Part 20 (1/2)

Cuchulain

All that's chanced from thee hath sprung, Darry's grandchild, Daman's son; Woman's hest hath brought thee here Swords to test with comrade dear.

Ferdia

Comrade! had I fled, nor found Fight with thee, fair graceful Hound, Maev my word could broken call; Croghan hold my fame but small.

Cuchulain

None put meat his lips between, None to king or stainless queen Yet was born, whose praise I'd gain, None whose scorn would win thy pain.

Ferdia

Thou who deep in wars dost wade, 'Twas not thou, 'twas Maev betrayed: Back with conquest shalt thou ride, Fault hast none thy fame to hide.

Cuchulain

Clots of blood my faithful heart Choke; my soul is like to part: 'Tis with little force my arm Strikes, to do Ferdia harm!

”Greatly although thou makest complaint against me to-day,” said Ferdia, ”tell me to what arms shall we resort?” Thine is the choice of weapons until the night,” said Cuchulain, ”because it was I who had the choice in the day that is past.” ”Then,” said Ferdia, ”let us this day take to our heavy hard-smiting swords; for sooner shall we attain to the end of our strife by the edge of the sword this day than we did by the thrusts of our spears in the day that is gone.” ”Let us do so indeed,” said Cuchulain. That day they took upon them two long and exceedingly great s.h.i.+elds, and they resorted to their heavy and hard-striking swords. And each of them began to hew, and to cut, and to slaughter, and to destroy till larger than the head of a month-old child were the ma.s.ses and the gobbets of flesh which each of them cut from the shoulders and the thighs and the shoulder-blades of his foe.

After this fas.h.i.+on did each of them hew at each other from the dawn of the day until the ninth hour of the even, and then Ferdia said, ”Let us desist from this now, O Cuchulain!” ”Let us cease indeed,” said Cuchulain, ”if the time has come.”

They ceased from their strife, and they threw from them their arms into the hands of their charioteers. Pleasant and cheerful and joyous was the meeting of the two: mournfully, and sorrowfully, and unhappily did they part from each other that night. Their horses were not in the same paddock, their charioteers were not at the same fire, and there they stayed for that night.

It was early in the morning when Ferdia arose, and he advanced alone towards the Ford of Combat. Well did he know that the battle and the conflict would be decided that day; that upon that day and in that place one of the two would fall or that both would fall. And then, before Cuchulain could come, Ferdia put on the armour that he was to use for that battle in the conflict and fight. And this was the battle armour that he used for that conflict and fight; he put a kilt of striped silk, bordered with spangles of gold, next to his white skin, and over that he put his well-sewn ap.r.o.n of brown leather to protect the lower part of his body. Upon his belly he put a great stone as large as a millstone, and over that great stone as large as a millstone he put his firm deep ap.r.o.n of purified iron, on account of the fear and the dread that he had of the Gae-Bulg that day. And his crested helmet that he used for battle and conflict and fight he put upon his head: there were upon it four jewels of carbuncle, each one of them fit to adorn it: also it was studded with enamels, with crystals, with carbuncles, and with blazing rubies that had come from the East. Into his right hand he took his death-dealing sharp-pointed strong spear; upon his left side he hung his curved sword of battle with its golden hilt and its pommels of red gold: upon the slope of his back he took his great and magnificent s.h.i.+eld with great bosses upon it: fifty was the number of the bosses, and upon each of them could be supported a full-grown hog: moreover in the centre of the s.h.i.+eld was a great boss of red gold. Upon that day Ferdia displayed many n.o.ble, rapidly changing, wonderful feats of arms on high; feats which he had never learned from any other, either from his nurse or his tutor, or from Scathach, or from Uathach, or from Aife, but which he himself invented that day for his battle with Cuchulain. And Cuchulain approached the ford, and he saw the many, rapidly changing, wonderful feats that Ferdia displayed on high; and ”O my friend Laeg!” said Cuchulain, ”I mark those n.o.ble, rapidly changing, wonderful feats which Ferdia displays, and I know that all of those feats will in turn be tried upon me; and for this reason if it be I who begin to go backwards this day, let it be thy part to rouse me by reproaches, and by evil speech, so that my rage and my wrath may be kindled, and increase. And if it be I that shall prevail, then do thou give to me praise and approval; and speak good words tome, that my courage may be the greater.” ”This indeed will I do, O Cuchulain!” said Laeg.

Then did Cuchulain put on his battle armour that he used for the combat and fight. And that day he displayed n.o.ble, many-changing, wonderful, and many feats that he had learned from none: neither from Scathach, from Uathach, or from Aife. And Ferdia marked those feats, and he know that each in turn would be tried upon him.

”O Ferdia!” said Cuchulain, ”tell me to what arms we shall resort?

”Thine is the choice of weapons until the night,” said Ferdia. ”Then,”

said Cuchulain, ”let us try the Feat of the Ford.”[FN#58] ”Let us do so indeed,” said Ferdia; but although he thus spoke, it was with sorrow that he consented, for he knew that Cuchulain had ever destroyed every hero and champion who had contended with him at the Feat of the Ford.

[FN#58] i.e. in which all weapons were allowed.

Mighty were the deeds that were done upon that day at the ford by those two heroes, the champions of the west of Europe; by those two hands which in the north-west of the world were those that best bestowed bounty, and pay, and reward; those twin loved pillars of valour of the Gael; those two keys of the bravery of the Gaels, brought to fight from afar, owing to the urging and the intermeddling of Ailill and Maev.

From the dawn till the middle of the day, each began to shoot at the other with his ma.s.sive weapons; and when midday had come, the wrath of the two men became more furious, and each drew nearer to the other.

And then upon a time Cuchulain sprang from the sh.o.r.e of the ford, and he lit upon the boss of the s.h.i.+eld of Ferdia the son of Daman, the son of Dare, to strike at his head from above, over the rim of his s.h.i.+eld.

And then it was that Ferdia gave the s.h.i.+eld a blow of his left elbow, and he cast Cuchulain from him like a bird, till he came down again, upon the sh.o.r.e of the ford. And again Cuchulain sprang from the sh.o.r.e of the ford, till he lit upon the boss of the s.h.i.+eld of Ferdia the son of Daman, the son of Dare, to strike his head from above, over the rim of the s.h.i.+eld. And Ferdia, gave the s.h.i.+eld a stroke of his left knee, and he cast Cuchulain from him like a little child, till he came down on the sh.o.r.e of the ford.

Laeg saw what had been done. ”Ah!” said Laeg, ”the warrior who is against thee, casts thee away as a loose woman casts her child; he flings thee as high as the river flings its foam; he grinds thee even as a mill would grind fresh malt; pierces thee as the axe would pierce the oak that it fells; binds thee as the woodbine binds the tree; darts upon thee even as the hawk darts upon little birds, so that never until time and life shall end, shalt thou have a call, or right, or claim for prowess or for valour: thou little fairy phantom!” said Laeg. Up sprang Cuchulain, swift as the wind; quick as the swallow; fiery as the dragon; powerful as the lion; and he bounded into the air for the third time into the troubled clouds of it, until he lit upon the boss of the s.h.i.+eld of Ferdia, the son of Daman, striving to strike his head from above, over the rim of the s.h.i.+eld. And the warrior shook his s.h.i.+eld, and he threw Cuchulain from him, into the middle of the ford, just as if he had never been cast off at all.