The Shee an Gannon[4] was born in the morning, named at noon, and went
in the evening to ask his daughter of the king of Erin.
[4] Shee an Gannon, in Gaelic "Sighe an Gannon," the fairy of the
Gannon.
"I will give you my daughter in marriage," said the king of Erin; "you
won't get her, though, unless you go and bring me back the tidings that
I want, and tell me what it is that put a stop to the laughing of the
Gruagach Gaire,[5] who before this laughed always, and laughed so loud
that the whole world heard him. There are twelve iron spikes out here in
the garden behind my castle. On eleven of the spikes are the heads of
kings' sons who came seeking my daughter in marriage, and all of them
went away to get the knowledge I wanted. Not one was able to get it and
tell me what stopped the Gruagach Gaire from laughing. I took the heads
off them all when they came back without the tidings for which they
went, and I'm greatly in dread that your head'll be on the twelfth
spike, for I'll do the same to you that I did to the eleven kings' sons
unless you tell what put a stop to the laughing of the Gruagach."
[5] The laughing Gruagach.
The Shee an Gannon made no answer, but left the king and pushed away to
know could he find why the Gruagach was silent.
He took a glen at a step, a hill at a leap, and travelled all day till
evening. Then he came to a house. The master of the house asked him what
sort was he, and he said: "A young man looking for hire."
"Well," said the master of the house, "I was going to-morrow to look for
a man to mind my cows. If you'll work for me, you'll have a good place,
the best food a man could have to eat in this world, and a soft bed to
lie on."
The Shee an Gannon took service, and ate his supper. Then the master of
the house said: "I am the Gruagach Gaire; now that you are my man and
have eaten your supper, you'll have a bed of silk to sleep on."
Next morning after breakfast the Gruagach said to the Shee an Gannon:
"Go out now and loosen my five golden cows and my bull without horns,
and drive them to pasture; but when you have them out on the grass, be
careful you don't let them go near the land of the giant."
The new cowboy drove the cattle to pasture, and when near the land of
the giant, he saw it was covered with woods and surrounded by a high
wall. He went up, put his back against the wall, and threw in a great
stretch of it; then he went inside and threw out another great stretch
of the wall, and put the five golden cows and the bull without horns on
the land of the giant.
Then he climbed a tree, ate the sweet apples himself, and threw the sour
ones down to the cattle of the Gruagach Gaire.
Soon a great crashing was heard in the woods,--the noise of young trees
bending, and old trees breaking. The cowboy looked around, and saw a
five-headed giant pushing through the trees; and soon he was before
him. "Poor miserable creature!" said the giant; "but weren't you
impudent to come to my land and trouble me in this way? You're too big
for one bite, and too small for two. I don't know what to do but tear
you to pieces."
"You nasty brute," said the cowboy, coming down to him from the tree,
"'tis little I care for you;" and then they went at each other. So
great was the noise between them that there was nothing in the world but
what was looking on and listening to the combat.
They fought till late in the afternoon, when the giant was getting the
upper hand; and then the cowboy thought that if the giant should kill
him, his father and mother would never find him or set eyes on him
again, and he would never get the daughter of the king of Erin. The
heart in his body grew strong at this thought. He sprang on the giant,
and with the first squeeze and thrust he put him to his knees in the
hard ground, with the second thrust to his waist, and with the third to
his shoulders.
"I have you at last; you're done for now!" said the cowboy. Then he took
out his knife, cut the five heads off the giant, and when he had them
off he cut out the tongues and threw the heads over the wall.
Then he put the tongues in his pocket and drove home the cattle. That
evening the Gruagach couldn't find vessels enough in all his place to
hold the milk of the five golden cows.
After supper the cowboy would give no talk to his master, but kept his
mind to himself, and went to the bed of silk to sleep.
Next morning after breakfast the cowboy drove out his cattle, and going
on farther than the day before, stopped at a high wall. He put his back
to the wall, threw in a long stretch of it, then went in and threw out
another long stretch of it.
After that he put the five golden cows and the bull without horns on the
land, and going up on a tree, ate sweet apples himself, and threw down
the sour ones to the cattle.
Now the son of the king of Tisean set out from the king of Erin on the
same errand, after asking for his daughter; and as soon as the cowboy
drove in his cattle on the second day, he came along by the giant's
land, found the five heads of the giant thrown out by the cowboy the day
before, and picking them up, ran off to the king of Erin and put them
down before him.
"Oh, you have done good work!" said the king. "You have won one third of
my daughter."
Soon after the cowboy had begun to eat sweet apples, and the son of the
king of Tisean had run off with the five heads, there came a great noise
of young trees bending, and old trees breaking, and presently the cowboy
saw a giant larger than the one he had killed the day before.
"You miserable little wretch!" cried the giant; "what brings you here on
my land?"
"You wicked brute!" said the cowboy, "I don't care for you;" and
slipping down from the tree, he fell upon the giant.
The fight was fiercer than his first one; but towards evening, when he
was growing faint, the cowboy remembered that if he should fall, neither
his father nor mother would see him again, and he would never get the
daughter of the king of Erin.
This thought gave him strength; and jumping up, he caught the giant,
put him with one thrust to his knees in the hard earth, with a second to
his waist, with a third to his shoulders, and then swept the five heads
off him and threw them over the wall, after he had cut out the tongues
and put them in his pocket.
Leaving the body of the giant, the cowboy drove home the cattle, and the
Gruagach had still greater trouble in finding vessels for the milk of
the five golden cows.
After supper the cowboy said not a word, but went to sleep.
Next morning he drove the cattle still farther, and came to green woods
and a strong wall. Putting his back to the wall, he threw in a great
piece of it, and going in, threw out another piece. Then he drove the
five golden cows and the bull without horns to the land inside, ate
sweet apples himself, and threw down sour ones to the cattle.
The son of the king of Tisean came and carried off the heads as on the
day before.
Presently a third giant came crashing through the woods, and a battle
followed more terrible than the other two.
Towards evening the giant was gaining the upper hand, and the cowboy,
growing weak, would have been killed; but the thought of his parents and
the daughter of the king of Erin gave him strength, and he swept the
five heads off the giant, and threw them over the wall after he had put
the tongues in his pocket.
Then the cowboy drove home his cattle; and the Gruagach didn't know what
to do with the milk of the five golden cows, there was so much of it.
But when the cowboy was on the way home with the cattle, the son of the
king of Tisean came, took the five heads of the giant, and hurried to
the king of Erin.
"You have won my daughter now," said the king of Erin when he saw the
heads; "but you'll not get her unless you tell me what stops the
Gruagach Gaire from laughing."
On the fourth morning the cowboy rose before his master, and the first
words he said to the Gruagach were:
"What keeps you from laughing, you who used to laugh so loud that the
whole world heard you?"
"I'm sorry," said the Gruagach, "that the daughter of the king of Erin
sent you here."
"If you don't tell me of your own will, I'll make you tell me," said the
cowboy; and he put a face on himself that was terrible to look at, and
running through the house like a madman, could find nothing that would
give pain enough to the Gruagach but some ropes made of untanned
sheepskin hanging on the wall.
He took these down, caught the Gruagach, fastened his two hands behind
him, and tied his feet so that his little toes were whispering to his
ears. When he was in this state the Gruagach said: "I'll tell you what
stopped my laughing if you set me free."
So the cowboy unbound him, the two sat down together, and the Gruagach
said:--
"I lived in this castle here with my twelve sons. We ate, drank, played
cards, and enjoyed ourselves, till one day when my sons and I were
playing, a wizard hare came rushing in, jumped on our table, defiled it,
and ran away.
"On another day he came again; but if he did, we were ready for him, my
twelve sons and myself. As soon as he defiled our table and ran off, we
made after him, and followed him till nightfall, when he went into a
glen. We saw a light before us. I ran on, and came to a house with a
great apartment, where there was a man with twelve daughters, and the
hare was tied to the side of the room near the women.
"There was a large pot over the fire in the room, and a great stork
boiling in the pot. The man of the house said to me: 'There are bundles
of rushes at the end of the room, go there and sit down with your men!'
"He went into the next room and brought out two pikes, one of wood, the
other of iron, and asked me which of the pikes would I take. I said,
'I'll take the iron one;' for I thought in my heart that if an attack
should come on me, I could defend myself better with the iron than the
wooden pike.
"The man of the house gave me the iron pike, and the first chance of
taking what I could out of the pot on the point of the pike. I got but a
small piece of the stork, and the man of the house took all the rest on
his wooden pike. We had to fast that night; and when the man and his
twelve daughters ate the flesh of the stork, they hurled the bare bones
in the faces of my sons and myself.
"We had to stop all night that way, beaten on the faces by the bones of
the stork.
"Next morning, when we were going away, the man of the house asked me to
stay a while; and going into the next room, he brought out twelve loops
of iron and one of wood, and said to me: 'Put the heads of your twelve
sons into the iron loops, or your own head into the wooden one;' and I
said: 'I'll put the twelve heads of my sons in the iron loops, and keep
my own out of the wooden one.'
"He put the iron loops on the necks of my twelve sons, and put the
wooden one on his own neck. Then he snapped the loops one after another,
till he took the heads off my twelve sons and threw the heads and bodies
out of the house; but he did nothing to hurt his own neck.
"When he had killed my sons he took hold of me and stripped the skin and
flesh from the small of my back down, and when he had done that he took
the skin of a black sheep that had been hanging on the wall for seven
years and clapped it on my body in place of my own flesh and skin; and
the sheepskin grew on me, and every year since then I shear myself, and
every bit of wool I use for the stockings that I wear I clip off my own
back."
When he had said this, the Gruagach showed the cowboy his back covered
with thick black wool.
After what he had seen and heard, the cowboy said: "I know now why you
don't laugh, and small blame to you. But does that hare come here still
to spoil your table?"
"He does indeed," said the Gruagach.
Both went to the table to play, and they were not long playing cards
when the hare ran in; and before they could stop him he was on the
table, and had put it in such a state that they could not play on it
longer if they had wanted to.
But the cowboy made after the hare, and the Gruagach after the cowboy,
and they ran as fast as ever their legs could carry them till
nightfall; and when the hare was entering the castle where the twelve
sons of the Gruagach were killed, the cowboy caught him by the two hind
legs and dashed out his brains against the wall; and the skull of the
hare was knocked into the chief room of the castle, and fell at the feet
of the master of the place.
"Who has dared to interfere with my fighting pet?" screamed he.
"I," said the cowboy; "and if your pet had had manners, he might be
alive now."
The cowboy and the Gruagach stood by the fire. A stork was boiling in
the pot, as when the Gruagach came the first time. The master of the
house went into the next room and brought out an iron and a wooden pike,
and asked the cowboy which would he choose.
"I'll take the wooden one," said the cowboy; "and you may keep the iron
one for yourself."
So he took the wooden one; and going to the pot, brought out on the pike
all the stork except a small bite, and he and the Gruagach fell to
eating, and they were eating the flesh of the stork all night. The
cowboy and the Gruagach were at home in the place that time.
In the morning the master of the house went into the next room, took
down the twelve iron loops with a wooden one, brought them out, and
asked the cowboy which would he take, the twelve iron or the one wooden
loop.
"What could I do with the twelve iron ones for myself or my master? I'll
take the wooden one."
He put it on, and taking the twelve iron loops, put them on the necks of
the twelve daughters of the house, then snapped the twelve heads off
them, and turning to their father, said: "I'll do the same thing to you
unless you bring the twelve sons of my master to life, and make them as
well and strong as when you took their heads."
The master of the house went out and brought the twelve to life again;
and when the Gruagach saw all his sons alive and as well as ever, he let
a laugh out of himself, and all the Eastern world heard the laugh.
Then the cowboy said to the Gruagach: "It's a bad thing you have done to
me, for the daughter of the king of Erin will be married the day after
your laugh is heard."
"Oh! then we must be there in time," said the Gruagach; and they all
made away from the place as fast as ever they could, the cowboy, the
Gruagach, and his twelve sons.
On the road they came to a woman who was crying very hard.
"What is your trouble?" asked the cowboy.
"You need have no care," said she, "for I will not tell you."
"You must tell me," said he, "for I'll help you out of it."
"Well," said the woman, "I have three sons, and they used to play hurley
with the three sons of the king of the Sasenach,[6] and they were more
than a match for the king's sons. And it was the rule that the winning
side should give three wallops of their hurleys to the other side; and
my sons were winning every game, and gave such a beating to the king's
sons that they complained to their father, and the king carried away my
sons to London, and he is going to hang them there to-day."
[6] Sasenach, English.
"I'll bring them here this minute," said the cowboy. "You have no
time," said the Gruagach.
"Have you tobacco and a pipe?" asked the cowboy of the Gruagach.
"I have not," said he.
"Well, I have," said the cowboy; and putting his hand in his pocket, he
took out tobacco and a pipe, gave them to the Gruagach, and said: "I'll
be in London and back before you can put tobacco in this pipe and light
it."
He disappeared, was back from London with the three boys all safe and
well, and gave them to their mother before the Gruagach could get a
taste of smoke out of the pipe.
"Now come with us," said the cowboy to the woman and her sons, "to the
wedding of the daughter of the king of Erin."
They hurried on; and when within three miles of the king's castle there
was such a throng of people that no one could go a step ahead. "We must
clear a road through this," said the cowboy.
"We must indeed," said the Gruagach; and at it they went, threw the
people some on one side and some on the other, and soon they had an
opening for themselves to the king's castle.
As they went in, the daughter of the king of Erin and the son of the
king of Tisean were on their knees just going to be married. The cowboy
drew his hand on the bridegroom, and gave a blow that sent him spinning
till he stopped under a table at the other side of the room.
"What scoundrel struck that blow?" asked the king of Erin.
"It was I," said the cowboy.
"What reason had you to strike the man who won my daughter?"
"It was I who won your daughter, not he; and if you don't believe me,
the Gruagach Gaire is here himself. He'll tell you the whole story from
beginning to end, and show you the tongues of the giants."
So the Gruagach came up and told the king the whole story, how the Shee
an Gannon had become his cowboy, had guarded the five golden cows and
the bull without horns, cut off the heads of the five-headed giants,
killed the wizard hare, and brought his own twelve sons to life. "And
then," said the Gruagach, "he is the only man in the whole world I have
ever told why I stopped laughing, and the only one who has ever seen my
fleece of wool."
When the king of Erin heard what the Gruagach said, and saw the tongues
of the giants fitted into the heads, he made the Shee an Gannon kneel
down by his daughter, and they were married on the spot.
Then the son of the king of Tisean was thrown into prison, and the next
day they put down a great fire, and the deceiver was burned to ashes.
The wedding lasted nine days, and the last day was better than the
first.
THE THREE DAUGHTERS OF THE KING OF THE EAST, AND THE SON
OF A KING IN ERIN.
There was once a king in Erin, and he had an only son. While this son
was a little child his mother died.
After a time the king married and had a second son.
The two boys grew up together; and as the elder was far handsomer and
better than the younger, the queen became jealous, and was for banishing
him out of her sight.
The king's castle stood near the shore of Loch Erne, and three swans
came every day to be in the water and swim in the lake. The elder
brother used to go fishing; and once when he sat at the side of the
water, the three swans made young women of themselves, came to where he
sat, and talked to the king's son.
The queen had a boy minding cows in the place, and when he went home
that night he told about what he had seen,--that there were three young
women at the lake, and the king's son was talking to the three that day.
Next morning the queen called the cowboy to her, and said: "Here is a
pin of slumber; and do you stick it in the clothes of the king's son
before the young women come, and when they go away, take out the pin and
bring it back to me."
That day when the cowboy saw the three young women coming, he went near
and threw the pin, which stuck in the clothes of the king's son. That
instant he fell asleep on the ground.
When the young women came, one of them took a towel, dipped it in the
cold water of the lake, and rubbed his face; but she could not rouse
him. When their time came to go, they were crying and lamenting because
the young man was asleep; and one of the three put a gold pin in his
bosom, so that when he woke up he would find it and keep her in mind.
After they had gone a couple of hours, the cowboy came up, took out the
sleeping-pin, and hurried off. The king's son woke up without delay; and
finding the gold pin in his bosom, he knew the young woman had come to
see him.
Next day he fished and waited again. When the cowboy saw the young women
coming out of the lake, he stole up a second time, and threw the pin,
which stuck in his clothes, and that moment he was drowsy and fell
asleep. When the young women came he was lying on the ground asleep. One
of them rubbed him with a towel dipped in the water of the lake; but no
matter what she did, he slept on, and when they had to go, she put a
gold ring in his bosom. When the sisters were leaving the lake, and had
put on their swan-skins and become swans, they all flew around him and
flapped their wings in his face to know could they rouse him; but there
was no use in trying.
After they had gone, the cowboy came and took out the sleeping-pin. When
the king's son was awake he put his hand in his bosom, found the
keepsake, and knew that the sisters had come to him.
When he went fishing the third day, he called up the cowboy and said:
"I fall asleep every day. I know something is done to me. Now do you
tell me all. In time I'll reward you well. I know my stepmother sends
something by you that takes my senses away."
"I would tell," said the cowboy, "but I'm in dread my mistress might
kill or banish me."
"She will not, for I'll put you in the way she'll not harm you. You see
my fishing-bag here? Now throw the pin, which I know you have, towards
me, and hit the bag."
The cowboy did as he was told, and threw the pin into the fishing-bag,
where it remained without harm to any one. The cowboy went back to his
cattle, and the prince fished on as before. The three swans were out in
the middle of the lake swimming around for themselves in the water, and
the prince moved on, fishing, till he came to a bend in the shore. On
one side of him a tongue of land ran out into the lake. The swans came
to the shore, leaving the piece of land between themselves and the
prince. Then they took off their swan-skins, were young women, and
bathed in the lake.
After that they came out, put on the dress of young women, and went to
where the king's son was fishing.
He spoke to them, and asked where were they from, in what place were
they born, and why were they swans.
They said: "We are three sisters, daughters of the king of the East, and
we have two brothers. Our mother died, and our father married again, and
had two other daughters; and these two are not so good looking nor so
well favored as we, and their mother was in dread they wouldn't get such
fine husbands as we, so she enchanted us, and now we are going about
the world from lake to lake in the form of swans."
Then the eldest of the three sisters said to the king's son: "What kind
are you, and where were you born?"
"I was born in Erin," said he; "and when I was a little boy my mother
died, my father married again and had a second son, and that son wasn't
to the eye what I was, and my stepmother was for banishing me from my
father's house because she thought her own son was not so good as I was,
and I am fishing here every day by the lake to keep out of her sight."
"Well," said the eldest sister, "I thought you were a king's son, and so
I came to you in my own form to know could we go on in the world
together."
"I don't know yet what to do," said the king's son.
"Well, be sure of your mind to-morrow, for that will be the last day for
me here."
When the cowboy was going home, the king's son gave him the sleeping-pin
for the stepmother. When he had driven in the cattle, the cowboy told
the queen that the young man had fallen asleep as on the two other days.
But there was an old witch in the place who was wandering about the lake
that day. She saw everything, went to the queen, and told her how the
three swans had made young women of themselves, and talked with her
stepson.
When the queen heard the old witch, she fell into a terrible rage at the
cowboy for telling her a lie, and banished him out of her sight forever.
Then she got another cowboy, and sent him off with the sleeping-pin next
day. When he came near the lake, the king's son tried to drive him off;
but the cowboy threw the sleeping-pin into his clothes, and he fell down
near the edge of the water without sight or sense.
The three sisters came, and found him sleeping. They rubbed him, and
threw water on his face, but they could not wake him. And the three were
lamenting sorely, for they had brought a swan's skin with them that day,
so the king's son might make a swan of himself and fly away with them,
for this was their last day at that place; but they could do nothing
now, for he lay there dead asleep on the ground before them.
The eldest sister pulled out her handkerchief, and the falling tears
dropped on it. Then she took a knife, and cut one of the nipples from
her breast. The second sister wrote on the handkerchief: "Keep this in
mind till you get more account from us." They put it in his bosom and
went away.
As soon as the sisters had gone, the cowboy came, drew out the pin, and
hurried away. The stepmother was always trying to banish the king's son,
hoping that something might happen to him, and her own son be the heir.
So now he went off and wandered away through Erin, always inquiring for
the eldest sister, but never could find her.
At the end of seven years he came home, and was fishing at the side of
Loch Erne again, when a swan flew up to him and said: "Your love is
lying on her death-bed, unless you go to save her. She is bleeding from
the breast, and you must go to her now. Go straight to the East!"
The king's son went straight to the East, and on the way there rose up
storm and fog against him; but they did not stop him. He was going on
always, and when he was three weeks' journey from his father's castle he
stumbled one dark, misty day and fell over a ditch. When he rose up
there stood on the other side of the ditch before him a little horse,
all bridled and saddled, with a whip on the saddle. The horse spoke up
and said: "If you are the king's son, I was sent here to meet you, and
carry you to the castle of the king of the East. There is a young woman
at the castle who thinks it long till she sees you. Now ask me no
questions, for I'm not at liberty to talk to you till I bring you to the
East."
"I suppose we are to be a long time going?" said the king's son.
"Don't trouble yourself about the going; I'll take you safely. Sit on my
back now, and be sure you're a good rider, and you'll not be long on the
road. This is my last word."
They went on, and were going always; and as he travelled, the prince met
the wind that was before him, and the wind that blew behind could not
come up with him. When he was hungry the pommel of the saddle opened,
and he found the best of eating inside.
They went on sweeping over the world for two weeks, and when they were
near the East the horse said: "Get down from my back now, for it's tired
I am."
"How far are we from the castle?" asked the king's son.
"Five days' journey," answered the horse. "When you come to the castle,
don't stop a moment till you ask where the young woman is lying; and
tell them to be sure to give good stabling and food to the horse. Come
and see me yourself every day. If you don't, there will be nothing for
me but fasting; and that's what I don't like."
When the king's son came to the castle it was evening. The two younger
sisters welcomed him. (These were two of the swans at the lake in Erin,
and now at home by the enchantment of their stepmother. They were swans
in the daytime, and women only at night, so as not to be under the eye
of young men when these came to see the stepmother's own daughters.)
They said: "Our sister is on an island, and we'll go to her." They got a
boat for the young man, and went with him to where their sister was
lying. They said to her: "The son of the king of Erin is here."
"Let him come in, that I may look at him," said she.
The king's son went in, and when she saw him she was glad. "Have you
anything that belongs to me?" asked she.
"I have."
"Then throw it on my breast."
He threw the handkerchief on her breast and went away. Next day she rose
from the bed as well as ever. On the third day after his arrival, the
son of the king of Erin married the eldest daughter of the king of the
East, and the stepmother's enchantment was destroyed; and there was the
grandest wedding that ever was seen in that kingdom.
The king's son, thinking only of his bride, forgot all about the horse
that had brought him over the long road. When at last he went to see
him, the stable was empty; the horse had gone. And neither his father in
Erin nor the stepmother came to his mind, he was living so pleasantly in
the East. But after he had been there a long time, and a son and a
daughter had been born to him, he remembered his father. Then he made up
his mind not to let the stepmother's son be heir to the kingdom in place
of himself. So taking his wife and children, he left the East and
travelled to Erin. He stopped on the road, and sent word to the father
that he was coming.
When the stepmother heard the news, a great weakness came on her. She
fell into a fit and died.
The king's son waited in a convenient place till the funeral was over,
and then he came to the castle and lived with his father. He was not
long in the place when he sent messengers to know could they find the
cowboy that the stepmother banished for telling about the sleeping-pin.
They brought the cowboy to the castle, and the king made him his
coachman.
The cowboy was not twelve months in his new place before he married.
Then the king's son gave him a fine piece of land to live on, with six
cows and four horses. There was not a happier man in the kingdom than
the cowboy. When the father died, the king's son became king in Erin
himself.