Wars of the Irish Kings by David W. McCullough Read Free Book Online Page A

for giving the men of Ireland a harvest of grain every quarter?”
    “This has suited us,” said Máeltne. “Spring for plowing and sowing, and the beginning of summer for maturing the strength of the grain, and the beginning of autumn for the full ripeness of the grain, and for reaping it. Winter for consuming it.”
    “That does not save you,” said Lug to Bres.
    “Máeltne has given bitter alarms,” said he.
    “Less rescues you,” said Lug.
    “What?” asked Bres.
    “How shall the men of Ireland plow? How shall they sow? How shall they reap? If you make known these things, you will be saved.”
    “Say to them, on Tuesday their plowing; on Tuesday their sowing seed in the field; on Tuesday their reaping.”
    So through that device Bres was released.
    Now in that battle Ogma the champion found Orna, the sword of Tethra, king of the Fomoire. Ogma unsheathed the sword and cleaned it. Then the sword told what had been done by it, because it was the habit of swords at that time to recount the deeds that had been done by them whenever they were unsheathed. And for that reason swords are entitled to the tribute of cleaning after they have been unsheathed. Moreover spells have been kept in swords from that time on. Now the reason why demons used to speak from weapons then is that weapons used to be worshipped by men and were among the sureties of that time ….
    Then Lug and the Dagda and Ogma went after the Fomoire, because they had taken the Dagda’s harper, Úaithne. Eventually they reached the banqueting hall where Bres mac Elathan and Elatha mac Delbaith were. There was the harp on the wall. That is the harp in which the Dagda had bound the melodies so that they did not make a sound until he summoned them, saying,
    “Come Daur Dá Bláo,
Come Coir Cetharchair,
Come summer, come winter,
Mouths of harps and bags and pipes!”
    (Now that harp had two names, Daur Dá Bláo and Cóir Cetharchair.)
    Then the harp came away from the wall, and it killed nine men and came to the Dagda; and he played for them the three things by which a harper is known: sleep music, joyful music, and sorrowful music. He played sorrowful music for them so that their tearful women wept. He played joyful music for them so that their women and boys laughed. He played sleep music for them so that the hosts slept. So the three of them escaped from them unharmed—although they wanted to kill them.
    The Dagda brought with him the cattle taken by the Fomoire through the lowing of the heifer which had been given him for his work; because when she called her calf, all the cattle of Ireland which the Fomoire had taken as their tribute began to graze.
    Then after the battle was won and the slaughter had been cleaned away, the Morrígan, the daughter of Ernmas, proceeded to announce the battle and the great victory which had occurred there to the royal heights of Ireland and to its síd-hosts, to its chief waters and to its rivermouths. And that is the reason Badb still relates great deeds. “Have you any news?” everyone asked her then.
    “Peace up to heaven.
Heaven down to earth.
Earth beneath heaven,
Strength in each,
A cup very full,
Full of honey;
Mead in abundance.
Summer in winter ….
Peace up to heaven …”

THE CATTLE RAID OF COOLEY
CUCHULAIN

    The Cattle Raid of Cooley (Tain Bo Cuailnge)
is usually cited as the greatest work of classical Irish literature. It begins with a bedroom squabble between Medb, the queen of Connacht, and her husband, Ailill, over which of them is richer. Its climax—after a long-running battle between Connacht and Ulster across the entire north of Ireland—is a fight between two bulls, one white and one brown. At the outset, Medb concedes defeat in the bedroom: her husband’s white bull is indeed more valuable than anything she owns. But the queen intends to change that. Medb summons her army and the armies of her allies throughout the island to set out for Ulster to capture the most valuable bull in all of