Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Burning of Finn's House (Author: Unknown)
p.17
{MS page 118}
- 1] Sad is it here, O ruined keep!
2] where was wrought that destruction:
3] here remain your traces:
4] we remember those tidings of evil.
- 5] A grievous sight to me to see thee in this plight,
6] O ruin, once glorious, crowned with brightness!
7] The Clann Morna, who lie under headstones in the grave,
8] thou hast brought to bareness, O ruin!
- 9] Said Ailbe, we remember:
10] "Perilous the place where we find ourselves:
11] if anyone should come over sea,
12] he would not leave a woman of us with her mate."
- 13] Said the women truly
14] to the king's daughter white of skin:
15] "Since there are no neighbours to do us right,
16] let us see what help our elder can afford."
- 17] "Let us raise a cry of battle without craft,
18] throughout the white-rodded red-satined hostel,
19] till we see what stay is best
20] to support us in the land of Erin."
- 21] "Garaid mac Morna, impetuous hero,
22] if he should hear the cry of unequal combat,
23] would come at the cry without craft,
24] and our laughter would be stirred at him."
p.19
- 25] "Let us bind his hair and his beard tight
26] to the side of the hostel,
27] since he chances to be sound asleep,
28] so that he should not wreak his will on us."
- 29] The women bound in sooth mac Morna
30] (great was the deed):
31] they raised the cry of battle without reason:
32] for our lays it was cause of grief.
- 33] Up started Garaid at the cry:
34] he left his hair and his flesh right to the bone:
35] he went forth among the women:
36] no cause had they to be proud.
- 37] He said, as he drove them into the dun
38] that it should be a journey with no returning:
39] "Your mocking cry shall be your shame:
40] ye shall be a bonfire by morning."
- 41] "Withered elder, hold thy peace!
42] let us alone with your teaching."
43] (I shall cause horror thereat,
44] a shudder as of a woman after her washing.)
- 45] "Feeble elder though I be
46] it is long since I gripped my shield
47] I will avenge on you your mockery;
48] I will kindle the torch's head."
- 49] Garaid arose and went forth from the house:
50] he took in hand the woodman's axe:
51] he cut in the wood, 'tis past denial,
52] nine stout faggots of ash.
p.21
- 53] He kindled a fire in the great house,
54] from the floor to the ceiling (?):
55] he set the house in a great blaze:
56] that old man had no mercy.
- 57] He shut the seven doors of Finn's house:
58] he fastened seven locks on every door-post;
59] he makes a fire to kill them:
60] hence came their sore sufferings.
- 61] "Let me out for my father's sake!"
62] said the daughter of Conn the Hundred-fighter's grandson;
63] "for my own sake, and to earn the thanks of Finn,
64] O noble, fair-haired Garaid!"
- 65] "I will not let thee out for thy father's sake,
66] O daughter of Conn the Hundredfighter's grandson;
67] nor for thine own sake, nor to earn the thanks of Finn,
68] will I let thee out."
- 69] "Let out the wife of Conan of the conflict,
70] and the wife of prosperous Caoilte
71] and the wife of Mac Reithe here
72] I have known no furtive love."
- 73] "Come forth, O wife of Mac Reithe,
74] if furtive love be thy desire:
75] since Mac Reithe is not here
76] I myself have not the power."
- 77] "Accept a price, O Garaid of the great deeds!"
78] said the noble daughter of Cormac ua Cuinn;
79] "the full of thy fist of all that is in the dun
80] to be granted thee without revoking."
p.23
- 81] Garaid accepted a fair price from the women
82] (yet kept not his promise to them),
83] till he saw a lock of hair from each woman
84] in the shapely palm of the chief lady.
- 85] As soon as Garaid, never mild of mood,
86] saw how many of the princely families were within,
87] once the powerless throng was gathered,
88] he shut the door boldly.
- 89] "May Garaid live no longer till the day of doom,
90] since ye are fast inside,
91] if he lets a soul in or a soul out,
92] of all that are there."
- 93] Garaid made haste into the glen,
94] as the house was falling;
95] in Glen Cuaich away in Munster
96] slept he thereafter.
- 97] "A strange thing has been revealed to me,"
98] said Finn of the Fiann of the Gaels;
99] "the outcry of dogs and women and men
100] a-burning and a-wailing."
- 101] "What is yon smoke that comes towards us from the west?"
102] said Finn, prince of the Fianna:
103] "it is the smoke of havoc a-doing,
104] or of a house cruelly burned."
- 105] We made a wondrous leap for battle;
106] on all sides we leave our chase;
107] and we found of our houses eastward
108] nought save the stump of each stake in earth.
- 109] Each man thrust the shaft of his spear among the women-folk,
110] amidst the burning heap:
111] and they found of their winsome wives
112] nought save fragments black and charred.
p.25
- 113] That death which Lugaid found,
114] it was no seemly death for a hero,
115] to die of grief for his wife
116] keen Lugaid son of Luchorman.
- 117] Finn of the Fiann was alive no longer,
118] though he lived afterward:
119] the strength of a travailing woman
120] was not in the chief of the Fiann among his comrades.
- 121] There was burned in that hostel in the west
122] the best wife Finn ever had:
123] bright was her cheek and her hand
124] beautiful dapple-cheeked Ailbe.
- 125] There were burned there Finn's two horses
126] and his high splendid car:
127] great was the household loss
128] for the son of Cumall of Almain.
- 129] There were burned a hundred shields
130] cunningly wrought and a hundred conquering targes
131] and two hundred corslets and two hundred blades
132] and two hundred mail caps and helmets.
- 133] There was burned a stud of a hundred horses,
134] of horses belonging to the over-kingship,
135] with their breast-ornament of crystal,
136] with their gilded bridles.
- 137] There were burned by Garaid in Finn's hostel
138] three hundred whelps
139] of mac Cumaill's beautiful dogs,
140] a great loss were they.
- 141] There were burned three hundred great chests
142] for hoarding silver and gold:
143] there were burned and it is no lie to say it
144] three hundred horns and three hundred cups.
p.27
- 145] I pledge my word before God,
146] by my sword and my shield,
147] that there died of grief for their wives
148] three hundred like white-handed Lugaid.
- 149] There was burned there the harp of Daire:
150] there was burned the lulling pipe of Saigen:
151] when they were played, without a spell,
152] the Fianna of Finn fell asleep thereat.
- 153] There were burned there three hundred lithe
154] elders of the princely nobles of the Fianna of Erin,
155] both of the Clann Griogoil
156] and of the vigorous Clann Baoisgne.
- 157] There were burned three hundred old women,
158] fair and famous in the hostel
159] (the princelings are nurtured apart)
160] to the loss of mac Cumaill of Almain.
- 161] There were burned three hundred shorn maidens,
162] that were brightest of bosom and side:
163] lovely were the pure women folk
164] that were burning in agony.
- 165] Nine nights we spent thereafter
166] and we on Garaid's track:
167] we found Garaid, grey and fierce,
168] in the rock above Craobh-liath.
- 169] When they saw each other
170] Garaid and Finn of the Fianna,
171] the two that were boldest on any path
172] bitterly they set to chiding.
- 173] "Hate and reproach on thee from us,
174] thou fierce white-bearded Garaid!
175] thou hast burnt our women but now:
176] their sore suffering is thy boast."
p.29
- 177] "Go ye from us into the cave,
178] a great company of our hosts!
179] seize the sinewy shaggy fellow,
180] and fetch out the old fox."
- 181] "Since it is thyself that is on my trail,
182] brave son of Cumall of the red weapons,
183] come thou into the cave to flay me,
184] and take firm hold of my old hairs!"
- 185] Said Finn, prince of the Fianna of Ireland:
186] "Bring with you Garaid in your keeping:
187] make ye his bed and his bier
188] where the women-folk were burnt by him!"
- 189] A hundred and thirty men,
190] sixteen, and eight
191] fell by Garaid's hand in the cave:
192] great was the carnage for one time.
- 193] So long was Garaid without food
194] that he made a cast of his shield from him:
195] he put a hand under his hoary breast,
196] and came forth, alone.
- 197] Desire of sport or laughter or inclination
198] to ought were it never so pleasant
199] was not in fierce Garaid
200] till he saw the women folk dead and stark.
- 201] When fierce Garaid saw the women burned,
202] dead and stark,
203] he let fly a peal of laughter over them
204] to be heard among the Fianna throughout Erin.
- 205] "Pleasant it is to me to find you thus,
206] O women!" said Garaid:
207] "that you may learn for good
208] not to mock at a miserable old man."
p.31
- 209] "I beg a boon of thee, O Finn!"
210] said Garaid of Crumlin:
211] "that thou slay me not great the task
212] till the hour of dawn to-morrow."
- 213] "Thou hast thy boon from me,"
214] said the son of Cumaill of the red weapons:
215] "that I should not slay thee in this place
216] till the hour of dawn to-morrow."
- 217] Garaid was without food that night,
218] and the Fiann guarding him;
219] at sunrise in the early morning
220] Garaid stole away covertly.
- 221] Garaid stole away from the Fiann,
222] and none of them knew of his going:
223] they knew not whither on the wide earth
224] Garaid from Liatruim had gone.
- 225] Over Sliabh Tulchon he went in truth
226] till he reached Tuag Inbir:
227] from Tuag Inbir went Garaid of the exploits
228] (alas! it is cause for tearful heaviness)
- 229] To Mag an Roid across all ways,
230] to Dun Macha of the potent saints,
231] to the Cam of Eile daughter of Echaid
232] hastened Garaid the fierce vassal.
- 233] To Mag an Bhoill bheo in his flight,
234] his right hand towards Dun an Laoich Leith:
235] he happened on melodious Glenn Beacain,
236] close by the head of Loch Liatruim.
- 237] Afterwards he reached a height over the sea
238] fierce black-browed Garaid:
239] he entered the cavern with a leap:
240] there fierce grey Garaid fell asleep.
p.33
- 241] Garaid was never ware of the Fiann
242] till they gathered from east and west:
243] they raised a battle-cry in the cavern:
244] an unseasonable sleep was his.
- 245] Aod and keen Garaid encountered in the cavern
246] it was cause of tears:
247] and Aod struck off his father's head:
248] it was a horrid unheard-of deed.
- 249] For the hand that slew Garaidh,
250] which numbness and disease have filled
251] the blood of Garaidh has stained that hand
252] it were meet to catch all diseases.
- 253] Aod fled away;
254] he met no man of the Fianna;
255] he drowned himself in the sea-waves:
256] Aod was cause of heavy grief.
- 257] Garaid and Aod are buried by the bay's verge,
258] side by side:
259] sad and sorrowful is my heart
260] with thinking on them every hour.
- 261] Here is a tale for thee, O Patrick!
262] I am Oisin of the many crimes:
263] through the greatness of my grief in telling of them
264] sad and sorrowful is my heart.