Laeghaire mac Crimthann’s visit to the fairy realm
of
Magh meall or ‘the Plains of Pleasure.’
or, Fiachna's Sídhe
Book
of Lismore
Translated by Standish O'Grady, Silva Gaedelica V.II
Once
upon a time, Crimthann Cas being their king then, Connacht
were in convention by énloch
or
‘bird-loch’ in magh nAei or ‘the plain of Aei.’ On the
night in question they remained assembled and, when on the
morrow they were risen betimes, saw a man that came through
the mist and towards them: a mantle of five folds he wore,
and in his hand were two five-barbed darts; a gold-rimmed
shield was slung on him, at his belt was a gold-hilted
sword, and golden-yellow hair streamed behind him.
“Give welcome to him that comes to you!” cried Laeghaire
líbhán son of Crimthann, the noblest young man that was of
Connacht namely, and: “a welcome to the warrior whom we
know not!” he said to the stranger, who made answer: “I
thank you all.” “Wherefore comest thou?” Laeghaire
enquired, and the other said: “to crave a force of men.”
“Whence art thou?" He replied: “of the men of the
sídhe
I am;
Fiachna mac Retach is my name, and the matter is that my
wife is taken from my head [i.e. pillow], Sál’s son Eochaid
having carried her away. He then in a pitched battle being
slain by me, she is gone to a brother’s son of his: to
Dalbh’s son Goll, that rules the fort of magh meall. Seven
battles I have given him, but all are gone against me; for
this very day yet another one is declared by us, and to
solicit help it is that I am come. To every man moreover
that shall desire it I will in lieu of his coming with me
give a fair sum of gold, and of silver the same.” With that
he turned and went from them.
“Not to aid yonder man were a shameful thing,” Laeghaire
said, and together with fifty fighting men stepped out
after him who, still preceding them, dived down into the
loch, and they followed him. There they saw before them a
strong place, and a company embattled that stood face to
face with them. He, Fiachna mac Retach, went on yet in
front of them and to his own hold, where they saw two
companies. “Verily it is well,” said Laeghaire: “I to the
number of fifty warriors will engage with the chief on the
other side.” “I will answer thee,” said Goll son of Dolbh.
In their two fifties therefore they laid on each other, and
[in the end], after the fall of Goll and of all his fifty,
Laeghaire with his escaped alive. Then ‘the battle broke
before them,’ and they made general slaughter of their
enemies. “Where is the woman?” Laeghaire asked; and Fiachna
said: “within in the dún
of Magh
meall, surrounded by a force.” ‘ Bide ye here while I and
my fifty go,” Laeghaire said, and proceeded to the fort.
They set about taking it, and he called [to the defenders]:
“but little ‘twill profit you [to hold out]: your king is
fallen, your nobles are slain; suffer then this woman to
come forth, and in return your safety shall be accorded
you.” So it was done and, as she came out, she pronounced
[that which is known as] ‘the lament of Eochaid amlabar’s
daughter.’
Laeghaire returned with her and laid her hand in Fiachna’s;
that night Fiachna’s daughter Der
gréine or ‘maid
of the sun’ was coupled with Laeghaire, and with his
fifty laechs
fifty
other women, and to a year’s end they abode with them.
Laeghaire said then: “let us go seek tidings of our land.”
“If ye would come back,” Fiachna enjoined, “take with you
horses, but by no means dismount from off them.”
So it was done: they went their way and came upon a general
assembly in which Connacht, as at the year expired, mourned
for the aforesaid warrior band, whom now all at once they
perceived above them [i.e. on higher ground]. Connacht
sprang to meet them, but Laeghaire cried: “approach us not
[to touch us]: ‘tis to bid you farewell that we are here!”
“Leave me not!” Crimthann, his father, said: “Connacht’s
royal power be thine; their silver and their gold, their
horses with their bridles, and their noble women be at thy
discretion, only leave me not!”
But Laeghaire turned from them and so entered again into
the sídhe, where with Fiachna he exercises joint kingly
rule; nor is he as yet come out of it.
Finis.
SOURCE
Silva
Gadelica. ed.
and trans. Standish Hayes O'Grady. 1892. reprint: NY: C.
Lemma Publishing Corporation, 1970.