COLLECTION: British Tales
Country: Ireland
Language: english
Country: Ireland
Language: english
Category
😹
FunTranscript
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00:25Tales from Ireland narrated by Brian McConaughey for English speakers. The story of Twan Maccarill
00:33Finian the abbot of Moville went southwards and eastwards in great haste
00:38News had come to him in Donegal that there were yet people in his own
00:42Province who believed in gods that he did not approve of and the gods that we do not approve of are
00:48Treated scurvily even by saintly men. He was told of a powerful gentleman who observed neither Saints Day
00:55Nor Sunday a powerful person said Finian all that was the reply
01:01We shall try this person's power said Finian
01:03He is reputed to be a wise and hardy man said his informant
01:08We shall test his wisdom and his hardy hood. He is that gossip whispered. He is a magician
01:14I will magician him cried Finian angrily. Where does that man live?
01:19He was informed and he proceeded to that direction without delay in no great time
01:24he came to the stronghold of the gentleman who followed ancient ways and he demanded admittance in order that he might preach and prove the
01:32New God and exorcise and terrify and banish even the memory of the old one
01:37For to a god grown old time is as ruthless as to a beggar man grown old
01:42But the Ulster gentleman refused Finian admittance
01:47He barricaded his house. He shuttered his windows and in a gloom of indignation and protest
01:53He continued the practices of 10,000 years and would not hearken to Finian calling at the window or to time knocking at his door
02:00But of those adversaries it was the first he redoubt
02:04Finian loomed on him as a portent and a terror, but he had no fear of time
02:09Indeed, he was the foster brother of time and so disdainful of the bitter God that he did not even disdain him
02:15He leaped over the scythe
02:17He dodged under it and the sole occasions on which time laughs is when he chances Antoine
02:22the son of Carol the son of Muradach Redneck
02:26Now Finian could not abide that any person should resist both the gospel and himself
02:31And he proceeded to force the stronghold by peaceful but powerful methods
02:37He fasted on the gentleman and he did so to such purpose that he was admitted to the house
02:42For to inhospitable heart the idea that a stranger may expire on your doorstep from sheer famine cannot be tolerated
02:49The gentleman, however, did not give in without a struggle
02:53He thought that when Finian had grown sufficiently hungry
02:56He would lift the siege and take himself off to someplace where he might get food
03:01but he did not know Finian the great Abbott sat down on a spot just beyond the door and
03:06Composed himself to all that might follow from his action
03:09He bent his gaze on the ground between his feet and
03:12Entered into a meditation from which he would only be released by admission or death. The first day passed quietly
03:20Often the gentleman would send a servitor to spy if that deserter of the gods was still before his door and each time the servant
03:27Replied that he was still there. He will be gone in the morning said the hopeful master
03:32On the morrow the state of siege continued and through that day the servants were sent many times to observe through spyholes
03:40Go, he would say and find out if the worshipper of new gods has taken himself away
03:45But the servants returned each time with the same information
03:49The new druid is still there
03:51They said all through that day
03:53No one could leave the stronghold and the enforced seclusion
03:57Wrought on the minds of the servants while the cessation of all work banded them together in small groups that whispered and discussed
04:05And disputed then these groups would disperse to peep through the spyhole at the patient
04:10Immobile figure seated before the door wrapped in a meditation that was timeless and unconcerned
04:17They took fright at the spectacle and once or twice a woman screamed hysterically
04:21And was bundled away with a companion's hand clapped on her mouth so that the ear of their master should not be affronted
04:28He has his own troubles. They said
04:31It is a combat of the gods that is taking place
04:34So much for the women, but the men also were uneasy they prowled up and down
04:40Tramping from the spyhole to the kitchen and from the kitchen to the turreted roof and from the roof
04:45They would look down on the motionless figure below and speculate on many things
04:50including the staunchness of man the qualities of their master and
04:54Even the possibility that the new gods might be as powerful as the old from these peepings and discussions
05:01They would return languid and discouraged if said one irritable guard if we buzzed a spear at the persistent stranger
05:08Or if one slung at him with a jagged pebble
05:11What his master demanded wrathfully is a spear to be thrown in an unarmed stranger and from this house
05:18And he soundly cuffed that indelicate servant be at peace all of you
05:22He said for hunger has a whip and he will drive the stranger away in the night
05:28The household retired to wretched beds, but for the master of the house, there was no sleep
05:34he marched his halls all night going off into the spyhole to see if that shadow was still sitting in the shade and
05:41pacing Vince
05:43tormented preoccupied
05:45Refusing even the nose of his favorite dog as it pressed lovingly into his closed palm on the morrow
05:51He gave in the great door was swung wide and two of his servants carried Finian into the house
05:57For the Saint could no longer walk or stand upright by reason of the hunger and exposure to which he had submitted
06:03But his frame was tough as the unconquerable spirit that dwelt within it and in no long time
06:09He was ready for whatever might come of dispute or anathema being quite reestablished
06:14He undertook the conversion of the master of the house and a siege
06:18He laid against that notable intelligence was long spoken of among those who are interested in such things
06:24He had beaten the disease of mug I he had beaten his own pupil the great cone sill
06:29He beat one also and just as the ladders door had opened to the persistent stranger
06:35So his heart opened and Finian marched there to do the will of God and his own will
06:40One day they were talking together about the majesty of God and his love
06:44For although Tuan had now received much instruction on this subject
06:48He yet needed more and he laid his closest siege on Finian as Finian had before that laid on him
06:54But man works outwardly and inwardly after rest. He has energy after energy
07:01He needs repose
07:03So when we have given instruction for a time
07:06We need instruction and must receive it or the spirit faints and wisdom herself grows bitter
07:12Therefore Finian said tell me now about yourself dear heart
07:16But Tuan was avid of information about the true God
07:20No, no
07:21He said the past is nothing more of interest for me and I do not wish anything to come between my soul and its instruction
07:29Continue to teach me dear friend and saintly father
07:32I will do that Finian replied, but I must first meditate deeply on you and must know you well
07:40Tell me your past my beloved for a man is his past and is to be known by it
07:45But Tuan pleaded let the past be content with itself for man needs forgetfulness as well as memory
07:53My son said Finian all that has ever been done has been done for the glory of God
07:58And to confess our good and evil deeds as part of instruction
08:02For the soul must recall its acts and abide by them or renounce them by confession and penitence
08:08Tell me your genealogy first and by what descent you occupy these lands and stronghold
08:14And then I will examine your acts and your conscience
08:18Tuan replied obediently
08:20I am known as Tuan son of Carol son of Muradak Redneck and these are the hereditary lands of my father
08:28The Saint nodded. I am not as well acquainted with Ulster genealogies as I should be yet
08:33I know something of them. I am by blood a Lannister man
08:36He continued mine is a long pedigree Tuan murmured Finian received that information with respect and interest
08:44I also he said have an honorable record his host continued
08:48I am indeed Tuan the son of Starn the son of Sarah who was brother to Partholin
08:55But said Finian in bewilderment. There is an error here for you have recited two different genealogies
09:03Different genealogies indeed replied Tuan thoughtfully, but they are my genealogies
09:08I do not understand this Finian declared roundly
09:11I am now known as Tuan Mac Carol the other replied but in the days of old
09:16I was known as Tuan Mac Starn Mac Sarah the brother of Partholin the Saint gasped
09:23That is my pedigree Tuan said but Finian objected in bewilderment
09:29Partholin came to Ireland not long after the flood
09:32I came with him said Tuan mildly the Saint pushed his chair back hastily and sat staring at his host and
09:39As he stared the blood grew chill in his veins and his hair crept along his scalp and stood on end
09:45But Finian was not one who remained long in bewilderment
09:49He thought on the might of God and he became that might and was tranquil
09:55He was one who loved God in Ireland and to the person who could instruct him in these great themes
10:00He gave all the interest of his mind and the sympathy of his heart. It is a wonder
10:05You tell me my beloved he said and now you must tell me more. What must I tell asked one resignedly?
10:12Tell me of the beginning of time in Ireland and of the bearing of Partholin the son of Noah's Son
10:18I have almost forgotten him said Tuan a greatly bearded greatly shouldered man. He was a
10:25man of sweet deeds and sweet ways
10:28Continue my love said Finian
10:31He came to Ireland in a ship 24 men and 24 women came with him
10:35But before that time no man had come to Ireland and in the western parts of the world
10:40No human being lived or moved as we drew on Ireland from the sea the country seemed like an unending forest
10:47Far as the eye could reach and in whatever direction there were trees and from these there came the unceasing
10:55singing of birds
10:56Overall that land the Sun shone warm and beautiful so that to our seaweary eyes our wind tormented ears
11:04It seemed as if we were driving on paradise
11:07We landed and we heard the rumble of water going gloomily through the darkness of the forest
11:14Following the water we came to a glade where the Sun shone and where the earth was warmed and their Partholin rested with his 24
11:21Couples and made a city and a livelihood there were fish in the rivers of era. There were animals in her cupboards
11:29Wild and shy and monstrous creatures ranged in her plains and forests
11:35Creatures that one could see through and walk through
11:38Long we lived in ease and we saw new animals grow the bear the wolf the badger the deer and the boar
11:46Partholins people increased until from 24 couples there came
11:505,000 people who lived in amity and contentment, although they had no wits
11:55They had no wits Finian commented. They had no need of wits Tuan said
12:00I have heard that the firstborn were mindless said Finian continue your story my beloved then
12:08Sudden as a rising wind between one night and a morning
12:11There came a sickness that bloated the stomach and purpled the skin and on the seventh day all of the race of Partholin were dead
12:19save one man only
12:21There always escapes one man said Finian thoughtfully and I am that man his companion affirmed
12:28Tuan shaded his brow with his hand and he remembered backwards through incredible ages to the beginning of the world and the first days of
12:36Era and Finian with his blood again running chill and his scalp crawling
12:42Uneasily stared backwards with him tell on my love Finian murmured. I was alone said Tuan
12:48I was so alone that my own shadow frightened me
12:51I was so alone that the sound of a bird in flight or the creaking of a dew-drenched bow
12:57Whipped me to cover as a rabbit is scared to his burrow the creatures of the forest scented me and knew I was alone
13:04They stole with silken pad behind my back and snarled when I faced them the long
13:09Gray wolves with hanging tongues and staring eyes chased me to my cleft rock
13:14There was no creature so weak, but it might hunt me
13:17There was no creature so timid, but it might outface me
13:20And so I lived for two tens of years in two years
13:23Until I knew all that a beast surmises and had forgotten all that a man had known. I
13:29Could pad as gently as any I could run as tirelessly
13:33I could be invisible and patient as a wildcat crouching among leaves
13:37I could smell danger in my sleep and leap at it with wakeful claws
13:41I could bark and growl and clash with my teeth and tear with them
13:47Tell on my beloved said Finian you shall rest in God dear heart at the end of that time said Tuan
13:54Nim the son of Agnomen came to Ireland with a fleet of 34 barks and in each bark
14:00There were 30 couples of people
14:01I have heard it said Finian my heart leaped for joy when I saw the great fleet rounding the land and I followed them along
14:09Scarped cliffs leaping from rock to rock like a wild goat while the ships tacked and swung
14:15Seeking a harbor there. I stooped to drink at a pool and I saw myself in the chill water. I
14:21Saw that I was hairy and tufty and bristled as a savage boar that I was lean as a stripped bush
14:28That I was grayer than a badger
14:30Withered and wrinkled like an empty sack naked as a fish
14:34Wretched as a starving crow in winter and on my fingers and toes there were great curving claws
14:40So that I looked like nothing that was known like nothing that was animal or divine and I sat by the pool weeping my loneliness
14:48And wildness in my stern old age and I could do no more than cry and lament between the earth and the sky
14:55while the beasts that tracked me listened from behind the trees or
14:58Crouched among bushes to stare at me from their drowsy covert a storm arose
15:02And when I looked again from my tall cliff
15:05I saw that great fleet rolling as in a giant's hand at times. They were pitched against the sky and staggered aloft
15:13Spinning gustily there like windblown leaves
15:17Then they were hurled from these dizzy tops to the flat moaning gulf to the glassy
15:23Inky horror that swirled and whirled between ten waves at times a wave leaped howling under a ship and with a buffet
15:31Dashed it into air and chased it upwards with thunder stroke on stroke and followed again
15:36close as a chasing wolf
15:38trying with hammering on hammering to beat in the wide wound bottom and
15:42Suck out the frightened lives through one black gape a wave fell on a ship and sunk it down with a thrust
15:48Stern as though a whole sky had tumbled at it and the bark did not cease to go down until it crashed and sank in
15:55The sand at the bottom of the sea the night came and with it a thousand darknesses fell from the screeching sky
16:02Not a round-eyed creature of the night might pierce an inch of that multiplied gloom not a creature dared creep or stand
16:11for a great wind strode the world lashing its league-long whips and cracks of thunder and
16:17Singing to itself now in a worldwide yell now in an ear dizzying hum and buzz
16:23Or with a long snarl and whine it hovered over the world searching for life to destroy and at times
16:29From the moaning and yelping blackness of the sea there came a sound
16:34thin drawn as from millions of miles away
16:37distinct as though uttered in the year like a whisper of confidence and
16:40I knew that a drowning man was calling on his God as he thrashed and was battered in the silence and that a blue-lipped woman
16:47Was calling on her man as her hair whipped round her brows and she whirled about like a top
16:53Around me the trees were dragged from earth with dying groans. They leaped into the air and flew like birds
17:01Great waves whizzed from the sea
17:03Spinning across the cliffs and hurtling to the earth in monstrous clots of foam
17:08The very rocks came trundling and sidling and grinding among the trees and in that rage and in that horror of blackness
17:16I fell asleep where I was beaten into slumber there
17:20I dreamed and I saw myself changing into a stag and dream and I felt in dream the beating of a new heart within
17:27Me and in dream I arched my neck and braced my powerful limbs
17:31I awoke from the dream and I was that which I had dreamed
17:35I stood a while stamping upon a rock with my bristling head swung high
17:40Breathing through wide nostrils all the savor of the world for I had come marvelously from decrepitude to strength
17:47I had writhed from the bonds of age and was young again
17:50I smelled the turf and knew for the first time how sweet that smelled and like lightning my moving nose
17:57Sniffed all things to my heart and separated them into knowledge
18:02Long I stood there ringing my iron hoof on stone and learning all things through my nose
18:08each breeze that came from the right hand where the left brought me a tale a
18:13Wind carried me the tang of wolf and against that smell I stared and stamped and on a wind there came the scent of my
18:20Own kind and at that I belled. Oh
18:24Loud and clear and sweet was the voice of the great stag with what ease my lovely note went lilting with what joy?
18:31I heard the answering call with what delight I bounded bounded bounded light as a bird's plume
18:39powerful as a storm
18:41retiring as the sea
18:42Here now was ease in ten-yard springings with a swinging head with the rise and fall of a swallow
18:49With the curve and flow and urge of an otter of the sea what a tingle dwelled about my heart
18:55What a thrill spun to the lofty points of my antlers how the world was new how the Sun was new
19:02How the wind caressed me with unswerving forehead and steady I I met all that came
19:11The old lone wolf leaped sideways
19:14Snarling and slunk away the lumbering bear swung his head of hesitations and thought again
19:20He trotted his small red eye away with him to a nearby break
19:24The stags of my race fled from my rocky forehead or were pushed back and back until their legs broke under them
19:30And I trampled them to death
19:32I was the beloved the well-known the leader of the herds of Ireland and at times
19:38I came back from my boundings about era for the strings of my heart were drawn to Ulster and
19:43Standing away my wide nose took the air while I knew with joy
19:48with terror that men were blown on the wind a proud head hung to the turf thin and the tears of memory rolled from
19:56A large bright eye at times
19:58I drew near delicately standing among thick leaves or crouched in long-grown grasses
20:04And I stared and mourned as I looked on man
20:08For Named and four couples had been saved from that fierce storm and I saw them increase and multiply until
20:154,000 couples lived and laughed and were riotous in the Sun for the people of Named had small minds but great activity
20:22They were savage fighters and hunters
20:25But one time I came
20:27Drawn by that intolerable anguish of memory and all of these people were gone
20:32The place that knew them was silent in the land where they had moved
20:35There was nothing of them but their bones that glinted in the Sun old age came on me there
20:41Among these bones weariness crept into my limbs
20:44My head grew heavy my eyes dim my knees jerked and trembled and there the wolves dare chase me
20:51I went again to the cave that had been my home when I was an old man
20:55One day I stole from the cave to snatch a mouthful of grass for I was closely besieged by wolves
21:01They made their rush and I barely escaped from them they sat beyond the cave staring at me I knew their tongue I
21:10Knew all that they said to each other and all that they said to me
21:13But there was yet a thud left in my forehead a deadly trample in my hoof. They did not dare come into the cave
21:21Tomorrow they said we will tear out your throat and gnaw on your living haunch
21:26Then my soul rose to the height of doom and I intended all that might happen to me
21:31And agreed to it tomorrow
21:33I said I will go out among ye and I will die and at that the wolves howled joyfully
21:40hungrily
21:41Impatiently I slept and I saw myself changing into a boring dream and I felt in dream the beating of a new heart within me
21:48And in dream I stretched my powerful neck and braced my eager limbs
21:53I awoke from my dream and I was that which I had dreamed the night wore away
21:59The darkness lifted the day came and from without the cave the wolves called to me come out Oh skinny stag
22:07come out and die and
22:09I with joyful heart thrust a black bristle through the hole of the cave and when they saw that wriggling snout
22:16Those curving tusks that red fierce eye the wolves fled yelping
22:22Tumbling over each other frantic with terror and I behind them a wild cat for leaping a giant for strength a
22:29devil for ferocity a madness and gladness of lusty
22:34unsparing life a killer a champion a boar who could not be defied
22:39I took the lordship of the boars of Ireland wherever I looked among my tribes. I saw love and obedience
22:47Whenever I appeared among the strangers they fled away and the wolves feared me then and the great
22:54Grim bear went bounding on heavy paws
22:56I charged him at the head of my troop and rolled him over and over but it is not easy to kill the bear
23:03So deeply is his life packed under that stinking pelt
23:06He picked himself up and ran and was knocked down and ran again blindly budding into trees and stones
23:15Not a claw did the big bear flash
23:17Not a tooth did he show as he ran whimpering like a baby or as he stood with my nose rammed against his mouth
23:25Snarling up into his nostrils. I challenged all that moved all creatures
23:29But one for men had again come to Ireland
23:33Simeon the son of Stereoth with his people from whom the men of Dominion and the firbolg and the
23:39Gali you in are descended these I did not chase and when they chased me I fled often
23:45I would go
23:46Drawn by my memoried heart to look at them as they moved among their fields and I spoke to my mind of bitterness
23:52When the people of Partholin were gathered in council, my voice was heard
23:56It was sweet to all who heard it and the words I spoke were wise
24:00The eyes of women brightened and softened when they looked at me
24:05They loved to hear him when he's saying who now wanders in the forest with a tusky herd old age again overtook me
24:13Weariness stole into my limbs and anguish dozed into my mind. I
24:18Went to my Ulster cave and dream my dream and I changed into a hawk
24:22I left the ground the sweet air was my kingdom and my bright I stared on a hundred miles
24:28I soared I swooped I hung motionless as a living stone
24:34Over the abyss. I lived in joy and slept in peace and had my fill of the sweetness of life
24:41During that time be a thack the son of Yarbon el-de-prophet
24:44Came to Ireland with his people and there was a great battle between his men and the children of simian
24:50Long I hung over that combat seeing every spear that hurtled every stone that whizzed from a sling
24:57Every sword that flashed up and down and the endless glittering of the shields and at the end
25:03I saw that the victory was with Yarbon el-de-prophet and from his people the Toa Theta and the Andi came
25:09Although their origin is forgotten and learned people because of their excellent wisdom and intelligence
25:15Say that they came from heaven. These are the people of Faerie all these are the gods
25:21For long long years. I was a hawk. I knew every hill and stream
25:26Every field and glen of Ireland
25:28I knew the shape of cliffs and coasts and how all places looked under the Sun or Moon and I was still a hawk when
25:35The sons of mill drove the Toa Theta Danan under the ground and held Ireland against arms or wizardry
25:41And this was the coming of men and the beginning of genealogies
25:45Then I grew old and in my Ulster cave close to the sea
25:49I dreamed my dream and in it I became a salmon the green tides of ocean rose over me in my dream
25:56So that I drowned in the sea and did not die for I awoke in deep waters and I was that which I dreamed
26:03I've been a man a stag a boar a bird and now I was a fish in all my changes
26:08I had joy and fullness of life
26:11But in the water joy laid deeper life pulse deeper for on land or air
26:18There is always something excessive and hindering as arms that swing at the sides of a man in which the mind must remember
26:26The
26:28stag has legs to be tucked away for sleep and
26:31Untucked for movement and the bird has wings that must be folded and pecked and cared for
26:36But the fish has but one piece from his nose to his tail. He is complete single and unencumbered
26:43He turns in one turn and goes up and down and round in one soul movement
26:48How I flew through the soft element how I joyed in the country where there is no harshness in the element
26:55Which upholds and gives way which caresses and lets go and will not let you fall
27:01For man may stumble in a furrow the stag tumble from a cliff
27:05The hawk wing weary and beaten with darkness around him and the storm behind
27:11May dash his brains against a tree
27:13But the home of the salmon is his delight and the sea guards all her creatures
27:18I became the king of the salmon and with my multitudes
27:22I ranged on the tides of the world green and purple distances were under me
27:28green and gold the sunlit regions above in
27:31These latitudes I moved through a world of amber myself amber and gold in those others in a sparkle of lucent blue
27:39I curved lit like a living jewel and in these again through dusks of ebony all
27:46Mazed with silver I shot and shown the wonder of the sea
27:50I saw the monsters of the uttermost ocean go heaving by and the long live brutes that are toothed to their tails and
27:58Below where gloom dipped down on gloom
28:01Vast livid tangles that coiled and uncoiled and lapsed down steeps and hells of the sea where even the salmon could not go
28:09I knew the sea
28:10I knew the secret caves where ocean roars to ocean the floods that are icy cold
28:16From which the nose of a salmon leaps back as at a sting and the warm streams in which we rocked and dozed and
28:23Were carried forward without motion
28:25I swam on the outermost rim of the great world where nothing was but the sea and the sky and the salmon
28:32where even the wind was silent and the water was clear as clean gray rock and
28:38Then and far away in the sea. I remembered Ulster and there came on me an instant
28:45Uncontrollable anguish to be there I turned and through days and nights I swam
28:51tirelessly
28:52jubilantly with terror awakening in me to and a whisper through my being that I must reach Ireland or die I
29:00Fought my way to Ulster from the sea. Ah
29:03how that end of the journey was hard a sickness was racking in every one of my bones a
29:09Langer and weariness creeping through my every fiber and muscle the waves held me back and held me back
29:16The soft waters seemed to have grown hard and it was as though I were urging through a rock as I strained towards Ulster from
29:23The sea so tired. I was I could have loosened my frame and been swept away
29:28I could have slept and been drifted and wafted away
29:32Swinging on gray green billows that had turned from the land and were heaving and mounting and surging to the far blue water
29:39Only the unconquerable heart of the salmon could brave that end of toil
29:44The sound of the rivers of Ireland racing down to the sea came to me in the last numb effort
29:50The love of Ireland bore me up the gods of the rivers trod to me in the white curl breakers
29:56So that I left the sea at long long last and I lay in sweet water in the curve of a crannied rock
30:03exhausted three parts dead triumphant
30:06Delight and strength came to me again
30:08And now I explored all the inland ways the great lakes of Ireland and her swift brown rivers
30:15What a joy to lie under an inch of water
30:18Basking in the Sun or beneath a shady ledge to watch the small creatures that speed like lightning on the rippling top
30:25I saw the dragonflies flash and dart and turn with a poise with a speed that no other winged thing knows
30:32I saw the hawk hover and stare and swoop
30:36He felt like a falling stone, but he could not catch the king of the salmon
30:40I saw the cold-eyed cat stretching along a bow level with the water
30:44Eager to hook and lift the creatures of the river and I saw men
30:49They saw me also they came to know me and look for me
30:52They lay in wait at the waterfalls up which I leaped like a silver flash
30:57They held out nets for me they had traps under leaves
31:01They made cords of the color of water of the color of weeds
31:05But this salmon had a nose that knew how a weed felt and how a string
31:09They drifted meat on a sightless string
31:11But I knew of the hook they thrust spears at me and through lances which they drew back again with a cord
31:17Many a wound I got from men many a sorrowful scar
31:21Every beast pursued me in the waters and along the banks the barking black-skinned otter came after me in lust and gust and swirl
31:29the wild cat fish for me the hawk and the steep winged spear beaked birds dived down on me and
31:35Men crept on me with nets the width of a river so that I got no rest
31:40my life became a ceaseless scurry and wound and escape a
31:44Burden and anguish of watchfulness and then I was caught
31:49The fisherman of Carol the king of Ulster took me in his net ah
31:54That was a happy man when he saw me he shouted for joy when he saw the great salmon in his net
32:00I was still in the water as he hauled delicately
32:03I was still in the water as he pulled me to the bank
32:06My nose touched air and spun from it as from fire and I dived with all my might against the bottom of the net
32:14Holding yet to the water
32:15Loving it mad with terror that I must quit that loveliness
32:19But the net held and I came up be quiet king of the river said the fisherman given to doom
32:25Said he I was in the air and it was as though I were in fire
32:28The air pressed on me like a fiery mountain it beat on my scales and scorched them
32:33It rushed down my throat and scalded me it weighed on me and squeezed me
32:39So that my eyes felt as though they must burst from my head
32:42My head as though it would leap from my body and my body as though it would swell and expand and fly in a thousand pieces
32:51The light blinded me the heat tormented me the dry air made me shrivel and gasp and as he lay on the grass
32:59The great salmon world is desperate nose once more to the river and leaped leaped leaped even under the mountain of air
33:06He could leap upwards but not forwards and yet he leaped for in each rise
33:11He could see the twinkling waves the rippling and curling waters be at ease
33:17Oh king said the fisherman be at rest my beloved let go the stream
33:22Let the oozy marge be forgotten and the sandy bed where the shades dance all in green and gloom and the brown
33:29flood sings along and
33:31As he carried me to the palace
33:33He sang a song of the river and a song of doom and a song in praise of the king of the waters
33:39When the king's wife saw me she desired me
33:42I was put over a fire and roasted and she ate me and when time passed
33:47She gave birth to me and I was her son and the son of Carol the king
33:51I remember warmth and darkness and movement and unseen sounds
33:57All that happened. I remember from the time. I was on the gridiron until the time I was born
34:02I forget nothing of these things and now said Finian you will be born again
34:08For I shall baptize you into the family of the Living God
34:11So for the story of Tuan the son of Carol
34:15No man knows if he died in those distant ages when Finian was Abbot of Moville
34:19Or if he still keeps his fort in Ulster
34:22Watching all things and remembering them for the glory of God and the honor of Ireland