Page 41 - Demo

Chapter One 41
embroidered with gold, upon him; a girdle with golden buckles, and studded with precious stones, around him; two golden net-work sandals with golden buckles upon him; two spears with golden sockets, and many red bronze rivets in his hand; while he stood in the full glow of beauty, without defect or blemish. You would think it was a shower of pearls that were set in his mouth; his lips were rubies; his symmetrical body was as white as snow; his cheek was like the mountain ash-berry; his eyes were like the sloe; his brows and eye-lashes were like the sheen of a blue-black lance.”
Before we leave the story of Cormac it is itting that we reference the great river Boyne which not only played played such a huge part in his life but also in the general history of Ireland. The river Boyne, in modern Irish Bóinn, was in Celtic ‘Bou-Vinda’, a combination of the two words, bó (a cow) and ionn (bright or inspiring). Hence the name of the river originally meant in full ‘she who nourishes the people like a cow, and who gives illuminating wisdom’. The source of the river was a well called the Sídh (otherworld/fairy dwelling) of Neachtan, located at Newbury House, near Carbury, in present day county Kildare. It is told that only the grizzled warrior Neachtan himself and his cupbearers could approach this well, and the eyes of anybody else who looked upon the water would burst. One day, Bóinn, the sixteen year old ‘proud and wilful’ bride of Neachtan approached the well to examine it, and as she did three mighty gushes came from it, injuring one of her feet, one of her hands, and blinding her in one eye. Terriied, she raced away from the spot, but the water rose after her and followed in her path all the way to the sea, thereby giving rise to the Boyne River. Various parts of the river are still referred to as her ‘foot’, her ‘hand’, her ‘elbow’, and the