Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17): Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy TalesVarious
General
Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17): Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales
Various
Children's literature
Slowly passed the years, but a great longing filled the hearts of the
children of Lir. When would the good saint come to Erin? When would the
chime of the Christ-bell peal over land and sea?
One rosy dawn the swans awoke among the rushes of the Lake of the
Bird-flocks, and strange and faint was the sound that floated to them
from afar. Trembling, they nestled close the one to the other, until the
brothers stretched their wings and fluttered hither and thither in great
fear. Yet trembling they flew back to their sister, who had remained
silent among the sedges. Crouching by her side they asked, "What, dear
sister, can be the strange, faint sound that steals across our island?"
With quiet, deep joy Finola answered: "Dear brothers, it is the chime of
the Christ-bell that ye hear, the Christ-bell of which we have dreamed
through thrice three hundred years. Soon the spell will be broken, soon
our sufferings will end." Then did Finola glide from the shelter of the
sedges across the rose-lit lake, and there by the shore of the Western
Sea she chanted a song of hope.
Calm crept into the hearts of the brothers as Finola sang, and, as she
ended, once more the chime stole across the isle. No longer did it
strike terror into the hearts of the children of Lir, rather as a note
of peace did it sink into their souls.
Then, when the last chime died, Finola said, "Let us sing to the great
King of Heaven and Earth."
Far stole the sweet strains of the white swans, far across Inis Glora,
until they reached the good Saint Kemoc, for whose early prayers the
Christ-bell had chimed.
And he, filled with wonder at the surpassing sweetness of the music,
stood mute, but when it was revealed unto him that the voices he heard
were the voices of Finola and Aed and Fiacra and Conn, who thanked the
High God for the chime of the Christ-bell, he knelt and also gave
thanks, for it was to seek the children of Lir that the saint had come
to Inis Glora.
In the glory of noon, Kemoc reached the shore of the little lake, and
saw four white swans gliding on its waters. And no need had the saint to
ask whether these indeed were the children of Lir. Rather did he give
thanks to the High God who had brought him hither.
Then gravely the good Kemoc said to the swans: "Come ye now to land, and
put your trust in me, for it is in this place that ye shall be freed
from your enchantment."
These words the four white swans heard with great joy, and coming to the
shore they placed themselves under the care of the saint. And he led
them to his cell, and there they dwelt with him. And Kemoc sent to Erin
for a skilful workman, and ordered that two slender chains of shining
silver be made. Betwixt Finola and Aed did he clasp one silver chain,
and with the other did he bind Fiacra and Conn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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