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
There I beheld another room with a trio in it, three half-furious
nobles: the biggest of them in the middle, very noisy ... rock-bodied,
angry, smiting, dealing strong blows, who beats nine hundred in
battle-conflict. A wooden shield, dark, covered with iron, he bears,
with a hard ... rim, a shield whereon would fit the proper litter of
four troops of ten weaklings on its ... of ... leather. A ... boss
thereon, the depth of a caldron, fit to cook four oxen, a hollow maw, a
great boiling, with four swine in its mid-maw great.... At his two
smooth sides are two five-thwarted boats fit for three parties of ten in
each of his two strong fleets.
A spear he hath, blue-red, hand-fitting, on its puissant shaft. It
stretches along the wall on the roof and rests on the ground. An iron
point upon it, dark-red, dripping. Four amply-measured feet between the
two points of its edge.
Thirty amply-measured feet in his deadly-striking sword from dark point
to iron hilt. It shews forth fiery sparks which illumine the Mid-court
House from roof to ground.
'Tis a strong countenance that I see. A swoon from horror almost befell
me while staring at those three. There is nothing stranger.
Two bare hills were there by the man with hair. Two loughs by a mountain
of the ... of a blue-fronted wave: two hides by a tree. Two boats near
them full of thorns of a white thorn tree on a circular board. And there
seems to me somewhat like a slender stream of water on which the sun is
shining, and its trickle down from it, and a hide arranged behind it,
and a palace house-post shaped like a great lance above it. A good
weight of a plough-yoke is the shaft that is therein. Liken thou that, O
Fer rogain!
"Easy, meseems, to liken him! That is Mac cecht son of Snaide Teichid;
the battle-soldier of Conaire son of Eterscél. Good is the hero Mac
cecht! Supine he was in his room, in his sleep, when thou beheldest him.
The two bare hills which thou sawest by the man with hair, these are his
two knees by his head. The two loughs by the mountain which thou sawest,
these are his two eyes by his nose. The two hides by a tree which thou
sawest, these are his two ears by his head. The two five-thwarted boats
on a circular board, which thou sawest, these are his two sandals on his
shield. The slender stream of water which thou sawest, whereon the sun
shines, and its trickle down from it, this is the flickering of his
sword. The hide which thou sawest arranged behind him, that is his
sword's scabbard. The palace-housepost which thou sawest, that is his
lance; and he brandishes this spear till its two ends meet, and he hurls
a wilful cast of it when he pleases. Good is the hero, Mac cecht!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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