A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

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over to the enemy. His brother, Illann the Fair, filled with shame, did what he could to make amends. He went forth, and many hundreds of the besieging army fell before him, ere death stayed his loyal hand. At his death the Ultonians again fired the house, and first Ardan and then Ainle left their chess for a fiercer game, and glutted their sword blades with the blood of their enemies. Last came the turn of Naoise. He kissed Deirdrê, and drank a drink, and went out against the men of Conor, and where his brothers had slain hundreds, a thousand fell before his sword. Then fear came into the heart of Conor, for he foresaw that against the Sons of Usna no man could prevail, save by magic. Thus he sent for Cathbad the Druid, who was even then very near death, and the old man was carried on a litter to the House of the Red Branch, from which the flames were leaping, and before which the dead lay in heaps. And Conor besought him to help him to subdue the Sons of Usna ere they should have slain every Ultonian in the land. So by his magic Cathbad raised a hedge of spears round the house. But Naoise, Ardan, and Ainle, with Deirdrê in their centre, sheltered by their shields, burst suddenly forth from the blazing house, and cut a way for themselves through the hedge as though they sheared green wheat. And, laughing aloud, they took a terrible toll of lives from the Ultonians who would have withstood them. Then again the Druid put forth his power, and a noise like the noise of many waters was in the ears of all who were there. So suddenly the magic flood arose that there was no chance of escape for the Sons of Usna. Higher it mounted, ever higher, and Naoise held Deirdrê on his shoulder, and smiled up in her eyes as the water rose past his middle. Then suddenly as it had come, the flood abated, and all was well with the Ultonians who had sheltered on a rising ground. But the Sons of Usna found themselves entrapped in a morass where the water had been. Conor, seeing them in his hands at last, bade some of his warriors go and take them. But for shame no Ultonian would go, and it was a man from Norway who walked along a dry spit of land to where they stood, sunk deep in the green bog. "Slay me first!" called Ardan as he drew near, sword in hand. "I am the youngest, and, who knows, my death may change the tides of fate!"
And Ainle also craved that death might be dealt to him the first. But Naoise held out his own sword, "The Retaliator," to the executioner. "Mannanan, the son of Lîr, gave me my good sword," he said. "With it strike my dear brothers and me one blow only as we stand here like three trees planted in the soil. Then shall none of us know the grief and shame of seeing the other beheaded." And because it was hard for any man to disobey the command of Naoise, a king of men, the Norseman reached out his hand for the sword. But Deirdrê sprang from the shoulder of Naoise and would have killed the man ere he struck. Roughly he threw her aside, and with one blow he shore off the heads of the three greatest heroes of Alba. For a little while there was a great stillness there, like the silence before the coming of a storm. And then all who had beheld the end of the fair and noble Sons of Usna broke into great lamentation. Only Conor stood silent, gazing at the havoc he had wrought. To Cuchulainn, the mighty champion, a good man and a true, Deirdrê fled, and begged him to protect her for the little span of life that she knew yet remained to her. And with him she went to where the head of Naoise lay, and tenderly she cleansed it from blood and from the stains of strife and stress, and smoothed the hair that was black as a raven's wing, and kissed the cold lips again and again. And as she held it against her white breast, as a mother holds a little child, she chanted for Naoise, her heart, and for his brothers, a lament that still lives in the language of the Gael. "Is it honour that ye love, brave and chivalrous Ultonians? Or is the word of a base king better than noble truth? Of a surety ye must be glad, who have basely slain honour In slaying the three noblest and best of your brotherhood. * * * * * Let now my beauty that set all this warring aflame, Let now my beauty be quenched as a torch that is spent-- For here shall I quench it, here, where my loved one lies, A torch shall it be for him still through the darkness of death."
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A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang The P
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and lost its beauty, there yet rema
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in any language. The writer will fe
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PYGMALION 11 PHAETON 16 ENDYMION 26
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Thus did Psyche lose her fear, and
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that was to be his heritage. Promet
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(Afterthought). For Epimethus it wa
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endure the torment of having a foul
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most perfect semblance of men and o
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had made sacred to Galatea. On the
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But at last she said to him, "Naugh
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From the courtyard of the Palace th
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wrought. That blazing chariot of th
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suburban garden. That unlettered sp
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[Illustration: SHE CHECKED HER HOUN
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deep, hidden meaning in each part o
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permission he sought, but solemnly
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night, but as that of evening when
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When the quest of the Argonauts was
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But as the first fierce storm that
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Once upon a time, so goes the tale,
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which the fame of the fair Psyche h
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arren rocks, the utter forsakenness
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deny anything to Psyche, and on the
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As a martyr walks to death, so did
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sprang from the high cliff on which
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And again the reeds murmured, "Bewa
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"Oh, foolish one," it said, "why do
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its ugly tomb in the dark soil, and
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and found, amazed, a fearless, whit
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"Aimed on the left side his well-ha
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ATALANTA Atalanta, daughter of the
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thou dost race with me, the goal is
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To Pallas Athené, goddess of craft
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them with pictures such as no skill
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shall fall--for oft by weathers tha
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dallying with Idas in the shadowy w
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of her dreams, his voice was as the
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were life to one whose beauty had w
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overshadowed by the past, and even
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"And now from their fountains In En
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daily had to face, sailed the seas
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came empty-handed, and as he stood
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But Athené said Nay, at his mother
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"but no mortal can obtain it, for o
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living as that of a flower in sprin
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wife. No marriage feast so splendid
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"Surely this stranger comes from Ol
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sons, and each son is more than the
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But the gods laughed. Like a harsh
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Zephyrus, god of the South Wind, ha
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This is the story of Midas, one of
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But when Midas, with the healthy ap
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First of all Pan took his fragile r
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hiding-place. The trees and shrubs
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For the air was full of the clamoro
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around the cave lurked the long dar
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like a ship driven on by the long o
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In the fragrance of the blossom of
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Wind and the North Wind wrestle tog
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For, from the carcase of one of the
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so fair. She had only tasted the jo
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she held most dear. "Give me back m
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LATONA AND THE RUSTICS Through the
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defiled." As she spoke, a change, s
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smiling at the remembrance of her m
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Grief had slain the body of Echo. O
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Fourteen years only have passed sin
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at length they looked like the pini
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higher, higher still, and when he s
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and give stare for stare to golden-
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voice sang snatches of song of his
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shall not hide him, nor shall his d
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whose white arms against the greenw
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fashioned for himself an instrument
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spear-wound through it. With terrib
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as she spoke, her tears and his blo
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the river), 'The only way, since go
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at length she stood on the edge of
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and so, by the hands of his river,
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Milton. Pan was dead, and the gods
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unutterable woe upon any of the son
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Near St. Goar, there rises out of t
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[7] Archilochus of Paros. [8] Fiona
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to come was possessed by Beowulf. I
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And Odin, seeing himself outwitted
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oath from anything in all nature, a
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Thus Loki, taking upon himself the
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Matthew Arnold. Gladly Hermoder mad
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were fit to receive him, and peace
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took place those things that are to
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lack marshes, unknowing that in the
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swiftly know whence ye have hither
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Grendel's scaly hide. Up and down t
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win, while he may, warlike fame in
Page 191 and 192: homeland and had told his kinsman t
Page 193 and 194: forth scorchingly, and its great mo
Page 195 and 196: FOOTNOTES: [9] Shakespeare (Julius
Page 197 and 198: would be allowed to retain his king
Page 199 and 200: "No one sent me," he said. "My moth
Page 201 and 202: "I had taken thee for another man,
Page 203 and 204: Leaving them behind with twenty tho
Page 205 and 206: comrades whose eyes never more woul
Page 207 and 208: humbly confessing his sins and begg
Page 209 and 210: King of Heaven! * * * * * May thy f
Page 211 and 212: Charlemagne then returned to Aix, a
Page 213 and 214: their love. To them in course of ti
Page 215 and 216: what her servants had scorned to do
Page 217 and 218: he stood, and greeted him in the gl
Page 219 and 220: the shattered victims of the destro
Page 221 and 222: Then said her brothers: "In Him we
Page 223 and 224: And Kemoc answered: "It is truth."
Page 225 and 226: In many ancient manuscripts we get
Page 227 and 228: "You will have a little grave apart
Page 229 and 230: questions about Naoise, she met a s
Page 231 and 232: delivered his message, and when he
Page 233 and 234: e alive. We will go with her to ano
Page 235 and 236: ut on Loch Awe and Loch Fyne, Loch
Page 237 and 238: But Deirdrê said, very quickly: "N
Page 239 and 240: the pure sand. O that I might not d
Page 241: heart of the king. For when Lavarca
Page 245 and 246: [18] Inistrynich. [19] Dun Sween. [
Page 247 and 248: 133, 139, 140, 141, 142, 145, 164,
Page 249 and 250: Belvidere, Apollo, 11 Ben Cruachan,
Page 251 and 252: Cerberus, 34 Ceyx, 144, 145, 146, 1
Page 253 and 254: Dædalus, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185,
Page 255 and 256: Dun Sween, 324 Durendala, 276, 284,
Page 257 and 258: Fergus, 321, 322, 323, 325, 326, 32
Page 259 and 260: Greece, 26, 71, 72, 74, 154, 192, 1
Page 261 and 262: Ibycus, 192, 194, 195, 196 Icarus,
Page 263 and 264: Lebynthos, 186 Leinster, Book of, 3
Page 265 and 266: Meleager, 69, 70, 72, 74, 75, 76, 7
Page 267 and 268: North Cape, 260 North Sea, 244 Norw
Page 269 and 270: Persephone, 80, 161, 164, 165, 167
Page 271 and 272: 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286,
Page 273 and 274: Sleipnir, 236 Socrates, 153 Somnus,
Page 275 and 276: Tyrian, 86 Uffizi Palace, 124 Ulste
Page 277 and 278: The author also used alternative sp
Page 279 and 280: ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.
Page 281 and 282: This eBook is for the use of anyone
Page 283 and 284: eceipt of the work. - You comply wi
Page 285 and 286: harmless from all liability, costs
Page 287: Please check the Project Gutenberg
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