Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

244 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[284][285]by Keelta, attended by the invariable “Success and benedictionattend thee!” of Patrick.They move together, the warrior and the saint, on Patrick'sjourney to Tara, and whenever Patrick or some one else in thecompany sees a hill or a fort or a well he asks Keelta what itis, and Keelta tells its name and a Fian legend to account for it,and so the story wanders on through a maze of legendary loreuntil they are met by a company from Tara, with the king at itshead, who then takes up the rôle of questioner. The “Colloquy,”as we have it now, breaks off abruptly as the story how the LiaFail was carried off from Ireland is about to be narrated. 185 Theinterest of the “Colloquy” lies in the tales of Keelta and the lyricsintroduced in the course of them. Of the tales there are about ahundred, telling of Fian raids and battles, and love-makings andfeastings, but the greater number of them have to do with theintercourse between the Fairy Folk and the Fianna. With thesefolk the Fianna have constant relations, both of love and of war.Some of the tales are of great elaboration, wrought out in thehighest style of which the writer was capable. One of the bestis that of the fairy Brugh, or mansion of Slievenamon, whichPatrick and Keelta chance to pass by, and of which Keelta tellsthe following history:The Brugh of SlievenamonOne day as Finn and Keelta and five other champions ofthe Fianna were hunting at Torach, in the north, they roused abeautiful fawn which fled before them, they holding it in chaseall day, till they reached the mountain of Slievenamon towardsevening, when the fawn suddenly seemed to vanish underground.A chase like this, in the Ossianic literature, is the common preludeto an adventure in Fairyland. Night now fell rapidly, and withit came heavy snow and storm, and, searching for shelter, theFianna discovered in the wood a great illuminated Brugh, or185 See p. 105.