"It is," said Fialan.
"Why did you come?"
"I heard your cry, and how could I stay at home, hearing the cry of my
father and the Fenians of Erin!"
"Oh, my child, you cannot help us much."
Fialan struck the door powerfully with his sword, but no use. Then, one
of the men inside asked Fin to chew his thumb, to know what was keeping
them in, and why they were bound.
Fin chewed his thumb, from skin to blood, from blood to bone, from bone
to marrow, and discovered that Fear Dubh had built the castle by magic,
and that he was coming himself with a great force to cut the head off
each one of them. (These men from Alba had always a grudge against the
champions of Erin.)
Said Fin to Fialan: "Do you go now, and stand at the ford near the
castle, and meet Fear Dubh."
Fialan went and stood in the middle of the ford. He wasn't long there
when he saw Fear Dubh coming with a great army.
"Leave the ford, my child," said Fear Dubh, who knew him at once. "I
have not come to harm your father. I spent a pleasant year at his
castle. I've only come to show him honor."
"I know why you have come," answered Fialan. "You've come to destroy my
father and all his men, and I'll not leave this ford while I can hold
it."
"Leave the ford; I don't want to harm your father, I want to do him
honor. If you don't let us pass my men will kill you," said Fear Dubh.
"I will not let you pass so long as I'm alive before you," said Fialan.
The men faced him; and if they did Fialan kept his place, and a battle
commenced, the like of which was never seen before that day. Fialan went
through the army as a hawk through a flock of sparrows on a March
morning, till he killed every man except Fear Dubh. Fear Dubh told him
again to leave the ford, he didn't want to harm his father.
"Oh!" said Fialan, "I know well what you want."
"If you don't leave that place I'll make you leave it!" said Fear Dubh.
Then they closed in combat; and such a combat was never seen before
between any two warriors. They made springs to rise through the centre
of hard gray rocks, cows to cast their calves whether they had them or
not. All the horses of the country were racing about and neighing in
dread and fear, and all created things were terrified at the sound and
clamor of the fight, till the weapons of Fear Dubh went to pieces in the
struggle, and Fialan made two halves of his own sword.
Now they closed in wrestling. In the first round Fialan put Fear Dubh to
his knees in the hard bottom of the river; the second round he put him
to his hips, and the third, to his shoulders.
"Now," said he, "I have you," giving him a stroke of the half of his
sword, which cut the head off him.
Then Fialan went to the door of the castle and told his father what he
had done.
Fin chewed his thumb again, and knew what other danger was coming. "My
son," said he to Fialan, "Fear Dubh has a younger brother more powerful
than he was; that brother is coming against us now with greater forces
than those which you have destroyed."
As soon as Fialan heard these words he hurried to the ford, and waited
till the second army came up. He destroyed this army as he had the
other, and closed with the second brother in a fight fiercer and more
terrible than the first; but at last he thrust him to his armpits in the
hard bottom of the river and cut off his head.
Then he went to the castle, and told his father what he had done. A
third time Fin chewed his thumb, and said: "My son, a third army more to
be dreaded than the other two is coming now to destroy us, and at the
head of it is the youngest brother of Fear Dubh, the most desperate and
powerful of the three."
Again Fialan rushed off to the ford; and, though the work was greater
than before, he left not a man of the army alive. Then he closed with
the youngest brother of Fear Dubh, and if the first and second battles
were terrible this was more terrible by far; but at last he planted the
youngest brother up to his armpits in the hard bottom of the river, and
swept the head off him.
Now, after the heat and struggle of combat Fialan was in such a rage
that he lost his mind from fury, not having any one to fight against;
and if the whole world had been there before him he would have gone
through it and conquered it all.
But having no one to face him he rushed along the river-bank, tearing
the flesh from his own body. Never had such madness been seen in any
created being before that day.
Diarmuid came now and knocked at the door of the castle, having the dog
Bran with him, and asked Fin what had caused him to raise the cry of
distress.
"Oh, Diarmuid," said Fin, "we are all fastened in here to be killed.
Fialan has destroyed three armies, and Fear Dubh with his two brothers.
He is raging now along the bank of the river; you must not go near him,
for he would tear you limb from limb. At this moment he wouldn't spare
me, his own father; but after a while he will cease from raging and die
down; then you can go. The mother of Fear Dubh is coming, and will soon
be at the ford. She is more violent, more venomous, more to be dreaded,
a greater warrior than her sons. The chief weapon she has are the nails
on her fingers; each nail is seven perches long, of the hardest steel
on earth. She is coming in the air at this moment with the speed of a
hawk, and she has a k??an (a small vessel), with liquor in it,
which has such power that if she puts three drops of it on the mouths of
her sons they will rise up as well as ever; and if she brings them to
life there is nothing to save us.
"Go to the ford; she will be hovering over the corpses of the three
armies to know can she find her sons, and as soon as she sees them she
will dart down and give them the liquor. You must rise with a mighty
bound upon her, dash the k??an out of her hand and spill the
liquor.
"If you can kill her save her blood, for nothing in the world can free
us from this place and open the door of the castle but the blood of the
old hag. I'm in dread you'll not succeed, for she is far more terrible
than all her sons together. Go now; Fialan is dying away, and the old
woman is coming; make no delay."
Diarmuid hurried to the ford, stood watching a while; then he saw high
in the air something no larger than a hawk. As it came nearer and nearer
he saw it was the old woman. She hovered high in the air over the ford.
At last she saw her sons, and was swooping down, when Diarmuid rose with
a bound into the air and struck the vial a league out of her hand.
The old hag gave a shriek that was heard to the eastern world, and
screamed: "Who has dared to interfere with me or my sons?"
"I," answered Diarmuid; "and you'll not go further till I do to you what
has been done to your sons."
The fight began; and if there ever was a fight, before or since, it
could not be more terrible than this one; but great as was the power of
Diarmuid he never could have conquered but for Bran the dog.
The old woman with her nails stripped the skin and flesh from Diarmuid
almost to the vitals. But Bran tore the skin and flesh off the old
woman's back from her head to her heels.
From the dint of blood-loss and fighting, Diarmuid was growing faint.
Despair came on him, and he was on the point of giving way, when a
little robin flew near to him, and sitting on a bush, spoke, saying:
"Oh, Diarmuid, take strength; rise and sweep the head off the old hag,
or Fin and the Fenians of Erin are no more."
Diarmuid took courage, and with his last strength made one great effort,
swept the head off the old hag and caught her blood in a vessel. He
rubbed some on his own wounds,--they were cured; then he cured Bran.
Straightway he took the blood to the castle, rubbed drops of it on the
door, which opened, and he went in.
All laughed with joy at the rescue. He freed Fin and his men by rubbing
the blood on the chairs; but when he came as far as Conan Maol the blood
gave out.
All were going away. "Why should you leave me here after you;" cried
Conan Maol, "I would rather die at once than stay here for a lingering
death. Why don't you, Oscar, and you, Gol MacMorna, come and tear me out
of this place; anyhow you'll be able to drag the arms out of me and kill
me at once; better that than leave me to die alone."
Oscar and Gol took each a hand, braced their feet against his feet, put
forth all their strength and brought him standing; but if they did, he
left all the skin and much of the flesh from the back of his head to his
heels on the floor behind him. He was covered with blood, and by all
accounts was in a terrible condition, bleeding and wounded.
Now there were sheep grazing near the castle. The Fenians ran out,
killed and skinned the largest and best of the flock, and clapped the
fresh skin on Conan's back; and such was the healing power in the sheep,
and the wound very fresh, that Conan's back healed, and he marched home
with the rest of the men, and soon got well; and if he did, they sheared
off his back wool enough every year to make a pair of stockings for each
one of the Fenians of Erin, and for Fin himself.
And that was a great thing to do and useful, for wool was scarce in Erin
in those days. Fin and his men lived pleasantly and joyously for some
time; and if they didn't, may we.