Then, at the last, king Eochaid sent for his Druid, and he set to him
the task to seek for Etain; now the name of the Druid was Dalan. And
Dalan came before him upon that day; and he went westwards, until he
came to the mountain that was after that known as Slieve Dalan; and he
remained there upon that night. And the Druid deemed it a grievous
thing that Etain should be hidden from him for the space of one year,
and thereupon he made three wands of yew; and upon the wands he wrote
an ogham; and by the keys of wisdom that he had, and by the ogham, it
was revealed to him that Etain was in the fairy mound of Bri Leith, and
that Mider had borne her thither.
Then Dalan the Druid turned him, and went back to the east; and he came
to the stronghold of Fremain, even to the place where the king of
Ireland was; and Eochaid asked from the Druid his news. Thither also
came the horsemen, and the wizards, and the officers who had the care
of the roads, and the couriers of the boundaries, to the king of
Ireland, and he asked them what tidings they had, and whether they had
found news of Mider and Etain. And they said that they had found
nothing at all; until at the last said his Druid to him: "A great evil
hath smitten thee, also shame, and misfortune, on account of the loss
of thy wife. Do thou assemble the warriors of Ireland, and depart to
Bri Leith, where is the palace of the son of Celthar; let that palace
be destroyed by thy hand, and there thou shalt find thy wife: by
persuasion or by force do thou take her thence."
Then Eochaid and the men of Ireland marched to Bri Leith, and they set
themselves to destroy that fairy dwelling, and to demand that Etain be
brought to them, and they brought her not. Then they ruined that fairy
dwelling, and they brought Etain out from it; and she returned to
Fremain, and there she had all the worship that a king of Ireland can
bestow, fair wedded love and affection, such as was her due from
Eochaid Airemm. This is that Eochaid who ruled over Ireland for twelve
years, until the fire burned him in Fremain; and this tale is known by
the name of the "Sick-bed of Ailill," also as "The Courtship of Etain."
Etain bore no children to Eochaid Airemm, save one daughter only; and
the name of her mother was given to her, and she is known by the name
of Etain, the daughter of Eochaid Airemm. And it was her daughter
Messbuachalla who was the mother of king Conary the Great, the son of
Eterscel, and it was for this cause that the fairy host of Mag Breg and
Mider of Bri Leith violated the tabus of king Conary, and devastated
the plain of Breg, and out off Conary's life; on account of the capture
of that fairy dwelling, and on account of the recovery of Etain, when
she was carried away by violence, even by the might of Eochaid Airemm.
THE COURTSHIP OF ETAIN
LEABHAR NA H-UIDHRI VERSION
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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