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Updated: May 28, 2025
Then suddenly there stood Midir in the midst of them: Midir the Proud; never had he seemed fairer than then. No man had seen him enter; none knew how he had come. And then it was but putting his spear in his left hand for him, and putting his right arm about the waist of Etain, and rising through the air with her, and vanishing through the roof.
"Play you," said he. "I will not play without a stake," said the king. "What will the stake be?" said Midir. "All one to me," said Eochaid. "If you win," said Midir, "I will give you fifty broad-chested horses with slim swift feet." "And if you win," said Eochaid Airem, sure of victory, "I will give you whatever you demand." Midir won that game, and demanded Etain the queen.
They went back into the inwardness of things; whence, however, they were always appearing, and again vanishing into it; and all the old literature of Ireland is thridded through with the lights of their magic and their beauty, and their strange forthcomings and withdrawings. For example: There was Midir the Proud, one of them.
"But the queen is sleeping in her chamber now," said Eochaid; "and it is there the chessboard is." "Little matter," said Midir, "I have here a board as good as yours is." And that was the truth. His chessboard was of silver, glittering with precious stones at each corner. From a satchel wrought of shining metal he took his chessmen, which were of pure gold. Then he arranged them on the board.
But the rules of chess are that the vanquished may claim his revenge, a second game, that is, to decide the matter; and the high king proposed that it should be played at the end of a year. Midir agreed, and vanished. The year ended, and Eochaid was at Tara; he had had the palace surrounded by a great armed host against Midir; and Etain was there with him.
But to return to the hall of Eochaid Airem: Every door in it was locked; and the whole place filled with the cream of the war-host of the Gael, and apprehension on everyone, they not knowing would it be war and violence with Midir, or what it would be. So it had been all day; so it was now in the dusk of the evening.
"What name is on you?" said Eochaid. "Nothing illustrious about it in the world," said the other. "I am Midir of Bregleith." "What has brought you hither?" "I am come to play at chess with you." "I have great skill at chess," said the high king; and indeed, he was the best at it in Ireland, in those days. "We shall see about that," said Midir.
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