<> Deirdre Linen Hall Library 1880 Linen Hall Library Thursday, February 4, 2016 TIFF Ferg050 Manuscript Fairyland, Knocklayd, Glenariff English https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/ferg050 Linen Hall Library Linen Hall Library Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Ferg050_0.jpg LHL Archive Take this good sword of mine. There -spreads no shield Before the breast of champion of the Branch But it will pierce it ; Conor's own except : For it was forged by smiths of fairyland, And all the voices of the floods and seas When loudest raised, are welded in its rim. But in this errand that I send you on No need will either have of sword or spear. NAISI. Mount, Deirdre Sons of Fergus, ride beside ; Set forward cheerly: son of Roy, adieu ! DEIRDRE. 'Tis hard to fancy fraud behind an eye So open blue. Ride near me, Ulan Finn ; And, as our chariot glides along the mead. Tell me the mountains and the streams we pass, The lakes, the woods, and mansions by the way. What hills be these around us ? ILLAN. That, Knocklayd To rightward, girded with his chalky belt ; Lurgeden yonder, smoothly-back' d to us, But browed like frowning giant toward the sea ; And now to leftward, haunted by the fays, Glenariff's birchen bowers and clear cascade. DEIRDRE. And in the distance, glittering to the west ? ILLAN. Our silver river, that; the humming Bann. DEIRDRE. Why humming ? ILLAN. 'Tis a pretty country tale — Text