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The European Sky-God.
27
tale, that of In Gilla Decair or 'The Slothful Gillie,'[1] which can be traced back to about the year 1630,[2] contains an account of Diarmuid's visit to the Otherworld, in which a guarded tree is a prominent object. It may be summarised thus:—
One day Finn and some of his chiefs were in Munster, resting on the hill of Collkilla, when they saw approaching a hideous [black][3] giant with an equally hideous horse. The giant was trailing after him an iron club and dragging the horse along by main force. He explained that he was the Gilla Backer, a Fomor of Lochlann, who wished to serve Finn for a year and then, according to custom, fix his own wages. Finn agreed to this proposal. But no sooner had the big man's horse been turned out to graze than it began to kick and maim the horses of the Fianna. In their efforts to restrain its vicious tricks Conan and fourteen [thirteen] [ [twenty-eight] ][4] other men mounted the beast at once and started thrashing it. At this the Gilla Backer grew indignant and finally took his departure, followed at a terrible pace by his horse, from whose back the fifteen [fourteen] [ [twenty-nine] ] riders tried in vain to escape. Finn and his friends at once went in pursuit; and Ligan Lumina, one of the fastest of the Fianna, caught the horse by the tail just as it reached the sea-shore. But he too stuck fast and was drawn along in the water after it. Fergus Finnvel, the poet, now advised Finn to go to Ben Edar for a ship. On the way thither they met opportunely enough a certain Feradach, who undertook to make a ship by striking his joiner's axe thrice on his sling-stick [ [to make a whole fleet by striking the harbour with a branch] ], and with him his brother Foltlebar, who said that he could follow a track on sea as well as on land. Finn took them both into his service, and they were as good as their word. Fifteen warriors selected from a muster of the Fianna went on board the newly-made vessel with Finn. For some days they sailed towards the west and, after weathering a bad storm, reached a vast rocky cliff, which towered up to such a height that its head seemed hidden
- ↑ S. H. O'Grady Silva Gadelica i. 258 ff. Irish text from a MS. dated 1765, ii, 292 ff. translation. Lady Gregory Gods and Fighting Men p. 327 ff., P. W. Joyce Old Celtic Romances p. 223 ff. Cp. Rhŷs Hibbert Lectures p. 187 ff., A. C. L. Brown Iwain p. 103 ff. I summarise from Joyce's version, which was made from a MS. written in 1728 with comparison of another written in 1795 (Joyce op. cit. p. xv).
- ↑ E. O'Curry Manuscript Materials p. 316 ff.
- ↑ Words and sentences enclosed in square brackets are added from the version of In Gilla Decair given by S. H. O'Grady in Silva Gadelica ii. 292 ff.
- ↑ Words and sentences enclosed in double square brackets are added from the folk-tale Fin MacCool, the Hard Gilla, and the High King in J. Curlin Hero-Tales of Ireland London 1894 p. 514 ff. (collected in county Kerry).
