Connla and the Fairy Maiden

Connla of the Fiery Hair was son of Conn of the Hundred Fights. One day as he stood by the side of his father on the height of the Unsa, he saw a maiden clad in strange attire approaching him.

"Whence comest thou maiden?" Connla asked. "I come from the Plains of the Ever Living," she said, "there where there is neither death nor sin. There we keep holiday always, nor need we help from any in our joy. And in all our pleasure we have no strife. And because we have our homes in the round green hills men call us the Hill Folk."

The king and all with him wondered much to hear a voice when they saw noone. For save Connla alone, none saw the fairy maiden.

"To whom art thou talking my son?" said Conn the king.

Then the maiden answered, "Connla speaks to a young, fair maid, whom neither death nor old age awaits. I love Connla, and now I call him away to the plain of pleasure, Moy Mell, where Boadag is king for aye, nor has there been complaint or sorrow in the land since he has held the kingship. Oh come with me Connla, of the Fiery hair, ruddy as the dawn with the tawny skin. A fairy crown awaits thee to grace thy comely face and royal form. Come, and never shall thy comeliness fade, nor thy youth, till the last awful day of judgement."

The king in fear at what the maiden said, which he heard though he could not see her, called aloud to his druid, Coran by name.

"Oh Coran of the many spells," he said, "and of the cunning magic, I call upon thy aid. A task is upon me too great for all my skill and wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized the kingship. A maiden unseen has met us, and by her power would take from me my dear, my comely son. If thou help not, he will be taken from thy king by woman's wiles and witchery."

Then Coran the druid stood forth and chanted his spells toward the spot where the maiden's voice had been heard. And none heard her voice again, nor could Connla see her longer. Only as she vanished before the druid's mighty spell, she threw an apple to Connla.

For a whole month from that day the king's son would take nothing, either to eat or drink, save only from that apple. But as he ate, it grew again, and always kept whole. And all the while there grew within him a mighty yearning and longing after the maiden he had seen. But when the last day of the month of waiting came, Connla stood by the side of the king his father, on the plain of Arcomin, and again he saw the maiden come towards him, and again she spoke to him.

"Tis a glorious place forsooth that Connla holds amomg short-lived mortals awaiting the day of death. But now the folk of life, the ever-living ones, beg and bid thee to come to Moy Mell, the plain of pleasure, for they have learnt to know thee, seeing thee in thy home among dear ones."

When Conn the king heard the maidens voice he called to his men aloud and said, "Summon swift my druid Coran, for I see she has again this day power of speech." Then the maiden said, "Oh mighty Conn, fighter of a hundred fights, the druid's power is little loved, it has little honor in the mighty land peopled with so many of the upright. When the Law will come, it will do away with the druid's magic spells that come from the lips of the false black demon."

Then Conn the king observed that since the maiden came Connla his son spoke to none that spake to him. So Conn of the hundred fights said to him, "Is it to thy mind what the woman says my son?"

"Tis hard upon me," then said Connla, "I love my own folk above all things; but yet a longing seizes me for the maiden."

When the maiden heard this, she answered and said, "The ocean is not so strong as the waves of thy longing. Come with me in my curragh, the gleaming, straight-gliding crystal canoe. Soon we can reach Boadag's realm. I see the bright sun sink, yet as far as it is, we can reach it before dark. There is too, another land worthy of thy journey, a land joyous to all that seek it. Only wives and maidens dwell there. If thou wilt, we can seek it and live there alone together in joy."

When the maiden ceased to speak, Connla of the Fiery Hair rushed away from them and sprang into the curragh, the gleaming straight-gliding crystal canoe. And then they all, king and court, saw it glide away over the bright sea towards the setting sun. Away and away, till they could see it no longer, and Connla and the fairy maiden went their way on the sea, and were no more seen, nor did any know where they came.

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