The Washer of the Ford: Legendary moralities and barbaric talesSharp, William
General
The Washer of the Ford: Legendary moralities and barbaric tales
Sharp, William
Mythology, Celtic -- Fiction; Scotland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
He was a prince in his own land, though none on Iona save the
Arch-Druid knew what his name was. The high priest, however, knew that
Dùvach was the royal Dùghall, called Dùghall Donn, the son of Hugh the
King, the son of Art, the son of Conn. In his youth he had been
accused of having done a wrong against a noble maiden of the blood.
When her child was born he was made to swear across her dead body that
he would be true to the daughter for whom she had given up her life,
that he would rear her in a holy place but away from Eiré, and that he
would never set foot within that land again. This was a bitter thing
for Dùghall Donn to do: the more so as, before the King, and the
priests, and the people, he swore by the Wind, and by the Moon, and by
the Sun, that he was guiltless of the thing of which he was accused.
There were many there who believed him because of that sacred oath:
others, too, forasmuch as that Morna the Princess had herself sworn to
the same effect. Moreover, there was Aodh of the Golden Hair, a poet
and seer, who avowed that Morna had given birth to an immortal, whose
name would one day be as a moon among the stars for glory. But the
King would not be appeased, though he spared the life of his youngest
son. So it was that, by the advice of Aodh of the Druids, Dùghall Donn
went northwards through the realm of Clanadon and so to the sea-loch
that was then called Loch Feobal. There he took boat with some
wayfarers bound for Alba. But in the Moyle a tempest arose, and the
frail galley was driven northward, and at sunrise was cast like a
great fish, spent and dead, upon the south end of Ioua, that is now
Iona. Only two of the mariners survived: Dùghall Donn and the little
child. This was at the place where, on a day of the days in a year
that was not yet come, St. Colum landed in his coracle, and gave
thanks on his bended knees.
When, warmed by the sun, they rose, they found themselves in a waste
place. Ill was Dùghall in his mind because of the portents, and now to
his astonishment and alarm the child Bridget knelt on the stones, and,
with claspt hands, small and pink as the sea-shells round about her,
sang a song of words which were unknown to him. This was the more
marvellous, as she was yet but an infant, and could say no word even
of Erse, the only tongue she had heard.
At this portent, he knew that Aodh had spoken seeingly. Truly this
child was not of human parentage. So he, too, kneeled, and, bowing
before her, asked if she were of the race of the Tuatha de Danann, or
of the older gods, and what her will was, that he might be her
servant. Then it was that the kneeling babe looked at him, and sang in
a low sweet voice in Erse:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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