Irish Fairy Tales - James Stephens (to read list .txt) 📗

he had gone bail for, and she demanded judgement from him and justice.

“If you will consider it to be justice, I will give you twenty cows myself,” said Fiachna.

“I would not take all the cows in Ulster,” she screamed.

“Pronounce judgement yourself,” said the king, “and if I can do what you demand I will do it.” For he did not like to be in the wrong, and he did not wish that any person should have an unsatisfied claim upon him.

The Black Hag then pronounced judgement, and the king had to fulfil it.

“I have come,” said she, “from the east to the west; you must come from the west to the east and make war for me, and revenge me on the King of Lochlann.”

Fiachna had to do as she demanded, and, although it was with a heavy heart, he set out in three days’ time for Lochlann, and he brought with him ten battalions.

He sent messengers before him to Big Eolgarg warning him of his coming, of his intention, and of the number of troops he was bringing; and when he landed Eolgarg met him with an equal force, and they fought together.

In the first battle three hundred of the men of Lochlann were killed, but in the next battle Eolgarg Mor did not fight fair, for he let some venomous sheep out of a tent, and these attacked the men of Ulster and killed nine hundred of them.

So vast was the slaughter made by these sheep and so great the terror they caused, that no one could stand before them, but by great good luck there was a wood at hand, and the men of Ulster, warriors and princes and charioteers, were forced to climb up the trees, and they roosted among the branches like great birds, while the venomous sheep ranged below bleating terribly and tearing up the ground.

Fiachna Fim was also sitting in a tree, very high up, and he was disconsolate.

“We are disgraced,” said he.

“It is very lucky,” said the man in the branch below, “that a sheep cannot climb a tree.”

“We are disgraced forever,” said the King of Ulster.

“If those sheep learn how to climb, we are undone surely,” said the man below.

“I will go down and fight the sheep,” said Fiachna.

But the others would not let the king go.

“It is not right,” they said, “that you should fight sheep.”

“Someone must fight them,” said Fiachna Finn, “but no more of my men shall die until I fight myself; for if I am fated to die, I will die and I cannot escape it, and if it is the sheep’s fate to die, then die they will; for there is no man can avoid destiny, and there is no sheep can dodge it either.”

“Praise be to god!” said the warrior that was higher up.

“Amen!” said the man who was higher than he, and the rest of the warriors wished good luck to the king.

He started then to climb down the tree with a heavy heart, but while he hung from the last branch and was about to let go, he noticed a tall warrior walking towards him. The king pulled himself up on the branch again and sat dangle-legged on it to see what the warrior would do.

The stranger was a very tall man, dressed in a green cloak with a silver brooch at the shoulder. He had a golden band about his hair and golden sandals on his feet, and he was laughing heartily at the plight of the men of Ireland.

VII

“It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn.

“Who could help laughing at a king hunkering on a branch and his army roosting around him like hens?” said the stranger.

“Nevertheless,” the king replied, “it would be courteous of you not to laugh at misfortune.”

“We laugh when we can,” commented the stranger, “and are thankful for the chance.”

“You may come up into the tree,” said Fiachna, “for I perceive that you are a mannerly person, and I see that some of the venomous sheep are charging in this direction. I would rather protect you,” he continued, “than see you killed; for,” said he lamentably, “I am getting down now to fight the sheep.”

“They will not hurt me,” said the stranger.

“Who are you?” the king asked.

“I am Manannán, the son of Lir.”

Fiachna knew then that the stranger could not be hurt.

“What will you give me if I deliver you from the sheep?” asked Manannán.

“I will give you anything you ask, if I have that thing.”

“I ask the rights of your crown and of your household for one day.”

Fiachna’s breath was taken away by that request, and he took a little time to compose himself, then he said mildly:

“I will not have one man of Ireland killed if I can save him. All that I have they give me, all that I have I give to them, and if I must give this also, then I will give this, although it would be easier for me to give my life.”

“That is agreed,” said Manannán.

He had something wrapped in a fold of his cloak, and he unwrapped and produced this thing.

It was a dog.

Now if the sheep were venomous, this dog was more venomous still, for it was fearful to look at. In body it was not large, but its head was of a great size, and the mouth that was shaped in that head was able to open like the lid of a pot. It was not teeth which were in that head, but hooks and fangs and prongs. Dreadful was that mouth to look at, terrible to look into, woeful to think about; and from it, or from the broad, loose nose that waggled above it, there came a sound which no word of man could describe, for it was not a snarl, nor was it a howl, although it was both of these. It was neither a growl nor a grunt, although it was both of