CHAP.
This is, practically, the Gaelic story of Conall Gulban, which may
be fairly regarded as embodying a whole cycle of mythical tradition.
The materials of which it is made up carry us to a vast number of of ConaU
legends in Aryan mythology; but the main story is that of Herakles,
Achilleus, and Helen. Conall himself is the solar hero, despised at
first for his homely appearance and seeming weakness, but triumphant
in the end over all his enemies. Nay, as he becomes an idiot in
the Lay of the Great Fool, so here he is emphatically Analkis, the
coward. But he is resolved nevertheless to make the daughter of
the King of Laidheann his wife, although, like Brynhild and Briar
Rose and Surya Bai, she is guarded within barriers which the knight
who would win her must pass, at the cost of his life if he fails. The
fortress had a great wall, with iron spikes within a foot of each other,
and a man's head upon every spike but the one spike which had
been left for his own, although it was never to be graced by it. It is
the hedge of spears of the modern Hindu legends, the fiery circle
which Sigurd must enter to waken the maiden who sleeps within
it. As he draws nigh to the barrier, one of the soldiers says, "I
perceive that thou art a beggar who was in the land of Eirinn ; what
WTath would the king of Laidheann have if he should come and find
his daughter shamed by any one coward of Eirinn ? " At a window
in this fastness stands the Breast of Light, the Helen of the tale.
" Conall stood a little while gazing at her, but at last he put his palm
on the point of his spear, he gave his rounded spring, and he was in
at the window beside the Breast of Light," a name which recalls the
Europe, Euryganeia, and Eurj'phassa of Hellenic myths. The maiden
bids him not make an attempt which must end in his death, but he
leaps over the heads of the guards. " Was not that the hero and the
worthy wooer, that his like is not to be found to-day ? " Yet she is
not altogether pleased that it is " the coward of the great world " that
has taken her away ; but Conall is preparing to take a vengeance like
that of Odysseus, and all the guards and warriors are slain. The
insult is wiped out in blood ; but with marvellous fidelity to the old
mythical phrases, Conall is made to tell the Breast of Light " that he
had a failing, every time that he did any deed of valour he must sleep
before he could do brave deeds again." The sun must sleep through
the night before he can again do battle with his foes. The sequel is
as in the Lay of the Great Fool. Paris comes while Menelaos
slumbers, or heeds him not, or is absent. He has a mirror in his ship
which will rise up for none but the daughter of the king of Laidheann,
which may be exhibited in the following Auge : Teuthras : : Helena : Paris, equation : — Tegea : Mysia : : Sparta : Ilion.
