Here are the Adventures of Nera, from the red branch of the mythology Irish.
Adventures of Nera
1. One Samain evening Ailill and Medb were at Rath Cruachan with their entire household. They began to cook the food. Two captives had been hanged by them the day before. Then Ailill said, “Whoever will now put a wicker wisp around the foot of one of the two captives who are on the gallows, shall have a reward from me, as he chooses. »
2. Great was the darkness of that night and its horror, and demons were to appear throughout that night. In turn, each of them went out to try [the adventure] that night, and quickly he returned to the house. "I'll get your reward," Nera said, "and I'll get out." “Truly you shall have this, my golden hilted sword, [which is] there. said Ailill.
3. Then this Nera went away to the captives, and put good armor on him. He put a wicker blade at the foot of one of the two captives. Three times he broke away. Then the captive told him that unless he put a proper peg on it, he wouldn't fix it, even trying to do it until the next day. So Nera put a proper peg in it.
4. From the gallows the captive said to Nera: “It is manly, O Nera! "Manly, indeed!" Nera said. “By the truth of your valor, take me on your neck, so that I can drink something with you. I was very thirsty when I was hanged. "Come on my neck then!" Nera said. So he went on his neck. "Where shall I carry you?" Nera said. "To the house which is nearest to us," said the captive.
5. So they went to this house. Then they saw something. A lake of fire around the house [around the hearth, H.2.16]. "There is nothing for us to drink in this house," said the captive. “There is never a fire in it without a supply [of wood]. "Let us go then to the other house, which is nearer to us," said the captive. They went there and saw a lake of water around her. "Don't go to this house," said the captive. Nobody washes, and there is no tub, no bucket of dirty water in it at night after bedtime. "Let us go to the other house," said the captive. “Now my drink is there in this house,” said the captive. He [Nera] dropped it on the floor. He entered the house. There were tubs for washing and bathing, and drink in both. [There was] also a bucket of dirty water on the floor of the house. He took a sip from each of them and squirted the last drops from his mouth onto the faces of the people who were in the house, so that they all died. Henceforth, it is not good (to have) either a tub for washing or bathing, or an unreserved fire [of wood] or a bucket of dirty water in a house after bedtime.
6. Thereupon he brought him back to his [place of] torment, and Nera returned to Cruachan. So he saw something. The fort was on fire before him, and he saw a pile of heads of his people (cut off) by the fort's warriors. He then followed the army into Cruachan's cave. “A man on the trail here! said the last man to Nera. “More boring is the way,” said his comrade [the last man, Eg.] to him, and each man said these words to his companion from the last man to the first. Thereupon they reached Cruachan's sid and entered it. Then the heads were shown to the king in the sid. "What should we do with the man who came with you?" said one of them. “Let him come here so I can talk to him,” said the king. So Nera came to them and the king said to her, “What brought you with the warriors into the sid? said the king to him. "I came with your army," Nera said. "Now go home there," said the king. “There's a lonely woman over there who will welcome you. Tell her that you are sent to her from me, and come to this house every day with a load of firewood”.
7. So he did as he was told. The woman welcomed him and said, “Welcome to you, if it is the king who sent you here. "It's him, really," Nera said. Every day Nera used to go with a load of wood towards the fort. He saw every day, a blind man and a lame man on his neck coming out of the fort in front of him. They were going until they were at the edge of a well in front of the fort. “Is it there? said the blind man. "It's there," said the lame man. "Let's go," said the lame man.
8. Nera then questioned the woman about it. “Why do the blind and the lame visit the well? "They are inspecting the crown, which is in the well," said the woman, "namely, a golden diadem, which the king wears on his head. This is where it is kept. "Why are these two going?" Nera said. “It's not hard to tell,” she said, “because they are the ones approved by the king to inspect the crown. One of them was blinded, the other crippled. "Come here for a while," Nera said to his wife, "so you can tell me about my adventures now." "What appeared to you?" asked the woman. "It's not hard to tell," Nera said. “When I came to the sid, it seemed to me that Cruachan's rath had been destroyed and that Ailill and Medb with all their household had died inside. "That is not true indeed, said the woman, but a magical army has come to you." [to them, H.2.16] It will come true, she says, unless he [Nera] reveals it to his friends. “How am I going to give a warning to my people,” said Nera. "Get up and go to them," she said. “They are still around the same cauldron and the contents have not yet been removed from the fire. Yet it had seemed to him that three days and three nights [had passed] since he had been in the sid. "Tell them to be on their guard next Halloween, unless they come to destroy the people of sid." For I promise them this: the sid will be destroyed by Ailill and Medb, and the crown of Briun will be taken away by them. »
9. [These are the three things, which were found there, namely: Lóegaire's mantle in Armagh, and Briun's crown in Connaught, and Dunlaing's shirt in Leinster in Kildare.]
10. "How will it be believed that I went to the sid?" Nera said. "Take the fruits of summer with you," said the woman. Then he took wild garlic with him and primrose and golden fern. “And I will be pregnant with you, she said, and will give you a son. And send a message from you to the sid, when your people come to destroy the sid, that you may take your family and your herds out of the sid. »
11. Thereupon Nera went to his people, and found them round the same cauldron, and he told them his adventures. And then his sword was given to him, and he sojourned with his people until the end of a year. This was the same year in which Fergus Mac Roeg came as an exile from the land of Ulster to Ailill and Medb to Cruachan. “Your date has come, oh Nera,” Ailill told Nera. “Rise and take your people and cattle out of the sid, so we can go and destroy the sid. »
12. Then Nera went to his wife in the sid, and she bade him welcome. “Go to the fort now,” the woman told Nera, “and take a load of firewood with you. I went there for a whole year with a load of firewood on my neck every day for you, and I said you were sick. And there's your son there too. So he went out in the direction of the fort, and carried a load of wood with him on his neck. “Welcome recovered from the illness you were in! said the king. “I'm unhappy that the woman slept with you without asking. "Thy will be done on this," Nera declared. “It will not be difficult for you,” said the king. He returned to his house. "Now watch your cows today!" said the woman. “I gave a cow of them to your son immediately after he was born. So Nera went with her cattle in the daytime.
13. Then while he slept the Morrigan took her son's cow, and the Brown of Cualnge rode it east into Cualnge. She (the Morrigan) then returned west again with her cow. Cuchulain caught up with them on the plain of Murthemne as they crossed it. Because it was one of gessa of Cuchulain that even a woman could not leave her land without her knowledge. [It was one of his gessa that the birds could not feed on his land, if they did not leave him something. It was one of his gessa let the fish be in the bays, unless he died by his hand. It was one of his gessa let the warriors of another tribe be in his country without his challenging them, before morning, if they came at night, or before night, if they came during the day. Every maiden and single woman that was in Ulster, they were under his protection until they were destined for their husbands. Those are the gessa by Cuchulain]. Cuchulain caught up with the Morrigan with her cow, and he said, "This cow must not be taken." "
14. Nera then returned to her house with her cows in the evening. "My son's cow is missing," he said. [her, H.2.16] “I don't deserve you going to watch the cows like that,” his wife tells him. With that, the cow arrived. “A marvel now! Where is this cow from? “In truth, she comes from Cualnge, having been ridden by Brun de Cualnge,” said the woman. "Rise now, lest your warriors come," she said. “This army cannot move for a year until next Halloween. They will come next Halloween: for the sid de Erinn's are always open during Halloween.
15. Nera went to her people. "Where do you come from? Ailill and Medb asked Nera, and where have you been since you left us? “I went to the fairy lands, Nera said, full of great treasures and precious things, with lots of clothes and food, and wonderful treasures. They will come to kill you next Halloween unless it has been revealed to you. "We will certainly go against them," Ailill said. So they stayed there until the end of the year. 'Now if you have anything in the sid,' Ailill told Nera, 'take it away. So Nera went on the third day before Halloween and led her herd out of the sid. Now, as the bull calf came out of the sid, viz. the calf of the cow of Aingen (Aingene was the name of his son), he bellowed three times. At the same hour Ailill and Fergus were playing chess, when they heard something, the bellowing of the bullock in the plain. Fergus then says:
"I don't like veal
bellowing in the plain of Cruachan,
the son of the black bull of Cualnge, who approaches,
the young son of the Loch Laig bull.
There will be calves without cows
in Bairche en Cualnge,
the king will go to a *** march
because of that Aingene calf.
17. (Aingene was the name of the man and Be Aingeni the name of the woman, and the appearance which Nera saw upon them was the same as that which Cuchulain saw in the Tain Bo Regamna [Raid of the cows of Regamain].]
18. Then the bull-calf and the White-horned one [of Ai, H.2.16] met in the plain of Cruachan. One night and one day they fought there, until at last the bullock was defeated. So the bull calf mooed when he was defeated. “What is the calf mooing? Medb asked his herdsman, whose name was Buaigle. “I know that, my good father Fergus, said Bricriu, it is the couplet you sang in the morning. At this Fergus cast a sidelong glance and struck Bricriu on the head with his fist, so that the five men of the chessboard which were in his hand, entered Bricriu's head, and it was a lasting evil for him. “Tell me, O Buaigle, what is the bull saying? Medb asked. “Truly,” answered Buaigle, “he says if his father comes to his aid, viz. the Brown of Cualnge, he [the White-horned] would not be considered in Ai, and he would be beaten [and paraded] through the whole plain of Ai on all sides. Medb then said in the manner of an oath, "I swear by the gods by which my people swear, that I will not lie down, nor sleep on a cot or on a bed of wool, nor drink whey; I will not take care of myself, nor drink dark or white beer, and I will not taste any food until I see these two bulls fighting before my eyes. »
19. Then the men of Connaught and the dark army of the exiles entered the sid, and destroyed the sid, and brought out what was in it. And then they took Briun's crown. This is the third wondrous gift in Erinn, along with Lóegaire's coat in Armagh, and Dunlaing's shirt in Leinster in Kildare. Nera was left with his people in the sid, and has not come out until now, nor will he come out until Judgment Day.
