The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 07 : II From all its branches, high and low, water was falling in little streams. This was the Fountain Tree indeed. He did not dismount, the King of Ireland's Son, but pulled the branches and he gave them to the Slight Red Steed to eat. He ate no more than three mouthfuls. Then he stamped...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 06 : III Without a steed and with a blackened sword the King of Ireland's Son came to where the Gobaun Saor had set up his forge and planted his anvil. No water nor sand would clean the Sword, but he left it down before the Gobaun Saor, hoping that he would show him a way to dean it. "The Sword must be...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 11 : XIV So, without hap or mishap, Gilly came again to the house of the Spae-Woman. She was sitting at her door-step grinding corn with a quern when he came before her. She cried over him, not believing that he had come safe from the Townland of Mischance. And as long as he was with her she spoke...
When The King Of The Cats Came To King Connal's. Part 02 : V The next day the King's Son put a bridle on the Slight Red Steed and rode towards the East again. He saw the blue falcon and he followed where it flew. Over benns, and through glens and across mountains and moors the blue falcon went and the Slight Red Steed neither swerved nor stumbled but went...
The King Of The Land Of Mist. Part Iv : IV They fought their last battle before the sixth gate. The guard that the King of Ireland's Son made was weak, and if the King of the Land of Mist could have turned fully upon him, he could have disarmed and killed him. But his head had been so placed upon his body that it looked over his left...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Viii : VIII The King of Ireland's Son went into the house before the setting of the sun. The Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands was seated on his chair of gold. "Have you brought me the Ring of Youth?" he asked. "I have brought it," said the King's Son. "Give it to me then," said the Enchanter. "I will...
The Spae Woman. Part Iv : IV As for Morag she went by track and path, by boher and bohereen, through fords in rivers and over stepping-stones across them, until at last she came to the country of Senlabor and to the Castle of the King. No one of high degree was in the Castle, for all had gone to watch the young horses...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Vi : VI Until the white moon went out in the sky; until the Secret People began to whisper in the woods--so long did the King of Ireland's Son remain in the dry water-tank that night. And then, when it was neither dark nor light, he saw a crane flying towards him. It lighted on the edge of the tank...
The House Of Crom Duv. Part I : The House of Crom Duv TO THE MEMORY OF BEATRICE CASSIDY COLUM I The story is now about Flann. He went through the East gate of the Town of the Red Castle and his journey was to the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth where he might learn what Queen and King were his mother and his father. It is...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 02 : VII He was out, as I have said, in the width and the height, the length and the breadth, the gloom and the gleam of the world. He fired arrows into the air. He leaped over ditches, he rolled down hillsides, he raced over level places until he came to what surprised him more than all the things...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 15 : X The evening after when Rory the Fox was taking his nap he heard one of his youngsters give a sharp cry. They were playing outside the burrow, he looked out and he saw that his three youngsters were afraid of something that was between them and the burrow. He looked again and saw the Weasel...
When The King Of The Cats Came To King Connal's. Part 06 : When the King of the Cats Came to King Connal's Dominion I The King of Ireland's Son was home again, but as he kept asking about a King and a Kingdom no one had ever heard of, people thought he had lost his wits in his search for the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. He rode abroad every day...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 14 : XI Well, in the Spae-Woman's house he stayed for three-quarters of a year. He often went in search of the robbers who had taken the Crystal Egg with the Spae-Woman's goose, but no trace of them nor their booty could he ever find. He met birds and beasts who were his friends, but he could not have...
The Spae Woman. Part Iii : III When Caintigern had come, when she knew her son Flann, and when it was known to her and to the Spae-Woman that the token Morag had given him held the seven drops of heart's blood that would bring back to their own forms the seven wild geese that were Caintigern's brothers--when all this w...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 10 : A Unique Tale A King and a Queen were walking one day by the blue pool in their domain. The swan had come to the blue pool, and the bright yellow flowers of the broom were above the water. "Och," said the Queen, "if I might have a daughter that would show such colors--the blue of the pool in her...
The House Of Crom Duv. Part V : V Without hap or mishap we came at last to the domain of the King of Senlabor. Baun went to sing for the King's foster-daughters, and Deelish went to work at the little loom in the King's chamber. We were not long at the court of the King of Senlabor when two youths came there from the court...
When The King Of The Cats Came To King Connal's. Part 03 : IV The King of Ireland's Son rode towards the East the next day, and in the first hour's journey he saw the blue falcon sailing above. He followed where it went and the falcon never lifted nor stooped, but sailed steadily on, only now and again beating the air with its wings. Over benns...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 04 : V When the sun rose he lifted up the wheel and set it going before him. He was going and ever going down long hillsides and across spreading plains till he came to where old trees and tree-stumps were standing hardly close enough together to keep each other company. The wheel went through this...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Xv : XV Long, long after Fedelma had been taken by the King of the Land of Mist the King of Ireland's Son came out of his slumber. He saw around him that nameless place with its black rocks and bare roots of trees. He remembered he had come to it with Fedelma. He sprang up and looked for her, but no...
The House Of Crom Duv. Part Vi : VI Now that he had heard the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree, Flann often looked at the clusters of scarlet berries that were high up on its branches. The Tree could be climbed, Flann knew. But on the top of the tree and along its branches were the fierce yellow cats--the cats that the Hags...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 08 : The Sword of Light and the Unique Tale With as Much of the Adventures of Gilly of the Goatskin as is Given in "The Craneskin Book" I He came to the house that was thatched with the one great wing of a bird, and, as before, the Little Sage of the Mountain asked him to do a day's work. The King's...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With : VIII Gilly of the Goatskin wished for wide windows in his house and he got them. He wished for a light within when there was darkness without, and he got a silver lamp that burned until he wished to sleep. He wished for the songs of birds and he had a blackbird singing upon his half-door, a lark...
When The King Of The Cats Came To King Connal's. Part 05 : II The next day the King's Son rode abroad and where he went that day he saw no man nor woman nor living creature in the land around;. But coming back he saw a falcon sailing in the air above. He rode on and the falcon sailed above, never rising high in the air, and never swooping down. The King's...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 16 : IX The Weasel was right; it was Rory the Fox who had stolen Gilly's Crystal Egg. One night, just as he was leaving Gilly's house, the moon shone full upon the Crystal Egg. In the turn of a hand Rory the Fox had made a little spring and had taken the Egg in his mouth. Then he slipped out by...
The Town Of The Red Castle. Part V : V Flann thought upon the Princess Flame-of-Wine. He walked through the town after the King's Son had ridden after the Enchanter, without noticing anyone until he heard a call and saw Mogue standing beside a little tent that he had set up before the Bull's Field. Flann went to Mogue and found him...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Xiv : XIV And that was the last story that Fedelma told, for they had crossed the Meadows of Brightness and had come to a nameless place--a stretch of broken ground where there were black rocks and dead grass and bare roots of trees with here and there a hawthorn tree in blossom. "I fear this place. We...
The Town Of The Red Castle. Part Iv : VI He was at the gate of the town when the King of Ireland's Son rode back on the Slight Red Steed. The King's Son dismounted, put his arm about Flann and told him that he now had the whole of the Unique Tale. They sat before Mogue's tent, and the King's Son told Flann the whole of the story he...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 12 : XIII The day after Christmas the Churl said to Gilly, "This is Saint Stephen's Day. I'm going to such a man's barn to see the mummers perform a play. Foolish people give these idle fellows money for playing, but I won't do any such thing as that. I'll see something of what they are doing, drink...
The House Of Crom Duv. The Story Of The Fairy : The Story of the Fairy Rowan Tree The history of the Fairy Rowan Tree (said the King's Councillor) begins with Aine', the daughter of Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea. Curoi, the King of the Munster Fairies loved Aine' and sought her in marriage. But the desire of the girl's heart was set up...
The House Of Crom Duv. Part Ii : II Crom Duv's arms stretched down to his twisted knees; he had long, yellow, overlapping horse s teeth in his mouth, with a fall-down under-lip and a drawn-back upper-lip; he had a matted rug of hair on his head. He was as high as a haystack. He carried in his twisted hand an iron spike pointed...
The Town Of The Red Castle. Part Iii : III The four youths left the Castle and Downal and Dermott took their own way when they came to the foot-bridge that was across the river. Then when they were crossing it the King's Son and Flann saw two figures--a middle-aged, sturdy man and an old, broken-looking woman--meet before the Bull's...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part I : Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter I Connal was the name of the King who ruled over Ireland at that time. He had three sons, and, as the fir-trees grow, some crooked and some straight, one of them grew up so wild that in the end the King and the King's Councillor had to let him have his own way...
The Town Of The Red Castle. Part Vii : VII Oh, Flann, my treasure-bringer," said Flame-of-Wine, when she came to him. "I have brought you the Comb of Magnificence," said he. Her hands went out and her eyes became large and shining. He put the Comb of Magnificence into her hands. She put the comb into the back of her hair, and she...
Next. Part Iv : IV Up hill and down dale the Enchanter went, but, mounted on the Slight Red Steed, the King of Ireland's Son was in hot pursuit. The Enchanter raced up the side of the seventh hill, and when the King's Son came to the top of it he found no one in sight. He raced on, however, and he passed a dead...
Untitled : Title Page FEDELMA, THE ENCHANTER'S DAUGHTER Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Part VIII Part IX Part X: The Story of the Ass and the Seal Part XI: The Sending of the Crystal Egg Part XII: The Story of the Young Cuckoo Part XIII: The Story of the Cloud-Woman Part XIV Part XV...
Title Page : THE KING OF IRELAND'S SON BY PADRAIC COLUM [b. 1881 D. 1972.] ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS BY WILLY POGNY [b. 1882 D. 1955]. New York, H. Holt And Company [1916] Scanned And Redacted By Phillip Brown. Additional Formatting And Proofreading By John B. Hare. This Text Is In The Public Doma...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Ii : II The next morning when he wakened the King's Son said, "That was a wonderful thing that happened last night in the supper-room. I must go off and play a third game with the gray old fellow who sits on a heap of stones at the turn of the road." So, in the morning early he mounted and rode away...
The Spae Woman. Part I : The Spae-Woman I There are many things to tell you still, my kind foster-child, but little time have I to tell you them, for the barnacle-geese are flying over the house, and when they have all flown by I shall have no more to say. And I have to tell you yet how the King of Ireland's Son won home...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part X : The Ass and the Seal X A seal that had spent a curious fore-noon paddling around the island of Ilaun-Beg drew itself up on a rock the better to carry on its investigations. It was now within five yards of the actual island. On the little beach there were three curraghs in which the island-men went...
The Spae Woman. Part Vi : VI The next day Gilveen came to where Morag sat on the stone outside the woodman's hut to watch her stitch the garment she had cut out. The thread went into the needle of itself. "What a wonderful ball of thread," said Gilveen, taking it up. "I cannot give it back to you. Ask me for a fav...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Iv : IV Until the white moon rose above the trees; until the hounds went out hunting for themselves; until the foxes came down and hid in the hedges, waiting for the cocks and hens to stir out at the first light--so long did the King of Ireland's Son stay huddled in the dry water-tank. By that time he...
The House Of Crom Duv. Part Vii : VII They went into the wood, Flann and Morag, and the Little Red Hen was under Morag's arm. They thought they would hide behind trees until they heard the coming of the Pooka and his horse. But they were not far in the wood when they heard Crom Duv coming towards his house. He came towards them...
The House Of Crom Duv. Part Viii : VIII Flann told the Spae-Woman all his adventures. And when he had told her all he said -"What Queen is my mother, O my fosterer? "Your mother," said the Spae-Woman, "is Caintigern, the Queen of the King of Ireland." "And is my mother then not Sheen whose story has been told me? Her name w...
The Spae Woman. Part V : V Morag, with the three gifts that the Queen of Senlabor gave her, came again to the Spae-Woman's house. Her Little Red Hen was in the courtyard, and she fluttered up to meet her. But there was no sign of any other life about the place. Then, below at the washing-stream she found the Spae-Wom...
When The King Of The Cats Came To King Connal's : VI The King of Ireland's Son did not leave the Castle the next day, but stayed to question those who came to it about the Sword of Light. And some had heard of the Sword of Light and some had not heard of it. In the afternoon he was in the chambers of the Castle and he watched his two...
The Town Of The Red Castle. Part Viii : VIII Flame-of-Wine saw him. She walked slowly down the orchard path so that all might notice the stateliness of her appearance. "I am glad to see you again, Flann," said she. "Have your comrades yet come back to my father's town?" Flann told her that one of them had returned. "Bid him come see me...
The King Of The Land Of Mist. Part Iii : III The King of Ireland's Son rose in the morning but he was in pain and weariness on account of his wounded foot. He ate the cresses and drank the water that the Glashan gave him, and he started off for the Castle of the King of the Mist. "'Tis only an old woman I shall have to deal with to-day,"...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part V : V I hope you had a good night's rest," said the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, when he came to where the King of Ireland's Son was crouched, just at the rising of the sun. "I had indeed," said the King's Son. "And I suppose you feel fit for another task," said the Enchanter of the Black...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Ix : IX They crossed the River of the Ox, and went over the Mountain of the Fox and were in the Glen of the Badger before the sun rose. And there, at the foot of the Hill of Horns, they found an old man gathering dew from the grass. "Could you tell us where we might find the Little Sage...
The House Of Crom Duv. Part Iii : III This is how the days were spent in the house of Crom Duv. The Giant and his two servants, Flann and Morag, were out of their beds at the mouth of the day. Crom Duv sounded his horn and the Bull of the Mound bellowed an answer. Then he started work on his wall, making Flann carry mortar to him...
The King Of The Land Of Mist. Part I : The King of the Land of Mist I The King of Ireland's Son came to the place where the river that he followed takes the name of the River of the Broken Towers. It is called by that name because the men of the old days tried to build towers across its course. The towers were built a little way across...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Xi : The Sending of the Crystal Egg XI The Kings of Murias heard that King Atlas had to bear The world upon his back, so they sent him then and there The Crystal Egg that would be the Swan of Endless Tales That his burthen for a while might lie on his shoulder-scales Fair-balanced while he heard...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Vii : VII At the rising of the sun the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came to where the King of Ireland's Son was huddled and said, "I am now going to set you the third and last task. Rise up now and come with me." The King's Son came out of the water-tank and followed the Enchanter. They went...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 05 : IV And having come to the River of the Ox he sought the ford and waited there for Laheen the Eagle. When it was high noon he saw the shadow of the Eagle in the water of the ford. He looked up. Laheen let something fall into the shallows. It was a wheel. Then Laheen lighted on the rocks...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Xiii : The Story of the Cloud-Woman XIII The Cloud-woman, Mor, was the daughter Of Griann, the Sun,--well, and she Made a marriage to equal that grandeur, For her Goodman was Lir, the Sea. The Cloud-woman Mor, she had seven Strong sons, and the story-books say Their inches grew in the night-time...
The Town Of The Red Castle. Part I : The Town of the Red Castle Flann was the name that the Old Woman of Beare gave to Gilly of the Goatskin when he came back to tell her that the Swan of Endless Tales had been hatched out of the Crystal Egg. He went from her house then and came to where the King of Ireland's Son waited for him...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 13 : XII What did Gilly of the Goatskin do in the Townland of Mischance? He got up early and went to bed late; he was kept digging, delving and ditching until he was so tired that he could go to sleep in a furze bush; he ate a breakfast that left him hungry five hours before dinner-time, and he ate...
When The King Of The Cats Came To King Connal's. Part 04 : III Early, early, next day the King of Ireland's Son rode out in search of the blue falcon, but although he rode from the ring of day to the gathering of the dark clouds he saw no sign of it on rock or tree or in the air. Very wearily he rode back, and after his horse was stabled he stood with Art...
The Town Of The Red Castle. Part Ii : II Flann was wakened by a gander and his flock of geese that stood round him; shook their wings and set up their goose-gabble. It was day then, although there was still a star in the sky. He threw furze-roots where there was a glow, and made a fire blaze up again. Then the dogs of the town came...
The House Of Crom Duv. Part Iv. The Story Of Morag : The Story of Morag IV I was reared in the Spae-Woman's house with two other girls, Baun and Deelish, my foster-sisters. The Spae-Woman's house is on the top of a knowe, away from every place, and few ever came that way. One morning I went to the well for water. When I looked into it I saw, not my...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Xii : The Story of the Young Cuckoo XII The young cuckoo made desperate attempts to get himself through the narrow opening in the hollow tree. He screamed when he failed to get through. His foster-parents had remained so long beside him that they were wasted and sad while the other birds, their broods...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 09 : XVI Then they showed him the bird that was on the waves of the lake--a swan she was and she floated proudly. The swan came towards them and as she drew nearer they could hear her voice. The sounds she made were not like any sound of birds, but like the sounds bards make chanting their verses...
The Sword Of Light And The Unique Tale, With. Part 03 : VI He never stirred out of the cradle till he was past twelve years of age, but lay there night and day, long days and short days; the only garment he ever put on was a goatskin; a hunter had once put it down on the floor beside his cradle and he reached out with his two hands, drew it in and put...
The King Of The Land Of Mist. Part Ii : II He came to where turrets and pinnacles appeared above the mist. He climbed the rock upon which the Castle was built. He came to the first gate, and as he did the plover that was on the third pinnacle above rose up and flew round the Castle with sharp cries. He raised a fragment...
The Spae Woman. Part Ii : II When Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son came to the Spae-Woman's house, who was the first person they saw there but Gilveen, Fedelma's sister! She came to where they reined their horse and smiled in the faces of her sister and the King of Ireland's Son. And she it was who gave them their...
Fedelma, The Enchanter's Daughter. Part Iii : III They came, they flew down, and when they touched the ground they transformed themselves into three maidens and went to bathe in the lake. The one who carried the green scarf left her swanskin under a bush. The King's Son took it and hid it in a hollow tree. Two of the maidens soon came out...