The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga: With Introductions And Notes
General
The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga: With Introductions And Notes
Epic poetry; Sagas
And then she was brought to the king, and with her went her fosterers,
and she was betrothed to the king, and he gave her seven _cumals_ and to
her fosterers seven other _cumals_. And afterwards they were made
chieftains, so that they all became legitimate, whence are the two
Fedlimthi Rechtaidi. And then she bore a son to the king, even Conaire
son of Mess Buachalla, and these were her three urgent prayers to the
king, to wit, the nursing of her son among three households, that is,
the fosterers who had nurtured her, and the two Honeyworded Mainès, and
she herself is the third; and she said that such of the men of Erin as
should wish to do aught for this boy should give to those three
households for the boy's protection.
So in that wise he was reared, and the men of Erin straightway knew this
boy on the day he was born. And other boys were fostered with him, to
wit, Fer Le and Fer Gar and Fer Rogein, three great-grandsons of Donn
Désa the champion, an army-man of the army from Muc-lesi.
Now Conaire possessed three gifts, to wit, the gift of hearing and the
gift of eyesight and the gift of judgment; and of those three gifts he
taught one to each of his three fosterbrothers. And whatever meal was
prepared for him, the four of them would go to it. Even though three
meals were prepared for him each of them would go to his meal. The same
raiment and armour and colour of horses had the four.
Then the king, even Eterscéle, died. A bull-feast is gathered by the men
of Erin, in order to determine their future king; that is, a bull used
to be killed by them and thereof one man would eat his fill and drink
its broth, and a spell of truth was chanted over him in his bed.
Whosoever he would see in his sleep would be king, and the sleeper would
perish if he uttered a falsehood.
Four men in chariots were on the Plain of Liffey at their game, Conaire
himself and his three fosterbrothers. Then his fosterers went to him
that he might repair to the bull-feast. The bull-feaster, then in his
sleep, at the end of the night beheld a man stark-naked, passing along
the road of Tara, with a stone in his sling.
"I will go in the morning after you," quoth he.
He left his fosterbrothers at their game, and turned his chariot and his
charioteer until he was in Dublin. There he saw great, white-speckled
birds, of unusual size and colour and beauty. He pursues then until his
horses were tired. The birds would go a spearcast before him, and would
not go any further. He alighted, and takes his sling for them out of the
chariot. He goes after them until he was at the sea. The birds betake
themselves to the wave. He went to them and overcame them. The birds
quit their birdskins, and turn upon him with spears and swords. One of
them protects him, and addressed him, saying: "I am Némglan, king of thy
father's birds; and thou hast been forbidden to cast at birds, for here
there is no one that should not be dear to thee because of his father
or mother."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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