<> Conary Linen Hall Library 1880 Linen Hall Library Saturday, March 12, 2016 TIFF Ferg008 Manuscript Erin, Firewood, Cualann English https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/ferg008 Linen Hall Library Linen Hall Library Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Ferg008_2.jpg LHL Archive Poets, belike, or judges. After these Heralds, it seem'd, or high apparitors That give the world to know a great one comes He in the third car rode ; an aged man. Full-grey, majestical, of face serene. Followed by household numerous and strong, Cooks, butlers, door- wards, cup-bearers, and grooms. What heard ye ? " " From a vast hall's open doors The stroke of steel on flint at kindling fire ; And every stroke so sounded as the arm That gave it were a giant's, and every shower Of sparks it shed — as if a summer sky Lightened at eve — illumined the dusk around." " What this, good Ferragon, who best of all Knowest Erin hill and valley, things and men } " Said Ingcel. Ferragon made answer slow, (For, first, his soul said this within himself, " Oh, royal brother, that it be not thou ! ") — " I know not what may be this open hall With fire at hand unless, belike, it be Da-Derga's guest-house, which, for all who come By Cualann Street, stands open, wherein still Firewood stands stack' d and brazen cauldron hangs Slung ready, and clear water running through ; Bruidin-Da-Derga." " And the man who strikes The flint and steel to kindle fire therein ? " " I know not if it be not that he be Some king's fore-runner, sent before a king To kindle fire ere yet the king himself Text