The Vision of the Phantom
Irish and Celtic myths and legends, Irish folklore and Irish fairy tales from the Historical Cycle
Baile in Scáil
High King Conn of the Hundred Battles, which in the way of the old people of Ireland meant battles without end rather than an exact measure and count of every affray he had been in, had overthrown all of the lesser kings of Ireland, the lords of the five Kingdoms and the lesser realms, and he had taken his seat in Tara.
Not easy did he sit either, for few chairs are less comfortable than a throne, so he went atop the ramparts to take the morning air and survey the lands around, for fear the spirits of the Sí, the Dé Danann, might take the crown from him.
His three druids came along with him to watch the red sun rise over Eriú in all of its glory, and their names were Mael and Bloc and Bluicne. His three poets also joined the company, they who were called Ethain and Corb and Cesarn.
This morning by chance he stepped on a stone large and irregular in size and shape, and from this stone came many unearthly cries, the likes of which startled birds into flight from there to the Shannon river! The echoes were long in the fading.
Conn asked his druids in surprise why the stone had cried out, what was its name, whence it had come and where it would go, and why it had come to Tara.
The druids said to Conn that the stone would and could not be named until fifty-three days had passed. When that number was complete, Conn asked the druids again.
Coming to their strange and star-hung abode, the High King entered and bowed to the wisdom of the druids, for his mind had been plagued by this strange prodigy.
But it was his poet Cesarn who came to him and spoke, saying that
"Fáil, meaning destiny, is the name of the stone. It is the island of Fáil from which it was brought.
It is in Tara of the land of Fáil that it has been placed.
It is in the land of Tailtiu that it will remain until the end of the world.
And it is in that land that there will be a festive assembly for as long as there is kingship in Tara. The ruler who does not find it on the last day of the assembly will be a doomed man in that year.
Fáil cried out beneath your feet on that day," said the poet, "and prophesied. The number of cries which the stone uttered is the number of kings that there will be of your race until the Day of Judgment. It is not I who will name them to you."
A great mist curling in clouds and fingers of fog flowed into the house of the druids then, and they all went outside, groping blindly - to no avail, for it was as dark as midnight outside and within!
The ground shook with the thunder of hooves and Conn cried out in dismay, for he felt terror without cause. Rearing up, the horseman threw three spears at them, and the last cast came to them more quickly that the first. "He is setting out to wound a king," said the poet, "whoever makes a cast at Conn in Tara!"
But the horseman rode closer and held his hand out for Conn to mount the horse behind him.
Conn, not without some misgivings, climbed up behind the horseman and they rode far and fast through the blinding fog, and it seemed a wonder to Conn that the horse missed no step or caught on any branches in the winding gloom.
They came at last in bright daylight to a plain with a golden tree, next to a house with a ridge-pole of the white metal findruine, some ten meters in length.
Into the house they went, no word having passed between them, and there they found a young woman, crowned in gold. There was a silver vat with hoops of gold around it next to her, full of red ale. There was a dipper of gold on its lip, and a cup of gold before her.
They saw a scál, which means phantom, in the house, before them on a throne. There was never in Tara a man of his size or his beauty, on account of the fairness of his form and the wondrousness of his appearance.
He spoke to them and said, "I am not a phantom nor a spectre. I have come on account of my fame among you, since my death. And you will know me, for I am of your race, my name is Lugh son of Eithliu son of Tigernmas. I have come to relate to you the length of your reign, and of every reign which there will be in Tara."
The girl who sat before then in the house was the Sovereignty of Ireland, and it was she who gave Conn his meal, which was the rib of an ox and the rib of a boar. The ox rib was vast in length and between its arch and the ground.
When the girl began to distribute drinks she said, "To whom shall this cup be given?", and the phantom answered her with the names of each king from Conn onwards
When he had named every ruler until the ending of the world, they went into the phantom's shadow, so that they saw neither the enclosure nor the house. The vat and the golden dipper and the cup were left with Conn, and he returned to Cesarn and wrote all of these things on ogham rods.
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