The Knighting Of Cuculain

: CATS
: Irish Fairy Tales

BY STANDISH O'GRADY





One night in the month of the fires of Bel, Cathvah, the Druid and

star-gazer, was observing the heavens through his astrological

instruments. Beside him was Cuculain, just then completing his

sixteenth year. Since the exile of Fergus MacRoy, Cuculain had

attached himself most to the Ard-Druid, and delighted to be along with

him in his studies and observations. Suddenly t e old man put aside

his instruments and meditated a long time in silence.



'Setanta,' said he at length, 'art thou yet sixteen years of age?'



'No, father,' replied the boy.



'It will then be difficult to persuade the king to knight thee and

enrol thee among his knights,' said Cathvah. 'Yet this must be done

to-morrow, for it has been revealed to me that he whom Concobar

MacNessa shall present with arms to-morrow, will be renowned to the

most distant ages, and to the ends of the earth. Thou shalt be

presented with arms to-morrow, and after that thou mayest retire for a

season among thy comrades, nor go out among the warriors until thy

strength is mature.'



The next day Cathvah procured the king's consent to the knighting of

Cuculain. Now on the same morning, one of his grooms came to Concobar

MacNessa and said: 'O chief of the Red Branch, thou knowest how no

horse has eaten barley, or ever occupied the stall where stood the

divine steed which, with another of mortal breed, in the days of

Kimbay MacFiontann, was accustomed to bear forth to the battle the

great war-queen, Macha Monga-Rue; but ever since that stall has been



empty, and no mortal steed hath profaned the stall in which the

deathless Lia Macha was wont to stand. Yet, O Concobar, as I passed

into the great stables on the east side of the courtyard, wherein are

the steeds of thy own ambus, and in which is that spot since held

sacred, I saw in the empty stall a mare, gray almost to whiteness, and

of a size and beauty such as I have never seen, who turned to look

upon me as I entered the stable, having very gentle eyes, but such as

terrified me, so that I let fall the vessel in which I was bearing

curds for the steed of Konaul Clareena; and she approached me, and

laid her head upon my shoulder, making a strange noise.'



Now as the groom was thus speaking, Cowshra Mend Macha, a younger son

of Concobar, came before the king, and said: 'Thou knowest, O my

father, that house in which is preserved the chariot of Kimbay

MacFiontann, wherein he and she, whose name I bear, the great queen

that protects our nation, rode forth to the wars in the ancient days,

and how it has been preserved ever since, and that it is under my care

to keep bright and clean. Now this day at sunrise I approached the

house, as is my custom, and approaching, I heard dire voices,

clamorous and terrible, that came from within, and noises like the

noise of battle, and shouts as of warriors in the agony of the

conflict, that raise their voices with short intense cries as they ply

their weapons, avoiding or inflicting death. Then I went back

terrified, but there met me Minrowar, son of Gerkin, for he came but

last night from Moharne, in the east, and he went to look at his own

steeds; but together we opened the gate of the chariot-house, and the

bronze of the chariot burned like glowing fire, and the voices cried

out in acclaim, when we stood in the doorway, and the light streamed

into the dark chamber. Doubtless, a great warrior will appear amongst

the Red Branch, for men say that not for a hundred years have these

voices been heard, and I know not for whom Macha sends these portents,

if it be not for the son of Sualtam, though he is not yet of an age to

bear arms.'



Thus was Concobar prepared for the knighting of Cuculain.



Then in the presence of his court, and his warriors, and the youths

who were the comrades and companions of Cuculain, Concobar presented

the young hero with his weapons of war, after he had taken the vows of

the Red Branch, and having also bound himself by certain gaesa.[17]

But Cuculain looked narrowly upon the weapons, and he struck the

spears together and clashed the sword upon the shield, and he brake

the spears in pieces, and the sword, and made chasms in the shield.



[Footnote 17: Curious vows taken by the ancient warriors. Hardly

anything definite is known of them.--ED.]



'These are not good weapons, O my King,' said the boy.



Then the king presented him with others that were larger and stronger,

and these too the boy brake into little pieces.



'These are still worse, O son of Nessa,' said the boy, 'and it is not

seemly, O chief of the Red Branch, that on the day that I am to

receive my arms I should be made a laughing-stock before the Clanna

Rury, being yet but a boy.'



But Concobar MacNessa exulted exceedingly when he beheld the amazing

strength and the waywardness of the boy, and beneath delicate brows

his eyes glittered like gleaming swords as he glanced rapidly round on

the crowd of martial men that surrounded him; but amongst them all he

seemed himself a bright torch of valour and war, more pure and clear

than polished steel. But he beckoned to one of his knights, who

hastened away and returned, bringing Concobar's own shield and spears

and the sword out of the Tayta Brac, where they were kept, an

equipment in reserve. And Cuculain shook them and bent them, and

clashed them together, but they held firm.



'These are good arms, O son of Nessa,' said Cuculain.



Then there were led forward a pair of noble steeds and a war-car, and

the king conferred them on Cuculain. Then Cuculain sprang into the

chariot, and standing with legs apart, he stamped from side to side,

and shook and shook, and jolted the car until the axle brake and the

car itself was broken in pieces.



'This is not a good chariot, O my King,' said the boy.



Then there were led forward three chariots, and all these he brake in

succession.



'These are not good chariots, O chief of the Red Branch,' said

Cuculain. 'No brave warrior would enter the battle or fight from such

rotten foothold.'



Then the king called to his son Cowshra Mead Macha and bade him take

Laeg, and harness to the war-chariot, of which he had the care, the

wondrous gray steed, and that one which had been given him by Kelkar,

the son of Uther, and to give Laeg a charioteering equipment, to be

charioteers of Cuculain. For now it was apparent to all the nobles and

to the king that a lion of war had appeared amongst them, and that it

was for him Macha had sent these omens.



Then Cuculain's heart leaped in his breast when he heard the thunder

of the great war-car and the mad whinnying of the horses that smelt

the battle afar. Soon he beheld them with his eyes, and the charioteer

with the golden fillet of his office, erect in the car, struggling to

subdue their fury. A gray, long-maned steed, whale-bellied,

broad-chested, behind one yoke; a black, ugly-maned steed behind the

other.



Like a hawk swooping along the face of a cliff when the wind is high,

or like the rush of the March wind over the plain, or like the

fleetness of the stag roused from his lair by the hounds and covering

his first field, was the rush of those steeds when they had broken

through the restraint of the charioteer, as though they galloped over

fiery flags, so that the earth shook and trembled with the velocity of

their motion, and all the time the great car brayed and shrieked as

the wheels of solid and glittering bronze went round, for there were

demons that had their abode in that car.



The charioteer restrained the steeds before the assembly, but

nay-the-less a deep pur, like the pur of a tiger, proceeded from the

axle. Then the whole assembly lifted up their voices and shouted for

Cuculain, and he himself, Cuculain the son of Sualtam, sprang into his

chariot, all armed, with a cry as of a warrior springing into his

chariot in the battle, and he stood erect and brandished his spears,

and the war-sprites of the Gaeil shouted along with them, to the

Bocanahs and Bananahs and the Genitii Glindi, the wild people of the

glens, and the demons of the air, roared around him, when first the

great warrior of the Gaeil, his battle-arms in his hands, stood

equipped for war in his chariot before all the warriors of his tribe,

the kings of the Clanna Rury, and the people of Emain Macha.