Диссертация (958832), страница 95
Текст из файла (страница 95)
Thethird giant’s dress had as many colors as there are in the sky, and his boots were of blue glass.Sean Ruadh, dressed and mounted on his red steed, was the most beautiful man in the world.When ready to start, the housekeeper said to him: “The beast will be so enraged this time that no armscan stop him; he will rise from the sea with three great swords coming out of his mouth, and he couldcut to pieces and swallow the whole world if it stood before him in battle. There is only one way toconquer the urfeist, and I will show it to you. Take this brown apple, put it in your bosom, and whenhe comes rushing from the sea with open mouth, do you throw the apple down his throat, and the greaturfeist will melt away and die on the strand.”Sean Ruadh went on the red steed between earth and sky, with thrice the speed of the daybefore. He saw the maiden sitting on the rock alone, saw the trembling kings’ sons in the distance487watching to know what would happen, and saw the king hoping for some one to save his daughter;then he went to the princess, and put his head on her lap; when he had fallen asleep, she took the threehairs from her bosom, and looking at them, said: “You are the man who saved me yesterday.”The urfeist was not long in coming.
The princess roused Sean Ruadh, who sprang to his feetand went to the sea. The urfeist came up enormous, terrible to look at, with a mouth big enough toswallow the world, and three sharp swords coming out of it. When he saw Sean Ruadh, he sprang athim with a roar; but Sean Ruadh threw the apple into his mouth, and the beast fell helpless on thestrand, flattened out and melted away to a dirty jelly on the shore.Then Sean Ruadh went towards the princess and said: “That urfeist will never trouble man orwoman again.”The princess ran and tried to cling to him; but he was on the red steed, rushing away betweenearth and sky, before she could stop him.
She held, however, so firmly to one of the blue glass bootsthat Sean Ruadh had to leave it in her hands.When he drove home the cows that night, the king came out, and Sean Ruadh asked: “Whatnews from the urfeist?”“Oh!” said the king, “I’ve had the luck since you came to me. A champion wearing all thecolors of the sky, and riding a red steed between earth and air, destroyed the urfeist to-day.
Mydaughter is safe forever; but she is ready to kill herself because she has n't the man that saved her.”That night there was a feast in the king’s castle such as no one had ever seen before. The hallswere filled with princes and champions, and each one said: “I am the man that saved the princess!”The king sent for the old blind sage, and asked, what should he do to find the man who savedhis daughter.
The old blind sage said, –“Send out word to all the world that the man whose foot the blue glass boot will fit is thechampion who killed the urfeist, and you’ll give him your daughter in marriage.”The king sent out word to the world to come to try on the boot. It was too large for some, toosmall for others. When all had failed, the old sage said, –“All have tried the boot but the cowboy.”“Oh! he is always out with the cows; what use in his trying,” said the king.“No matter,” answered the old blind sage; “let twenty men go and bring down the cowboy.”The king sent up twenty men, who found the cowboy sleeping in the shadow of a stone wall.They began to make a hay rope to bind him; but he woke up, and had twenty ropes ready before theyhad one.
Then he jumped at them, tied the twenty in a bundle, and fastened the bundle to the wall.They waited and waited at the castle for the twenty men and the cowboy, till at last the kingsent twenty men more, with swords, to know what was the delay.When they came, this twenty began to make a hay rope to tie the cowboy; but he had twentyropes made before their one, and no matter how they fought, the cowboy tied the twenty in a bundle,and the bundle to the other twenty men.When neither party came back, the old blind sage said to the king: “Go up now, and throwyourself down before the cowboy, for he has tied the forty men in two bundles, and the bundles to eachother.”The king went and threw himself down before the cowboy, who raised him up and said: “Whatis this for?”“Come down now and try on the glass boot,” said the king.“How can I go, when I have work to do here?”“Oh! never mind; you’ll come back soon enough to do the work.”The cowboy untied the forty men and went down with the king.
When he stood in front of thecastle, he saw the princess sitting in her upper chamber, and the glass boot on the window-sill beforeher.That moment the boot sprang from the window through the air to him, and went on his foot ofitself. The princess was downstairs in a twinkle, and in the arms of Sean Ruadh.The whole place was crowded with kings’ sons and champions, who claimed that they hadsaved the princess.488“What are these men here for?” asked Sean Ruadh.“Oh! They have been trying to put on the boot,” said the king.With that Sean Ruadh drew his sword of light, swept the heads off every man of them, andthrew heads and bodies on the dirt-heap behind the castle.Then the king sent ships with messengers to all the kings and queens of the world, to the kingsof Spain, France, Greece, and Lochlin, and to Diarmuid, son of the monarch of light, – to come to thewedding of his daughter and Sean Ruadh.Sean Ruadh, after the wedding, went with his wife to live in the kingdom of the giants, and lefthis father-in-law on his own land..
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