Early Irish Myths and Sagas - Jeffrey Gantz [19]
With her druidry, then, Fúamnach conjured up a lashing wind that blew Étaín out of Brí Léith, so that for seven years there was not a hill or a treetop or a cliff or a summit on which the fly might alight, only the rocks of the ocean and the waves; and it floated through the air until at last it alighted on the garment of the Mace Óc on the mound of the Bruig. The Mace Óc said ‘Welcome, Étaín, troubled wanderer, you have endured great hardships through the power of Fúamnach. Not yet have you found happiness, your side secure in alliance with Mider. As for me, he has found me capable of action with hosts, the slaughter of a multitude, the clearing of wildernesses, the world’s abundance for Ailill’s daughter. An idle task, for your wretched ruin has followed. Welcome!’ The Mace Óc welcomed the girl – that is, the scarlet fly. He took it against his breast in the fold of his cloak, and he brought it then to his house and his bower, the latter with its airy windows for coming and going and the scarlet veil he put round it. The Mace Óc carried that bower wherever he went, and he fell asleep by it every night, lifting the fly’s spirit until its colour and cheer returned. The bower was filled with strange, fragrant herbs, and Étaín prospered with the scent and the colour of those healthful and precious herbs.
Fúamnach heard of the love and honour that the fly was shown by the Mace Óc, and she said to Mider ‘Have your foster-son summoned, that I may make peace between the two of you, and I, meanwhile, will go in search of Étaín.’ A messenger from Mider arrived at the Mace Óc’s house, then, and the Mace Óc went to speak with him; Fúamnach, however, circled into the Bruig from another direction and unleashed the same wind against Étaín, so that the latter was driven out of the bower on the same wandering as before, seven years throughout Ériu. The lashing of the wind drove the fly on in wretchedness and weakness until it alighted on the roof of a house in Ulaid where people were drinking; there, it fell into a golden vessel that was in the hand of the wife of Étar, a warrior from Indber Cíchmane in the province of Conchubur. Étar’s wife swallowed Étaín along with the drink in the vessel; Étaín was conceived in the woman’s womb and was born as her daughter. One thousand and twelve years from her first begetting by Ailill until her last by Étar.
Thereafter Étaín was brought up by Étar at Indber Cíchmane, and fifty chieftains’ daughters were reared along with her, and they were fed and clothed for the purpose of attending Étaín at all times. One day, when all the girls were bathing at the mouth of the river, they saw a rider coming towards them from the plain. His horse was broad and brown, prancing, with curly mane and curly tail. He wore a green cloak of the Síde, and a tunic with red embroidery, and the cloak was fastened with a gold brooch that reached to either shoulder.5 A silver shield with a rim of gold was slung over his shoulder, and it had a silver strap with a gold buckle. In his hand he carried a five-pronged spear with a band of gold running from butt to socket. Fair yellow hair covered his forehead, but a band of gold restrained it so that it did not cover his face. The rider stopped a while on the river bank to look at Étaín, and all the girls fell in love with him. Then he recited this poem:
Étaín is here today
at Síd Ban Find west of Ailbe;
among little boys she is,
on the border of Indber Cíchmane.
It is she who healed the king’s eye
from the well of Loch Dá Lice;
it is she who