Pagan Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel.

The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel

Authorities : As before, with the Romance entitled " The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel ' ; edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes.

IT was during the reigns succeeding that of Labraid the Voyager that Ulster rose to its greatest height of prosperity. All the legends about this time are full of romantic adventure and heroic feats. The story of the next King of Tara with whom we have to deal, Conaire the Great, son of Eterscel, has taken its tone from the tales of the Red Branch, and is written in the same romantic manner. It contains, too, some fairy- lore, as we shall see. The events with which it deals are supposed to have happened about forty years before the birth of Christ.

There was a king ruling over Erin, named Eochaid (Eochy) the Constant Sighing. He was riding one day with his followers in the open plain of Long- ford past the shee-dwelling of Midir, the fairy king. He saw beside a well a maiden from the fairy-mounds combing her hair with a bright comb of silver adorned with gold, and washing in a silver basin, wherein were four golden birds, and little bright gems of purple carbuncle in the rims of the basin. She was of all the women of the world the loveliest and most noble that the eyes of men had ever beheld. Of her it was said, " Dear and shapely are all women until Etain comes beside them."

Then Eochaid, marvelling" at her beauty, sent and asked her name and wooed her for his wife. " I am Etain," she said, "daughter of Etar, King of the shee- cavalcade. For twenty years have I been here since my fairy birth. The kings and nobles of the shee have been wooing me, but they get nothing from me because ever since I was able to speak I have given thee a child's love for the high tales I have heard of thee and of thy splendour.

And though I have never seen thee, I knew thee from afar, on account of all that I had heard of thee, for now at last thou art come." Then Eochaid was glad, and he loved her and took her for his one and only wife, and in time they had a daughter, who was wedded to Cormac, King of Ulad (Eastern Ulster). She, too, had but one daughter, and Cormac was angry, for he had desired a son, and he took the child roughly from her mother and gave it to two slaves to cast into a pit; but the babe laughed up into their faces as they were about to throw her down, and their hearts failed, and they took her home and trained her up amongst themselves.

When she was grown they shut her in a house of wickerwork, without a door, and with a window open only to the sky, for they were fearful lest the King of Ulad, her father, should hear of her and punish them for sparing her. But here she was found one day by some of the servants of King Eterscel of Tara, as they were searching about for food; for it chanced that they climbed up and looked in at the window, thinking that corn was hidden there. They told the king about the lovely maiden who lived in the hut without a door; and the king was so much interested that he sent to fetch her, and he made her his wife.

In course of time they had a son, Conaire, who was not reared at home, but was brought up with other boys, his foster brothers, on the Plain of Liffey, until the death of King Eterscel and Conaire became King of Erin after him, for the soothsayers had prophesied that a young beardless lad should come along the road to Tara having a stone and a sling in his hand, and that he who came thus should be chosen king; and it was then and in this manner that Conaire came.

His reign was prosperous and peaceful, there was plenty and goodwill in the land and abundant merchandise upon the sea. Only his three foster brothers disturbed the kingdom, and they wrought such havoc that at length he ordered them to leave Erin and go and wreak their rapine upon the men of Alba (Scotland). This they did, uniting themselves with the son of the King of Britain and committing piracies ; but they bided their time that they might revenge themselves on Conaire.

It came to the ears of Conaire that two others of his foster brothers had stirred up war in Munster, and he was told that unless he himself went to make peace between them, no quiet could be obtained. Though it was dangerous to him to go amongst his foster brothers, Conaire went to them and stayed five nights with each of them and left them at peace. But though he had quieted them, the war that they had raised still went forward, and as he was returning through Meath to Tara he saw their war bands and their hosts and men raiding the country of the southern O'Neills from East to West, and all the land a cloud of fire before him.

"What is this?" said Conaire. "It is easy to see," said his people, " that the king's law has broken down in the country, since it has been destroyed and set on fire." Then fear fell on Conaire and his people, because they saw no way by which they might pass north to Tara ; and they were obliged to turn again southward along the sea-coast. " Whither shall we seek shelter to-night? " asked the king of his men. " Would that I could tell thee, my fosterling Conaire," cried MacCecht, his champion. " In old times it was the men of Erin who were contending for the honour of receiving thee, but to-night it is thou that art wandering for a guest-house." "Judgment goes with good times," said the king; " I had a friend in this country, if only we knew the way to his house."

" What is his name?" asked Mac Cecht. " De Derga of Leinster," answered the king. "It would be strange if he did not welcome me to-night, for he came a while ago asking a gift from me ; and it was not a refusal he got, but every sort of valuable treasure he got from me, and should he come again he would get the same from me." "As I remember his house," said Mac Cecht, " the road by which we are travelling ran right up to it and through its court. It is a great house with seven doorways and seven bed- rooms between each two doors; if thou goest thither to- night I will go on ahead and prepare fires before the host."

Then Mac Cecht went on and Conaire and his people followed. But as he went the three Red Men of the shee-mounds, on red weary steeds that were alive and yet were not alive, rode past him, and though men called aloud to them they would not stay. Conaire's son rode after them at swiftest speed, lashing his horse as he went, yet for all that he could not overtake them. But they sang this lay over their shoulders as they rode fast forward to the house of De Derga.

" Lo, my son, great are our tidings, weary the steeds we ride, the red steeds from the shee-mounds of Donn Tetscorach. Behold, signs of destruction and ending of life; the ravens are sated, the crows are filled; on the field of slaughter the sword-edge is wetted; in the dark hour of night broken bosses of shields ! Lo, my son ! "

Thus they rode forward and fastened their red steeds to the door of the house, and they entered and took their seats therein. Then evil forebodings seized Conaire and his host when they saw the three Red Men of the shee-mound that were alive and yet were not alive going on before them, for they knew that they had come to join themselves with his enemies and to avenge them- selves upon him. Never had the shee-people forgiven Etain that she had married a mortal prince, and they re- membered that Conaire was himself of fairy birth, being her daughter's grandson. So when the king paw them he knew that evil would befall.

Now about this time the sea-fleet of the foster- brothers and of Ingcel the One-eyed, the British prince, came again to Ireland after it had marauded in Britain and in Scotland; and it lay, a fleet of three times fifty boats with sails furled, under the hill ol Howth. They sent two who were swift of sight and hearing to the top of the hill to watch the host of Conaire as it came along, and to bring tidings of it which way it went; when they found it was making for De Derga's house, they hoisted their sails and manned their boats, five thousand men in all, and steered them in for the shore, and they ran up on land not far below the Bruighen (Breen) of Da Derga.

Scarcely had Conaire and his people entered the Bruighen than the pirates marched up secretly under cover of the night till the house was surrounded on every side. Each man brought in his hands a stone from the beach to build a cairn, for whenever a battle-rout was to be made they planted a pillar stone, but they built a cairn when they planned the entire demolition of a building ; but this time they erected it far from the house that they might not be observed.* Some of the foster brothers, when they saw the bright cheerful firelight that came out from the house and shone between the chariot wheels that were clustered round the door, thought pity of the deed they planned to do. " May God not bring the king here to-night," said one. " It is a pity to destroy him, for his reign has been good and prosperous, and hostages for peace are in his house, and good will and excellent laws prevail. Moreover, the king is little more than an infant in age, it were pity to destroy him." But Ingce"! the One eyed and the foreign pirates drove them on. Ingcel went to spy the house between the wheels of the chariots to see if Conaire were really there.

When he returned he said, " The house is a kingly house and whether Conaire be there or not I will take the house for my rights. It is now my turn for a raid and to take the spoils of it." "We have left the matter in thy hands, O Ingcel!" said Conaire's foster-

Those that were left after such a destruction each took a stone from the cairn on their return and by the number of stones that were left they knew how many had fallen. This was a custom in Eire. brothers though their hearts misgave them at the deed. "Rise up then, ye champions," said Ingcil, "and set upon the house! " Then they formed in line and marched up to the Bruighen and surrounded it.

" Silence," said Conaire within, " what noise is that I hear? " "It is the sound of champions about the house," said one of his guard. " Well, we have warriors ready to answer them," said the king. " They will all be needed to-night," replied Conall. Then Conaire and his host took their weapons in great haste and marched out to meet the pirates, and at Conaire 's onset six hundred were killed. Three times the enemy flung fire into the house and three times it was extinguished, so that before the fury of his onslaught the pirates were driven back. But at length a terrible thirst overcame Conaire, so that his strength left him, and he asked a drink of his cup- bearers. " All the water and the liquids in the house have been poured upon the fires," they replied, " and the Dodder River which runs through the court is dried up." Then one of his bravest warriors, named Mac Cecht, a Connaught man, took Conaire's golden cup under his arm, and seizing his spears in his hand, he burst out of the Bruighen with such fierceness, that he forced his way through the army of the foe, and sought far and near for a river or lake from which to fill the cup. But there had been so great a drought that the rivers were all dried up, and he had nearly despaired of finding water, when in the distance he saw a wild duck rise from a hidden pool, concealed among the trees. Then he stooped down and filled the cup, and fought his way back to the Bruighen, just as the dawn was breaking. Alas ! as he was crossing the third ridge towards the house he saw the savage foster brothers striking off Conaire's head. Exhausted by thirst and the fever of his wounds, the good king had no longer been able to resist, and Mac Cecht, furious at the sight, struck off the head of one of the destroyers from behind and flung a great stone after the other, who was fleeing away with Conaire's head. Then, disappointed at the failure of his task, he poured the precious water over the dead body of the king.

Mac Cecht took up the body of the king and carried it to Tara and buried it. Then he departed into Connaught to his own country to be healed of his wounds. But Ingcel went to Alba (Scotland) and there he received a kingdom, as some say ; but others say that the pirates were destroyed and exterminated by Mac Cecht and Conall in the morning, and their ships burned, in vengeance for the death of Conaire.

This is the Destruction of Da Derga's Bruighen and the Death of Conaire the Great.