And as to Angus Og, son of the Dagda, sometimes he would come from Brugh
na Boinn and let himself be seen upon the earth.
It was a long time after the coming of the Gael that he was seen by
Cormac, King of Teamhair, and this is the account he gave of him.
He was by himself one day in his Hall of Judgment, for he used to be
often reading the laws and thinking how he could best carry them out.
And on a sudden he saw a stranger, a very comely young man, at the end
of the hall; and he knew on the moment it was Angus Og, for he had often
heard his people talking of him, but he himself used to be saying he did
not believe there was any such person at all. And when his people came
back to the hall, he told them how he had seen Angus himself, and had
talked with him, and Angus had told him his name, and had foretold what
would happen him in the future. "And he was a beautiful young man," he
said, "with high looks, and his appearance was more beautiful than all
beauty, and there were ornaments of gold on his dress; in his hand he
held a silver harp with strings of red gold, and the sound of its
strings was sweeter than all music under the sky; and over the harp were
two birds that seemed to be playing on it. He sat beside me pleasantly
and played his sweet music to me, and in the end he foretold things that
put drunkenness on my wits."
The birds, now, that used to be with Angus were four of his kisses that
turned into birds and that used to be coming about the young men of
Ireland, and crying after them. "Come, come," two of them would say, and
"I go, I go," the other two would say, and it was hard to get free of
them. But as to Angus, even when he was in his young youth, he used to
be called the Frightener, or the Disturber; for the plough teams of the
world, and every sort of cattle that is used by men, would make away in
terror before him.
And one time he appeared in the shape of a land-holder to two men, Ribh
and Eocho, that were looking for a place to settle in. The first place
they chose was near Bregia on a plain that was belonging to Angus; and
it was then he came to them, leading his horse in his hand, and told
them they should not stop there. And they said they could not carry away
their goods without horses. Then he gave them his horse, and bade them
to put all they had a mind to on that horse and he would carry it, and
so he did. But the next place they chose was Magh Find, the Fine Plain,
that was the playing ground of Angus and of Midhir. And that time Midhir
came to them in the same way and gave them a horse to put their goods
on, and he went on with them as far as Magh Dairbthenn.
And there were many women loved Angus, and there was one Enghi, daughter
of Elcmair, loved him though she had not seen him. And she went one time
looking for him to the gathering for games between Cletech and Sidhe in
Broga; and the bright troops of the Sidhe used to come to that gathering
every Samhain evening, bringing a moderate share of food with them, that
is, a nut. And the sons of Derc came from the north, out of Sidhe
Findabrach, and they went round about the young men and women without
their knowledge and they brought away Elcmair's daughter. There were
great lamentations made then, and the name the place got was Cnoguba,
the Nut Lamentation, from the crying there was at that gathering.
And Derbrenn, Eochaid Fedlech's daughter, was another that was loved by
Angus, and she had six fosterlings, three boys and three girls. But the
mother of the boys, Dalb Garb, the Rough, put a spell on them she made
from a gathering of the nuts of Caill Ochuid, that turned them into
swine.
And Angus gave them into the care of Buichet, the Hospitaller of
Leinster, and they stopped a year with him. But at the end of that time
there came a longing On Buichet's wife to eat a bit of the flesh of one
of them. So she gathered a hundred armed men and a hundred hounds to
take them. But the pigs made away, and went to Brugh na Boinn, to Angus,
and he bade them welcome, and they asked him to give them his help. But
he said he could not do that till they had shaken the Tree of Tarbga,
and eaten the salmon of Inver Umaill.
So they went to Glascarn, and stopped a year in hiding with Derbrenn.
And then they shook the Tree of Tarbga, and they went on towards Inver
Umaill. But Maeve gathered the men of Connacht to hunt them, and they
all fell but one, and their heads were put in a mound, and it got the
name of Duma Selga, the Mound of the Hunting.
And it was in the time of Maeve of Cruachan that Angus set his love on
Caer Ormaith, of the Province of Connacht, and brought her away to Brugh
na Boinn.