A LUGHNASADH TALE

Michael McGuinness

This story is adapted from two other folktales collected in the Gaelic-speaking West of Ireland, and also recorded in Charles Squire’s Celtic Myth and Legend, first published in 1905 and now available in a new edition from Wildside Press at Amazon.com. This folktale tantalizingly echoes the older mythological material that celebrated the triumph of Lugh over the one-eyed Fomorian giant Balor of the Evil Eye at the Second Battle of Moytura.

     As we prepare for Lughnasadh, let’s all celebrate everything we’ve learned this past year, and all the “giants” we’ve conquered, this harvest season.

Gavidjeen Go was a great craftsman, second only to the great Goban Saor, who sent Gavidjeen Go to finish building the palace of the treacherous pirate Balor of the Blows. But Gavidjeen Go would only accept as payment Balor's gray cow, which would fill twenty barrels at one milking. Balor agreed to this, but, when he gave the cow to Gavidjeen Go to take back with him to Ireland, he omitted to include her byre-rope, which was the only thing that would keep her from returning to her original owner.

The gray cow gave so much trouble to Gavidjeen Go by her straying, that he was obliged to hire military champions to watch her during the day and bring her safely home at night. The bargain made was that Gavidjeen Go should forge the champion a sword for his pay, but that, if he lost the cow, his life was to be forfeited.

At last, a certain warrior called Cian was unlucky enough to let the cow escape. He followed her tracks down to the sea-shore and right to the edge of the waves, and there he lost them altogether. He was tearing his hair in his perplexity, when he saw a man rowing a coracle. The man, who was no other than Manannán son of Lêr, came in close to the shore, and asked what was the matter.

Cian told him, and Manannán replied, "What would you give to anyone who would take you to the place where the gray cow is?"

"I have nothing to give," replied Cian.

"All I ask," said Manannán, "is half of whatever you gain before you come back."

Cian agreed to that willingly enough, and Manannán told him to get into the coracle. In the wink of an eye, he had landed him in Balor's kingdom, the realm of the cold, where they roast no meat, but eat their food raw. Cian was not used to this diet, so he lit himself a fire, and began to cook some food. Balor saw the fire, and came down to it, and he was so pleased that he appointed Cian to be his fire-maker and cook.

Now Balor had a daughter, of whom a druid had prophesied that she would, some day, bear a son who would kill his grandfather. Therefore he shut her up in a tower, guarded by women, and allowed her to see no man but himself. One day, Cian saw Balor go to the tower. He waited until he had come back, and then went to explore. He had the gift of opening locked doors and shutting them again after him. When he got inside, he lit a fire, and this novelty so delighted Balor's daughter that she invited him to visit her again. After this, in the Achill Islander's quaint phrase, "he was ever coming there, until a child happened to her." Balor's daughter gave the baby to Cian to take away. She also gave him the byre-rope which belonged to the gray cow.

 Cian was in great danger now, for Balor had found out about the child. He led the gray cow away with the rope to the sea-shore, and waited for Manannán. The Son of Lêr had told Cian that, when he was in any difficulty, he was to think of him, and he would at once appear. Cian thought of him now, and, in a moment, Manannán appeared with his coracle. Cian got into the boat, with the baby and the gray cow, just as Balor, in hot pursuit, came down to the beach.

Balor, by his incantations, raised a great storm to drown them; but Manannán, whose druidism was greater, stilled it. Then Balor turned the sea into fire, to burn them; but Manannán put it out with a stone.

When they were safe back in Ireland, Manannán asked Cian for his promised reward.

"I have gained nothing but the boy, and I cannot cut him in two, so I will give him to you whole," he replied.

"That is what I was wanting all the time," said Manannán; "when he grows up, there will be no champion equal to him."

So Manannán baptized the boy, calling him "the Dul-Dauna." This name, meaning "Blind-Stubborn," is certainly a curious corruption of the original Ildanach, "Master of All Knowledge."

Shortly after this, however, Balor managed to capture Mac Kineely, and, in retaliation for the wrong done him, chopped off his head upon a large white stone, still known locally as the "Stone of Kineely." Manannán gave the boy to Gavidjeen Go to raise, and Balor went on with his career of robbery, varying it by visits to the forge to purchase arms. One day, being there during Gavidjeen Go’s absence, he began boasting to the young apprentice of how he had compassed Mac Kineely's death. He never finished the story, for Dul-Dauna then snatched a red-hot iron from the fire, and thrust it into Balor's eye, and through his head.