Embankment
Irish Mythology
Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill: the Tuatha de Danaan
pre-12th century - present. Old Irish | Modern Irish, folklore.
She wrapped the dead body in leaves and a little while later the Lad of the Skins leapt up, as healthy and alive as he had ever been!
The Lad of the Skins and his old enemy fought as two young dogs and when they grew old they fought as two foals and when they were two old horses they changed into two fledglings and it was as birds that they managed to kill one another at last.
Fionn brought the dead bird home to the wife of the Lad of the Skins, who was a daughter of Manannan, a principal god of the Tuatha de Danaan, and she said sadly: It is dead you have brought him back to me.
She went into her boat then, cast off and carried the corpse across the sea until she saw two birds taking the dead body of another between them to an island. And when the two birds landed upon the isle, the dead one sprang up, alive again, and flew off with its companions.
When she saw this, the wife of the Lad of the Skins let the wind and tide carry her boat to the island and brought the body of her husband ashore. Then she wrapped him in leaves and a little while later the Lad of the Skins leapt up, as healthy and alive as he had ever been!
They travelled back to Ireland then, and the Lad of the Skins collected the wages that he had earned for seizing for Fionn the cauldron that never empties, and Fionn paid him his reward for that work.