Irish Fairy Tales (29 page)

When Fiachna Duv heard that Mongan, who was affianced to his daughter Duv Laca, had disappeared, he considered that his compact of peace was at an end, and one day he came by surprise and attacked the palace. He killed Fiachna Finn in that battle, and he crowned himself King of Ulster.

The men of Ulster disliked him, and they petitioned Manannán to bring Mongan back, but Manannán would not do this until the boy was sixteen years of age and well reared in the wisdom of the Land of Promise. Then he did bring Mongan back, and by his means peace was made between Mongan and Fiachna Duv, and Mongan was married to his cradle-bride, the young Duv Laca.

Chapter 9

O
ne day Mongan and Duv Laca were playing chess in their palace. Mongan had just made a move of skill, and he looked up from the board to see if Duv Laca seemed as discontented as she had a right to be. He saw then over Duv Laca's shoulder a little black-faced, tufty-headed cleric leaning against the door-post inside the room.

“What are you doing there?” said Mongan.

“What are you doing there yourself?” said the little black-faced cleric.

“Indeed, I have a right to be in my own house,” said Mongan.

“Indeed I do not agree with you,” said the cleric.

“Where ought I be, then?” said Mongan.

“You ought to be at Dun Fiathac avenging the murder of your father,” replied the cleric, “and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for not having done it long ago. You can play chess with your wife when you have won the right to leisure.”

“But how can I kill my wife's father?” Mongan exclaimed.

“By starting about it at once,” said the cleric.

“Here is a way of talking!” said Mongan.

“I know,” the cleric continued, “that Duv Laca will not agree with a word I say on this subject, and that she will try to prevent you from doing what you have a right to do, for that is a wife's business, but a man's business is to do what I have just told you; so come with me now and do not wait to think about it, and do not wait to play any more chess. Fiachna Duv has only a small force with him at this moment, and we can burn his palace as he burned your father's palace, and kill him as he killed your father, and crown you King of Ulster rightfully the way he crowned himself wrongfully as a king.”

“I begin to think that you own a lucky tongue, my black-faced friend,” said Mongan, “and I will go with you.”

He collected his forces then, and he burned Fiachna Duv's fortress, and he killed Fiachna Duv, and he was crowned King of Ulster.

Then for the first time he felt secure and at liberty to play chess. But he did not know until afterwards that the black-faced, tufty-headed person was his father Manannán, although that was the fact.

There are some who say, however, that Fiachna the Black was killed in the year 624 by the lord of the Scot's Dal Riada, Condad Cerr, at the battle of Ard Carainn; but the people who say this do not know what they are talking about, and they do not care greatly what it is they say.

Chapter 10

T
here is nothing to marvel about in this Duv Laca,” said the Flame Lady scornfully. “She has got married, and she has been beaten at chess. It has happened before.”

“Let us keep to the story,” said Mongan, and, having taken some few dozen deep draughts of the wine, he became even more jovial than before. Then he recommenced his tale:

It happened on a day that Mongan had need of treasure. He had many presents to make, and he had not as much gold and silver and cattle as was proper for a king. He called his nobles together and discussed what was the best thing to be done, and it was arranged that he should visit the provincial kings and ask boons from them.

He set out at once on his round of visits, and the first province he went to was Leinster.

The King of Leinster at that time was Branduv, the son of Echach. He welcomed Mongan and treated him well, and that night Mongan slept in his palace.

When he awoke in the morning he looked out of a lofty window, and he saw on the sunny lawn before the palace a herd of cows. There were fifty cows in all, for he counted them, and each cow had a calf beside her, and each cow and calf was pure white in colour, and each of them had red ears.

When Mongan saw these cows, he fell in love with them as he had never fallen in love with anything before.

He came down from the window and walked on the sunny lawn among the cows, looking at each of them and speaking words of affection and endearment to them all; and while he was thus walking and talking and looking and loving, he noticed that some one was moving beside him. He looked from the cows then, and saw that the King of Leinster was at his side.

“Are you in love with the cows?” Branduv asked him.

“I am,” said Mongan.

“Everybody is,” said the King of Leinster.

“I never saw anything like them,” said Mongan.

“Nobody has,” said the King of Leinster.

“I never saw anything I would rather have than these cows,” said Mongan.

“These,” said the King of Leinster, “are the most beautiful cows in Ireland, and,” he continued thoughtfully, “Duv Laca is the most beautiful woman in Ireland.”

“There is no lie in what you say,” said Mongan.

“Is it not a queer thing,” said the King of Leinster, “that I should have what you want with all your soul, and you should have what I want with all my heart?”

“Queer indeed,” said Mongan, “but what is it that you do want?”

“Duv Laca, of course,” said the King of Leinster.

“Do you mean,” said Mongan, “that you would exchange this herd of fifty pure white cows having red ears—”

“And their fifty calves,” said the King of Leinster—

“For Duv Laca, or for any woman in the world?”

“I would,” cried the King of Leinster, and he thumped his knee as he said it.

“Done,” roared Mongan, and the two kings shook hands on the bargain.

Mongan then called some of his own people, and before any more words could be said and before any alteration could be made, he set his men behind the cows and marched home with them to Ulster.

Chapter 11

D
uv Laca wanted to know where the cows came from, and Mongan told her that the King of Leinster had given them to him. She fell in love with them as Mongan had done, but there was nobody in the world could have avoided loving those cows: such cows they were! such wonders! Mongan and Duv Laca used to play chess together, and then they would go out together to look at the cows, and then they would go in together and would talk to each other about the cows. Everything they did they did together, for they loved to be with each other.

However, a change came.

One morning a great noise of voices and trampling of horses and rattle of armour came about the palace. Mongan looked from the window.

“Who is coming?” asked Duv Laca.

But he did not answer her.

“The noise must announce the visit of a king,” Duv Laca continued.

But Mongan did not say a word.

Duv Laca then went to the window.

“Who is that king?” she asked.

And her husband replied to her then.

“That is the King of Leinster,” said he mournfully.

“Well,” said Duv Laca surprised, “is he not welcome?”

“He is welcome indeed,” said Mongan lamentably.

“Let us go out and welcome him properly,” Duv Laca suggested.

“Let us not go near him at all,” said Mongan, “for he is coming to complete his bargain.”

“What bargain are you talking about?” Duv Laca asked.

But Mongan would not answer that.

“Let us go out,” said he, “for we must go out.”

Mongan and Duv Laca went out then and welcomed the King of Leinster. They brought him and his chief men into the palace, and water was brought for their baths, and rooms were appointed for them, and everything was done that should be done for guests.

That night there was a feast, and after the feast there was a banquet, and all through the feast and the banquet the King of Leinster stared at Duv Laca with joy, and sometimes his breast was delivered of great sighs, and at times he moved as though in perturbation of spirit and mental agony.

“There is something wrong with the King of Leinster,” Duv Laca whispered.

“I don't care if there is,” said Mongan.

“You must ask what he wants.”

“But I don't want to know it,” said Mongan.

“Nevertheless, you musk ask him,” she insisted.

So Mongan did ask him, and it was in a melancholy voice that he asked it.

“Do you want anything?” said he to the King of Leinster.

“I do indeed,” said Branduv.

“If it is in Ulster I will get it for you,” said Mongan mournfully.

“It is in Ulster,” said Branduv.

Mongan did not want to say anything more then, but the King of Leinster was so intent and everybody else was listening and Duv Laca was nudging his arm, so he said:

“What is it that you do want?”

“I want Duv Laca.”

“I want her too,” said Mongan.

“You made your bargain,” said the King of Leinster, “my cows and their calves for your Duv Laca, and the man that makes a bargain keeps a bargain.”

“I never before heard,” said Mongan, “of a man giving away his own wife.”

“Even if you never heard of it before, you must do it now,” said Duv Laca, “for honour is longer than life.”

Mongan became angry when Duv Laca said that. His face went red as a sunset, and the veins swelled in his neck and his forehead.

“Do you say that?” he cried to Duv Laca.

“I do,” said Duv Laca.

“Let the King of Leinster take her,” said Mongan.

Chapter 12

D
uv Laca and the King of Leinster went apart then to speak together, and the eye of the king seemed to be as big as a plate, so fevered was it and so enlarged and inflamed by the look of Duv Laca. He was so confounded with joy also that his words got mixed up with his teeth, and Duv Laca did not know exactly what it was he was trying to say, and he did not seem to know himself. But at last he did say something intelligible, and this is what he said:

“I am a very happy man,” said he.

“And I,” said Duv Laca, “am the happiest woman in the world.”

“Why should you be happy?” the astonished king demanded.

“Listen to me,” she said. “If you tried to take me away from this place against my own wish, one half of the men of Ulster would be dead before you got me and the other half would be badly wounded in my defence.”

“A bargain is a bargain,” the King of Leinster began.

“But,” she continued, “they will not prevent my going away, for they all know that I have been in love with you for ages.”

“What have you been in with me for ages?” said the amazed king.

“In love with you,” replied Duv Laca.

“This is news,” said the king, “and it is good news.”

“But, by my word,” said Duv Laca, “I will not go with you unless you grant me a boon.”

“All that I have,” cried Branduv, “and all that everybody has.”

“And you must pass your word and pledge your word that you will do what I ask.”

“I pass it and pledge it,” cried the joyful king.

“Then,” said Duv Laca, “this is what I bind on you.”

“Light the yolk!” he cried.

“Until one year is up and out you are not to pass the night in any house that I am in.”

“By my head and hand!” Branduv stammered.

“And if you come into a house where I am during the time and term of that year, you are not to sit down in the chair that I am sitting in.”

“Heavy is my doom!” he groaned.

“But,” said Duv Laca, “if I am sitting in a chair or a seat you are to sit in a chair that is over against me and opposite to me and at a distance from me.”

“Alas!” said the king, and he smote his hands together, and then he beat them on his head, and then he looked at them and at everything about, and he could not tell what anything was or where anything was, for his mind was clouded and his wits had gone astray.

“Why do you bind these woes on me?” he pleaded.

“I wish to find out if you truly love me.”

“But I do,” said the king. “I love you madly and dearly, and with all my faculties and members.”

“That is the way I love you,” said Duv Laca. “We shall have a notable year of courtship and joy. And let us go now,” she continued, “for I am impatient to be with you.”