Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER III: THE IRISH INVASION MYTHS 91Ethlinn's guardians that they were two noble ladies cast uponthe shore in escaping from an abductor, and begged for shelter.They were admitted; Kian found means to have access to thePrincess Ethlinn while the matrons were laid by Birōg under thespell of an enchanted slumber, and when they awoke Kian andthe Druidess had vanished as they came. But Ethlinn had givenKian her love, and soon her guardians found that she was withchild. Fearing Balor's wrath, the matrons persuaded her that thewhole transaction was but a dream, and said nothing about it; butin due time Ethlinn was delivered of three sons at a birth.News of this event came to Balor, and in anger and fear hecommanded the three infants to be drowned in a whirlpool off theIrish coast. The messenger who was charged with this commandrolled up the children in a sheet, but in carrying them to theappointed place the pin of the sheet came loose, and one of thechildren dropped out and fell into a little bay, called to this dayPort na Delig, or the Haven of the Pin. The other two were duly [112]drowned, and the servant reported his mission accomplished.But the child who had fallen into the bay was guarded by theDruidess, who wafted it to the home of its father, Kian, and Kiangave it in fosterage to his brother the smith, who taught the childhis own trade and made it skilled in every manner of craft andhandiwork. This child was Lugh. When he was grown to a youththe Danaans placed him in charge of Duach, “The Dark,” kingof the Great Plain (Fairyland, or the “Land of the Living,” whichis also the Land of the Dead), and here he dwelt till he reachedmanhood.Lugh was, of course, the appointed redeemer of the Danaanpeople from their servitude. His coming is narrated in a storywhich brings out the solar attributes of universal power, andshows him, like Apollo, as the presiding deity of all humanknowledge and of all artistic and medicinal skill. He came, it istold, to take service with Nuada of the Silver Hand, and when thedoorkeeper at the royal palace of Tara asked him what he could