Standish James O'Grady

The Coming of Cuculain Standish James O'Grady

The Red Branch feasted one night in their great hall at Emain Macha. So vastwas the hall that a man, such as men are now, standing in the centre and shoutinghis loudest, would not be heard at the circumference, yet the low laughter of theKing sitting at one end was clearly audible to those who sat around the Champion atthe other. The sons of Dithorba made it, giants of the elder time, labouring thereunder the brazen shoutings of Macha and the roar of her sounding thongs. Itslength was a mile and nine furlongs and a cubit. With her brooch pin she ploughedits outline upon the plain, and its breadth was not much less. Trees such as theearth nourished then upheld the massy roof beneath which feasted that heroicbrood, the great-hearted children of Rury, huge offspring of the gods and giantsof the dawn of time. For mighty exceedingly were these men. At the noise of themrunning to battle all Ireland shook, and the illimitable Lir [Footnote: Lir was thesea-god, the Oceanns of the Celt; no doubt the same as the British Lear, the wild, white-headed old king, who had such singular daughters; two, monsters of cruelty, and one, exquisitely sweet, kind, and serene, viz.: Storm, Hurricane, and Calm.]trembled in his watery halls; the roar of their brazen chariots reverberated fromthe solid canopy of heaven, and their war-steeds drank rivers dr