THOUGHTS FROM IRELAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 87

THOUGHTS FROM IRELAND.

By Ella Young.

THE GOLDEN FLY. Midir, mentioned in this tale, is the Celtic Eros, and Angus, the god of youth and joy, is the Celtic Balder. The story is famous in the old Irish literature. Etain, Angus, Fuamach,"' and Midir lived in the World of the Gods, and Etain said to Angus: "I am weary of everything that I see; let me go into the other worlds with you." , Angus said: "When Igo into the other worlds I wander from place to place, and people do not know that I am a god. In the earth they think I am a juggler or a wandering minstrel or a beggar-mar:. If you come with me you will seem a poor singing-woman or a strolling plaj'er." Then Etain said: "I will ask Midir to make a world for myself—all the worlds are full of weariness." She went to find Midir, and as->sho went she saw below her the World of the Bright Shadow, that is called Ildathach, and the World of the Dark Shadow, that is called Earth. Midir was looking down towards the Earth, and a brightness grew on it as he looked. Etain was angry because Midir cared to make a brightness on the Earth, and she turned away from him and.said: / "I wish the worlds would clash together and disappear. I am weary of everything I can see." Then Fuamach 6aid : "You have the heart of a fly that is never - contented; take the body of a fly and wander till your heart is changed and you gat back your own shape again." Etain became then a little golden fly, and she was afraid to leave the World of the Gods and wished' she could get back her shape again. She flew to Midir and buzzed round him, but he was making a brightness on the Earth, and did not hear her: when she lit on his hand he brushed her away. She went to Angus, and he was making music on \ the strings of his tiompan; when she buzzed about him he said : "You have a sweet song, little fly," and he made the tiompan buzz like a fly. She lit on his hand, and he said : ' 'You are very. beautiful, little golden fly. and because you are beautiful I will give you a gift: now speak and ask for the gift .that will please you best." Then Etain was able to speaki and she said: "0, Angus, give me" back my Shape again. I am Etain, and Fuamach has •changed me into a fly and bidden me wander till I get back mv shape." Angus looked sadly at the little" golden fly --and said: "It is only lr Ildathach tnat 1 am a shape-changer. Come with me to that land and I will make a palace for you, and while you are in it you will have the ,shape of Etain." "I will go with you," said Etain, '"and live in your palace." She went wit! him, and he brought her into a beautiful palace that had all the colours of the rainbow. It had four windows to it, and when she looked out of the window to the west she saw a great wood with pine trees and oak trees and trees that had golden apples; when, she looked out of the window to the north she saw a great mountain shaped like a spear and white like flame, and when she looked to the south she saw a far-stretch-ing plain with many little gleaming lakes; but the window to the east was fast closed, and Angus said she must never unbar it.

Etain was happy for a long time in the rainbow palace, and Angus oame and played to her and told her tales of all the worlds,, but at last the old longing came to her, and she grew weary of everything she could see. > "I wish the walls .of the palace would fall and the/trees wither," she said, "for they are always the (Same!" She went to the window in the east and unbarred it. She saw the sea" outside it, winddriven and white with foam, and a great wind blew the window open and caught Etain and whirled her out of the palace, and she became again a little golden fly. She wandered and wandered through the World of the Bright Shadow, that is called Mdathach. till she came to the World of the Dark Shadow, that is Earth, and she wandered there for a long time, scorched by the' sun and beaten by the rain, till she came to a beautiful house where a king and queen were standing together. The king had a golden cup full of mead, and he was giving it tc the queen. Etain lit on the edge of the cup, but the queen never saw the little golden fly, and she did not know that it slipped intb the mead and she drank it with the mead.

Afterwards there was a child born to the queen —a strange, beautiful child, and the queen called her Etain. Everyone in the palace loved the child and tried to please her, but nothing pleased her for long, and as she grew older and more bautiful they tried harder to please her, but ehe was never contented. The queen was sad at heart because of this, and the sadness .grew on her day by day, and she began to think her child was of the Deathless Ones that bring with them too much, joy or too much sorrow for mortals.

One day Etain said the queen's singer had no songs worth, listening to, and she began to sing one of her own songs ; 'is she sang, the queen looked into her eyes and knew that Etain was no ohild of hers, and when she knew it she bowed herself in her seat and died. The king said Etain brought ill-luck, and hm sent her away to live in a little hut of woven branches in a forest where only siiepherds and simple people came to her and brought her food. She grew every daj .nore beautiful ajid walked under die great trees in the forest and sang her owu songs. One day the king oi ail Ireland came riding by. Hie name was Eochaid, and he was young and beautiful and strong. When he saw Etain he eaid:

"No woman in the world is beautiful after this one," and he got down from his horse and came to Et&ia.. She was sitting outside the little hut and combing her hair in the sunshine, and her hair was like fine gold and very long. "What is your name?" said the kiag. "tXi/l what man is your father?" "Etain is my name." scud rln-,, ".,nd a king is m\- father." "It is wrong-," said Eochaid, "that .."our beauty: should be shut in this forest; come with me and you shall be the High Qi;esr of Ireland." Then Etain looked at Eochaid, and it seemed to her that si .9 knew him always. She said : "I have waited here for you and no other; take me into your house. High King." Eochaid took her with him and mad© her hi-3 queen, and all the country that he ruled was glad because the High Queen was so beautiful. Eochaid made a wonderful house for her ; it had nine doors of carved red yew, and precious stones were in the walls of it, and Etain and the king lived in it, and the harpers snug to them and the noblest warriors in Erin stood about their doors. The king was happy, but there was always in the mind of Etain a beauty that made the rich hangings seem poor and the jewels dull, and she had a song in her heart that took the music out of all other songs. The harpers of the Five Provinces of Ireland came into the feast hall of Eochaid at Samhain, and there was weariness "on the face of Etain while they played, and though the High King gave them gold rings and jewels and high seats of honour they had no joy in coming to his house. The warriors clashed their swords when the High Queen passed, but, anyone who looked into her eyes dreamed of strange countries, and had in him the longing to go over seas, and Eochaid was grieved because the noblest of his chiefs became like the. lonely bird of the waves that never builds a nest, But always the people brought beautiful things for Etain into the house with the nine doors, and the Omadhaun laughed to see them. The Omadhaun brought no gifts. He was always in the court, because his wits had gone'from him, and people say that fools have the dark wisdom of the gods. One day Etain found the Omadhaun strewing green, unopened buds and broken leaves before her chair, and she asked him why he did that, and he said: "I am spreading for you the only things left to bring you, for you will not give the flower a chance to blossom or the hound a chance to catch his prey or the bird a clear sky to sing in. If you were of the Deathless Ones you would burn up the world to warm your hands. "■ The redness of shame came into Etain's face, and she stooped and lifted a little bud from the floor. "I think the Deathless Ones could make this bud blossom," she said, "but all the buds that f break off wither in my hands. I will break no more buds, Omadhaun." While sh» =poke there was a noise outside, and Etain asked her womau what it was.

" Only a bes»zar-man tliftv are driving away; he says be is a juggler and can do tricks/" "Leo Mm stay," eaid Etain, - and I will see his tricks." "O, Queen," said the woman, "he is a starveling and ignorant; how could he please yon when Incar, the King's, juggler, did not plear-e you?" 'Let the man stay," sairl Etain; "if he has the will, to please me lis will please, and co-night Incar will please me too." . She stepped out through the carved yewdoor -and bade the beggar-man do his tricks. He was clumsy, and his tricks were not worth looking at, hut the Queen gave him a ring; from her finjgers and the little bud she had in her hand, and paid : " Stay here to-night, and the M.W s juggler will teach you good feats." The beggar-man put the fing in his bosom, but' he kept the hvA in his hands, and suddenlv it blossomed into a rose, and he plucked the petals apart and flun;g them into the air," and they became beautiful white birds, and they' saner till everyone forgot the sky above' them and the earth beneath them with gladness: but Etain put her hands before her eves, and the tears came throueh her fin sots. The birds circled away into the air, singing, and when, the people looked for the. be^ar-man he was cone. Etain called after him : " Angus, Angus, Anj-us. ■come back!" But no one answered, and th.qre was only the far-off singing of the birds.

That niorht the king's fu|7gler did Ws with golden balls and with whirling swords, and Etain praised him so that. for gladness he thought of new feats, and while the neonle were shouting with delight a tall, dark man in the rohes of a foreigner came into the hall. Now, the kins- leved to speak with men from far countries, and he called the stranger to him and said : " What knowledge have you, and what skill is in your finders?" : 'J know." said the stranger, "where the sun goes when the earth not see it. and I have skill in the playing of chess."

Gladness was on the king when he heard of the cbess-olaying, for ha himcnlf had such skill that no one j*onM beat him. "I will plav a ?ame with von." ne said. "Let tUft chess board be hrou.oht "

-''O.King." sairl the attendants, "there is onlv the queen's board, and it is locked away because she said it was not beautiful." " I will ao mvself for the board." said the kins, and he rose up to p«b it. The stranger brought out a che.«s hoard that had the sou ares made of tn'ecious stones brighter than any stones of the earth, and he set the men on it. Thev were of cold and ivorv, but the ivOrv wa.s whiter than the whiteness nf a cloud and the gold brighter than the sunset. " I will give vou this board in exchange for yours." he said to the aueen. ""No." csaid Etain,: "the board that Eochaid made for me T will keep."

" I will make something for you too/'

said the stranger; " I will make worlds for you." Etain looked into his eyes, and she remembered the World of the Gods, and Midir and Angus and Fuamach, and how she had been a little golden fly.

"6, Midir," she said, "in all the worlds I be nothing but a little (jy. ; nave wandered fav, bui I have 'earned wisdom at last from an Omadhar.r<. I ita going to make a world for myself." As she was speaking Eochaid ohcx witn the board.

"The first game on my ooarc,'-' said Midir; "the .last on yours" "Be it so,' said Eochaid Midir began to se - > out the meu. " What are we playing *o V said Eochaid.

"Let the winner decide," said ."o.icnr. Eochaid won the first game, and he asked for fiftv horses out of .fairyland.

"1 will get them," said Mkli.v, and they played again. Eochaid won, and he saiu; <: I will ask for four hard things. Muks .5, road over Moin Lamraide, clear Vj-de or stones, cover the district of Tethra vith. rushes, and the district of Darbrw'i vlth trees." " When you rise in -he mctning', stand on the little hill neat xcrre house, and yoa will tee all these t.migs dene,'' said Midir. They played again, and Midn won. "What do you ask?" said Eochaid. " I ask Etain," said Midir. '" "I will never give her," said Eochaid. "The horses of fairyland are trampling outside your door, 0, Kin??," said Midir; " give me my asking," t,nd he said to Etain: "Will you come into your own world again?" Etain said: "There is no world of all the worlds my own, for I have never made a place for myself, but Eochaid has made a place for me, and all the people have brought me gifts, and for the space of a year I will stay with them and bring them gladness." "I will come at the year's end," said Midir. and he left the hall, but no man saw him go. After that there was never such a year in Ireland. The three crowns were on the land —a crown of plenty, a crown of victory, and a. crown of son|T. Etain gave gifts to all the Hierh King's people, and to Eochaid she gave a gladness bevond the dream of a man's heart when it is fullest, and at Samhain time Eochaid made a great feast, and the Kih.ps of Ireland and the poets and the druids were there, and gladness was in the heart of evervone.

Suddenly there was a iiprht in the hall that made the torches and the great candles that are lit only for kiuc/'s feasts burn dim, and Midir the "Red-maned stood in the hall. Then the ollamhs and the poets and the druids and chiefs bowed themselves, nnd the kin.gr bowed himself because Midir had come. And Midir took Bis eriut and sano- there in the hall a soncr of the Immortals, and it was the sons: Etain had kept dumbly in her heart for so long, and it was for Etain Midir sa'n? it. He -tretched out his hands to her after that, and she turned to Fochaid and kissed him. "I have nut into a. vear the gladness of a lifetime." she said: " and tn-ruVht you have heard the soni? T could not sine; you. and -echoes of it will be in the harp strings of the men of Ireland for ever, and vou will be remembered as lons as wind blows and water vims because F+ain, whom Midir loved, loved you." She nut her hand in Midir's, and thev rose top-ether as fame rises, or as the white licdit rises in the skv when it is morninp: and in the World of the Hods . An cms waited for and Fuamach and thevwalked together a?ain as they had walked froril the bsginnins of time.

Aft OLD VIKING-. The old free wind ts blowing now, o his* - . up and be going now Across the sea. I- sit in the liio-Ti seat R'l day, T her-r £h« wo'-ds old men ear. And. children Inuehinsr at their play" Through sun end -shower, T hear the wind sro by outside— Ptoward it £rr-.oq to v~e.pt the tide: 'Twill lift and stir the ships that ridei In Tlrontheim fiord. O would I had my youth once more, M"v srood. sHr> and my friends of yore. The s»a behind me and beforo A wind-ridered way. Would I couln hear the war-horn's din, And see the Ions: ships crowding in, Eager ns snow wolves to begin The hajttle strife. 'Twa.3 srood to rW- p the surge of flsht, 'Twas srcod, shield-locked, to swerve and smite. , And. .srond to feel my good sword bite Through steel t> bone. 'Twa= good to seek strange londs and men, To br«ve the sea-worm'.in. his den, And g«v>d to steer for home again With laden prow: With slaves and gold from' south-lands brought, .Anct gala sails so gaily wrought. Where crimson dragons twined and fought Through fold on fold: And war-shields in a double row—• But it was all so long ago: So loner that now I scarcely know If it be true That e'en I put a foe to rout, - Or raised the Baresark battle-shout, Or saw the dawn come flashing ou6 Across the sea. T loved a woman o'er the sea. Fair as a Valkyr-maid was she, And like a Valkyr cold to me— l Cold as the dawn. Who knows but she may call my name With eyes grown softer, yet the same Wrapped in white beauty like a flame For that last fight. When Lok to Twyr the gage shall throw, And loud and long the war-horns blow, And Odin's ships to battle go With suns for shields. The old free wind is blowing now, i'll eiße up and be going now Across the sea.