[CHAPTER XX]
The Fairy Swan-Maidens
Once a year, in the autumn days, a great gathering was made of the men of Ulster, and from all parts men and women would come to share in the sports and marketing, and to meet their friends, and make merry. The place was joyous and full of gaiety with musicians making music on harps and fiddles, and singers singing, and jugglers plying their feats, and horse-racing in open spaces. The warriors, too, were to be seen exhibiting their trophies of war, and telling tales of their combats and victories, and all were dressed in their best, and feasting and eating was to be found in every part of the assembly.
One day during an autumn feast, in the calm and quiet evening, Cuchulain and Emer his wife and a band of the brave men of Ulster who accompanied Cuchulain, and of the gently bred women who were Emer’s companions, were amusing themselves strolling and sitting beside a lake, apart from the people who were making merry, when they saw coming from a distance a flock of white, very beautiful swans, which settled down upon the lake, and began to swim out two and two. “How I wish,” Emer said, “that I could have two of those birds, one on each of my shoulders.” “All of us are longing for those birds,” cried her companions, and one woman said, “If only my husband were here”; and another woman said, “If only my husband were here, he would fetch me the birds.”
And Emer looked at Cuchulain, and said, “I think if anyone should have the birds, it is I who ought to have them first.”
But Cuchulain seemed to take no notice of what they were saying. And Emer was afraid to ask him, so she went to Laeg, his charioteer, and said, “Come thou and tell Cuchulain that the women are asking for the birds.” So Laeg spoke to Cuchulain: “The women wish that you should go and hunt the swans for them to-day.”
But Cuchulain looked angry. “Can the women of Ulster find no better occupation for me,” he said, “than to set me catching birds for their amusement? Let them set their own husbands to this business, for it is not a fitting sport for me.” “This is their fête-day,” said the charioteer, “and they would like a gift from you.”
“Bring me my chariot, then,” Cuchulain said; “a fine heroic deed it is to be taking birds for women, and worthy of a champion’s valour.”
Angrily he went to the water’s edge, and pursued the swans in his chariot, bringing down a number of them with his sword and with stones, so that they fell, flapping their wings against the water. And he picked them up, and threw them down before the women, and returned to Emer, but to her he gave not any birds at all.
“Are you angry?” he said to her. “Certainly I am not,” said she; “you gave the birds to the women, and this was the same as though I myself had given them; right glad I am that you did this to please the women.” Then Cuchulain’s brow cleared, and he said, “Whenever birds come again on our plain, the two most beautiful of all I will bring down for you.”