Post by Lady Anastasia on Apr 2, 2008 20:14:50 GMT -5
The Eric-Fine of Lugh
THE chiefs of the Tuatha De Danaan thronged round Lugh on the Hill of Usna. Lugh stood on the summit, and the Sword of Light was bare in his hand: all the hill below him shone with a radiance like white silver.
"Chiefs," cried Lugh, "behold the Sword! Ye should have three great jewels to match it.
Where are the Spear of Victory, the Cauldron of Plenty, and the Stone of Destiny?"
The Tuatha De Danaan bowed their heads and veiled their faces before Lugh, and answered:
"The Fomor have taken the Cauldron of Plenty and the Spear of Victory from us. Ask the Earth of Ireland for the Stone."
Lugh whirled the Sword till it became a glancing wheel of light, and cried:
"O Earth of Ireland, sacred and beloved, have you the Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny?"
A strong sweet music welled up from the earth, and every stone and every leaf and every drop of water shone with light till all Ireland seemed one vast crystal, white and shining. The white light changed to rose, as it had been a ruby; and the ruby to sapphire; and the sapphire to emerald the emerald to opal; the opal to amethyst; and the amethyst to diamond, white and radiant with every colour.
"It is enough! " cried Lugh. "I am well answered: the earth of Ireland has kept the Stone."
"O Chiefs," he said, "raise up your foreheads. Though ye have not the jewels ye have the scars of battle-combat, and ye have endured sorrow and hardship for ye have known what it is to be exiles in your own land. Let us swear brotherhood now by the Sword and the Stone that we may utterly destroy the Fomor and cleanse the world. Hold up your hands and swear, as I and those who came with me from Tir-nan-Oge will swear, and as the Sacred Land will swear, that we may have one mind and one heart and one desire amongst us all."
Then the De Danaans lifted up their hands and swore a great oath of brotherhood with the Earth and with the hosts of the Shining Ones from Tir-nan-Oge. They swore by the Sword of Light and the Stone of Destiny; by the Fire that is over the earth; and the Fire that is under the earth; and the Fire in the heart of heroes. They swore to have one mind, one heart, and one desire, until the Fomor should be destroyed. Lugh swore the same oath, and all his shining comrades from Tir-nan-Oge swore it. The hills and valleys and plains and rivers and lakes and forests of Ireland swore it--they all fastened the bond of brotherhood on themselves.
"Let us go hence," said Lugh, when the oath was ended, " and make ready for the great battle."
At his word all the chiefs departed, each going his own road.
IAN, the father of Lugh, was crossing the plain of Louth that is called Moy Myeerhevna: he lifted up his eyes and saw the three sons of Turann coming towards him. There was black hatred between himself and the Sons of Turann, and he was minded not to meet them. He took the form of a wild boar and hid himself with a herd of swine. Brian, Ur, and Urcar, the sons of Turann, saw him do it, and anger leaped in them.
"Come forth!" they cried. "Show your face to us."
Cian did not come forth.
Ur and Urcar changed themselves into hounds and hunted the strange boar from the herd.
Brian made a cast of his spear at it, and when Cian felt the wound, he cried out:
"Hold! Brian, son of Turann: do not slay me in the form of a pig!"
"Take your own form."
Cian took his own form, and said:
"Ye see my face now, Sons of Turann, with blood on it. Well ye knew me from the first, and well I knew you--Oath-Breakers!"
"The bands of death on your poisonous tongue!" said Urcar. "Take back your word
"I will not take it back, Sons of the Adder. Slay me! and every drop of blood will cry out on you--your very weapons will cry Out on you in the Place of Assembly."
"We will slay you with weapons that cannot cry out," said the Sons of Turann, and they lifted great stones and rocks from the earth and stoned Cian till he was dead.
The Sons of Turann buried the body of Cian the depth of a man's height in the ground, but the earth refused to hide the body and cast it up again before them. They buried it a second time, and a second time the earth refused to hide the body and cast it up before them. Six times they buried it, and six times the earth cast it up. They buried it the seventh time, and that time the earth made no sign. The body of Cian was hidden. The Sons of Turann hastened away from the place and went to the court of King Nuada to show themselves with the other warriors.
The earth sent a little wind to Lugh LauveFauda. It touched his face and eyelids; it lifted the thick curls of his hair; it touched his hand as a hound touches the hand of a beloved master, and Lugh knew the wind had come for him. He followed it till he reached the place where Cian had been slain.
"O Lugh," said the earth, "the bond of brotherhood is broken. The Sons of Turann have slain your father. Look what a poor torn thing I cover!"
The Earth laid bare the body of Cian. Lugh looked at the mangled blood-stained body, and at the trampled dishonoured earth, and in his eyes two tears slowly gathered. He shook them away, and then he saw that the earth had sent up a little well of pure water close to him. He bent over it.
"O Earth," he said, "forgive the broken bond!"
The little spring in the heart of the well leaped in answer, and nine crystal bubbles rose through the water. Lugh. made a cup of his two hands and lifted water from the well. He sprinkled it on the torn earth, and greenness came again to the trampled grass. He sprinkled it on the bruised body of his father, and it became whole and white again.
"O Earth," he said, "most noble and beloved, I will avenge your wrong."
"O Father," he said, "you shall yet send help for the battle, and the hands of your slayers shall bring it. 'Tis not wearisome to wait for news of victory in Moy Mell, for all the winds that blow there are winds of beauty, and now you have the crimson flowers beneath your feet and the radiance of the Silver Fleece about you."
He laid the body of Cian tenderly in the earth and went to seek the slayers at the court of King Nuada.
NUADA sat in his royal seat. There was a white light about him as it had been a fleece of silver, and round his head a wheel of light pulsed and beat with changing colours. His face was joyous and the faces of the Tuatha De Danaan were joyous. The great door of the dun was open and De Danaan chiefs came and went through. it.
Lugh came into the dun and with him came such heaviness of heart that joy was shaken from the assembly.
"Why is the hero-light gone from your forehead, O Lugh, Ildana?" said Nuada.
"It is because I have seen the dead body of my father--and the earth trampled into mire and blood."
The light went from the head of Nuada and he veiled his face. All the chiefs bowed their heads and raised the three sorrowful cries of the keene. Only the three sons of Turann remained with haughty eyes and unbowed heads.
"O Wind of Misfortune," cried the chiefs, "that brought the Fomor at the first to us!"
"It was not from the Fomor, O Chiefs, that Cian, Son of Dian-Cecht, got death--the hands that slew him have sworn the oath of brotherhood."
"Name his slayers!" cried Nuada; "and though they be our noblest and most loved--though they be even the Sons of Turann--they shall perish utterly!"
"The slayers are the three sons of Turann!" Nuada looked on the three Sons of Turann, and when he saw they had no words to answer Lugh his heart failed him, for the three were the mightiest and most beautiful of his warriors and there was no one with more hero-gifts than Brian unless it were the Ildana himself.
"Let them perish! " said Nuada.
"Nay, King of the Tuatha De Danaan," said Lugh," let them make good the battle-loss! Let them pay eric for the warrior they have slain!"
"You are well named the Ildana," said the King, "for truly wisdom is with you!" and then he said to the Sons of Turann. "Will ye make good the battle-loss? Will ye pay eric for Cian, son of Dian-Cecht? "
They answered: "We will pay eric: let Lugh Lauve Fauda ask it of us."
"I ask three apples, a pig-skin, a spear, a chariot with two horses, seven swine, a hound, a cooking-spit, and three shouts on a hill."
"You have stretched out your hand for a small eric-fine, Lugh the Long-Handed."
"I have not stretched out my hand for a small fine, Brian, son of Turann. The apples I ask are three golden apples from the tree that is watched by sleepless dragons in the Eastern half of the world. The skin I ask is the skin of that pig before whom rivers of water turned into rivers of wine.
The skin has power to turn whatever water it touches into wine, and if it be wrapped about a man wounded to death it will give him back his life and make his body clean and whole again. It is the jewel in a great king's treasure-house, and ye will not find it easy to get. The spear I ask is the fiery victory-giver that is kept in times of peace with its head sunk in a cauldron of magic water lest it should destroy the world. The chariot I ask is the chariot of Dobar: it outshines all chariots that have been made or shall be made.
The horses yoked to it do not draw back their feet from the sea-waves: their going is as lordly on the wide plain of the sea as it is on the land. The seven pigs I ask are the pigs of Asal, the King of the Golden Pillars--though they be killed and eaten to-day, they will be alive and well tomorrow, and whoso eats of them shall never know what it is to lack strength. The hound is the hound Failinis. He is brighter than the sun at mid-summer. The beasts of the forest are astonished at the sight of him: they have no strength to contend against him. The cooking-spit is a guarded flame. Fifty-three women keep it in the island of Caer, in the green stillness that is under the sea-waves.
The three shouts must be given on the hill that is guarded by Midkena and his sons--no champion since the beginning of time has raised a victory-shout on that hill. I have named my eric, sons of Turann. Do ye choose to pay it, or will ye humble yourselves and ask grace? "
"We will pay the eric," said the sons of Turann, and they went forth from the Court of King Nuada.
WHEN the three brothers entered their father's dun they sat down in sorrow and heaviness and there was no word between them till their sister Enya came to them.
"Why does sorrow darken your faces and the faces of the household? " she asked. "What grief has come upon you?"
"We have slain Cian, son of Dian-Cecht, the father of Lugh Lauve Fauda!"
"Alas!" cried Enya, and she beat her hands together. "Alas! ye have broken Lugh's protection out of Ireland: he will not fight in the Great Battle now!"
"Lugh will fight in the Great Battle, but he has laid on us an eric that bows us to the grave-mould."
"What eric?"
"He asks the Hound Failinis; and the Spear of Victory--he asks the Seven Treasures of the World!"
"We are undone! " said Enya. "Destruction has come upon us!"
While she spoke they heard the approaching footsteps of those who attended Turann.
"Let us go," said Urcar, "before our father sees that good days are gone from us."
"Sorrow cannot be hidden," said Enya.
Turann came into the room. He was old and his strength was withered. His sons led him to the high-seat, and when he looked on them he knew an evil thing had befallen.
"Tell me," he said, " what misfortune has come to us."
Then Brian told the story of Cian's death and what eric Lugh had bound on them. When he made an end of telling it, Turann said:
"Bitter indeed to me is the coming of the Deliverer, for he has taken from me my three sons--my Three Eagles that never failed to carry off a prey, my Three Salmon of Knowledge that could make paths for themselves in all the rivers of the world, my Three Strong Bulls that stamped on the necks of kings. It is a bitter thing to be old without my sons."
"O my Father," said Brian, "if you have bred strong sons they will set forth strongly, and it may be they will bring back the eric-spoil. Do not make a lamentation for us till we are dead!"
"Nay," said Turann, "ye are setting forth on an adventure that knows no ending, for the treasures that ye seek are hidden in the caves of dragons and under the sea-waves. Strange kings will make a mock of you leaning over battlements of adamant and strange monsters will crush your bones. Ye will not come back to me, living or dead. No one will heap the grave-mound over your bodies!"
"O my Father," said Enya, "the heart of Lugh is set on the eric-fine. His hands are fain to grasp the fiery spear and he would see the spoils of the world brought into Ireland. Let us ask him for help. If he will give Mananaun's boat, the Ocean-Sweeper, it will not be hard for good warriors to come by the treasures--since, at a word, the Ocean-Sweeper will bear those who sit in it to whatsoever place they desire to be."
"We will ask nothing from Lugh Lauve Fauda! " said Turann's sons.
"But I will ask!" said Turann, and he cried aloud:
"Let my horses be yoked and my chariot made ready! I will not sleep till I have spoken with Lugh Lauve Fauda."
THE chiefs of the Tuatha De Danaan thronged round Lugh on the Hill of Usna. Lugh stood on the summit, and the Sword of Light was bare in his hand: all the hill below him shone with a radiance like white silver.
"Chiefs," cried Lugh, "behold the Sword! Ye should have three great jewels to match it.
Where are the Spear of Victory, the Cauldron of Plenty, and the Stone of Destiny?"
The Tuatha De Danaan bowed their heads and veiled their faces before Lugh, and answered:
"The Fomor have taken the Cauldron of Plenty and the Spear of Victory from us. Ask the Earth of Ireland for the Stone."
Lugh whirled the Sword till it became a glancing wheel of light, and cried:
"O Earth of Ireland, sacred and beloved, have you the Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny?"
A strong sweet music welled up from the earth, and every stone and every leaf and every drop of water shone with light till all Ireland seemed one vast crystal, white and shining. The white light changed to rose, as it had been a ruby; and the ruby to sapphire; and the sapphire to emerald the emerald to opal; the opal to amethyst; and the amethyst to diamond, white and radiant with every colour.
"It is enough! " cried Lugh. "I am well answered: the earth of Ireland has kept the Stone."
"O Chiefs," he said, "raise up your foreheads. Though ye have not the jewels ye have the scars of battle-combat, and ye have endured sorrow and hardship for ye have known what it is to be exiles in your own land. Let us swear brotherhood now by the Sword and the Stone that we may utterly destroy the Fomor and cleanse the world. Hold up your hands and swear, as I and those who came with me from Tir-nan-Oge will swear, and as the Sacred Land will swear, that we may have one mind and one heart and one desire amongst us all."
Then the De Danaans lifted up their hands and swore a great oath of brotherhood with the Earth and with the hosts of the Shining Ones from Tir-nan-Oge. They swore by the Sword of Light and the Stone of Destiny; by the Fire that is over the earth; and the Fire that is under the earth; and the Fire in the heart of heroes. They swore to have one mind, one heart, and one desire, until the Fomor should be destroyed. Lugh swore the same oath, and all his shining comrades from Tir-nan-Oge swore it. The hills and valleys and plains and rivers and lakes and forests of Ireland swore it--they all fastened the bond of brotherhood on themselves.
"Let us go hence," said Lugh, when the oath was ended, " and make ready for the great battle."
At his word all the chiefs departed, each going his own road.
IAN, the father of Lugh, was crossing the plain of Louth that is called Moy Myeerhevna: he lifted up his eyes and saw the three sons of Turann coming towards him. There was black hatred between himself and the Sons of Turann, and he was minded not to meet them. He took the form of a wild boar and hid himself with a herd of swine. Brian, Ur, and Urcar, the sons of Turann, saw him do it, and anger leaped in them.
"Come forth!" they cried. "Show your face to us."
Cian did not come forth.
Ur and Urcar changed themselves into hounds and hunted the strange boar from the herd.
Brian made a cast of his spear at it, and when Cian felt the wound, he cried out:
"Hold! Brian, son of Turann: do not slay me in the form of a pig!"
"Take your own form."
Cian took his own form, and said:
"Ye see my face now, Sons of Turann, with blood on it. Well ye knew me from the first, and well I knew you--Oath-Breakers!"
"The bands of death on your poisonous tongue!" said Urcar. "Take back your word
"I will not take it back, Sons of the Adder. Slay me! and every drop of blood will cry out on you--your very weapons will cry Out on you in the Place of Assembly."
"We will slay you with weapons that cannot cry out," said the Sons of Turann, and they lifted great stones and rocks from the earth and stoned Cian till he was dead.
The Sons of Turann buried the body of Cian the depth of a man's height in the ground, but the earth refused to hide the body and cast it up again before them. They buried it a second time, and a second time the earth refused to hide the body and cast it up before them. Six times they buried it, and six times the earth cast it up. They buried it the seventh time, and that time the earth made no sign. The body of Cian was hidden. The Sons of Turann hastened away from the place and went to the court of King Nuada to show themselves with the other warriors.
The earth sent a little wind to Lugh LauveFauda. It touched his face and eyelids; it lifted the thick curls of his hair; it touched his hand as a hound touches the hand of a beloved master, and Lugh knew the wind had come for him. He followed it till he reached the place where Cian had been slain.
"O Lugh," said the earth, "the bond of brotherhood is broken. The Sons of Turann have slain your father. Look what a poor torn thing I cover!"
The Earth laid bare the body of Cian. Lugh looked at the mangled blood-stained body, and at the trampled dishonoured earth, and in his eyes two tears slowly gathered. He shook them away, and then he saw that the earth had sent up a little well of pure water close to him. He bent over it.
"O Earth," he said, "forgive the broken bond!"
The little spring in the heart of the well leaped in answer, and nine crystal bubbles rose through the water. Lugh. made a cup of his two hands and lifted water from the well. He sprinkled it on the torn earth, and greenness came again to the trampled grass. He sprinkled it on the bruised body of his father, and it became whole and white again.
"O Earth," he said, "most noble and beloved, I will avenge your wrong."
"O Father," he said, "you shall yet send help for the battle, and the hands of your slayers shall bring it. 'Tis not wearisome to wait for news of victory in Moy Mell, for all the winds that blow there are winds of beauty, and now you have the crimson flowers beneath your feet and the radiance of the Silver Fleece about you."
He laid the body of Cian tenderly in the earth and went to seek the slayers at the court of King Nuada.
NUADA sat in his royal seat. There was a white light about him as it had been a fleece of silver, and round his head a wheel of light pulsed and beat with changing colours. His face was joyous and the faces of the Tuatha De Danaan were joyous. The great door of the dun was open and De Danaan chiefs came and went through. it.
Lugh came into the dun and with him came such heaviness of heart that joy was shaken from the assembly.
"Why is the hero-light gone from your forehead, O Lugh, Ildana?" said Nuada.
"It is because I have seen the dead body of my father--and the earth trampled into mire and blood."
The light went from the head of Nuada and he veiled his face. All the chiefs bowed their heads and raised the three sorrowful cries of the keene. Only the three sons of Turann remained with haughty eyes and unbowed heads.
"O Wind of Misfortune," cried the chiefs, "that brought the Fomor at the first to us!"
"It was not from the Fomor, O Chiefs, that Cian, Son of Dian-Cecht, got death--the hands that slew him have sworn the oath of brotherhood."
"Name his slayers!" cried Nuada; "and though they be our noblest and most loved--though they be even the Sons of Turann--they shall perish utterly!"
"The slayers are the three sons of Turann!" Nuada looked on the three Sons of Turann, and when he saw they had no words to answer Lugh his heart failed him, for the three were the mightiest and most beautiful of his warriors and there was no one with more hero-gifts than Brian unless it were the Ildana himself.
"Let them perish! " said Nuada.
"Nay, King of the Tuatha De Danaan," said Lugh," let them make good the battle-loss! Let them pay eric for the warrior they have slain!"
"You are well named the Ildana," said the King, "for truly wisdom is with you!" and then he said to the Sons of Turann. "Will ye make good the battle-loss? Will ye pay eric for Cian, son of Dian-Cecht? "
They answered: "We will pay eric: let Lugh Lauve Fauda ask it of us."
"I ask three apples, a pig-skin, a spear, a chariot with two horses, seven swine, a hound, a cooking-spit, and three shouts on a hill."
"You have stretched out your hand for a small eric-fine, Lugh the Long-Handed."
"I have not stretched out my hand for a small fine, Brian, son of Turann. The apples I ask are three golden apples from the tree that is watched by sleepless dragons in the Eastern half of the world. The skin I ask is the skin of that pig before whom rivers of water turned into rivers of wine.
The skin has power to turn whatever water it touches into wine, and if it be wrapped about a man wounded to death it will give him back his life and make his body clean and whole again. It is the jewel in a great king's treasure-house, and ye will not find it easy to get. The spear I ask is the fiery victory-giver that is kept in times of peace with its head sunk in a cauldron of magic water lest it should destroy the world. The chariot I ask is the chariot of Dobar: it outshines all chariots that have been made or shall be made.
The horses yoked to it do not draw back their feet from the sea-waves: their going is as lordly on the wide plain of the sea as it is on the land. The seven pigs I ask are the pigs of Asal, the King of the Golden Pillars--though they be killed and eaten to-day, they will be alive and well tomorrow, and whoso eats of them shall never know what it is to lack strength. The hound is the hound Failinis. He is brighter than the sun at mid-summer. The beasts of the forest are astonished at the sight of him: they have no strength to contend against him. The cooking-spit is a guarded flame. Fifty-three women keep it in the island of Caer, in the green stillness that is under the sea-waves.
The three shouts must be given on the hill that is guarded by Midkena and his sons--no champion since the beginning of time has raised a victory-shout on that hill. I have named my eric, sons of Turann. Do ye choose to pay it, or will ye humble yourselves and ask grace? "
"We will pay the eric," said the sons of Turann, and they went forth from the Court of King Nuada.
WHEN the three brothers entered their father's dun they sat down in sorrow and heaviness and there was no word between them till their sister Enya came to them.
"Why does sorrow darken your faces and the faces of the household? " she asked. "What grief has come upon you?"
"We have slain Cian, son of Dian-Cecht, the father of Lugh Lauve Fauda!"
"Alas!" cried Enya, and she beat her hands together. "Alas! ye have broken Lugh's protection out of Ireland: he will not fight in the Great Battle now!"
"Lugh will fight in the Great Battle, but he has laid on us an eric that bows us to the grave-mould."
"What eric?"
"He asks the Hound Failinis; and the Spear of Victory--he asks the Seven Treasures of the World!"
"We are undone! " said Enya. "Destruction has come upon us!"
While she spoke they heard the approaching footsteps of those who attended Turann.
"Let us go," said Urcar, "before our father sees that good days are gone from us."
"Sorrow cannot be hidden," said Enya.
Turann came into the room. He was old and his strength was withered. His sons led him to the high-seat, and when he looked on them he knew an evil thing had befallen.
"Tell me," he said, " what misfortune has come to us."
Then Brian told the story of Cian's death and what eric Lugh had bound on them. When he made an end of telling it, Turann said:
"Bitter indeed to me is the coming of the Deliverer, for he has taken from me my three sons--my Three Eagles that never failed to carry off a prey, my Three Salmon of Knowledge that could make paths for themselves in all the rivers of the world, my Three Strong Bulls that stamped on the necks of kings. It is a bitter thing to be old without my sons."
"O my Father," said Brian, "if you have bred strong sons they will set forth strongly, and it may be they will bring back the eric-spoil. Do not make a lamentation for us till we are dead!"
"Nay," said Turann, "ye are setting forth on an adventure that knows no ending, for the treasures that ye seek are hidden in the caves of dragons and under the sea-waves. Strange kings will make a mock of you leaning over battlements of adamant and strange monsters will crush your bones. Ye will not come back to me, living or dead. No one will heap the grave-mound over your bodies!"
"O my Father," said Enya, "the heart of Lugh is set on the eric-fine. His hands are fain to grasp the fiery spear and he would see the spoils of the world brought into Ireland. Let us ask him for help. If he will give Mananaun's boat, the Ocean-Sweeper, it will not be hard for good warriors to come by the treasures--since, at a word, the Ocean-Sweeper will bear those who sit in it to whatsoever place they desire to be."
"We will ask nothing from Lugh Lauve Fauda! " said Turann's sons.
"But I will ask!" said Turann, and he cried aloud:
"Let my horses be yoked and my chariot made ready! I will not sleep till I have spoken with Lugh Lauve Fauda."