United States or Portugal ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
For lo you! the captain is staying the sumpter-beasts, and it is his mind, belike, that we shall sleep in yonder wood to-night." Therewith he lighted down and she in likewise: then he took her by the hand and led her on a few yards, and said: "Lo, beloved, this quicken-tree; hereby it was that the tent was pitched wherein I lay the night when I was taken."
Then the hearts of the Fair Strangers were filled with grief and gall, for they distrusted the couriers, and having consulted the Ard-ri, they set forth themselves to find and conquer the invader; for the king told them that there was one other quicken-tree, more beautiful and more magical than that growing by the Fairy Palace, and that it was set in another part of the bright-blooming, sweet-scented old garden, namely, in the heart of the labyrinthine maze of the Wise Woman of Wales; but as no one of them, neither the Gilla Dacker nor those who pursued him, had ever, even with the aid of the Magic Thread-Clue, reached the heart of the maze, there was no knowledge among them of the second quicken-tree.
Now it was at this time that two chiefs came to Finn on the green slopes of Allen. And when he asked them who they were and whence they came, they told how they were enemies that would fain make peace. But Finn answered, 'One of two things must ye bring hither would ye win peace from me. Either must ye bring me the head of a warrior or a handful of berries from the quicken-tree.
But do thou go across the stream, thou barefoot, and thou wilt find on the other side, by the foot of the quicken-tree yonder, honeycombs and white bread and a bicker of wild goats' milk.
Full well I know that by Dermat hath Sharvan the giant been slain, and from his hand have ye gotten the berries. Therefore have ye no peace from me, and now shall I summon an army that I may march to the wood of the quicken-tree, for there surely doth Dermat dwell. Now when Finn came with his army to the quicken-tree it was noon, and the sun shone with great heat.
So because of this Ralph had bidden Ursula not to fare abroad without her sword, which was sharp and strong, and she no weakling withal. He bethought him of this just as he had made an end of his spear-shaping, so therewith he looked aside and saw the said sword hanging to a bough of a little quicken-tree, which grew hard by the door.
And they answered, 'Sharvan the giant is slain, and behold here we have brought thee berries from the quicken-tree so that henceforth we may live at peace. Then Finn took the berries in his hand, and when he had smelled them three times he said, 'Of a truth these be the berries of the quicken-tree, but not of your own strength have ye gotten them.
The bargain was made; and while the tinker devoured one plateful after another with a ravenous haste that almost discredited his previous restraint, Patsy spun a fanciful tale of having found a cluricaun under a quicken-tree.
"I held his cap firmly with the one hand and him by the scruff of the neck with the other; and says I to him, 'Little man, ye'll not be getting this back till ye've fetched me a dinner fit for a tinker. 'Well, and good, says he, 'but ye can't find that this side of the King's Hotel, Dublin; and that will take time. 'Take the time, says I, 'but get the dinner. And from that minute till the present I've been waiting under that quicken-tree for him to make the trip there and back."
The one weapon was Sharvan's own club, for were he by it dealt three blows, his doom was come. Now Dermat knew of the giant that guarded the fairy quicken-tree, therefore he left Grania in shelter and went alone to the foot of the tree. And there sat Sharvan, for it was day. And Dermat told the giant how he would fain build a hut in the forest and hunt amid the woods.
Word Of The Day