Irish Fairy Tales by James Stephens (e ink ebook reader TXT) 📕

servants fell asleep also, so that Mongan could not get anything to drink. Mac an Dáv said it was a great shame, and he kicked some of the servants, but they did not budge, and then he slipped out to the stables and saddled two mares. He got on one with his wife behind him and Mongan got on the other with Duv Laca behind him, and they rode away towards Ulster like the wind, singing this song:

The King of Leinster was married today,
Married today, married today,
The King of Leinster was married today,
And everyone wishes him joy.

In the morning the servants came to waken the King of Leinster, and when they saw the face of the hag lying on the pillow beside the king, and her nose all covered with whiskers, and her big foot and little foot sticking away out at the end of the bed, they began to laugh, and poke one another in the stomachs and thump one another on the shoulders, so that the noise awakened the king, and he asked what was the matter with them at all. It was then he saw the hag lying beside him, and he gave a great screech and jumped out of the bed.

“Aren’t you the Hag of the Mill?” said he.

“I am indeed,” she replied, “and I love you dearly.”

“I wish I didn’t see you,” said Branduv.

That was the end of the story, and when he had told it Mongan began to laugh uproariously and called for more wine. He drank this deeply, as though he was full of thirst and despair and a wild jollity, but when the Flame Lady began to weep he took her in his arms and caressed her, and said that she was the love of his heart and the one treasure of the world.

After that they feasted in great contentment, and at the end of the feasting they went away from Faery and returned to the world of men.

They came to Mongan’s palace at Moy Linney, and it was not until they reached the palace that they found they had been away one whole year, for they had thought they were only away one night. They lived then peacefully and lovingly together, and that ends the story, but Brótiarna did not know that Mongan was Fionn.

The abbot leaned forward.

“Was Mongan Fionn?” he asked in a whisper.

“He was,” replied Cairidè.

“Indeed, indeed!” said the abbot.

After a while he continued: “There is only one part of your story that I do not like.”

“What part is that?” asked Cairidè.

“It is the part where the holy man Tibraidè was ill treated by that rap⁠—by that⁠—by Mongan.”

Cairidè agreed that it was ill done, but to himself he said gleefully that whenever he was asked to tell the story of how he told the story of Mongan he would remember what the abbot said.

Endnotes

Pronounce Fewn to rhyme with “tune.” ↩

Pronounced Usheen. ↩

This version of the death of Uail is not correct. Also Cnocha is not in Lochlann but in Ireland. ↩

The Hill of Howth. ↩

Colophon

Irish Fairy Tales
was published in 1920 by
James Stephens.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Jan Genoch,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2001 by
A. Elizabeth Warren and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
Road in the Woods,
a painting completed between 1850⁠–⁠1900 by
an unknown artist.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

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