Mythology; Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature
So very happily and peacefully they listened to the ringing of the
bell, until Kemoc had said matins. Then said Finola: "Let us now sing
our music," and they praised the Lord of heaven and earth.
And when the wonderful melody of their song reached the ears of Kemoc,
he knew that none but the children of Lîr could make such magic-sweet
melody. So he hastened to where they were, and when he asked them if
they were indeed the children of Lîr, for whose sake he had come to
Inis Glora, they told him all their piteous tale.
Then said Kemoc, "Come then to land, and put your trust in me, for on
this island shall your enchantment come to an end." And when most
gladly they came, he caused a cunning workman to fashion two slender
silver chains; one he put between Finola and Aed, and the other
between Ficra and Conn, and so joyous were they to know again human
love, and so happy to join each day with Kemoc in praising God, that
the memory of their suffering and sorrow lost all its bitterness. Thus
in part were the words of Eva fulfilled, but there had yet to take
place the entire fulfilment of her words.
Decca, a princess of Munster, had wed Larguen, king of Connaught, and
when news came to her of the wonderful swans of Kemoc, nothing would
suffice her but that she should have them for her own. By constant
beseeching, she at length prevailed upon Larguen to send messengers to
Kemoc, demanding the swans. When the messengers returned with a stern
refusal from Kemoc, the king was angry indeed. How dared a mere cleric
refuse to gratify the whim of the queen of Larguen of Connaught! To
Inis Glora he went, posthaste, himself.
"Is it truth that ye have dared to refuse a gift of your birds to my
queen?" he asked, in wrath.
And Kemoc answered: "It is truth."
Then Larguen, in furious anger, seized hold of the silver chain that
bound Finola and Aed together, and of the chain by which Conn and
Ficra were bound, and dragged them away from the altar by which they
sat, that he might take them to his queen.
But as the king held their chains in his rude grasp, a wondrous thing
took place.
Instead of swans, there followed Larguen a very old woman,
white-haired and feeble, and three very old men, bony and wrinkled
and grey. And when Larguen beheld them, terror came upon him and he
hastened homeward, followed by the bitter denunciations of Kemoc. Then
the children of Lîr, in human form at last, turned to Kemoc and
besought him to baptize them, because they knew that death was very
near.
"Thou art not more sorrowful at parting from us than we are to part
with you, dear Kemoc," they said. And Finola said, "Bury us, I pray
you, together."
"As oft in life my brothers dear
Were sooth'd by me to rest--
Ficra and Conn beneath my wings,
And Aed before my breast;
So place the two on either hand--
Close, like the love that bound me;
Place Aed as close before my face,
And twine their arms around me."
Joyce.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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