Books: The King of Ireland\'s Son
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Padraic Colum >> The King of Ireland\'s Son
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The King of Ireland's Son and Flann went on, and they were let into the town.
The people had lighted great fires in their market-place and they were driving
their cattle through the fires: "If there be evil on you, may it burn, may it
burn," they were crying. They were afraid that witches and enchanters might
come into the town with the merchants and the sellers, and that was the reason
they did not permit a great company to enter.
The fires in all their houses had been quenched that day, and they might not
be lighted except from the fires the cattle had gone through. The fires were
left blazing high and the King's Son and Flann spent hours watching them, and
watching the crowds that were around.
Then the time came to take fire to the houses. They who came for fire were all
young maidens. Each came into the light of one of the great fires, took coals
from a fire that had burnt low, placed them in a new earthen vessel and went
away. Flann thought that all the maidens were beautiful and wonderful,
although the King's Son told him that some were black-faced, and some crop-
headed and some hunchbacked. Then a maiden came, who was so high above the
rest that Flann had no words to speak of her.
She had silver on her head and silver on her arms, and the people around the
fires all bowed to her. She had black, black hair and she had a smiling face--
not happily smiling, but proudly smiling. Flann thought that a star had bent
down with her. And when she had taken the fire and had gone away, Flann said,
"She is surely the King's daughter!"
"She is," said the King of Ireland's Son. "The people here have spoken her
name." "What is her name?" asked Flann. "It is Lassarina," said the King's
Son, "Flame-of-Wine."
"Shall we see her again?" said Flann.
"That I do not know," said the King's Son. "Come now, and let us ask the
people here if they have knowledge of the Unique Tale."
"Wait," said Flann, "they are talking about Princess Flame-of-Wine." He did
not move, but listened to what was said. All said that the King's daughter was
proud. Some said she was beautiful, but others answered that her lips were
thin, and her eyes were mocking. No other maidens came for fire. Flann stood
before the one that still blazed, and thought and thought. The King's Son
asked many if they had knowledge of the Unique Tale, but no one had heard of
it. Some told him that there would be merchants and sellers from many parts of
the world at the fair that would be held on the morrow, and that there would
be a chance of meeting one who had knowledge of it. Then the King's Son went
with one who brought him to a Brufir's--that is, to a House of Hospitality
maintained by the King for strangers. As for Flann, he sat looking into the
fire until it died down, and then he slept before it.
II
Flann was wakened by a gander and his flock of geese that stood round him;
shook their wings and set up their goose-gabble. It was day then, although
there was still a star in the sky. He threw furze-roots where there was a
glow, and made a fire blaze up again. Then the dogs of the town came down to
look at him, and then stole away.
Horns were blown outside, and the watchman opened the gates. Flann shook
himself and stood up to see the folk that were coming in. First came the men
who drove the mountain ponies that had lately fed with the deer in wild
places. Then came men in leathern jerkins who led wide-horned bulls--a black
bull and a white bull, and a white bull and a black bull, one after the other.
Then there were men who brought in high, swift hounds, three to each leash
they held. Women in brown cloaks carried cages of birds. Men carried on their
shoulders and in their belts tools for working gold and silver, bronze and
iron. And there were calves and sheep, and great horses and weighty chariots,
and colored cloths, and things closed in packs that merchants carried on their
shoulders. The famous bards, and story-tellers and harpists would not come
until noon-time when the business of the fair would have abated, but with the
crowd of beggars came ballad-singers, and the tellers of the stories that were
called "Go-by-the-Market-Stake," because they were told around the stake in
the market place and were very common.
And at the tail of the comers whom did Flann see but Mogue, the Captain of the
Robbers!
Mogue wore a hare-skin cap, his left eye protruded as usual, and he walked
limpingly. He had a pack on his back, and he led a small, swift looking horse
of a reddish color. Flann called to him as he passed and Mogue gave a great
start. He grinned when he saw it was Flann and walked up to him.
"Mogue," said Flann, "what are you doing in the Town of the Red Castle?"
"I'm here to sell a few things," said Mogue, "this little horse," said he,
"and a few things I have in my pack."
"And where are your friends?" asked Flann. "My band, do you mean?" said Mogue.
"Sure, they all left me when you proved you were the better robber. What are
you doing here?"
"I have no business at all," said Flann.
"By the Hazel! that's what I like to hear you say. Join me then. You and me
would do well together."
"I won't join you," said Flann.
"I'd rather have you with me than the whole of the band. What were they
anyway? Cabbage-heads!" Mogue winked with his protruding eye. "Wait till you
see me again," said he. "I've the grandest things in my pack." He went on
leading the little horse. Then Flann set out to look for the King's Son.
He found him at the door of the Brufir's, and they drank bowls of milk and ate
oaten bread together, and then went to the gate of the town to watch the
notable people who were coming in.
And with the bards and harpers and Kings' envoys who came in, the King's Son
saw his two half-brothers, Dermott and Downal. He hailed them and they knew
him and came up to him gladly. The King's Son made Flann known to them, saying
that he too was the son of a King.
They looked fine youths, Downal and Dermott, in their red cloaks, with their
heads held high, and a brag in their walk and their words. They left their
horses with the grooms and walked with Flann and the King's Son. They were
tall and ruddy; the King's Son was more brown in the hair and more hawk-like
in the face: the three were different from the dark- The Town of the Red
Castle l93 haired, dark-eyed, red-lipped lad to whom the Old Woman of Beare
had given the name of Flann.
No one had seen the King who lived in the Red Castle, Dermott and Downal told
the other two. He was called the Wry-faced King, and, on account of his
disfigurement, he let no one but his Councilors see him.
"We are to go to his Castle to-day," said Dermott and Downal. "You come too,
brother," said he to the King's Son.
"And you too, comrade," said Downal to Flann. "Why should we not all go? By
Ogma! Are we not all sons of Kings?"
Flann wondered if he would see the King's daughter, Flame-of-Wine. He would
surely go to the Castle.
They drank ale, played chess and talked until it was afternoon. Then the
grooms who were with Downal and Dermott brought the four youths new red
cloaks. They put them on and went towards the King's Castle.
"Brother," said Dermott to the King's Son, "I want to tell you that we are not
going back to our father's Castle nor to his Kingdom. We have taken the world
for our pillow. We are going to leave the grooms asleep one fine morning, and
go as the salmon goes down the river."
"Why do you want to leave our father's Kingdom?"
"Because we don't want to rule nor to learn to rule. We'll let you, brother,
do all that. We're going to learn the trade of a sword-smith. We would make
fine swords. And with the King of Senlabor there is a famous sword-smith, and
we are going to learn the trade from him."
The four went to the Red Castle, and they were brought in and they went and
sat on the benches to wait for the King's Steward who would receive them. And
while they waited they watched the play of a pet fox in the courtyard. Flann
was wondering all the time if the Princess Flame-of-Wine would pass through
the court-yard or come into the hall where they waited.
Then he saw her come up the courtyard. She saw the youths in the hall and she
turned round to watch the pet fox for a while. Then she came into the chamber
and stood near the door.
She wore a mask across her face, but her brow and mouth and chin were shown.
The youths saluted her, and she bent her head to them. One of the women who
had brought birds to the Fair followed her, bringing a cage. Flame-of-Wine
talked to this woman in a strange language.
Although she talked to the woman, Flann saw that she watched his three
companions. Him she did not notice, because the bench on which he sat was
behind the others. Flame-of-Wine looked at the King's Son first, and then
turned her eyes from him. She bent her head to listen to what Downal and
Dermott were saying. Flann she did not look at at all, and he became sick at
heart of the Red Castle.
The King's Steward came into the Hall and when he announced who the youths
were--three sons of the King of Ireland traveling with their foster-brother--
Flame-of-Wine went over and spoke to them. "May we see you to-morrow, Kings'
Sons," she said. "To-morrow is our feast of the Gathering of Apples. It might
be pleasant for you to hear music in the King's garden."
She smiled on Downal and Dermott and on the King's Son and went out of the
Chamber. The King's Steward feasted the four youths and afterwards made them
presents. But Flann did not heed what he ate nor what he heard said, nor what
present was given him.
III
The four youths left the Castle and Downal and Dermott took their own way when
they came to the foot-bridge that was across the river. Then when they were
crossing it the King's Son and Flann saw two figures--a middle-aged, sturdy
man and an old, broken-looking woman--meet before the Bull's Field. "It is the
Gobaun Saor," said the King's Son. "It is the Spae-Woman," said Flann. They
went to them, each wishing to greet his friend and helper.
There they saw a sturdy, middle-aged man and a broken-looking old woman. But
the woman looking on the man saw one who had full wisdom to plan and full
strength to build, whose wisdom and whose strength could neither grow nor
diminish. And the man looking on the woman saw one whose brow had all quiet,
whose heart had all benignity. "Hail, Gobaun, Builder for the Gods," said the
woman. "Hail, Grania Oi, Reconciler for the Gods," said the man.
Then the two youths came swiftly up to them, and the King's Son greeted the
middle-aged man, and Flann kissed the hands of the old woman.
"What of your search, King's Son?" said the Gobaun Saor.
"I have found the Unique Tale, but not what went before nor what comes after
it," said the King's Son.
"I will clear the Sword of Light of its stain when you bring me the whole of
the Unique Tale," said the Gobaun Saor.
"I would search the whole world for it," said the King's Son. "But now the
time is becoming short for me." "Be quick and active," said the Gobaun Saor.
"I have set up my forge," said he, "outside the town between two high stones.
When you bring the whole of the Tale to me I shall clear your sword."
"Will you not tell him, Gobaun Saor," said the Spae-Woman, "where he may find
the one who will tell him the rest of the story?"
"If he sees one he knows in this town," said the Gobaun Saor, "let him mount a
horse he has mounted before and pursue that one and force him to tell what
went before and what comes after the Unique Tale."
Saying this the Gobaun Saor turned away and walked along the road that went
out of the town.
The Spae-Woman had brought besoms to the town to sell. She showed the two
youths the little house she lived in while she was there. It was filled with
the heather-stalks which she bound together for besoms.
They left the Spae-Woman and went through the town, the King of Ireland's Son
searching every place for a man he knew or a horse he had mounted before,
while Flann thought about the Princess Flame-of-Wine, and how little she
considered him beside the King's Son and Dermott and Downal. They came to
where a crowd was standing before a conjurer's booth. They halted and stood
waiting for the conjurer to appear. He came out and put a ladder standing
upright with nothing to lean against and began climbing up. Up, up, up, he
went, and the ladder grew higher and higher as he climbed. Flann thought he
would climb into the sky. Then the ladder got smaller and smaller and Flann
saw the conjurer coming down on the other side. "He has come here to take that
horse," said a voice behind the King of Ireland's Son.
The King's Son looked round, and on the outskirts of the crowd he saw a man
with a hare-skin cap and a protruding eye who was holding a reddish horse,
while he watched the conjuror. The King of Ireland's Son knew the horse--it
was the Slight Red Steed that had carried him and Fedelma from the Enchanter's
house and had brought him to the Cave where he had found the Sword of Light.
He looked at the conjuror again and he saw he was no other than the Enchanter
of the Black Back-Lands. Then it crossed his mind what the Gobaun Saor had
said to him.
He had seen a man he knew and a horse he had mounted before. He was to mount
that horse, follow the man, and force him to tell the rest of the Unique Tale.
The King's Son drew back to the outskirts of the crowd. He snatched the bridle
from the hands of Mogue, the man who held it, and jumped up on the back of the
Slight Red Steed.
As soon as he did this the ladder that was standing upright fell on the
ground. The people shouted and broke away. And then the King's Son saw the
Enchanter jump across a house and make for the gate of the town.
But if he could jump across a house so could the Slight Red Steed. The King's
Son turned its head, plucked at its rein, and over the same house it sprang
too. The more he ran the more swift the Enchanter The Town of the Red Castle
i99 became. He jumped over the gate of the town, the Slight Red Steed after
him. He went swiftly across the country, making high springs over ditches and
hedges. No other steed but the Slight Red Steed could have kept its rider in
sight of him.
IV
Up hill and down dale the Enchanter went, but, mounted on the Slight Red
Steed, the King of Ireland's Son was in hot pursuit. The Enchanter raced up
the side of the seventh hill, and when the King's Son came to the top of it he
found no one in sight.
He raced on, however, and he passed a dead man hanging from a tree. He raced
on and on, but still the Enchanter was not to he seen. Then the thought came
into his mind that the man who was hanging from the tree and who he thought
was dead was the crafty old Enchanter. He turned the Slight Red Steed round
and raced back. The man that had been hanging from the tree was there no
longer.
The King's Son turned his horse amongst the trees and began to search for the
Enchanter. He found no trace of him. "I have lost again," he said. Then he
threw the bridle on the neck of the horse and he said, "Go your own way now,
my Slight Red Steed."
When he said that the Slight Red Steed twitched its ears and galloped towards
the West. It went through woods and across streams, and when the crows were
flying home and the kites were flying abroad it brought the King's Son to a
stone house standing in the middle of a bog. "It may be the Enchanter is in
this house," said the King's Son. He jumped off the Slight Red Steed, pushed
the door of the house open, and there, seated on a chair in the middle of the
floor with a woman sitting beside him, was the Enchanter of the Black Back-
Lands. "So," said the Enchanter, "my Slight Red Steed has brought you to me."
"So," said the King's Son, "I have found you, my crafty old Enchanter."
"And now that you have found me, what do you want of me?" said the Enchanter.
"Your head," said the King's Son, drawing the tarnished Sword of Light.
"Will nothing less than my head content you?" said the Enchanter.
"Nothing less--unless it be what went before, and what comes after the Unique
Tale."
"The Unique Tale," said the Enchanter. "I will tell you what I know of it."
Thereupon he began
I was a Druid and the Son of a Druid, and I had learned the language of the
birds. And one morning, as I walked abroad, I heard a blackbird and a robin
talking, and when I heard what they said I smiled to myself.
"Now the woman I had just married noticed that I kept smiling, and she
questioned me. 'Why do you keep smiling to yourself?' I would not tell her.
'Is that not the truth? '" said the Enchanter to a woman who sat beside him.
"It is the truth," said she.
"On the third day I was still smiling to myself, and my wife questioned me,
and when I did not answer threw dish-water into my face. 'May blindness come
upon you if you do not tell me why you are smiling,' said she. Then I told her
why I smiled to myself. I had heard what the birds said. The blackbird said to
the robin, 'Do you know that just under where we are sitting are three rods of
enchantment, and if one were to take one of them and strike a man with it, he
would be changed to any creature one named?' That is what I had heard the
birds say and I smiled because I was the only creature who knew about the rods
of enchantment.
"My wife made me show her where the rods were. She cut one of them when I went
away. That evening she came behind me and struck me with a rod. ' Go out now
and roam as a wolf,' she said, and there and then I was changed into a wolf.
'Is that not true?'" said he to the woman. "It is true," she said.
"And being changed into a wolf, I went through the woods seeking wolf's meat.
And now you must ask my wife to tell you more of the story." The King of
Ireland's Son turned to the woman who sat on the seat next the Enchanter, and
asked her to tell him more of the story. And thereupon she began
Before all that happened I was known as the Maid of the Green Mantle. One day
a King rode up a mountain with five score followers and a mist came on them as
they rode. The King saw his followers no more. He called out after a while and
four score answered him. And he called out again after another while and two
score answered him. And after another while he called out again and only a
score answered him through the mist, and when he called out again no one
answered him at all.
"The King went up the mountain until he came to the place where I lived with
the Druids who reared me. He stayed long in that place. The King loved me for
a while and I loved the King, and when he went away I followed him.
"Because he would not come back to me I enchanted him so that there were times
when he was left between life and death. Once when he was seemingly dead a
girl watched by him, and she followed his spirit into many terrible places and
so broke my enchantment."
"Sheen was the girl's name," said the King of Ireland's Son.
"Sheen was her name," said the woman. "He brought her to his Kingdom, and made
her his queen. After that I married the man who is here now--the Enchanter of
the Black Back-Lands, the Son of the Druid of the Gray Rock. Ask him now to
tell you the rest of the story."
When she changed me into a gray wolf," said the Enchanter, "I went through the
woods searching for what a wolf might eat, but could find nothing to stay my
hunger. Then I came back and stood outside my house and the woman who had been
called the Maid of the Green Mantle came to me. 'I will give you back your
human form,' she said, 'if you do as I bid you.'
"I promised her I would do as she bade.
"She bade me go to a King's house where a child had been born. She bade me
steal the child away. I went to the King's house. I went into the chamber and
I stole the child from the mother's side. Then I ran through the woods. But in
the end I fell into a trap that the Giant Crom Duv had set for the wolves that
chased his stray cattle.
"For a night I lay in the trap with the child beside me. Then Crom Duv came
and lifted out wolf and child. Three Hags with Long Teeth were there when he
took us out of the trap, and he gave the child to one of them, telling her to
rear it so that the child might be a servant for him.
"He put me into a sack, promising himself that he would give me a good
beating. He left me on the floor of his house. But while he was gone for his
club I bit my way out of the sack and made my escape. I came back to my own
house, and my wife struck me with the wand of enchantment, and changed me from
a wolf into a man again. 'Is that not true?'" said he to the woman.
"It is true," said she.
"That is all of the Unique Tale that I know," said the Enchanter of the Black
Back-Lands, "and now that I have told it to you, put up your sword."
"I will put up no sword," said the King of Ireland's Son, "until you tell me
what King and Queen were the father and mother of the child that was reared by
the Hags of the Long Teeth."
"I made no promise to tell you that," said the En-chanter of the Black Back-
Lands. "You have got the story you asked for, and now let me see your back
going through my door."
"Yes, you have got the story, and be off with you now," said the woman who sat
by the fire.
He put up his sword; he went to the door; he left the house of the Enchanter
of the Black Back-Lands. He mounted the Slight Red Steed and rode off. He knew
now what went before and what came after the Unique Tale. The Gobaun Saor
would clean the blemish of the blade of the Sword of Light and would show him
how to come to the Land of Mist. Then he would win back his love Fedelma.
He thought too on the tidings he had for his comrade Flann--Flann was the Son
of the King who was called the Hunter-King and of Sheen whose brothers had
been changed into seven wild geese. He shook his horse's reins and went back
towards the Town of the Red Castle.
V
Flann thought upon the Princess Flame-of-Wine. He walked through the town
after the King's Son had ridden after the Enchanter, without noticing anyone
until he heard a call and saw Mogue standing beside a little tent that he had
set up before the Bull's Field.
Flann went to Mogue and found him very disconsolate on account of the loss of
the horse he had brought into the town. "This is a bad town to be in," said
Mogue, "and unless I persuade yourself to become partners with me I shall have
done badly in it. Join with me now and we'll do some fine feats together."
"It would not become a King's Son to join with a robber-captain," said Flann.
"Fine talk, fine talk," said Mogue. He thought that Flann was jesting with him
when he spoke of himself as a King's Son.
"I want to sell three treasures I have with me," said Mogue. "I have the most
wonderful things that were ever brought into this town."
"Show them to me," said Flann.
Mogue opened one of his packs and took out a box. When he opened this box a
fragrance came such as Flann had never felt before. "What is that that smells
like a garden of sweet flowers?" said Flann.
"It is the Rose of Sweet Smells," said Mogue, and he took a little rose out of
the box. "It never withers and its fragrance is never any less. It is a
treasure for a King's daughter. But I will not show it in this town."
"And what is that shining thing in the box?"
"It is the Comb of Magnificence. That is another treasure for a King's
daughter. The maiden who would wear it would look the most queenly woman in
the Kingdom. But I won't show that either."
"What else have you, Mogue?"
"A girdle. The woman who wears it would have to speak the truth." The Town of
Flann thought he would do much to get the Rose of Sweet Smells or the Comb of
Magnificence and bring them as presents to the Princess Flame-of-Wine.
He slept in Mogue's tent, and at the peep of day, he rose up and went to the
House of Hospitality where Dermott and Downal were. With them he would go to
the King's orchard, and he would see, and perhaps he would speak to, Flame-of-
Wine. But Dermott and Downal were not in the Brufir's. Flann wakened their
grooms and he and they made search for the two youths. But there was no trace
of Dermott and Downal. It seemed they had left before daybreak with their
horses. Flann went with the grooms to the gate of the town. There they heard
from the watchman that the two youths had gone through the gate and that they
had told the watchman to tell the grooms that they had gone to take the world
for their pillow.
The grooms were dismayed to hear this, and so indeed was Flann. Without the
King's Son and without Downal and Dermott how would he go to the King's
Garden? He went back to Mogue's tent to consider what he should do. And first
he thought he would not go to the Festival of the Gathering of the Apples, as
he knew that Flame-of-Wine had only asked him with his comrades. And then he
thought that whatever else happened he would go to the King's orchard and see
Flame-of-Wine.
If he had one of the wonderful things that Mogue had shown him--the Rose of
Sweet Smells or the Comb of Magnificence! These would show her that he was of
some consequence. If he had either of these wonderful things and offered it to
her she might be pleased with him!
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