A man came
slowly from the setting sun,
To Emer,
raddling raiment in her dun,
And said,
"I am that swineherd whom you bid
Go watch the
road between the wood and tide,
But now I
have no need to watch it more."
Then Emer
cast the web upon the floor,
And raising
arms all raddled with the dye,
Parted her
lips with a loud sudden cry.
That
swineherd stared upon her face and said,
"No man
alive, no man among the dead,
Has won the
gold his cars of battle bring.
But if your
master comes home triumphing
Why must you
blench and shake from foot to crown?"
Thereon he
shook the more and cast him down
Upon the
web-heaped floor, and cried his word:
"With
him is one sweet-throated like a bird.
"You
dare me to my face," and thereupon
She smote
with raddled fist, and where her son
Herded the
cattle came with stumbling feet,
And cried
with angry voice, "It is not meet
To ide life
away, a common herd.
I have long
waited, mother, for that word:
But wherefore
now? There is a man to die;
You have the
heaviest arm under the sky.
Whether under
its daylight or its stars
My father
stands amid his battle-cars."
"But you
have grown to be the taller man."
"Yet
somewhere under starlight or the sun
My father
stands. Aged, worn out with wars
On foot. on
horseback or in battle-cars.
"I only
ask what way my journey lies,
For He who
made you bitter made you wise."
"The Red
Branch camp in a great company
Between
wood's rim and the horses of the sea.
Go there, and
light a camp-fire at wood's rim;
But tell your
name and lineage to him
Whose blade
compels, and wait till they have found
Some feasting
man that the same oath has bound."
Among those
feasting men Cuchulain dwelt,
And his young
sweetheart close beside him knelt,
Stared on the
mournful wonder of his eyes,
Even as
Spring upon the ancient skies,
And pondered
on the glory of his days;
And all
around the harp-string told his praise,
And
Conchubar, the Red Branch king of kings,
With his own
fingers touched the brazen strings.
At last
Cuchulain spake, "Some man has made
His evening
fire amid the leafy shade.
I have often
heard him singing to and fro,
I have often
heard the sweet sound of his bow.
Seek out what
man he is." One went and came.
"He bade
me let all know he gives his name
At the
sword-point, and waits till we have found
Some feasting
man that the same oath has bound."
Cuchulain
cried, "I am the only man
Of all this
host so bound from childhood on."
After short
fighting in the leafy shade,
He spake to
the young man, 'Is there no maid
Who loves
you, no white arms to wrap you round,
Or do you
long for the dim sleepy ground,
That you have
come and dared me to my face?"
"The
dooms of men are in God's hidden place,
Your head a
while seemed like a woman's head
That I loved
once." Again the fighting sped,
But now the
war-rage in Cuchulain woke,
And through
that new blade's guard the old blade broke,
And pierced
him."Speak before your breath is
done."
"Cuchulain
I, mighty Cuchulain's son.
I put you
from your pain. I can no more."
While day its
burden on to evening bore,
With head
bowed on his knees Cuchulain stayed;
Then
Conchubar sent that sweet-throated maid,
And she, to
win him, his grey hair caressed;
In vain her
arms, in vain her soft white breast.
Then
Conchubar, the subtlest of all men,
Ranking his
Druids round him ten by ten,
Spake thus:
"Cuchulain will dwell there and brood
For three
days more in dreadful quietude,
And then
arise, and raving slay us all.
Chaunt in his
ear delusions magical,
That he may
fight the horses of the sea.
The Druids
took them to their mystery,
And chaunted
for three days. Cuchulain stirred,
Stared on the
horses of the sea, and heard
The cars of
battle and his own name cried;
And fought
with the invulnerable tide.
~
