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Authors: Alan Garner

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They sat at the table, and again the stallions let loose a screech, and, “Be out, lads!” said Olioll Olom.

And still they found no one. “It is a fearful night with heaven,” said the lads.

Again the stallions let loose a screech, and, “Be out, lads!” said Olioll Olom.

The lads went out, and they tried down and up, but they saw no man. “There is no man,” said the
lads, “unless he is hiding in the old barrel here beneath the cobweb of seven years.” And they lifted the cobweb of seven years, and saw Conal Crovi hiding, with the King of England's three sons.

The lads bound them, and took them to Olioll Olom.

“Hud! Hud!” said Olioll Olom. “Conal Crovi, you did many a mischief before you thought to come and to steal my three black white-faced stallions.”

“Indeed I did,” said Conal Crovi. “And, by your hand, Olioll Olom, great king, and by my hands to free them, I have often been the worse than I am this night, your prisoner under your mercy, with a hope to live yet.”

“Hud! Hud!” said Olioll Olom. “You may have come out of that: you will not go from this. But you shall have your two rathers.”

“What are my rathers?” said Conal Crovi.

“Whether you would be hanged rather now or rather after a story.”

“Rather after a story,” said Conal Crovi, “if I may get the worth of its telling.”

“Worth you shall get,” said Olioll Olom, “except your life alone.”

“Well, then,” said Conal Crovi. “In a winter that was cold, on a day of hailing and snowing, sowing and winnowing, I was taking my way past a house that was there, and I saw a woman pulled apart with
grief.

“‘What is the matter?' I said to her.

“‘The lady of this land is dead,' she said to me, ‘and today is her burying, though her brother is from home.'

“The people were all at the burying, and I was amongst them when they put her in the grave. And they set a bag of gold down with her, under her head, and a bag of silver, under her feet.

“Well, I thought that gold and silver was of no use at all to her, so when night came I went back to the grave, and I dug it up.

“There I was, gold and silver in my fists, and I gave a pull at a rough stone to fetch myself out from the grave. But the stone fell on me, and a great stone it was, and I was there along with the corpse woman.

“And, by your hand, Olioll Olom, great king, and by my hands to free them, I was the worse then, along with the corpse woman, than I am this night, your prisoner under your mercy, with a hope to live yet.”

“Hud! Hud!” said Olioll Olom. “You came out of that: you will not go from this.”

Conal Crovi said, “Now give me the worth of my story.”

“What is the worth?” said Olioll Olom.

“The big son of the King of England,” said Conal Crovi, “and the big daughter of yourself, the two of them married and a black white-faced
stallion for dowry.”

“You shall have that,” said Olioll Olom. “But how did you come out from the grave?”

“Am I to get the worth of my story?”

“Worth you shall get, except your life alone.”

“Well, then,” said Conal Crovi. “The brother of the dead woman came home, and he must see a sight of his sister. So the people had to dig her up again. And when I heard them digging, I said to them Oh, catch me by the hand!' And the man of them that would not wait for his bow would not wait for his sword, and I was as swift as any of them fleeing out from the grave.

“Well, there I was about the place, to and from, not knowing what side I should go, until I came on three lads and they were casting lots at the side of a hole in the ground.

“‘Why are you casting lots?' I said to them.

“‘What is it to you?' they said to me. ‘Never mind. We'll tell you. A giant has taken our sister, and we are casting lots to see the which of us shall go down this hole to look for her.'

“‘I'll cast lots with you,' I said, and I did, but the lot fell on me and the lads let me down the hole in a creel.

“Down I went, far and further than you could guess or I could tell, till there was the very prettiest woman I ever saw, and she was winding golden thread off a silver windle.

“‘Oh,' she said, ‘how did you come here?'

‘“I came down to look for you,' I said. ‘Your three brothers are waiting.'

“‘Then I'll go,' she said, and she stepped into the creel and was pulled up by her brothers.

“‘Send down the creel tomorrow,' I called to her. ‘And if I'm living, it's well: and if I'm not, there's no help for it.'

“Then I went through the cave and the dark towards a fire, and I heard thunder and noise coming with the giant. I didn't know where I should go to hide myself, but I saw a heap of treasure on the side of the cave, so I thought there was no place better than that, and I hid in it.

“The giant came with a dead woman trailing from each of his shoe-strings.

“He looked and he looked, and when he did not see the woman with the golden thread he let out a great howl of crying, and he gave the dead women a little singe through the fire and ate them.

“Then the giant said that he did not know what would best keep wearying from him, but he thought that he would go and count his lot of treasure. And from that he was only a short time before he set his hand on my own head.

“‘Conal Crovi,' said the giant, ‘you did many a mischief before you thought to come and to steal the pretty woman.'

“‘Indeed I did,' said I.

“‘And you shall polish my teeth with your sinews for it in the morning,' said the giant. And he
slept after eating the women.

“I saw a great meat spit beside the fire, and I laid the iron point of it in the very middle of the ashes till it was red.

“The giant was in a heavy load of slumber, his mouth open so that I could count his lungs, his heart and his liver. And I took hold on the red hot iron spit and put it down in his throat.

“He made a spring and a leap across the cave, and he struck the end of the spit against the rock and it went right out through him, and that was him dead.

“And in the morning, the pretty woman and her brothers let down the creel to fetch me. But I thought I should fill it with the treasure of the giant; and when it was in the middle of the air under the hole, on the weight of all that treasure, the tie broke, and I fell down amongst stones and bushes and brambles and bones.

“And, by your hand, Olioll Olom, great king, and by my hands to free them, I was the worse then, in the giant's cave, than I am this night, your prisoner under your mercy, with a hope to live yet.”

“Hud! Hud!” said Olioll Olom. “You came out of that: you will not go from this.”

Conal Crovi said, “Now give me the worth of my story.”

“What is the worth?” said Olioll Olom.

“The middle son of the King of England,” said Conal Crovi, “and the middle daughter of yourself,
the two of them married and a black white-faced stallion for dowry.”

“You shall have that,” said Olioll Olom. “But how did you come out from the cave?”

“Am I to get the worth of my story?”

“Worth you shall get, except your life alone.”

“Well, then,” said Conal Crovi. “There I was about the place, wandering up and down below, and I went past a house in it, and I saw a woman, and she had a child at her knee and a knife in her hand and she was crying.

“‘Hold on your hand,' I said to her. ‘What are you going to do?'

“‘Oh,' she said, ‘I am with three giants, and they must have my baby cooked for them tonight.'

“‘There are three hanged men on the gallows,' I said. ‘Take one of them down, and I'll go up in its place, and you'll cook that for the giants.'

“When the giants came home, one said, ‘Turstar, tarstar, togarich!' The next said, ‘Fiu, fau, hoag-rich!' The third said, ‘This is not child-flesh.'

“The first giant said, ‘I'll cut a steak off the gallows, and we'll see which is the tender one.'

“And I myself was the body he chose.

“And, by your hand, Olioll Olom, great king, and by my hands to free them, I was the worse then, when the steak was coming out of me, than I am this night, your prisoner under your mercy, with a hope to live yet.”

“Hud! Hud!” said Olioll Olom. “You came out
of that: you will not go from this.”

Conal Crovi said, “Now give me the worth of my story.”

“What is the worth?” said Olioll Olom.

“The little son of the King of England,” said Conal Crovi, “and the little daughter of yourself, the two of them married and a black white-faced stallion for dowry.”

“You shall have that,” said Olioll Olom. “But how did you come from the gallows tree?”

“Am I to get the worth of my story?”

“Worth you shall get, except your life alone.”

“Well, then,” said Conal Crovi. “After they had eaten, the giants slept. And I came down, and the woman gave me a great flaring flame of a Sword of Light that the giants had: and I was not long in throwing the heads off the giants.

“Then I myself and the woman were here, not knowing how we should get out of the cave.

“We went to the innermost end, and followed a thin road through a rock till we came to the day, and to the giants' harbour of ships. So I went back and loaded the treasure on a ship, with the woman and the child, and when all was aboard I took the good and the ill of it on myself and put the ship out.

“Prow to the sea and

Stern to the land,

Helm to the stern and

Sail to the prow,

Chequered flapping sail

On the tall tough mast.

Plunge of the eel,

Scream of the gull,

The big beast eating the beast that is least

And the beast that is least doing best as it may:

The bent brown buckie at the bottom of the sea

Plays haig on its mouth and glagid on the floor:

No yard not bent, no sail not torn,

Ploochanach, plachanach,

Blue clouds of Lochlanach,

All the way to a place I did not know.

“The ship and the woman and the child were taken from me, and I was left to come home as I might; though I am here today.”

A woman, who was lying within, cried out, “Oh, Olioll Olom, great king, catch hold of that man! I am the woman that was then! You are the child!”

Olioll Olom sprang and cut every bond that was on Conal Crovi, and he took him into the company of his love and gave him the ship full of treasure.

The black white-faced stallions were sent to the King of England, and he lifted the scorn from his set of soils.

And Olioll Olom made a wedding night for his three daughters; leeg, leeg and beeg, beeg; solid sound and peg-drawing; gold crushing from the soles of their feet, the length of seven days and seven years.

The Lad of the Gad

T
here was a king once, as there was, and will be, and as grows the fir tree, and he sat with his people on a green hill. And around him were his two sons, his warriors, his lads and his great gentles.

“Who now,” said his big son, the Prince of Cairns, “in the four brown fourths of the wheel of the world would dare to disgrace you before your people, your sons, your warriors, your lads and your great gentles?”

“Are you not silly?” said the king. “He could come, the one who should put a disgrace on me. And if he did, you would not pluck the worst hair in his beard.”

They saw then the shadow of a shower coming from the west and going to the east, and a warrior in a wet cloak and on a black horse was in it.

As a hero on the mountain,

As a star over sparklings,

As a great sea over little pools,

So would seem he beside other men

In figure, in face, in form and in riding.

He reached over his fist and he struck the king
between the mouth and the nose, and he drove out three teeth, and caught them and put them in his pouch, and he went away.

“Did I not tell you,” said the king, “that one might come who should put a disgrace on me, and that you would not pluck the worst hair of his beard?”

The king's big son, the Prince of Cairns, said, “I shall not eat and I shall not drink and I shall not hear music till I take off the head of the Warrior in the Wet Cloak.”

“Well,” said the small son, the Prince of Blades, “the very same is for me, until I take off the fist of the Warrior in the Wet Cloak.”

The Lad of the Gad was there on the green hill that day, and he said, “The very same is for me, until I take out the heart of the Warrior in the Wet Cloak.”

“You?” said the Prince of Cairns. “What should bring you with us? You? Why, you, when we go to glory, you will go to weakness and find death in a bog, or in rifts of rock, or in a land of holes or the shadow of a wall.”

“That may be,” said the Lad of the Gad, “but I will go.”

The king's two sons went away.

The Prince of Cairns looked behind him and saw the Lad of the Gad following.

“What shall we do to him?” said the Prince of Cairns.

“Sweep his head off,” said the Prince of Blades.

“We shall not do that,” said the Prince of Cairns. “But there is a crag of stone up here, and we can bind him to it.”

They bound the Lad of the Gad to the crag of stone and left him. But when the Prince of Cairns looked behind him he saw the Lad of the Gad following, with the crag on his back.

“What shall we do to him?” said the Prince of Cairns.

“Sweep his head off,” said the Prince of Blades.

“We shall not do that,” said the Prince of Cairns, and he turned and loosed the crag from the back of the Lad of the Gad.

“Two full heroes,” said the Prince of Cairns, “need a lad to polish their shields or to blow a fire heap or something.”

So they let him come with them, and they went to their ship and put her out.

BOOK: The Lad of the Gad
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