United States or Martinique ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But before he died he put the Amadan under geasa to meet and to fight the White Wether of the Hill of the Waterfalls. Then the Amadan rubbed his own wounds with the iocshlainte, and he was as fresh and hale as when he went into the fight.
But the Amadan remembered what the red woman had warned him; he gave one leap into the air, and coming down, drove his sword through the beggarman's heart, and the beggarman fell dead. But before he died he put geasa on the Amadan to meet and fight the Silver Cat of the Seven Glens.
He noticed, however, that food had been set for no one but himself, and this did not please him, for to eat alone was contrary to the hospitable usage of a king, and was contrary also to his contract with the gods. "But we never eat together," the queen replied. "I cannot violate my geasa," said the High King.
Right glad she was to see the Amadan coming back alive, and she welcomed him heartily and asked him the news. He told her of the wonderful fight he had had, and that he was now under geasa to meet and fight the Beggarman of the King of Sweden. She made him come in and eat and sleep, for he was tired and hungry.
"Last night," says the Amadan, "I fought a great fight, and killed Slat Mor, Slat Marr, Slat Beag, the Cailliach of the Rocks, and four badachs. Now I'm under geasa to meet and to fight the Black Bull of the Brown Wood. Can you tell me where to find him?" "I can that," says she, "but it's now night. Come in and eat and sleep."
"Their observance made the earth fruitful, produced abundance and prosperity, and kept both the king and his land from misfortune. The Kings were divinities on whom depended fruitfulness and plenty, and who must therefore submit to obey their 'geasa.
But at length and at last, after a long and terrible fight, the Amadan, seeing the little spot above the heart that the red woman had told him of, struck for it and hit it, and drove his sword through the White Wether's heart, and he fell down. And when he was dying, he called the Amadan and put him under a geasa to meet and fight the Beggarman of the King of Sweden.
Right glad she was to see the Amadan coming back alive, and she welcomed him right heartily, and asked him the news. He told her that he had killed the beggarman, and said he was now under geasa to meet and fight the Silver Cat of the Seven Glens. "Well," she said, "I'm sorry for you, for no one ever before went to meet the Silver Cat and came back alive.
This was the case among the Celts; McCulloch, in The Religion of the Celts, discussing the question of the early Irish geasa or taboo, explains the geasa of the Irish kings as designed to promote the welfare of the tribe, the making of rain and sunshine on which their prosperity depended.
When the old hag died outright, the Amadan rubbed some of the iocshlainte to his wounds with the feather, and at once he was as hale and as fresh as when the fight began. Then he took the feather and the bottle of iocshlainte, buckled on his sword, and started away before him to fulfil his geasa.
Word Of The Day