Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/142

The story of Crimthann Nia Náir shows that one who sojourns in the divine land or tastes its food may not be able to return to earth with impunity, for he has become a member of the other-world state and is no longer fit for earth. This is found in other Irish tales and in stories of fairyland or the world of the dead elsewhere.¹⁹ Crimthann was son of Lugaid Red Stripes, of whom one of those occasional stories of incest, not uncommon in primitive society, is told, proving that it had at one time been common in Celtic custom, perhaps in the royal house. Lugaid's mother was Clothru, a sister of Medb and Ethne. Clothru and Ethne are both said to have been wives of Conchobar after Medb left him for Ailill; and their brothers, Bres, Nar, and Lothar, were called the Three Finns, or White Ones, of Emuin. Once Clothru bewailed her childless condition to them, and as a result of her entreaties she had a son Lugaid by all three.²⁰ Clothru again bore a child to Lugaid, Crimthann Nia Náir, or "Nár's Man," the hero of this story and afterward supreme king, who fared on what is called "a splendid adventure" with a goddess or witch called Nár. He went to a land overseas, where he remained with her for a month and a half; and at his departure he obtained many love-tokens—a chariot and a golden draught-board, a sword richly ornamented, a spear whose wounds were always mortal, a sling which never missed its aim, two dogs worth a hundred female slaves, and a beautiful mantle. Soon after his return, however, he fell from his horse and died²¹—an incident perhaps to be explained in terms of the myths of Loegaire Liban and Oisin, who, in order to return to the divine land, were warned not to dismount from their horses.²² On the other hand, Cúchulainn was able to return to Ireland from Elysium without hurt, and so also was Aedh, son of the King of Leinster, who was enticed into the síd by Bodb Dearg's daughters. For three years the folk of the síd cared for him while his father mourned, not knowing whither the divine people had taken him—into the sky or down under the earth. He and