1. 'Twas fifty quatrains the woman from
unknown lands sang on the
floor of the house to Bran son of Febal, when the royal house was full
of kings, who knew not whence the woman had come, since the ramparts
were closed.
2. This is the beginning of the story. One day, in the neighbourhood of
his stronghold, Bran went about alone, when he heard music behind him.
As often as he looked back, 'twas still behind him the music was. At
last he fell asleep at the music, such was its sweetness.
When he awoke from his sleep, he
saw close by him a branch of silver with white
blossoms, nor was it easy to distinguish its bloom from that branch.
Then Bran took the branch in his hand to his royal house. When the hosts
were in the royal house, they saw a woman in strange raiment on the
floor of the house. 'Twas then she sang the fifty quatrains to Bran,
while the host heard her, and all beheld the woman.
And she said:
3. 'A branch of the apple-tree from Emain
I bring, like those one knows;
Twigs of white silver are on it,
Crystal brows with blossoms.
4. ' There is a distant isle,
Around which sea-horses glisten:
A fair course against the white-swelling surge,-
Four feet uphold it.
5. 'A delight of the eyes, a glorious range,
Is the plain on which the hosts hold games:
Coracle contends against chariot
In southern Mag Findargat.
6. 'Feet of white bronze under it
Glittering through beautiful ages.
Lovely land throughout the world's age,
On which the many blossoms drop.
7. 'An ancient tree there is with blossoms,
On which birds call to the Hours.
'Tis in harmony it is their wont
To call together every Hour.
8. 'Splendours of every colour glisten
Throughout the gentle-voiced plains.
Joy is known, ranked around music,
In southern Mag Argatnél.
9. 'Unknown is wailing or treachery
In the familiar cultivated land,
There is nothing rough or harsh,
But sweet music striking on the ear.
10. 'Without grief, without sorrow, without death,
Without any sickness, without debility,
That is the sign of Emain -
Uncommon is an equal marvel.
11.'A beauty of a wondrous land,
Whose aspects are lovely,
Whose view is a fair country,
Incomparable is its haze.
12. 'Then if Aircthech is seen,
On which dragonstones and crystals drop
The sea washes the wave against the land,
Hair of crystal drops from its mane.
13. 'Wealth, treasures of every hue,
Are in Ciuin, a beauty of freshness,
Listening to sweet music,
Drinking the best of wine.
14. 'Golden chariots in Mag Réin,
Rising with the tide to the sun,
Chariots of silver in Mag Mon,
And of bronze without blemish.
15. 'Yellow golden steeds are on the sward there,
Other steeds with crimson hue,
Others with wool upon their backs
Of the hue of heaven all-blue.
16. 'At sunrise there will come
A fair man illumining level lands;
He rides upon the fair sea-washed plain,
He stirs the ocean till it is blood.
17. 'A host will come across the clear sea,
To the land they show their rowing;
Then they row to the conspicuous stone,
From which arise a hundred strains.
18. 'It sings a strain unto the host
Through long ages, it is not sad,
lts music swells with choruses of hundreds-
They look for neither decay nor death.
19. 'Many-shaped Emne by the sea,
Whether it be near, whether it be far,
In which are many thousands of motley women,
Which the clear sea encircles.
20. 'If he has heard the voice of the music,
The chorus of the little birds from Imchiuin,
A small band of women will come from a height
To the plain of sport in which he is.
21. 'There will come happiness with health
To the land against which laughter peals,
Into Imchiuin at every season
Will come everlasting joy.
22. 'It is a day of lasting weather
That showers silver on the lands,
A pure-white cliff on the range of the sea,
Which from the sun receives its heat.
23. 'The host race along Mag Mon,
A beautiful game, not feeble,
In the variegated land over a mass of beauty
They look for neither decay nor death.
24. 'Listening to music at night,
And going into Ildathach,
A variegated land, splendour on a diadem of beauty,
Whence the white cloud glistens.
25. 'There are thrice fifty distant isles
In the ocean to the west of us;
Larger than Erin twice
Is each of them, or thrice.
26. 'A great birth will come after ages,
That will not be in a lofty place,
The son of a woman whose mate will not be known,
He will seize the rule of the many thousands.
27. 'A rule without beginning, without end,
He has created the world so that it is perfect,
Whose are earth and sea,
Woe to him that shall be under His unwill!
28. 'Tis He that made the heavens,
Happy he that has a white heart,
He will purify hosts under pure water,
'Tis He that will heal your sicknesses.
29. 'Not to all of you is my speech,
Though its great marvel has been made known:
Let Bran hear from the crowd of the world
What of wisdom has been told to him.
30. 'Do not fall on a bed of sloth,
Let not thy intoxication overcome thee,
Begin a
voyage
across the clear sea,
If perchance thou mayst reach the land of women.'
31. Thereupon the woman went from them, while they knew not whither
she went. And she took her branch with her. The branch sprang
from
Bran's hand into the hand of the woman, nor was there strength in
Bran's hand to hold the branch.
32. Then on the morrow Bran went upon the sea. The number of his men was
three companies of nine. One of his foster-brothers and mates was set
over each of the three companies of nine. When he had been at sea two
days and two nights, he saw a man in a chariot coming towards him over
the sea. That man also sang thirty other quatrains to him, and made
himself known to him, and said that he was Manannan
the son of Lír,
and
said that it was upon him to go to Ireland after long ages, and that a
son would be born to him, even Mongan son of Fiachna-that was the name
which would be upon him.
So he sang these thirty quatrains to him:
33. 'Bran deems it a marvellous beauty
In his coracle across the clear sea:
While to me in my chariot from afar
It is a flowery plain on which he rides about.
34. 'What is a clear sea
For the prowed skiff in which Bran is,
That is a happy plain with profusion of flowers
To me from the chariot of two wheels.
35. 'Bran sees
The number of waves beating across the clear sea:
I myself see in Mag Mon
Red-headed flowers without fault.
36. 'Sea-horses glisten in summer
As far as Bran has stretched his glance:
Rivers pour forth a stream of honey
In the land of Manannan son of Lír.
37. 'The sheen of the main, on which thou art,
The white hue of the sea, on which thou rowest about,
Yellow and azure are spread out,
It is land, and is not rough.
38. 'Speckled salmon leap from the womb
Of the white sea, on which thou lookest:
They are calves, they are coloured lambs
With friendliness, without mutual slaughter.
39. 'Though (but) one chariot-rider is seen
In Mag Mell of many flowers,
There are many steeds on its surface,
Though them thou seest not.
40. 'The size of the plain, the number of the host,
Colours glisten with pure glory,
A fair stream of silver, cloths of gold,
Afford a welcome with all abundance.
41. 'A beautiful game, most delightful,
They play (sitting) at the luxurious wine,
Men and gentle women under a bush,
Without sin, without crime.
42. 'Along the top of a wood has swum
Thy coracle across ridges,
There is a wood of beautiful fruit
Under the prow of thy little skiff.
43. 'A wood with blossom and fruit,
On which is the vine's veritable fragrance,
A wood without decay, without defect,
On which are leaves of golden hue.
44. 'We are from the beginning of creation
Without old age, without consummation of earth,
Hence we expect not that there should be frailty,
The sin has not come to us.
45. 'An evil day when the Serpent went
To the father to his city!
She has perverted the times in this world,
So that there came decay which was not original.
46. 'By greed and lust he has slain us,
Through which he has ruined his noble race:
The withered body has gone to the fold of torment,
And everlasting abode of torture.
47. 'It is a law of pride in this world
To believe in the creatures, to forget God,
Overthrow by diseases, and old age,
Destruction of the soul through deception.
48. 'A noble salvation will come
From the King who has created us,
A white law will come over seas,
Besides being God, He will be man.
49. 'This shape, he on whom thou lookest,
Will come to thy parts;
'Tis mine to journey to her house,
To the woman in Line-Mag.
50. 'For it is Manannan, the son of Lír,
From the chariot in the shape of a man,
Of his progeny will be a very short while
A fair man in a body of white clay.
51. 'Manannan, the descendant of Lír, will be
A vigorous bed-fellow to Caintigern:
He shall be called to his son in the beautiful world,
Fiachna will acknowledge him as his son.
52. 'He will delight the company of every fairy-knoll,
He will be the darling of every goodly land,
He will make known secrets-a course of wisdom-
In the world, without being feared.
53. 'He will be in the shape of every beast,
Both on the azure sea and on land,
He will be a dragon before hosts at the onset,
He will be a wolf of every great forest.
54. 'He will be a stag with horns of silver
In the land where chariots are driven,
He will be a speckled salmon in a full pool,
He will be a seal, he will be a fair-white swan.
55. 'He will be throughout long ages
An hundred years in fair kingship,
He will cut down battalions,-a lasting grave-
He will redden fields, a wheel around the track.
56. 'It will be about kings with a champion
That he will be known as a valiant hero,
Into the strongholds of a land on a height
I shall send an appointed end from Islay.
57. 'High shall I place him with princes,
He will be overcome by a son of error;
Manannan, the son of Lír,
Will be his father, his tutor.
58. 'He will be-his time will be short-
Fifty years in this world:
A dragonstone from the sea will kill him
In the fight at Senlabor.
59. 'He will ask a drink from Loch Ló,
While he looks at the stream of blood,
The white host will take him under a wheel of clouds
To the gathering where there is no sorrow.
60. 'Steadily then let Bran row,
Not
far to the Land of Women,
Emain with many hues of
hospitality
Thou wilt reach before the setting of the sun.'
61. Thereupon Bran went from him. And he saw an island. He rows round
about it, and a large host was gaping and laughing. They were all
looking at Bran and his people, but would not stay to converse with them.
They continued to give forth gusts of laughter at them. Bran sent
one
of his people on the island.
He ranged himself with the others,
and was gaping at them
like the other men of the island.
He kept rowing round about the
island.
Whenever his man came past Bran,
his comrades would
address him. But he would not converse with them, but would only look at
them and gape at them. The name of this island is the Island of
Joy.
Thereupon they left him there.
62. It was not long thereafter when they reached the Land of Women.
They
saw the leader of the women at the port. Said the chief of the
women:
'Come hither on and, O Bran son of Febal! Welcome is thy advent!'
Bran did not venture to go on
shore.
The woman throws a ball of thread
to Bran
straight over his face.
Bran put his hand on the ball, which clave
to his palm.
The thread of the ball was in the woman's
hand, and she pulled the
coracle towards the port.
Thereupon they went into a large
house,
in which was a bed for every couple,
even thrice nine beds. The food that
was put
on every dish vanished not from them.
It seemed a year to them that they were
there,
-it chanced to be many years.
No savour was wanting to them.
63. Home-sickness seized one of them, even Nechtan the son of
Collbran.
His kindred kept praying Bran that he should go to Ireland with him.
The woman said to them their going would
make them rue.
However, they went,
and the woman said that none of them
should touch the land,
and that they
should visit and take with them the man whom they had left in the Island
of Joy.
64. Then they went until they arrived at a gathering at Srub Brain.
The
men asked of them who it was came over the sea. Said Bran: 'I am Bran
the
son of Febal,' saith he. However, the other saith: 'We do not know
such
a one, though the Voyage of Bran is in our ancient stories.'
65. Then Nechtan leaps from them out of the coracle.
As soon as he touched the earth of
Ireland,
forthwith he was a heap of ashes, as
though he had been
in the earth for many hundred years.
'Twas then that Bran sang this quatrain:
'For Collbran's son, great was the folly
To lift his hand against age,
Without any one casting a wave of pure water
Over Nechtan, Collbran's son.'
66. Thereupon, to the people of the gathering Bran told all his
wanderings
from the beginning until that time.
And he wrote these quatrains in
Ogham,
and then bade them farewell.
And from that hour his wanderings
are not known.
Source: Kuno
Meyer - The Voyage of Bran,
(translation), London David
Nutt,1895.
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