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Then the image of Fedelma appeared before him. He sprang up and his arms
regained their power. His heart became steady in his breast. And as he made an
attack upon the King of the Land of Mist, he saw that the blade in his hand
was broken and worn because of its strokes against the Sword of Light.

They fought with blades that seemed to kindle each other into sparks and
flashes of light. They fought until the blade in the hand of the King of the
Land of Mist was worn to a hand breadth above the hilt. He drew back towards
the gate of the fifth courtyard. The King of Ireland's Son sprang at him and
thrust the Sword of Light through his breast. Down on the stones before the
fifth gate of his Castle fell the King of the Land of Mist.

The King of Ireland's Son stepped over the body and went towards the fifth
gate. Then he remembered what the Glashan had said, "His life is in his head."
He went back to where the King of the Land of Mist had fallen. With a clean
sweep of his sword he cut the head off the body.

Then out of the mist that was all around three ravens came. With beak and
claws they laid hold of the head and lifted it up. They fluttered heavily
away, keeping near the ground.

With his sword in his hand the King of Ireland's Son chased the ravens. He
followed them through the fourth courtyard, the third courtyard, the second
and the first. They flew off the rock on which the Castle was built and
disappeared in the mist.

He knew he would have to watch by the body of the King of the Land of Mist, so
that the head might not be placed upon it. He sat down before the fifth gate.
Pain and weariness, hunger and thirst oppressed him.

He longed for something that would allay his hunger and thirst. But he knew
that he could not go to the river to get refreshment of water and cresses from
the Glashan. Something fell beside him in the courtyard. It was a beautiful,
bright-colored apple. He went to pick it up, but it rolled away towards the
third courtyard. He followed it. Then, as he looked back he saw that the
ravens had lighted near the body of the King of the Land of Mist, holding the
head in their beaks and claws. He ran back and the ravens lifted the head up
again and flew away.

He watched for another long time, and his hunger and his thirst made him long
for the bright-colored apple he had seen.

Another apple fell down. He went to pick it up and it rolled away. But now the
King of Ireland's Son thought of nothing hut that bright-colored apple. He
followed it as it rolled.

It roiled through the third courtyard, and the second and the first. It rolled
out of the first gate and on to the rock upon which the Castle was built. It
rolled off the rock. The King of Ireland's Son sprang down and he saw the
apple become a raven's head and beak.

He climbed up the rock and ran back. And when he came into the first courtyard
he saw that the three ravens had come back again. They had brought the head to
the body, and body and head were now joined. The King of the Land of Mist
stood up again, and his head was turned towards his left shoulder. He went to
the sixth gate and took up a sword that was beside it.

IV

They fought their last battle before the sixth gate. The guard that the King
of Ireland's Son made was weak, and if the King of the Land of Mist could have
turned fully upon him, he could have disarmed and killed him. But his head had
been so placed upon his body that it looked The King of the Land of Mist 237
over his left shoulder. He was able to draw his sword down the breast of the
King of Ireland's Son, wounding him. The King's Son whirled his sword around
his head and flung it at his wry-headed enemy. It swept his head off, and the
King of the Land of Mist fell down.

The King of Ireland's Son saw on the outstretched neck the mark of the other
beheading. He took up the Sword of Light again and prepared to hold the head
against all that might come for it.

But no creature came. And then the hair on the severed head became loose and
it was blown away by the wind. And the bones of the head became a powder and
the flesh became a froth, and ail was blown away by the wind.

Then the King of Ireland's Son went through the sixth courtyard and came to
the seventh gate. And before it he saw the last of the sentinels. A Hag, she
was seated on the top of a water-tank taking white doves out of a basket and
throwing them to ravens that flew down from the walls and tore the doves to
pieces.

When the Hag saw the King of Ireland's Son she sprang down from the water-tank
and ran towards him with outstretched arms and long poisoned nails. With a
sweep of his sword he cut the nails from her hands. Ravens picked up the
nails, and then, as they tried to fly away, they fell dead.

"The Sword of Light will take off your head if you do not take me on the
moment to where Fedelma is," said the King of Ireland's Son. "I am sorry to do
it," said the Hag, "but come, since you are the conqueror."

He followed the Hag into the Castle. In a net, hanging across a chamber, he
saw Fedelma. She was still, but she breathed. And the branch of hawthorn that
put her asleep was fresh beside her. Strands of her bright hair came through
the meshes of the net and were fastened to the wall. With a sweep of the Sword
of Light he cut the strands.

Her eyes opened. She saw the King of Ireland's Son, and the full light came
back to her eyes, and the full life into her face.

He cut the net from where it hung and laid it on the ground. He cut open the
meshes. Fedelma rose out of it and went into his arms.

He lifted her up and carried her out into the seventh courtyard. Then the Hag
who had been one of the sentinels came out of the Castle, closed the door
behind her and ran away into the mist, three ravens flying after her.

And as for Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son, they went through the
courtyards of the Castle and through the mists of the country and down to the
River of the Broken Towers. They found the Glashan broiling a salmon upon hot
stones. Salmon were coming from the sea and the Glashan went in and caught
more, The King of the Land of Mist 239 broiled and gave them to the King of
Ireland's Son and Fedelma to eat. The little black water-hen came out of the
river and they fed it. The next day the King of Ireland's Son bade the Glashan
take Fedelma on his shoulders and carry her to the other shore of the River of
the Broken Towers. And he himself followed the little black water-hen who
showed him all the shallow places in the river so that he crossed with the
water never above his waist. But he was nearly dead from cold and weariness,
and from the wounds on breast and foot when he came to the other side and
found the Glashan and Fedelma waiting for him.

They ate salmon again and rested for a day. They bade good-by to the Glashan,
who went back to the river to hunt for salmon. Then they went along the bank
of the river hand in hand while the King of Ireland's Son told Fedelma of all
the things that had happened to him in his search for her.

They came to where the river became known as the River of the Morning Star.
And then, in the distance, they saw the Hill of Horns. Towards the Hill of
Horns they went, and, at the near side of it, they found a house thatched with
the wing of a bird. It was the house of the Little Sage of the Mountain. To
the house of the Little Sage of the Mountain Fedelma and the King's Son now
went.

TO THE MEMORY OF BEATRICE CASSIDY COLUM

The House of Crom Duv

I

The story is now about Flann. He went through the East gate of the Town of the
Red Castle and his journey was to the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth
where he might learn what Queen and King were his mother and his father. It is
with the youth Flann, once called the Gilly of the Goatskin, that we will go
if it be pleasing to you, Son of my Heart. He went his way in the evening,
when, as the bard said:--

The blackbird shakes his metal notes
Against the edge of day,
And I am left upon my road
With one star on my way.

And he went his way in the night, when, as the same bard said:--

The night has told it to the hills,
And told the partridge in the nest,
And left it on the long white roads,
She will give light instead of rest.

And he went on between the dusk and the dawn, when, as the same bard said
again:--

Behold the sky is covered,
As with a mighty shroud:
A forlorn light is lying
Between the earth and cloud.

And he went on in the dawn, when as the bard said (and this is the last stanza
he made, for the King said there was nothing at all in his adventure):--

In the silence of the morning
Myself, myself went by,
Where lonely trees sway branches
Against spaces of the sky.

And then, when the sun was looking over the first high hills he came to a
river. He knew it was the river he followed before, for no other river in the
country was so wide or held so much water. As he had gone with the flow of the
river then he thought he would go against the flow of the river now, and so he
might come back to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places he had traveled
from.

He met a Fisherman who was drying his nets and he asked him what name the
river had. The Fisherman said it had two names. The people on the right bank
called it the Day-break River and the people on the left bank called it the
River of the Morning Star. And the Fisherman told him he was to be careful not
to call it the River of the Morning Star when he was on the right bank nor the
Daybreak River when he was on the left, as the people on either side wanted to
keep to the name their fathers had for it and were ill-mannered to the
stranger who gave it a different name. The Fisherman told Flann he was sorry
he had told him the two names for the River and that the best thing he could
do was to forget one of the names and call it just the River of the Morning
Star as he was on the left bank.

Flann went on with the day widening before him and when the height of the noon
was past he came to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places he had traveled
from. He went on with the bright day going before him and the brown night
coming behind him, and at dusk he came to the black and burnt place where the
Hags of the Long Teeth had their house of stone.

He saw the house with a puff of smoke coming through every crevice in the
stones. He went to the shut door and knocked on it with the knocking-stone.

"Who's without?" said one of the Hags.

"Who's within?" said Flann.

"The Three Hags of the Long Teeth," said one of the Hags, "and if you want to
know it," said she, "they are the runners and summoners, the brewers and
candle-makers for Crom Duv, the Giant."

Flann struck a heavier blow with the knocking-stone and the door broke in. He
stepped into the smoke-filled house.

"No welcome to you, whoever you are," said one of the three Hags who were
seated around the fire.

"I am the lad who was called Gilly of the Goatskin, and whom you reared up
here," said he, "and I have come back to you."

The three Hags turned from the fire then and screamed at him.

"And what brought you back to us, humpy fellow?" said the first Hag.

"I came back to make you tell me what Queen and King were my mother and
father."

"Why should you think a King and Queen were your father and mother?" they said
to him.

"Because I have on my breast the stars of a son of a King," said Flann, "and,"
said he, "I have in my hand a sword that will make you tell me."

He came towards them and they were afraid. Then the first Hag bent her knee to
him, and, said she, "Loosen the hearthstone with your sword and you will find
a token that will let you know who your father was."

Flann put his sword under the hearthstone and pried it up. But if it were a
token, what was under the hearthstone was an evil thing--a cockatrice. It had
been hatched out of a serpent's egg by a black cock of nine years. It had the
head and crest of a cock and the body of a black serpent. The cockatrice
lifted itself up on its tail and looked at him with red eyes. The sight of
that head made Flann dizzy and he fell down on the floor. Then it went down
and the Hags put the hearthstone above it.

"What will we do with the fellow?" said one of the Hags, looking at Flann who
was in a swoon on the floor.

"Cut of his head with the sword that he threatened us with," said another.

"No," said the third Hag. "Crom Duv the Giant is in want of a servant. Let him
take this fellow. Then maybe the Giant will give us what he has promised us
for so long--a Berry to each of us from the Fairy Rowan Tree that grows in his
courtyard."

"Let it be, let it be," said the other Hags. They put green branches on the
fire so that Crom Duv would see the smoke and come to the house. In the
morning he came. He brought Flann outside, and after awhile Flann's senses
came back to him. Then the Giant tied a rope round his arms and drove him
before him with a long iron spike that he had for a staff.

II

Crom Duv's arms stretched down to his twisted knees; he had long, yellow,
overlapping horse s teeth in his mouth, with a fall-down under-lip and a
drawn-back upper-lip; he had a matted rug of hair on his head. He was as high
as a haystack. He carried in his twisted hand an iron spike pointed at the
end. And wherever he was going he went as quickly as a running mule.

He tied Flann's hands behind his back and drew the rope round Flann's body.
Then he started off. Flann was dragged on as if at the tail of a cart. Over
ditches and through streams; up hillsides and down into hollows he was hauled.
Then they came into a plain as round as the wheel of a cart. Across the plain
they went and into a mile-deep wood. Beyond the wood there were buildings--
such walls and such heaps of stones Flann never saw before.

But before they had entered the wood they had come to a high grassy mound. And
standing on that grassy mound was the most tremendous bull that Flann had ever
seen.

"What bull is that, Giant?" said Flann.

"My own bull," said Crom Duv, "the Bull of the Mound. Look back at him,
little fellow. If ever you try to escape from my service my Bull of the Mound
will toss you into the air and trample you into the ground." Crom Duv blew on
a horn that he had across his chest. The Bull of the Mound rushed down the
slope snorting. Crom Duv shouted and the bull stood still with his tremendous
head bent down.

Flann's heart, I tell you, sank, when he saw the bull that guarded Crom Duv's
house. They went through the deep wood then, and came to the gate of the
Giant's Keep. Only a chain was across it, and Crom Duv lifted up the chain.
The courtyard was filled with cattle black and red and striped. The Giant tied
Flann to a stone pillar. "Are you there, Morag, my byre-maid?" he shouted.

"I am here," said a voice from the byre. More cattle were in the byre and
someone was milking them.

There was straw on the ground of the courtyard and Crom Duv lay down on it and
went to sleep with the cattle trampling around him. A great stone wall was
being built all round the Giant's Keep--a wall six feet thick and built as
high as twenty feet in some places and in others as high as twelve. The wall
was still being built, for heaps of stones and great mixing-pans were about.
And just before the door of the Keep was a Rowan Tree that grew to a great
height. At the very top of the tree were bunches of red berries. Cats were
lying around the stems of the tree and cats were in its branches--great yellow
cats. More yellow cats stepped out of the house and came over to him. They
looked Flann all over and went back, mewing to each other.

The cattle that were in the courtyard went into the byre one by one as they
were called by the voice of the byre-maid. Crom Duv still slept. By and by a
little red hen that was picking about the courtyard came near him and holding
up her head looked Flann all over.

When the last cow had gone in and the last stream of milk had sounded in the
milking-vessel the byre-maid came into the courtyard. Flann thought he would
see a long-armed creature like Crom Duv himself. Instead he saw a girl with
good and kind eyes, whose disfigurements were that her face was pitted and her
hair was bushy. "I am Morag, Crom Duv's byre-maid," said she.

"Will Crom Duv kill me?" said Flann.

"No. He'll make you serve him," said the byre-maid.

"And what will he make me do for him?"

"He will make you help to build his wall. Crom Duv goes out every morning to
bring his cattle to pasture on the plain. And when he comes back he builds the
wall round his house. He'll make you mix mortar and carry it to him, for I
heard him say he wants a servant to do that."

"I'll escape from this," said Flann, "and I'll bring you with me."

"Hush," said Morag, and she pointed to seven yellow cats that were standing at
Crom Duv's door, watching them. "The cats," said she, "are Crom Duv's watchers
here and the Bull of the Mound is his watcher out-side."

"And is this Little Red Hen a watcher too?" said Flann, for the Little Red Hen
was watching them sideways. "The Little Red Hen is my friend and adviser,"
Morag, and she went into the house with two vessels of milk.

Crom Duv wakened up. He untied Flann and left him free. "You must mix mortar
for me now," he said. He went into the byre and came out with a great vessel
of milk. He left it down near the mixing-pan. He went to the side of the house
and came back with a trough of blood.

"What are these for, Crom Duv?" said Flann. "To mix the mortar with, gilly,"
said the Giant. "Bullock's blood and new milk is what I mix my mortar with, so
that nothing can break down the walls that I'm building round the Fairy Rowan
Tree. Every day I kill a bullock and every day my byre-maid fills a vessel of
milk to mix with my mortar. Set to now, and mix the mortar for me."

Flann brought lime and sand to the mixing-pan and he mixed them in bullock's
blood and new milk. He carried stones to Crom Duv. And so he worked until it
was dark. Then Crom Duv got down from where he was building and told Flann to
go into the house.

The yellow cats were there and Flann counted sixteen of them. Eight more were
outside, in the branches or around the stem of the Rowan Tree. Morag came in,
bringing a great dish of porridge. Crom Duv took up a wooden spoon and ate
porridge out of vessel after vessel of milk. Then he shouted for his beer and
Morag brought him vessel after vessel of beer. Crom Duv emptied one after the
other..Then he shouted for his knife and when Morag brought it he began to
sharpen it, singing a queer song to himself.

"He's sharpening a knife to kill a bullock in the morning," said Morag. "Come
now, and I'll give you your supper."

She took him to the kitchen at the back of the house. She gave him porridge
and milk and he ate his supper. Then she showed him a ladder to a room above,
and he went up there and made a bed for himself. He slept soundly, although he
dreamed of the twenty-four yellow cats within, and the tremendous Bull of the
Mound outside Crom Duv's Keep.

III

This is how the days were spent in the house of Crom Duv. The Giant and his
two servants, Flann and Morag, were out of their beds at the mouth of the day.
Crom Duv sounded his horn and the Bull of the Mound bellowed an answer. Then
he started work on his wall, making Flann carry mortar to him. Morag put down
the fire and boiled the pots. Pots of porridge, plates of butter and pans of
milk were on the table when' Crom Duv and Flann came in to their breakfasts.
Then, when the Giant had driven out his cattle to the pasture Flann cleaned
the byre and made the mortar, mixing lime and sand with bullock's blood and
new milk. In the afternoon the Giant came back and he and Flann started work
on the wall.

All the time the twenty-four yellow cats lay on the branches of the Rowan Tree
or walked about the court-yard or lapped up great crocks of milk. Morag's
Little Red Hen went hopping round the courtyard. She seemed to be sleepy or to
be always considering something. If one of the twenty-four yellow cats looked
at her the Little Red Hen would waken up, murmur something, and hop away.

One day the cattle came home without Crom Duv. "He has gone on one of his
journeys," said Morag, "and will not be back for a night and a day."

"Then it is time for me to make my escape," said Flann.

"How can you make your escape, my dear, my dear?" said Morag. "If you go by
the front the Bull of the Mound will toss you in the air and then trample you
into the ground."

"But I have strength and cunning and activity enough to climb the wall at the
back."

"But if you climb the wall at the back," said Morag, "you will only come to
the Moat of Poisoned Water." "The Moat of Poisoned Water?" "The Moat of
Poisoned Water," said Morag. "The water poisons the skin of any creature that
tries to swim across the Moat."

Flann was downcast when he heard of the Moat of Poisoned Water. But his mind
was fixed on climbing the wall. "I may find some way of crossing the poisoned
water," he said, "so bake my cake and give me provision for my journey."

Morag baked a cake and put it on the griddle. And when it was baked she
wrapped it in a napkin and gave it to him. "Take my blessing with it," said
she, "and if you escape, may you meet someone who will be a better help to you
than I was. I must keep the twenty-four cats from watching you while you are
climbing the wall."

"And how will you do that?" said Flann.

She showed him what she would do. With a piece of glass she made on the wall
of the byre the shadows of flying birds. Birds never flew across the House of
Crom Duv and the cats were greatly taken with the appearances that Morag made
with the piece of glass. Six cats watched, and then another six came, and
after them six more, and after them the six that watched in the Rowan Tree.
And the twenty-four yellow cats sat round and watched with burning eyes the
appearances of birds that Morag made on the byre-wall. Flann looked back and
saw her seated on a stone, and he thought the Byre-Maid looked lonesome.

He tried with all his activity, all his cunning and all his strength, and at
last he climbed the wall at the back of Crom Duv's house. He gave a whistle to
let Morag know he was over. Then he went through a little wood and came to the
Moat of Poisoned Water.

Very ugly the dead water looked. Ugly stakes stuck up from the mud to pierce
any creature that tried to leap across. And here and there on the water were
patches of green poison as big as cabbage leaves. Flann drew back from the
Moat. Leap it he could not, and swim it he dare not. And just as he drew back
he saw a creature he knew come down to the bank opposite to him. It was Rory
the Fox. Rory carried in his mouth the skin of a calf. He dropped the skin
into the water and pushed it out before him. Then he got into the water and
swam very cautiously, always pushing the calf's skin before him. Then Rory
climbed up on the bank where Flann was, and the skin, all green and wrinkled,
sank down into the water.

Rory was going to turn tail, but then he recognized Flann. " Master," said he,
and he licked the dust on the ground.

"What are you doing here, Rory?" said Flann.

"I won't mind telling you if you promise to tell no other creature," said
Rory.

"I won't tell," said Flann.

"Well then," said Rory, "I have moved my little family over here. I was being
chased about a good deal, and my little family wasn't safe. So I moved them
over here." The fox turned and looked round at the country behind him. "It
suits me very well," said he; "no creature would think of crossing this moat
after me."

"Well," said Flann, "tell me how you are able to cross it."

"I will," said the fox, "if you promise never to hunt me nor any of my little
family."

"I promise," said Flann.

"Well," said Rory, "the water poisons every skin. Now the reason that I pushed
the calf's skin across was that it might take the poison out of the water. The
water poisons every skin. But where the skin goes the poison is taken out of
the water for a while, and a living creature can cross behind it if he is
cautious."

"I thank you for showing me the way to cross the moat," said Flann.

"I don't mind showing you," said Rory the Fox, and he went off to his burrow.

There were deer-skins and calf-skins both sides of the moat. Flann took a
calf's skin. He pushed it into the water with a stick. He swam cautiously
behind it. When he reached the other side of the moat, the skin, all green and
wrinkled, sank in the water.

Flann jumped and laughed and shouted when he found himself in the forest and
clear of Crom Duv's house. He went on. It was grand to see the woodpecker
hammering on the branch, and to see him stop, busy as he was to say "Pass,
friend." Two young deer came out of the depths of the wood. They were too
young and too innocent to have anything to tell him, but they bounded
alongside of him as he raced along the Hunter's Path. He jumped and he shouted
again when he saw the river before him--the river that was called the Daybreak
River on the right bank and the River of the Morning Star on the left. He said
to himself, "This time, in troth, I will go the whole way with the river. A
moving thing is my delight. The river is the most wonderful of all the things
I have seen on my travels."

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