It was more than eight hundred years ago, in the days of Olaf
Goddardson, that Baron Kitter, the Norwegian, lived in Mann. He
had his castle on the top of Barrule, and he spent all his time in
hunting the bisons and elks that were on the island then, until he
had killed them all. Then the people began to be afraid that he would
chase their cattle and the purrs of the mountains, and leave them
no beasts at all, so they went to the wisest witches of the island,
to see what they could do.
One day Baron Kitter had gone over to the Calf to hunt the red deer
there, leaving his cook, Eaoch of the Loud Voice, in the castle to
cook his dinner. Eaoch set the pot on the fire and then fell asleep
over his work. While he was sleeping the witch-wife Ada put a spell
on the pot, and the fat boiled over into the fire. Soon the house was
in flames. Eaoch woke and shouted for help at the top of his voice,
and his cries were so loud that they reached the ears of Kitter and
his fellow-huntsmen, ten miles away on the Calf.
When Kitter heard the cries and saw the flames on the top of Barrule,
he made for the beach as hard as he could, and put out in a small
currach for the island, with most of his friends. When they were in
the strong current about half way across the channel, the boat struck
on a rock and they were all drowned, and the rock has ever since
been called Kitterland. The rest of Kitter's friends, who had stayed
on the Calf and so saved their lives, believed that Eaoch, the cook,
had made a plot with the witches of the island to do away with all the
Norwegians in Mann, so they brought him before King Olaf to be judged,
and he was condemned to death. But according to the custom of Norway,
he was allowed to choose how he would die.
Then he said:
'I wish my head to be laid across one of your Majesty's legs, and
there cut off by your Majesty's sword Macabuin, which was made by
Loan Maclibuin, the Dark Smith of Drontheim!'
It was known to every person there that the king's sword could cut the
hardest granite, only by touching it with its edge, and they all begged
Olaf not to do as crafty Eaoch asked. But the king would not break
his word and gave orders that all should be done as the cook had said.
But the witch Ada was there and she told them to take toads' skins,
twigs of the cuirn tree, and adders' eggs, nine times nine of each,
and put them between the king's leg and the cook's head. They did this,
and then the great sword Macabuin, made by Loan Maclibuin, was lifted
with the greatest care by one of the king's faithful servants and laid
gently on the cook's neck, but before it could be stopped Eaoch's
head was cut from his body and the adders' eggs and the cuirn twigs
were also cut through--only the toads' skins saved the king's leg.
When the Dark Smith heard how the power of the great sword Macabuin
had been stayed by witchcraft, he was very angry, and called for
his Hammer-man, Hiallus-nan-urd, who had lost one leg when he was
helping to make the sword. He sent him off at once to Peel Castle
to challenge King Olaf, or any of his men, to a walking race from
Peel to Drontheim. King Olaf himself took up the challenge, and off
they set. Over mountains and through gills they walked, as fast as
they could go, and the one-legged man as fast as the king. When they
had crossed the island they each put out to sea in a sailing boat,
and each came in sight of Drontheim at the same moment. When they
drew near to the smithy, the Hammer-man, who was ahead, called out to
Loan to open the door, and Olaf called to him to shut it, and then,
pushing past Hiallus, got into the smithy first.
To show that he was not at all weary after his walk Olaf took up
the great hammer of the forge and struck the anvil such a mighty
blow that he split it through, and the block beneath it, too. When
Emergaid, the daughter of Loan, saw the strength and power of Olaf,
she loved him; and while her father was putting back the block and
anvil, she whispered to the king:
'My Father is doing that, so that he may finish the sword he is
making. It has been foretold that the first blood it shall shed shall
be royal blood, and he has sworn that that blood shall be yours.'
'But is not your father the seventh son of Old Windy Cap, King of
Norway?' cried Olaf.
'He is,' said Emergaid.
'Then the prophecy shall be fulfilled,' said Olaf, and he thrust
the sword into the heart of Loan, and afterwards slew with it the
Hammer-man also.
He made Emergaid his queen and they ruled together, and from them
came a long line of Kings of Mann.