Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER VI: TALES OF THE OSSIANIC CYCLE 229fairest woman his eyes had ever beheld.“I am Saba, O Finn,” she said, “and I was the fawn ye chasedto-day. Because I would not give my love to the Druid of theFairy Folk, who is named the Dark, he put that shape upon meby his sorceries, and I have borne it these three years. But aslave of his, pitying me, once revealed to me that if I could winto thy great Dūn of Allen, O Finn, I should be safe from allenchantments, and my natural shape would come to me again.But I feared to be torn in pieces by thy dogs, or wounded by thyhunters, till at last I let myself be overtaken by thee alone and byBran and Skolawn, who have the nature of man and would dome no hurt.” “Have no fear, maiden,” said Finn; “we, the Fianna,are free, and our guest-friends are free; there is none who shallput compulsion on you here.”So Saba dwelt with Finn, and he made her his wife; and sodeep was his love for her that neither the battle nor the chasehad any delight for him, and for months he never left her side.She also loved him as deeply, and their joy in each other waslike that of the Immortals in the Land of Youth. But at last wordcame to Finn that the warships of the Northmen were in the Bayof Dublin, and he summoned his heroes to the fight; “For,” saidhe to Saba, “the men of Erin give us tribute and hospitality todefend them from the foreigner, and it were shame to take it fromthem and not to give that to which we, on our side, are pledged.”And he called to mind that great saying of Goll mac Morna whenthey were once sore bestead by a mighty host. “A man,” saidGoll, “lives after his life, but not after his honour.”Seven days was Finn absent, and he drove the Northmen from [268]the shores of Erin. But on the eighth day he returned, and whenhe entered his dūn he saw trouble in the eyes of his men, and oftheir fair womenfolk, and Saba was not on the rampart expectinghis return. So he bade them tell him what had chanced, and theysaid:“Whilst thou, our father and lord, wert afar off smiting the