Poems by Denis Florence MacCarthy Part 12

Bravely we battled against that court enchanted, Full four times fifty heroes fell by me: He, by their savage onslaught nothing daunted, Slew ox-like monsters clambering from the sea.

Wily Germoin, amid so many slaughters, We took alive as trophy of the field, Him o'er the broad, bright sea of spangled waters We bore to Scatha of the bright broad s.h.i.+eld.

She, our famed tutoress, with kind endeavour, Bound us from that day forth with heart and hand, When met fair Elgga's tribes, that we should never In hostile ranks before each other stand.

Oh, day of woe! oh, day without a morrow!

Oh, fatal Tuesday morning, when the bud Of his young life was scattered! Oh! the sorrow, To give the friend I loved a drink of blood!

Ah, if I saw thee among heroes lying Dead on some glorious battlefield of Greece, Soon would I follow thee, and proudly dying, Sleep with my friend triumphant and at peace.

We, Scatha's pupils, ah, how sad the story!

Thou to be dead and I to be alive: I to be wounded here, all gashed and gory, Thou never more thy chariot's steeds to drive.

We, Scatha's pupils, ah! how sad the story; Sad is the fate to which we both are led: I to be wounded here, all gashed and gory, And thou, alas! my friend, to lie here dead.

We, Scatha's pupils, ah, how sad the story!

Sad is the deed and sorrowful the wrong: Thou to be dead without thy meed of glory, And I, oh! shame, to be alive and strong!

Laegh interposed at length, and thus he said: "Good, O Cuchullin, let us leave the Ford, For long have we been here, by far too long."

"Let us then leave it now," Cuchullin said, "O Laegh, my friend, but know that every fight In which I hitherto have drawn my sword, Has been but as a pastime and a sport Compared with this one with Ferdiah fought."

And he was saying, and he spake these words:

CUCHULLIN.

Until Ferdiah sought the Ford, I played but with the spear and sword: Alike the teaching we received, Alike were glad, alike were grieved, Alike were we by Scatha's grace Deemed worthy of the highest place.

Until Ferdiah sought the Ford, I played but with the spear and sword: Alike our habits and our ways, Alike our prowess and our praise, Alike the trophies of the brave, The glittering s.h.i.+elds that Scatha gave.

Until Ferdiah sought the Ford, I played but with the spear and sword: How dear to me, ah! who can know?

This golden pillar here laid low, This mighty tree so strong and tall, The chief, the champion of us all!

Until Ferdiah sought the Ford, I played but with the spear and sword: The lion rus.h.i.+ng with a roar, The wave that swallows up the sh.o.r.e, When storm-winds blow and heaven is dim, Could only be compared to him.

Until Ferdiah sought the Ford, I played but with the spear and sword: Through me the friend I loved is dead, A cloud is ever on my head-- The mountain form, the giant frame, Is now a shadow and a name.

The countless legions of the 'Tain,'

Those hands of mine have turned and slain: Their men and steeds before me died, Their flocks and herds on either side, Though numerous were the hosts that came From Croghan's Rath of fatal fame.

Though less than half the foes I led, Before me soon my foes lay dead: Never to gory battle pressed, Never was nursed on Bamba's breast, Never from sons of kings there came A hero of more glorious fame.[52]

28. This poem is now published for the first time in its complete state.

29. Autumn; strictly the last night in October. (See O'Curry's "Sick Bed of Cuchullin," "Atlantis," i., p. 370).

30. Culann was the name of Conor MacNessa's smith, and it was from him that Setanta derived the name of Cu-Chulainn, or Culann's Hound.

31. Iorrus Domnann, now Erris, in the county of Mayo. It derived its name ("Bay of the Domnanns," or "Deep-diggers,") from the party of the Firbolgs, so called, having settled there, under their chiefs Genann and Rudhraighe. (See "The Fate of the Children of Lir," by O'Curry, Atlantis, iv., p. 123; Dr. Reeve's "Ad.a.m.nan's Life of St. Columba," note 6, p. 31; O'Flaherty's "Ogygia," p. 280; and Hardiman's "West Connaught," by O'Flaherty, published by the Irish Archaeological Society.)

32. The name of Scatha, the Amazonian instructress of Ferdiah and Cuchullin, is still preserved in Dun Sciath, in the island of Skye, where great Cuchullin's name and glory yet linger. The Cuchullin Mountains, named after him, "those thunder-smitten, jagged, Cuchullin peaks of Skye," the grandest mountain range in Great Britain, attract to that remote island of the Hebrides many wors.h.i.+ppers of the sublime and beautiful in nature, whose enjoyments would be largely enhanced if they knew the heroic legends which are connected with the glorious scenes they have travelled so far to witness. Cuchullin is one of the foremost characters in MacPherson's "Ossian," but the quasi-translator of Gaelic poems places him more than two centuries later than the period at which he really lived. (Lady Ferguson's "The Irish before the Conquest," pp.

57, 58.)

33. For a description of this mysterious instrument, see Dr. Todd's "Additional Notes to the Irish version of Nennius," p. 12.

34. On the use of mail armour by the ancient Irish, see Dr. O'Donovan's "Introduction and Notes to the Battle of Magh-Rath," edited for the Archaeological Society.

35. For an interesting account of this sovereign, so famous in Irish story, see O'Curry's "Lectures," pp. 33, 34. Her Father, according to the chronology of the "Four Masters," is supposed to have reigned as monarch of Erin about a century before the Christian era. "Of all the children of the monarch Eochaidh Fiedloch," says O'Donovan (cited in O'Mahony's translation of Keating's "History," p. 276) "by far the most celebrated was Meadbh or Mab, who is still remembered as the fairy queen of the Irish, the 'Queen Mab' of Spenser."

36. "The belief that a 'ferb' or ulcer could be produced," says Mr.

Stokes, in his preface to 'Cormac's Glossary,' "forms the groundwork of the tale of Nede mac Adnae and his uncle, Caier." The names of the three blisters (Stain, Blemish, and Defect) are almost identical with those Ferdiah is threatened with in the present poem.

37. A 'c.u.mal' was three cows, or their value. On the use of chariots, see "The Sick Bed of Cuchullin," Atlantis, i., p. 375.

38. "The plains of Aie" (son of Allghuba the Druid), in Roscommon.

Here stood the palace of Cruachain (O'Curry's "Lectures," p. 35; "Battle of Magh Leana," p. 61).

39. "Fair-brow" (O'Curry, "Exile of the Children of Uisnech," Atlantis, ii., p. 386).

40. Here in the original there is a sudden change from prose to verse.

"It is generally supposed that these stories were recited by the ancient Irish poets for the amus.e.m.e.nt of their chieftains at their public feasts, and that the portions given in metre were sung" ("Battle of Magh Rath," p. 12). The prose portions of this tale are represented in the translation by blank verse, and the lyrical portions by rhymed verse.

41. "Ugaine Mor exacted oaths by the sun and moon, the sea, the dew, and colours . . . that the sovereignty of Erin should be invested in his descendants for ever" (Ib. p. 3).

42. The high dignity of Domnal may be inferred from the following lines, quoted from MacLenini, in the preface to "Cormac's Glossary,"

p. 51:-- "As blackbirds to swans, as an ounce to a ma.s.s of gold, As the forms of peasant women to the forms of queens, As a king to Domnal . . .

As a taper to a candle, so is a sword to my sword."

43. She was the wife of Ned, the war-G.o.d. See O'Donovan's "Annals of the Four Masters," vol. i., p. 24.

44. Etan is said to have been 'muime na filed,' nurse of the poets ("Three Irish Glossaries," preface, p. 33).

45. At Rathcroghan was the palace of the Kings of Connacht.

46. A name of Ireland ("Battle of Magh Leana," p. 79).

47. So the night before the battle of Magh Rath, "the monarch, grandson of Ainmire, slept not, in consequence of the weight of the battle and the anxiety of the conflict pressing on his mind; for he was certain that his own beloved foster-son would, on the morrow, meet his last fate."

48. In the "Battle of Magh Leana" these mysterious beings are called "the Women of the Valley" (p. 120).

49. For this line and for many valuable suggestions throughout the poem I am indebted to the deep poetical insight and correct judgment of my friend, Aubrey de Vere.

50. "Derg Dian Scothach saw this order, and he put his forefinger into the string of the spear." "Fate of the Children of Tuireann," by O'Curry, Atlantis, iv., p. 233. See also "Battle of Magh Rath," pp.

140, 141, 152.

51. Bregia was the ancient name of the plain watered by the Boyne.

52. According to the marginal note of the learned editor, the last four lines appear to be a sort of epilogue, in which the poet extols the victor.