Myths and Folklore of Ireland: Twenty traditional Tales of Celtic Adventure, Magic and Romance, translated directly from the original Gaelic, by Jeremiah Curtin, 1975 Random House, NY (Stories collected in 1887)
The King's son went hunting, but he saw no game all day long. Finally he sits on a hillside to rest before starting for home empty handed. He hears a whistle behind him. Turning back he sees a giant coming down the hill towards him.
The giant has a deck of cards and heartily asks if the young man can play cards. The King's son says that he can and so they agree to play. The giant asks what the stakes should be, and the King's son says they should play for two estates. He wins the game and returns home elated. His parents are very glad for him.
The next day he goes back to the same place. He doesn't have to wait long before the giant comes to play. The giant suggests that this time they play for the 500 bulls with golden horns and silver hooves that he has, against whatever cattle the young man has. So they do and the King's son wins again. His father is even happier than before when he sees the cattle.
However the King and his Queen are concerned about the situation so they send for a blind sage (Sean dall Glic) and they ask about the luck of their son. The sage says that the son will rue it if he goes a third time. But the son would not listen and went a third time.
This time the son waited a very long time and no one came. Finally he began to leave for home when the whistle sounded behind him and he saw the giant. The giant asked him if he would play that day. The son replied, yes but I have nothing to bet. The giant said, "you have your head, don't you? We'll play for each other's heads." This time the giant won and the son must come in a year and a day to the castle of the giant and surrender his head.
He returned home sad and troubled then left wandering over the kingdom for a long, long time. Finally one night he saw a light and followed it to a small house at the foot of a hill. An old woman was sitting at a fire and every tooth in her head was as long as a staff. She welcomed him to her house - saying "Son of the King of Erin." She washed his feet, gave him supper, and put him to bed. Next day she had breakfast waiting. She says, "You were with me last night; you'll be with my sister tonight, and what she tells you to do, do, or your head'll be in danger. Now take the gift I give you. Here is a ball of thread: do you throw it in front of you before you start, and all day the ball will be rolling ahead of you, and you'll be following behind winding the thread into another ball." And so he did what the old woman told him.
At the end of the day he found another light, and another house, and another old woman but her teeth were as long as a crutch. She welcomes the son of the king of erin who was with her sister last night and is with her tonight. She feeds him, puts him to bed, and gives him breakfast in the morning. She tells him, "you were with my younger sister the night before last. You were with me last night, and you will be with my elder sister tonight. Do what she says or you'll lose your head." She gives him a ball of thread, which he follows all day as before.
He comes to the eldest sister who welcomes him and treats him the same as the others had. In the morning she says that she knows about his journey. The Giant has a huge castle with 700 iron spikes around it. Each spike has the head of a king, queen, or king's son. And only the last is now empty. She tells him to follow the ball of thread she will give him to a lake. At the lake the giant's three daughters will come out to bathe as they do at noon of every day. Each will have a lily at her breast, one blue, one white, and one yellow. He must keep his eye on the yellow lily woman and not take his eyes off her. When she undresses he must steal her clothes. When they return her two sisters will laugh and make game of her. She will crouch down and say how can she go home, "If you give me my clothes I'll save you from your danger if I can."
And so the King's son follows her advice. He takes the clothes and the sisters laugh and make sport of her. They leave her there unable to go home without clothes. She crouches down, crying, "whoever took my clothes, I'll forgive him if he gives them back now, and I'll save him from the danger he is in if I can."
So he did. She tells him that her father has a deep tank of water for his death. But when her father takes him there he should go into it and wait for her to come for him. He must take no meat from the giant.
The giant offers him his evening meat but he refuses and the giant shows him to his bed for the night, which is a deep tank of water. The giant goes to his own bed tired from his day of hunting and leaves the king's son to drown. Yellow lily comes and gets him out, gives him a good meal, and a real bed for the night. In the morning she wakes him before her father rises and puts him back in the water.
The giant tells him to come out as there is a great work for him to do. There is a stable that holds 500 horses. It has not been shoveled out in 700 years. The giant's great-grandmother lost a slumber-pin (ban an suan) in the stable and it has been lost all these many years. He must have it for the giant when he returns that evening or his head will be on the 700th spike the next day.
Two shovels were brought to him to choose from, an old one and a new one. He chose the new one and went to work. But for every shovelful he threw out, two more came in. Yellow lily asked him from outside how he was doing but he said not well. So she came in and before long the stable was cleaned and she found the bar an suan. He got the pin and she fed him well.
When the giant came home the king's son gave him the pin. "Then the devil or me daughter helped you for you could not do it alone." "It was my own fine strength," replied the Prince. So the giant offered him his evening meat but he refused again and went into the tank as the night before. And Yellow lily got him out again, fed him, and put back in again before the giant woke.
The next task was to thatch the stable with birds' feathers, and no two feathers of one color or kind, or his head on the spike the next day. He was given a choice between two whistles, an old and a new one to call the birds. He took the new one and went over hill and dale whistling but not a bird came. He sat down on a hillock and cried. Yellow lily appeared at his side with a fine cloth, which she spread out. A fine meal was on it. He had not quite finished eating and drinking before the stable was thatched with bird's feathers and no two of them the same color or kind.
When the giant returned and saw the task complete he said, "then the devil or me daughter helped you." "No, it was my own fine strength that did it," replied the King's son.
That night was the same as the two before. When the giant found him still alive in the morning he gave him the third task. Below the castle is a tree 900 ft high. It has only one limb at the very top. And on the limb is a crow's nest. The tree is covered with glass from ground to nest. In the nest is one egg and that egg will be the giant's breakfast for the next day or the Prince's head on the 700th spike the next day.
The giant went hunting and the Prince tried to shake the nest but it would not move. He tried to climb but it was too slick. Yellow lily came and they ate together. Then she told him what he must do. He must take the knife that she gave him, kill her, strip the flesh from her bones, take the bones apart and use them as a ladder to climb the tree. He tells her that he can't do it. She tells him to trust her. The bones will stick to the glass as he goes. When he has the egg and climbs down he must be sure to step on each and every bone for they will come loose and he can carry them down with him. Then he must put arrange the skeleton, put back the flesh, and sprinkle it with the water from the spring and she will be alive and well.
And so he did as she told him but on his way down he missed the very last bone because it was so close to the earth at the bottom of the tree that he just stepped right over it. When Yellow Lily was alive again she said, You didn't step on each bone. Now I am lame for life, see only 9 toes."
When the giant returned home to find the task complete he said, "either the devil or me daughter helped you." "It is my own fine strength that is helping me," said the King's son. The giant released him, "I must forgive you now and your head is your own."
So the king's son left and never stopped until he was once again with his own parents who had thought he was dead. They were overjoyed and asked the sage what to do about him now. The sage suggested that they marry him off for that would stop his wandering. And so they arranged a marriage with the daughter of the King of Lochlin (Denmark).
The Prince asked that the giant and his yellow lily daughter be invited to the wedding as well and they were. On the day before the wedding there was a great feast. And the giant said that at a feast like this a man should sing a song, another tell a story, and a third play a trick. So the king of Erin sang, the king of Lochlin told a story, and the giant asked his daughter to take his place with the trick.
Yellow lily threw 2 grains of wheat in the air and there came down 2 pigeons. The cock pecked at the hen and pushed her off the table. The hen called out in a human voice - "you wouldn't do that the day I cleaned the stable for you." Then she put 2 grains of wheat on the table. The cock ate the wheat, pecked the hen, and pushed her off the table. The hen said - "you wouldn't do that the day I thatched the stable for you with birds' feathers and no two the same color or kind." The third time she put two grains of wheat on the table the cock ate both, pecked the hen, and pushed her off the table. She called out - "you wouldn't do that the day you killed me and used my bones to climb the 900 ft tree to get the crow's egg for the Giant's supper, and forgot my little toe leaving me lame for life."
The King's son said to his guests - "once when I was away I lost the key to a casket I had. I had a new key made then later found the old one. Now can you tell me what I am to do, which of the keys should I keep." The King of Lochlin said, "keep the old key for it fits the lock better and you're more used to it." "Thank you," said the King's son. "That is what I will do. So your daughter will be a guest at my wedding but it is Yellow Lily that I will marry." And all were happy.
Copyright © 2001 Kyril Oakwind