Let search be made, and we shall know who he was."
Search was made, and at last they found the letter of the prince under
the pillow of the couch. The queen was now glad, and proud of the child.
Next day she assembled all her forces, her giants and guards; and when
she had them drawn up in line, the army was seven miles long from van to
rear. The queen opened through the river of fire a safe way for the
host, and led it on till she came to the castle of the king of Erin. She
held all the land near the castle, so the king had the sea on one side,
and the army of the queen of Tubber Tintye on the other, ready to
destroy him and all that he had. The queen sent a herald for the king to
come down.
"What are you going to do?" asked the king when he came to her tent. "I
have had trouble enough in my life already, without having more of it
now."
"Find for me," said the queen, "the man who came to my castle and
entered the golden chamber of Tubber Tintye while I slept, or I'll sweep
you and all you have from the face of the earth."
The king of Erin called down his elder son, and asked: "Did you enter
the chamber of the queen of Tubber Tintye?"
"I did."
"Go, then, and tell her so, and save us."
He went; and when he told the queen, she said: "If you entered my
chamber, then mount my gray steed."
He mounted the steed; and if he did, the steed rose in the air with a
bound, hurled him off his back, in a moment, threw him on a rock, and
dashed the brains out of his head.
The king called down his second son, who said that he had been in the
golden chamber. Then he mounted the gray steed, which killed him as it
had his brother.
Now the queen called the king again, and said: "Unless you bring the man
who entered my golden chamber while I slept, I'll not leave a sign of
you or anything you have upon the face of the earth." Straightway the
king sent a message to the queen of Lonesome Island, saying: "Come to me
with your son and your two sisters!"
The queen set out next morning, and at sunset she drew up her boat under
the castle of the king of Erin. Glad were they to see her at the castle,
for great dread was on all.
Next morning the king went down to the queen of Tubber Tintye, who said:
"Bring me the man who entered my castle, or I'll destroy you and all you
have in Erin this day."
The king went up to the castle; immediately the prince of Lonesome
Island went to the queen.
"Are you the man who entered my castle?" asked she.
"I don't know," said the prince.
"Go up now on my gray steed!" said the queen.
He sat on the gray steed, which rose under him into the sky. The prince
stood on the back of the horse, and cut three times with his sword as he
went up under the sun. When he came to the earth again, the queen of
Tubber Tintye ran over to him, put his head on her bosom, and said: "You
are the man."
Now she called the queen of Erin to her tent, and drawing from her own
pocket a belt of silk, slender as a cord, she said: "Put this on."
The queen of Erin put it on, and then the queen of Tubber Tintye said:
"Tighten, belt!" The belt tightened till the queen of Erin screamed with
pain. "Now tell me," said the queen of Tubber Tintye, "who was the
father of your elder son."
"The gardener," said the queen of Erin.
Again the queen of Tubber Tintye said; "Tighten, belt!" The queen of
Erin screamed worse than before; and she had good reason, for she was
cut nearly in two. "Now tell me who was the father of your second son."
"The big brewer," said the queen of Erin.
Said the queen of Tubber Tintye to the king of Erin: "Get this woman
dead."
The king put down a big fire then, and when it was blazing high, he
threw the wife in, and she was destroyed at once.
"Now do you marry the queen of Lonesome Island, and my child will be
grandchild to you and to her," said the queen of Tubber Tintye.
This was done, and the queen of Lonesome Island became queen of Erin and
lived in the castle by the sea. And the queen of Tubber Tintye married
the prince of Lonesome Island, the champion who entered the golden
chamber while she slept.
Now the king of Erin sent ten ships with messages to all the kings of
the world, inviting them to come to the wedding of the queen of Tubber
Tintye and his son, and to his own wedding with the queen of Lonesome
Island.
The queen removed the Druidic spells from her giants, beasts, and
monsters; then went home, and made the prince of Lonesome Island king of
Tubber Tintye and lord of the golden chamber.