“Thy reception is such as I expected when I came,” said Mider; “let that now be given to me that hath been promised.  ’Tis a debt that is due when a promise hath been made; and I for my part have given to thee all that was promised by me.”

“I have not yet considered the matter,” said Eochaid.

“Thou hast promised Etain’s very self to me,” said Mider; “that is what hath come from thee.”  Etain blushed for shame when she heard that word.

“Blush not,” said Mider to Etain, “for in nowise hath thy wedding-feast been disgraced.  I have been seeking thee for a year with the fairest jewels and treasures that can be found in Ireland, and I have not taken thee until the time came when Eochaid might permit it.  ’Tis not through any will of thine that I have won thee.”  “I myself told thee,” said Etain, “that until Eochaid should resign me to thee I would grant thee nothing.  Take me then for my part, if Eochaid is willing to resign me to thee.”

“But I will not resign thee!” said Eochaid; “nevertheless he shall take thee in his arms upon the floor of this house as thou art.”

“It shall be done!” said Mider.

He took his weapons into his left hand and the woman beneath his right shoulder; and he carried her off through the skylight of the house.  And the hosts rose up around the king, for they felt that they had been disgraced, and they saw two swans circling round Tara, and the way that they took was the way to the elf-mound of Femun.  And Eochaid with an army of the men of Ireland went to the elf-mound of Femun, which men call the mound of the Fair-haired-Women.  And he followed the counsel of the men of Ireland, and he dug up each of the elf-mounds that he might take his wife from thence. [And Mider and his host opposed them and the war between them was long:  again and again the trenches made by Eochaid were destroyed, for nine years as some say lasted the strife of the men of Ireland to enter into the fairy palace.  And when at last the armies of Eochaid came by digging to the borders of the fairy mansion, Mider sent to the side of the palace sixty women all in the shape of Etain, and so like to her that none could tell which was the queen.  And Eochaid himself was deceived, and he chose, instead of Etain, her daughter Messbuachalla (or as some say Esa.) But when he found that he had been deceived, he returned again to sack Bri Leith, and this time Etain made herself known to Eochaid, by proofs that he could not mistake, and he bore her away in triumph to Tara, and there she abode with the king.]

MAC DATHO’S BOAR

INTRODUCTION

The tale of “Mac Datho’s Boar” seems to deal with events that precede the principal events of the Heroic Period; most of the characters named in it appear as the chief actors in other romances; Conor and Ailill are as usual the leaders of Ulster and Connaught, but the king of Leinster is Mesroda Mac Datho, not his brother Mesgegra, who appears in the “Siege of Howth” (see Hull, Cuchullin Saga, p. 87), and the Ulster champion is not Cuchulain, but his elder comrade, Conall Cernach.