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 in everything. This youth was the King’s eldest son and his mother had died before she could be a guide to him. Now after the King and the King’s Councillor left him to his own way the youth I’m telling you about did nothing but ride and h

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 to ask strangers if they knew where the King of the Land of Mist had his dominion and he came back to his father’s every night in the hope that one would be at the Castle who could tell him where the place that he sought was. Maravaun wanted to relate to him fabl

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 Son reaped the corn for the Little Sage, and as he was reaping it his two foster-brothers, Dermott and Downal, rode by on their fine horses. They did not know who the young fellow was who was reaping in the field and they s

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 eyes, the bright yellow of the broom in her hair, and the white of the swan in her skin—I would let my seven sons go with the wild geese.” “Hush,” said the King. “You ask for a doom, and it may be sent you.” A shiverin

I 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 two comrades went along a well-traveled road. As they went on they fell in with men driving herds of ponies, men carrying packs on their backs, men with tools for working gold and silver, bronze and iron. Every man whom they as

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 the river that at this place was tremendously wide. “The Glashan will carry you across the River of the Broken Towers to the shore of the Land of Mist,” the Gobaun Saor had said to the King of Ireland’s Son. And now he was at the

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 with the youth Flann, once called the Gilly of the Goatskin, that we will go if it be pleasing to you, Son of my Heart. He went his way in the evening, when, as the bard said:— And he went his way in the night, when, as the same bard said:— And he went on between th

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 own image, but the image of a young man. I drew up my pitcher filled with water, and went back to the Spae-Woman’s house. At noontide Baun went to the well for water. She came back and her pitcher was only half-filled. Be

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 upon Fergus who was a mortal, and one of the Fianna of Ireland. Now when Mananaun MacLir heard Curoi’s proposals and learned how his daughter’s heart was inclined, he said, “Let the matter be settled in this way: we will call a hurling-match bet

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 with Fedelma, the Enchanter’s daughter, and how it came to pass that the Seven Wild Geese that were Caintigern’s brothers were disenchanted and became men again. But above all I have to tell you the end of that story