Volume II ~The Works of "Fiona Macleod"

SEANACHAS

(Scáthach : http://ja.forvo.com/word/scathach/#ga

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AB%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8F)

THE SAD QUEEN

There was darkness over Eiré: they adored things of Faerie." The Fiace Hymn.

Two men lay bound in the stone fold behind the great wall of Dun Scaith in the Isle of Mist.

One was Ulric the Skald; the other was Connla the Harper. Only they two lived when the galleys went down in the Minch, and the Gael and the Gall sank in the reddened waves. For a long hour they were swung on the waves and on the same spar--the mast of the Death-Raven, which Svén of the Long Hair had sailed in from the north isles, with a score galleys of a score men in each. Farcha the Silent had met him with two score galleys of ten men in each.

They had fought since the sun was in the south till it hung above the west. Then there were only the Death-Raven and the Foam-Sweeper. Ulric sat by Svén and sang the death-song and the song of swords; Connla sat by Farcha and sang the high song of victory.

When the galleys met through the bloody tangle in the seas, where spears rose and fell like boughs and branches of a wood in storm, and where men's hair clung black and limp past wild eyes and faces red with blood, Svén leaped into the Foam-Sweeper, and clove the head from a spearman who thrust at him, so that it fell into the sea, and the headless man shook with a palsy and waveringly mowed an idle spear.

But in that doing he staggered, and Farcha thrust his spear through him. The spear fixed Svén to the mast. Then an arrow from the sea struck him across the eyes, and he saw no more; and when the Foam-Sweeper sank and dragged the Death-Raven with it, the two kings met: but Farcha was now like a heavy fish swung this way and that, and Svén thought the body was the body of Gunhild whom he loved, and strove to kiss it, but could not because of the spear and seven arrows which nailed him to the mast.

When the moon rose, the waters were in a white calm. Mid-sea, a great shadow passed northward: the travelling myriad of the herring-host.

When Ulric the Skald sank from the mast, Connla the Harper held him by the hair, and gave him breath, so that he lived.

Thus when two spears drifted near, neither snatched at them. Later, Connla spoke. " One pulls me by the feet," he said; " it is one of your dead men who is drowning me." But at that Ulric drew a long breath, and strengthened his heart: then, seizing one of the spears, he thrust it downward, and struck the dead man whose hair tangled the feet of Connla, so that the dead man sank.

When they heard cries, they thought the galleys had come again, or others of Svén's host, or of Farcha's: but when they were dragged out of the sea, and lay staring at the stars, they knew no more, for sounds swam into their ears, and mist came into their eyes, and it was as though they sank through the boat, and through the sea, and through the infinite blank void below the sea, and were as two feathers there, blown idly under dim stars.

When they woke it was day, and a woman stood looking darkly at them.

She was tall, and of great strength; taller than Connla, stronger than Ulric. Long black hair fell upon her shoulders, which, with her breast and thighs, were covered with pale bronze. A red and green cloak was over the right shoulder, and was held by a great brooch of gold. A yellow torque of gold was round her neck. A three-pointed torque of gold was on her head. Her legs were swathed with deerskin thongs, and her feet were in coverings of cowskin stained red.

Her face was pale as wax, and of a strange and terrible beauty. They could not look long in her eyes, which were black as darkness, with a red flame wandering in it. Her lips were curled delicately, and were like thin sudden lines of blood in the whiteness of her face.

" I am Scathach," she said, when she had looked long at them. Each knew that name, and the heart of each was like a bird before the slinger. If they were with Scathach,1 the queen of the warrior-women of the Isle of Mist, it would have been better to die in water. The grey stones of Dun Scaith were russet with old blood of slain captives.

"I am Scathach," she said. "Do I look upon Svén of Lochlann and Farcha of the Middle Isles?"

I am Ulric the Skaid," answered the northman.

1 Scathach (pronounced Ska'ah, or Skiah): the name of the island of Skye is by some said to be derived from the famous Amazonian queen who lived there, and taught Cuchullin the arts of war.

I am Connla the Harper," answered the Gael.

" You die to-night," and with that Scathach stood silent again, and looked darkly upon them for a long while.

At noon a woman brought them milk and roasted elk meat. She was fair to see, though a scar ran across her face. They sent word by her to Scathach with a prayer for life; they would be helots, and put birth upon women. For they knew the wont. But the woman returned with the same word.

" It is because she loved Cuchullin," the woman said, " and he was a poet, and sang songs, and made music as you do. He was fairer than you, man with the yellow hair, man with the long, dark hair; and you have put memories into the mind of Scathach. But she will listen to you harping and singing before you die."

When the darkness came, and the dew fell, Ulric spoke to Connla. 'The horse Rimemane is moving among the stars, for the foam is falling from his mouth."

Connla felt the falling of the dew.

" It was thus on the night I loved," he said below his breath.

Ulric could not see Connla's face because of the shadows. But he heard low sobs, and knew that Connla's face was wet with tears. " I too loved," he said; " I have had many women for my love."

" There is but one love," answered Connla in a low voice - " it is of that I am thinking and have remembrance."

" Of that I do not know," said Ulric. " I loved one woman well so long as she was young and fair. But one day a king's son desired her, and I came upon them in a wood on a cliff by the sea. I put my arms about her and leaped down the cliff. She was drowned. I paid no eric."

" There is no age upon the love of my love," said Connla softly: " she was more beautiful than the stars." And because of that great beauty he forgot death and his bonds.

When the warrior-women led them out to the shore, Scathach looked at them from where she sat by the great fire that blazed upon the sands.

She had been told that which they said one to the other.

" Sing the song of your love," she said to Ulric.

What heed have I of any woman in the hour of my death? " he answered sullenly.

"Sing the song of your love," she said to Connla.

Connla looked at her, and at the great fire round which the fierce-eyed women stood and looked at him, and at the still, breathless stars. The dew fell upon him.

Then he sang--

Is it time to let the hour rise and go forth, as a hound

loosed from the battle-cars?

Is it time to let the hour go forth, as the White

Hound with the eyes of flame?

For if it be not time, I would have this hour that is

left to me under the stars,

Wherein I may dream my dream again, and at the

last whisper one name.

It is the name of one who was more fair than

youth to the old, than life to the young;

She was more fair than the first love of Angus

the Beautiful, and though I were blind

And deaf for a hundred ages I would see her, more

fair than any poet has sung,

And hear her voice like mournful songs crying on the wind.

There was silence. Scathach sat with her face between her hands, staring into the flame.

She did not lift her face when she spoke.

"Take Ulric the Skald," she said at last, but with eyes that stared still into the flame, " and give him to what woman wants him, for he knows nothing of love. If no woman wants him, put a spear through his heart, so that he die easily.

" But take Connla the Harper, because he has known all things, knowing that one thing, and has no more to know, and is beyond us, and lay him upon the sand with his face to the stars, and put red brands of fire upon his naked breast, till his heart bursts and he dies."

So Connla the Harper died in silence, where he lay on the moonlit sand, with red embers and flaming brands on his naked breast, and his face white and still as the stars that shone upon him.W

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