Connla and the fairy maiden
Connla of the Fiery Hair was son of Conn of
the Hundred Fights. One day as he stood by the side of his father on
the height of Usna, he saw a maiden clad in strange attire coming
towards him.
"Whence comest thou, maiden?" said Connla.
"I come from the Plains of the Ever Living,"
she said, "there where there is neither death nor sin. There we keep
holiday alway, nor need we help from any in our joy. And in all our
pleasure we have no strife. And because we have our homes in the round
green hills, men call us the Hill Folk."
The king and all with him wondered much to hear a voice when they saw no one. For save Connla alone, none saw the Fairy Maiden.
"To whom art thou talking, my son?" said Conn the king.
Then the maiden answered, "Connla speaks to a
young, fair maid, whom neither death nor old age awaits. I love Connla,
and now I call him away to the Plain of Pleasure, Moy Mell, where
Boadag is king for aye, nor has there been complaint or sorrow in that
land since he has held the kingship. Oh, come with me, Connla of the
Fiery Hair, ruddy as the dawn with thy tawny skin. A fairy crown awaits
thee to grace thy comely face and royal form. Come, and never shall
thy comeliness fade, nor thy youth, till the last awful day of
judgment."
The king in fear at what the maiden said, which he heard though he could not see her, called aloud to his Druid, Coran by name.
"Oh, Coran of the many spells," he said, "and
of the cunning magic, I call upon thy aid. A task is upon me too great
for all my skill and wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized
the kingship. A maiden unseen has met us, and by her power would take
from me my dear, my comely son. If thou help not, he will be taken from
thy king by woman's wiles and witchery."
Then Coran the Druid stood forth and chanted
his spells towards the spot where the maiden's voice had been heard.
And none heard her voice again, nor could Connla see her longer. Only
as she vanished before the Druid's mighty spell, she threw an apple to
Connla.
For a whole month from that day Connla would
take nothing, either to eat or to drink, save only from that apple. But
as he ate it grew again and always kept whole. And all the while there
grew within him a mighty yearning and longing after the maiden he had
seen.
But when the last day of the month of waiting
came, Connla stood by the side of the king his father on the Plain of
Arcomin, and again he saw the maiden come towards him, and again she
spoke to him.
"'Tis a glorious place, forsooth, that Connla
holds among short-lived mortals awaiting the day of death. But now the
folk of life, the ever-living ones, beg and bid thee come to Moy Mell,
the Plain of Pleasure, for they have learnt to know thee, seeing thee
in thy home among thy dear ones."
When Conn the king heard the maiden's voice he called to his men aloud and said:
"Summon swift my Druid Coran, for I see she has again this day the power of speech."
Then the maiden said: "Oh, mighty Conn,
fighter of a hundred fights, the Druid's power is little loved; it has
little honour in the mighty land, peopled with so many of the upright.
When the Law will come, it will do away with the Druid's magic spells
that come from the lips of the false black demon."
Then Conn the king observed that since the
maiden came, Connla his son spoke to none that spake to him. So Conn of
the hundred fights said to him, "Is it to thy mind what the woman
says, my son?"
"'Tis hard upon me," then said Connla; "I love
my own folk above all things; but yet, but yet a longing seizes me for
the maiden."
When the maiden heard this, she answered and
said "The ocean is not so strong as the waves of thy longing. Come with
me in my curragh, the gleaming, straight-gliding crystal canoe. Soon
we can reach Boadag's realm. I see the bright sun sink, yet far as it
is, we can reach it before dark. There is, too, another land worthy of
thy journey, a land joyous to all that seek it. Only wives and maidens
dwell there. If thou wilt, we can seek it and live there alone together
in joy."
When the maiden ceased to speak, Connla of the
Fiery Hair rushed away from them and sprang into the curragh, the
gleaming, straight-gliding crystal canoe. And then they all, king and
court, saw it glide away over the bright sea towards the setting sun.
Away and away, till eye could see it no longer, and Connla and the
Fairy Maiden went their way on the sea, and were no more seen, nor did
any know where they came.
Ditulis oleh:
Unknown -