James Baquet

In the previous part, we read how an Irishman’s actions released an enchanted princess. But the princess soon announced that she had to leave for a few days, and disappeared, despite his protests.

Soon a little fair-haired lad arrived and told him to be ready for the princess’s return at 9 the next morning. The delighted Irishman waited in the garden, but the lad stuck a pin into the back of his coat, and he fell asleep.

When the princess arrived and she asked where her betrothed was, the lad said he was sleeping. The offended princess said if he couldn’t be awake to meet her next day at 9, she would leave him forever, and again departed.

When the Irishman learned what had happened, he decided to go to bed early that night. Still, in the morning, the lad stuck him, and he slept. This time the princess left a gift for him, a sword, and left--ostensibly forever.

The angry Irishman used magic to wake the sleepers in the room below, and let them carry away as much gold and silver as they could.

But he couldn’t let go of the princess, so he set out to find her. After three years of traveling, he wished to end his life, but when he pulled out the sword she had left him, he read on its blade, “You will find me in the Blue Mountains.” But where were they? No one seemed to know.

While searching, he found an old man in a little house in the woods who was unable to answer his question, but magically transported him 900 miles to his brother’s house. The brother did not know either, but as a master of birds, he summoned them all to ask if they knew the Blue Mountains.

A great eagle arrived, from the Blue Mountains themselves, where, giving up on the Irishman’s coming, the princess was preparing to marry. The eagle would carry the Irishman there, provided he would keep feeding her as she flew. He and the old man collected 60 cattle and killed them for the task, but the supply ran out before the Irishman and the eagle reached the Blue Mountains, and she dropped him into the sea, right in front of the King’s Palace. Fortunately, the water was shallow, and he was able to walk to the shore.

He paid an old woman to fetch the princess from her ceremony, and they “were married, and had a great wedding that lasted for a year and a day.”

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. went away, left

2. boy

3. not deep

4. irritated, resentful

5. person one is engaged to

6. bring (back)

7. blonde

8. extremely happy

9. called (to)

10. supposedly, seemingly