The Irish Celtic Magical Tradition by Steve Blamires

Author:Steve Blamires [Blamires, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Self
Published: 2008-06-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Sections 36 - 39

O

ur examination of the main text now continues with Sections 36 to 39: 36. At that time, Bres held the sovereignty as it had been granted to him. There was great murmuring against him among his maternal kinsmen the Tuatha De, for their knives were not greased by him. However frequently they might come, their breaths did not smell of ale; and they did not see their poets nor their bards nor their satirists nor their harpers nor their pipers nor their horn-blowers nor their jugglers nor their fools entertaining them in the household. They did not go to contests of those pre-eminent in the arts, nor did they see their warriors proving their skill at arms before the king, except for one man, Ogma the son of Etain.

37. This was the duty which he had, to bring firewood to the fortress. He would bring a bundle every day from the islands of Clew Bay. The sea would carry off two thirds of his bundle because he was weak for lack of food. He used to bring back only one third, and he supplied the host from day to day.

38. But neither service nor payment from the tribes continued; and the treasures of the tribe were not being given by the act of the whole tribe. 39. On one occasion the poet came to the house of Bres seeking hospitality (that is, Coirpre son of Etain, the poet of the Tuatha De). He entered a narrow, black, dark little house; and there was neither fire nor furniture nor bedding in it. Three small cakes were brought to him on a little dish - and they were dry. The next day he arose, and he was not thankful. As he went across the yard he said,

'Without food quickly on a dish,

Without cow's milk on which a calf grows,

Without a man's habitation after darkness remains,

Without paying a company of storytellers - let that be Bres’s condition’.

'Bres's prosperity no longer exists’, he said, and that was true. There was only blight on him from that hour; and that is the first satire that was made in Ireland.

Quite a bit of information relating to ancient Celtic society is given in this passage, and certain qualities are displayed which we would do well to consider reintroducing into our own, present-day society. Another new character, Coirpre son of Etain, is introduced, and Bres makes yet another disastrous blunder.

Section 36 At that time, Bres held the sovereignty as it had been granted to him. There was great murmuring against him among his maternal kinsmen the Tuatha De, for their knives were not greased by him. However frequently they might come, their breaths did not smell of ale; and they did not see their poets nor their bards nor their satirists nor their harpers nor their pipers nor their horn-blowers nor their jugglers nor their fools entertaining them in the household. They did not go to contests of those pre-eminent in the arts, nor

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