Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

The Metrical Dindshenchas (Author: [unknown])

poem 41

Crotta Cliach

1. Here a man of the fairies made music,
   Cliach of the harp sweet sounding:
   he met a horror, amid the charm of his noble chant,
   at his timely tryst with Conchend.
2. 5] He was a year, among throngs of chiefs,
   without food and without sleep:
   while the Fairy host was making music,
   the grief of woman's might was urging him.
3. Bodb, powerful prince, would not allow
   10] Cliach to approach the fairy hill of the men of Femen;
   with inquiry he divined the design,
   the wooing, the solicitation.
4. The earth opened, with plenty of delights,
   before the hosts in endless durance:
   15] more wonderful than deeds of might, a boast of journeys,
   ease among the indolent fairies.
5. At the spot where he died of terror,
   Cliach sang sweet melody;
   there seized him there suddenly, not unprotected,
   20] the loathly dragon that dwells in this place.
6. Loch Bel Dragon — fierceness of exploits,
   without mistake and without obscurity —
   a great and mighty sea in the east,
   where Cliach was, in this place made he music.

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