Besides the legends which cluster round great heroic names, and have, or
at least pretend to have, the character of history, there are many others,
great and small, which tell of adventures lying purely in regions of
romance, and out of earthly space and time. As a specimen of these I give
here a summary of the “Voyage of Maeldūn,” a most curious and brilliant
piece of invention, which is found in the manuscript entitled the “Book of
the Dun Cow” (about 1100) and other early sources, and edited, with a
translation (to which I owe the following extracts), by Dr. Whitley Stokes
in the “Revue Celtique” for 1888 and 1889. It is only one of a number of
such wonder-voyages found in ancient Irish literature, but it is believed
to have been the earliest of them all and model for the rest, and it has
had the distinction, in the abridged and modified form given by Joyce in
his “Old Celtic Romances,” of having furnished the theme for the “Voyage
of Maeldune” to Tennyson, who made it into a wonderful creation of rhythm
and colour, embodying a kind of allegory of Irish history. It will be
noticed at the end that we are in the unusual position of knowing the name
of the author of this piece of primitive literature, though he does not
claim to have composed, but only to have “put in order,” the incidents of
the “Voyage.” Unfortunately we cannot tell when he lived, but the tale as
we have it probably dates from the ninth century. Its atmosphere is
entirely Christian, and it has no mythological significance except in so
far as it teaches the lesson that the oracular injunctions of wizards
should be obeyed. No adventure, or even detail, of importance is omitted
in the following summary of the story, which is given thus fully because
the reader may take it as representing a large and important section of
Irish legendary romance. Apart from the source to which I am indebted, the
“Revue Celtique,” I know no other faithful reproduction in English of this
wonderful tale.
The “Voyage of Maeldūn” begins, as Irish tales often do, by telling us of
the conception of its hero.
There was a famous man of the sept of the Owens of Aran, named Ailill
Edge-of-Battle, who went with his king on a foray into another territory.
They encamped one night near a church and convent of nuns. At midnight
Ailill, who was near the church, saw a certain nun come out to strike the
bell for nocturns, and caught her by the hand. In ancient Ireland
religious persons were not much respected in time of war, and Ailill did
not respect her. When they parted, she said to him: “Whence is thy race,
and what is thy name?” Said the hero: “Ailill of the Edge-of-Battle is my
name, and I am of the Owenacht of Aran, in Thomond.”
Not long afterwards Ailill was slain by reavers from Leix, who burned the
church of Doocloone over his head.
In due time a son was born to the woman and she called his name Maeldūn.
He was taken secretly to her friend, the queen of the territory, and by
her Maeldūn was reared. “Beautiful indeed was his form, and it is doubtful
if there hath been in flesh any one so beautiful as he. So he grew up till
he was a young warrior and fit to use weapons. Great, then, was his
brightness and his gaiety and his playfulness. In his play he outwent all
his comrades in throwing balls, and in running and leaping and putting
stones and racing horses.”
One day a proud young warrior who had been defeated by him taunted him
with his lack of knowledge of his kindred and descent. Maeldūn went to his
foster-mother, the queen, and said: “I will not eat nor drink till thou
tell me who are my mother and my father.” “I am thy mother,” said the
queen, “for none ever loved her son more than I love thee.” But Maeldūn
insisted on knowing all, and the queen at last took him to his own mother,
the nun, who told him: “Thy father was Ailill of the Owens of Aran.” Then
Maeldūn went to his own kindred, and was well received by them; and with
him he took as guests his three beloved foster-brothers, sons of the king
and queen who had brought him up.
After a time Maeldūn happened to be among a company of young warriors who
were contending at putting the stone in the graveyard of the ruined church
of Doocloone. Maeldūn’s foot was planted, as he heaved the stone, on a
scorched and blackened flagstone; and one who was by, a monk named
Briccne,(192) said to him: “It were better for thee to avenge the man who
was burnt there than to cast stones over his burnt bones.”
“Who was that?” asked Maeldūn.
“Ailill, thy father,” they told him.
“Who slew him?” said he.
“Reavers from Leix,” they said, “and they destroyed him on this spot.”
Then Maeldūn threw down the stone he was about to cast, and put his mantle
round him and went home; and he asked the way to Leix. They told him he
could only go there by sea.(193)
At the advice of a Druid he then built him a boat, or coracle, of skins
lapped threefold one over the other; and the wizard also told him that
seventeen men only must accompany him, and on what day he must begin the
boat and on what day he must put out to sea.
So when his company was ready he put out and hoisted the sail, but had
gone only a little way when his three foster-brothers came down to the
beach and entreated him to take them. “Get you home,” said Maeldūn, “for
none but the number I have may go with me.” But the three youths would not
be separated from Maeldūn, and they flung themselves into the sea. He
turned back, lest they should be drowned, and brought them into his boat.
All, as we shall see, were punished for this transgression, and Maeldūn
condemned to wandering until expiation had been made.
Irish bardic tales excel in their openings. In this case, as usual, the
_mise-en-scène_ is admirably contrived. The narrative which follows tells
how, after seeing his father’s slayer on an island, but being unable to
land there, Maeldūn and his party are blown out to sea, where they visit a
great number of islands and have many strange adventures on them. The tale
becomes, in fact, a _cento_ of stories and incidents, some not very
interesting, while in others, as in the adventure of the Island of the
Silver Pillar, or the Island of the Flaming Rampart, or that where the
episode of the eagle takes place, the Celtic sense of beauty, romance, and
mystery find an expression unsurpassed, perhaps, in literature.
In the following rendering I have omitted the verses given by Joyce at the
end of each adventure. They merely recapitulate the prose narrative, and
are not found in the earliest manuscript authorities.
*The Island of the Slaves*
Maeldūn and his crew had rowed all day and half the night when they came
to two small bare islands with two forts in them, and a noise was heard
from them of armed men quarrelling. “Stand off from me,” cried one of
them, “for I am a better man than thou. ’Twas I slew Ailill of the
Edge-of-Battle and burned the church of Doocloone over him, and no kinsman
has avenged his death on me. And _thou_ hast never done the like of that.”
Then Maeldūn was about to land, and Germān(194) and Diuran the Rhymer
cried that God had guided them to the spot where they would be. But a
great wind arose suddenly and blew them off into the boundless ocean, and
Maeldūn said to his foster-brothers: “Ye have caused this to be, casting
yourselves on board in spite of the words of the Druid.” And they had no
answer, save only to be silent for a little space.
*The Island of the Ants*
They drifted three days and three nights, not knowing whither to row, when
at the dawn of the third day they heard the noise of breakers, and came to
an island as soon as the sun was up. Here, ere they could land, they met a
swarm of ferocious ants, each the size of a foal, that came down the
strand and into the sea to get at them; so they made off quickly, and saw
no land for three days more.
*The Island of the Great Birds*
This was a terraced island, with trees all round it, and great birds
sitting on the trees. Maeldūn landed first alone, and carefully searched
the island for any evil thing, but finding none, the rest followed him,
and killed and ate many of the birds, bringing others on board their boat.
*The Island of the Fierce Beast*
A great sandy island was this, and on it a beast like a horse, but with
clawed feet like a hound’s. He flew at them to devour them, but they put
off in time, and were pelted by the beast with pebbles from the shore as
they rowed away.
*The Island of the Giant Horses*
A great, flat island, which it fell by lot to Germān and Diuran to explore
first. They found a vast green racecourse, on which were the marks of
horses’ hoofs, each as big as the sail of a ship, and the shells of nuts
of monstrous size were lying about, and much plunder. So they were afraid,
and took ship hastily again, and from the sea they saw a horse-race in
progress and heard the shouting of a great multitude cheering on the white
horse or the brown, and saw the giant horses running swifter than the
wind.(195) So they rowed away with all their might, thinking they had come
upon an assembly of demons.
*The Island of the Stone Door*
A full week passed, and then they found a great, high island with a house
standing on the shore. A door with a valve of stone opened into the sea,
and through it the sea-waves kept hurling salmon into the house. Maeldūn
and his party entered, and found the house empty of folk, but a great bed
lay ready for the chief to whom it belonged, and a bed for each three of
his company, and meat and drink beside each bed. Maeldūn and his party ate
and drank their fill, and then sailed off again.
*The Island of the Apples*
By the time they had come here they had been a long time voyaging, and
food had failed them, and they were hungry. This island had precipitous
sides from which a wood hung down, and as they passed along the cliffs
Maeldūn broke off a twig and held it in his hand. Three days and nights
they coasted the cliff and found no entrance to the island, but by that
time a cluster of three apples had grown on the end of Maeldūn’s rod, and
each apple sufficed the crew for forty days.
*The Island of the Wondrous Beast*
This island had a fence of stone round it, and within the fence a huge
beast that raced round and round the island. And anon it went to the top
of the island, and then performed a marvellous feat, viz., it turned its
body round and round inside its skin, the skin remaining unmoved, while
again it would revolve its skin round and round the body. When it saw the
party it rushed at them, but they escaped, pelted with stones as they
rowed away. One of the stones pierced through Maeldūn’s shield and lodged
in the keel of the boat.
*The Island of the Biting Horses*
Here were many great beasts resembling horses, that tore continually
pieces of flesh from each other’s sides, so that all the island ran with
blood. They rowed hastily away, and were now disheartened and full of
complaints, for they knew not where they were, nor how to find guidance or
aid in their quest.
*The Island of the Fiery Swine*
With great weariness, hunger, and thirst they arrived at the tenth island,
which was full of trees loaded with golden apples. Under the trees went
red beasts, like fiery swine, that kicked the trees with their legs, when
the apples fell and the beasts consumed them. The beasts came out at
morning only, when a multitude of birds left the island, and swam out to
sea till nones, when they turned and swam inward again till vespers, and
ate the apples all night.
Maeldūn and his comrades landed at night, and felt the soil hot under
their feet from the fiery swine in their caverns underground. They
collected all the apples they could, which were good both against hunger
and thirst, and loaded their boat with them and put to sea once more,
refreshed.
*The Island of the Little Cat*
The apples had failed them when they came hungry and thirsting to the
eleventh island. This was, as it were, a tall white tower of chalk
reaching up to the clouds, and on the rampart about it were great houses
white as snow. They entered the largest of them, and found no man in it,
but a small cat playing on four stone pillars which were in the midst of
the house, leaping from one to the other. It looked a little on the Irish
warriors, but did not cease from its play. On the walls of the houses
there were three rows of objects hanging up, one row of brooches of gold
and silver, and one of neck-torques of gold and silver, each as big as the
hoop of a cask, and one of great swords with gold and silver hilts. Quilts
and shining garments lay in the room, and there, also, were a roasted ox
and a flitch of bacon and abundance of liquor. “Hath this been left for
us?” said Maeldūn to the cat. It looked at him a moment, and then
continued its play. So there they ate and drank and slept, and stored up
what remained of the food. Next day, as they made to leave the house, the
youngest of Maeldūn’s foster-brothers took a necklace from the wall, and
was bearing it out when the cat suddenly “leaped through him like a fiery
arrow,” and he fell, a heap of ashes, on the floor. Thereupon Maeldūn, who
had forbidden the theft of the jewel, soothed the cat and replaced the
necklace, and they strewed the ashes of the dead youth on the sea-shore,
and put to sea again.
*The Island of the Black and the White Sheep*
This had a brazen palisade dividing it in two, and a flock of black sheep
on one side and of white sheep on the other. Between them was a big man
who tended the flocks, and sometimes he put a white sheep among the black,
when it became black at once, or a black sheep among the white, when it
immediately turned white.(196) By way of an experiment Maeldūn flung a
peeled white wand on the side of the black sheep. It at once turned black,
whereat they left the place in terror, and without landing.
*The Island of the Giant Cattle*
A great and wide island with a herd of huge swine on it. They killed a
small pig and roasted it on the spot, as it was too great to carry on
board. The island rose up into a very high mountain, and Diuran and Germān
went to view the country from the top of it. On their way they met a broad
river. To try the depth of the water Germān dipped in the haft of his
spear, which at once was consumed as with liquid fire. On the other bank
was a huge man guarding what seemed a herd of oxen. He called to them not
to disturb the calves, so they went no further and speedily sailed away.
*The Island of the Mill*
Here they found a great and grim-looking mill, and a giant miller grinding
corn in it. “Half the corn of your country,” he said, “is ground here.
Here comes to be ground all that men begrudge to each other.” Heavy and
many were the loads they saw going to it, and all that was ground in it
was carried away westwards. So they crossed themselves and sailed away.
*The Island of the Black Mourners*
An island full of black people continually weeping and lamenting. One of
the two remaining foster-brothers landed on it, and immediately turned
black and fell to weeping like the rest. Two others went to fetch him; the
same fate befell them. Four others then went with their heads wrapped in
cloths, that they should not look on the land or breathe the air of the
place, and they seized two of the lost ones and brought them away
perforce, but not the foster-brother. The two rescued ones could not
explain their conduct except by saying that they had to do as they saw
others doing about them.
*The Island of the Four Fences*
Four fences of gold, silver, brass, and crystal divided this island into
four parts, kings in one, queens in another, warriors in a third, maidens
in the fourth.
On landing, a maiden gave them food like cheese, that tasted to each man
as he wished it to be, and an intoxicating liquor that put them asleep for
three days. When they awoke they were at sea in their boat, and of the
island and its inhabitants nothing was to be seen.
The Island of the Glass Bridge
Here we come to one of the most elaborately wrought and picturesque of all
the incidents of the voyage. The island they now reached had on it a
fortress with a brazen door, and a bridge of glass leading to it. When
they sought to cross the bridge it threw them backward.(197) A woman came
out of the fortress with a pail in her hand, and lifting from the bridge a
slab of glass she let down her pail into the water beneath, and returned
to the fortress. They struck on the brazen portcullis before them to gain
admittance, but the melody given forth by the smitten metal plunged them
in slumber till the morrow morn. Thrice over this happened, the woman each
time making an ironical speech about Maeldūn. On the fourth day, however,
she came out to them over the bridge, wearing a white mantle with a
circlet of gold on her hair, two silver sandals on her rosy feet, and a
filmy silken smock next her skin.
“My welcome to thee, O Maeldūn,” she said, and she welcomed each man of
the crew by his own name. Then she took them into the great house and
allotted a couch to the chief, and one for each three of his men. She gave
them abundance of food and drink, all out of her one pail, each man
finding in it what he most desired. When she had departed they asked
Maeldūn if they should woo the maiden for him. “How would it hurt you to
speak with her?” says Maeldūn. They do so, and she replies: “I know not,
nor have ever known, what sin is.” Twice over this is repeated.
“To-morrow,” she says at last, “you shall have your answer.” When the
morning breaks, however, they find themselves once more at sea, with no
sign of the island or fortress or lady.
*The Island of the Shouting Birds*
They hear from afar a great cry and chanting, as it were a singing of
psalms, and rowing for a day and night they come at last to an island full
of birds, black, brown, and speckled, all shouting and speaking. They sail
away without landing.
*The Island of the Anchorite*
Here they found a wooded island full of birds, and on it a solitary man,
whose only clothing was his hair. They asked him of his country and kin.
He tells them that he was a man of Ireland who had put to sea(198) with a
sod of his native country under his feet. God had turned the sod into an
island, adding a foot’s breadth to it and one tree for every year. The
birds are his kith and kin, and they all wait there till Doomsday,
miraculously nourished by angels. He entertained them for three nights,
and then they sailed away.
*The Island of the Miraculous Fountain*
This island had a golden rampart, and a soft white soil like down. In it
they found another anchorite clothed only in his hair. There was a
fountain in it which yields whey or water on Fridays and Wednesdays, milk
on Sundays and feasts of martyrs, and ale and wine on the feasts of
Apostles, of Mary, of John the Baptist, and on the high tides of the year.
*The Island of the Smithy*
As they approached this they heard from afar as it were the clanging of a
tremendous smithy, and heard men talking of themselves. “Little boys they
seem,” said one, “in a little trough yonder.” They rowed hastily away, but
did not turn their boat, so as not to seem to be flying; but after a while
a giant smith came out of the forge holding in his tongs a huge mass of
glowing iron, which he cast after them, and all the sea boiled round it,
as it fell astern of their boat.
*The Sea of Clear Glass*
After that they voyaged until they entered a sea that resembled green
glass. Such was its purity that the gravel and the sand of the sea were
clearly visible through it; and they saw no monsters or beasts therein
among the crags, but only the pure gravel and the green sand. For a long
space of the day they were voyaging in that sea, and great was its
splendour and its beauty.(199)
*The Undersea Island*
They next found themselves in a sea, thin like mist, that seemed as if it
would not support their boat. In the depths they saw roofed fortresses,
and a fair land around them. A monstrous beast lodged in a tree there,
with droves of cattle about it, and beneath it an armed warrior. In spite
of the warrior, the beast ever and anon stretched down a long neck and
seized one of the cattle and devoured it. Much dreading lest they should
sink through that mist-like sea, they sailed over it and away.
*The Island of the Prophecy*
When they arrived here they found the water rising in high cliffs round
the island, and, looking down, saw on it a crowd of people, who screamed
at them, “It is they, it is they,” till they were out of breath. Then came
a woman and pelted them from below with large nuts, which they gathered
and took with them. As they went they heard the folk crying to each other:
“Where are they now?” “They are gone away.” “They are not.” “It is
likely,” says the tale, “that there was some one concerning whom the
islanders had a prophecy that he would ruin their country and expel them
from their land.”
*The Island of the Spouting Water*
Here a great stream spouted out of one side of the island and arched over
it like a rainbow, falling on the strand at the further side. And when
they thrust their spears into the stream above them they brought out
salmon from it as much as they would, and the island was filled with the
stench of those they could not carry away.
*The Island of the Silvern Column*
The next wonder to which they came forms one of the most striking and
imaginative episodes of the voyage. It was a great silvern column,
four-square, rising from the sea. Each of its four sides was as wide as
two oar-strokes of the boat. Not a sod of earth was at its foot, but it
rose from the boundless ocean and its summit was lost in the sky. From
that summit a huge silver net was flung far away into the sea, and through
a mesh of that net they sailed. As they did so Diuran hacked away a piece
of the net. “Destroy it not,” said Maeldūn, “for what we see is the work
of mighty men.” Diuran said: “For the praise of God’s name I do this, that
our tale may be believed, and if I reach Ireland again this piece of
silver shall be offered by me on the high altar of Armagh.” Two ounces and
a half it weighed when it was measured afterwards in Armagh.
“And then they heard a voice from the summit of yonder pillar, mighty,
clear, and distinct. But they knew not the tongue it spake, or the words
it uttered.”
*The Island of the Pedestal*
The next island stood on a foot, or pedestal, which rose from the sea, and
they could find no way of access to it. In the base of the pedestal was a
door, closed and locked, which they could not open, so they sailed away,
having seen and spoken with no one.
*The Island of the Women*
Here they found the rampart of a mighty dūn, enclosing a mansion. They
landed to look on it, and sat on a hillock near by. Within the dūn they
saw seventeen maidens busy at preparing a great bath. In a little while a
rider, richly clad, came up swiftly on a racehorse, and lighted down and
went inside, one of the girls taking the horse. The rider then went into
the bath, when they saw that it was a woman. Shortly after that one of the
maidens came out and invited them to enter, saying: “The Queen invites
you.” They went into the fort and bathed, and then sat down to meat, each
man with a maiden over against him, and Maeldūn opposite to the queen. And
Maeldūn was wedded to the queen, and each of the maidens to one of his
men, and at nightfall canopied chambers were allotted to each of them. On
the morrow morn they made ready to depart, but the queen would not have
them go, and said: “Stay here, and old age will never fall on you, but ye
shall remain as ye are now for ever and ever, and what ye had last night
ye shall have always. And be no longer a-wandering from island to island
on the ocean.”
She then told Maeldūn that she was the mother of the seventeen girls they
had seen, and her husband had been king of the island. He was now dead,
and she reigned in his place. Each day she went into the great plain in
the interior of the island to judge the folk, and returned to the dūn at
night.
So they remained there for three months of winter; but at the end of that
time it seemed they had been there three years, and the men wearied of it,
and longed to set forth for their own country.
“What shall we find there,” said Maeldūn, “that is better than this?”
But still the people murmured and complained, and at last they said:
“Great is the love which Maeldūn has for his woman. Let him stay with her
alone if he will, but we will go to our own country.” But Maeldūn would
not be left after them, and at last one day, when the queen was away
judging the folk, they went on board their bark and put out to sea. Before
they had gone far, however, the queen came riding up with a clew of twine
in her hand, and she flung it after them. Maeldūn caught it in his hand,
and it clung to his hand so that he could not free himself, and the queen,
holding the other end, drew them back to land. And they stayed on the
island another three months.
Twice again the same thing happened, and at last the people averred that
Maeldūn held the clew on purpose, so great was his love for the woman. So
the next time another man caught the clew, but it clung to his hand as
before; so Diuran smote off his hand, and it fell with the clew into the
sea. “When she saw that she at once began to wail and shriek, so that all
the land was one cry, wailing and shrieking.” And thus they escaped from
the Island of the Women.
*The Island of the Red Berries*
On this island were trees with great red berries which yielded an
intoxicating and slumbrous juice. They mingled it with water to moderate
its power, and filled their casks with it, and sailed away.
*The Island of the Eagle*
A large island, with woods of oak and yew on one side of it, and on the
other a plain, whereon were herds of sheep, and a little lake in it; and
there also they found a small church and a fort, and an ancient grey
cleric, clad only in his hair. Maeldūn asked him who he was.
“I am the fifteenth man of the monks of St. Brennan of Birr,” he said. “We
went on our pilgrimage into the ocean, and they have all died save me
alone.” He showed them the tablet (? calendar) of the Holy Brennan, and
they prostrated themselves before it, and Maeldūn kissed it. They stayed
there for a season, feeding on the sheep of the island.
One day they saw what seemed to be a cloud coming up from the south-west.
As it drew near, however, they saw the waving of pinions, and perceived
that it was an enormous bird. It came into the island, and, alighting very
wearily on a hill near the lake, it began eating the red berries, like
grapes, which grew on a huge tree-branch as big as a full-grown oak, that
it had brought with it, and the juice and fragments of the berries fell
into the lake, reddening all the water. Fearful that it would seize them
in its talons and bear them out to sea, they lay hid in the woods and
watched it. After a while, however, Maeldūn went out to the foot of the
hill, but the bird did him no harm, and then the rest followed cautiously
behind their shields, and one of them gathered the berries off the branch
which the bird held in its talons, but it did them no evil, and regarded
them not at all. And they saw that it was very old, and its plumage dull
and decayed.
At the hour of noon two eagles came up from the south-west and alit in
front of the great bird, and after resting awhile they set to work picking
off the insects that infested its jaws and eyes and ears. This they
continued till vespers, when all three ate of the berries again. At last,
on the following day, when the great bird had been completely cleansed, it
plunged into the lake, and again the two eagles picked and cleansed it.
Till the third day the great bird remained preening and shaking its
pinions, and its feathers became glossy and abundant, and then, soaring
upwards, it flew thrice round the island, and away to the quarter whence
it had come, and its flight was now swift and strong; whence it was
manifest to them that this had been its renewal from old age to youth,
according as the prophet said, _Thy youth is renewed like the
eagle’s_.(200)
Then Diuran said: “Let us bathe in that lake and renew ourselves where the
bird hath been renewed.” “Nay,” said another, “for the bird hath left his
venom in it.” But Diuran plunged in and drank of the water. From that time
so long as he lived his eyes were strong and keen, and not a tooth fell
from his jaw nor a hair from his head, and he never knew illness or
infirmity.
Thereafter they bade farewell to the anchorite, and fared forth on the
ocean once more.
*The Island of the Laughing Folk*
Here they found a great company of men laughing and playing incessantly.
They drew lots as to who should enter and explore it, and it fell to
Maeldūn’s foster-brother. But when he set foot on it he at once began to
laugh and play with the others, and could not leave off, nor would he come
back to his comrades. So they left him and sailed away.(201)
*The Island of the Flaming Rampart*
They now came in sight of an island which was not large, and it had about
it a rampart of flame that circled round and round it continually. In one
part of the rampart there was an opening, and when this opening came
opposite to them they saw through it the whole island, and saw those who
dwelt therein, even men and women, beautiful, many, and wearing adorned
garments, with vessels of gold in their hands. And the festal music which
they made came to the ears of the wanderers. For a long time they lingered
there, watching this marvel, “and they deemed it delightful to behold.”
*The Island of the Monk of Tory*
Far off among the waves they saw what they took to be a white bird on the
water. Drawing near to it they found it to be an aged man clad only in the
white hair of his body, and he was throwing himself in prostrations on a
broad rock.
“From Torach(202) I have come hither,” he said, “and there I was reared. I
was cook in the monastery there, and the food of the Church I used to sell
for myself, so that I had at last much treasure of raiment and brazen
vessels and gold-bound books and all that man desires. Great was my pride
and arrogance.
“One day as I dug a grave in which to bury a churl who had been brought on
to the island, a voice came from below where a holy man lay buried, and he
said: ‘Put not the corpse of a sinner on me, a holy, pious person!’ ”
After a dispute the monk buried the corpse elsewhere, and was promised an
eternal reward for doing so. Not long thereafter he put to sea in a boat
with all his accumulated treasures, meaning apparently to escape from the
island with his plunder. A great wind blew him far out to sea, and when he
was out of sight of land the boat stood still in one place. He saw near
him a man (angel) sitting on the wave. “Whither goest thou?” said the man.
“On a pleasant way, whither I am now looking,” said the monk. “It would
not be pleasant to thee if thou knewest what is around thee,” said the
man. “So far as eye can see there is one crowd of demons all gathered
around thee, because of thy covetousness and pride, and theft, and other
evil deeds. Thy boat hath stopped, nor will it move until thou do my will,
and the fires of hell shall get hold of thee.”
He came near to the boat, and laid his hand on the arm of the fugitive,
who promised to do his will.
“Fling into the sea,” he said, “all the wealth that is in thy boat.”
“It is a pity,” said the monk, “that it should go to loss.”
“It shall in nowise go to loss. There will be one man whom thou wilt
profit.”
The monk thereupon flung everything into the sea save one little wooden
cup, and he cast away oars and rudder. The man gave him a provision of
whey and seven cakes, and bade him abide wherever his boat should stop.
The wind and waves carried him hither and thither till at last the boat
came to rest upon the rock where the wanderers found him. There was
nothing there but the bare rock, but remembering what he was bidden he
stepped out upon a little ledge over which the waves washed, and the boat
immediately left him, and the rock was enlarged for him. There he remained
seven years, nourished by otters which brought him salmon out of the sea,
and even flaming firewood on which to cook them, and his cup was filled
with good liquor every day. “And neither wet nor heat nor cold affects me
in this place.”
At the noon hour miraculous nourishment was brought for the whole crew,
and thereafter the ancient man said to them:
“Ye will all reach your country, and the man that slew thy father, O
Maeldūn, ye will find him in a fortress before you. And slay him not, but
forgive him; because God hath saved you from manifold great perils, and ye
too are men deserving of death.”
Then they bade him farewell and went on their accustomed way.
*The Island of the Falcon*
This is uninhabited save for herds of sheep and oxen. They land on it and
eat their fill, and one of them sees there a large falcon. “This falcon,”
he says, “is like the falcons of Ireland.” “Watch it,” says Maeldūn, “and
see how it will go from us.” It flew off to the south-east, and they rowed
after it all day till vespers.
*The Home-coming*
At nightfall they sighted a land like Ireland; and soon came to a small
island, where they ran their prow ashore. It was the island where dwelt
the man who had slain Ailill.
They went up to the dūn that was on the island, and heard men talking
within it as they sat at meat. One man said:
“It would be ill for us if we saw Maeldūn now.”
“That Maeldūn has been drowned,” said another.
“Maybe it is he who shall waken you from sleep to-night,” said a third.
“If he should come now,” said a fourth, “what should we do?”
“Not hard to answer that,” said the chief of them. “Great welcome should
he have if he were to come, for he hath been a long space in great
tribulation.”
Then Maeldūn smote with the wooden clapper against the door. “Who is
there?” asked the doorkeeper.
“Maeldūn is here,” said he.
They entered the house in peace, and great welcome was made for them, and
they were arrayed in new garments. And then they told the story of all the
marvels that God had shown them, according to the words of the “sacred
poet,” who said, _Haec olim meminisse juvabit._(203)
Then Maeldūn went to his own home and kindred, and Diuran the Rhymer took
with him the piece of silver that he had hewn from the net of the pillar,
and laid it on the high altar of Armagh in triumph and exultation at the
miracles that God had wrought for them. And they told again the story of
all that had befallen them, and all the marvels they had seen by sea and
land, and the perils they had endured.
The story ends with the following words:
“Now Aed the Fair [Aed Finn(204)], chief sage of Ireland, arranged this
story as it standeth here; and he did so for a delight to the mind, and
for the folks of Ireland after him.”