Tobar an Dualchais - Kist O Riches

Title - Mar a thachair do bhalach den ainm Iain, fhad 's a bha e a'...
Contributors - Alec Stewart
Reporters - Hamish Henderson

Summary - A boy named Iain's quest to find the king's three teeth, his maltreatment by the king's heirs and how he turned out to be the king's son.

The King of Ireland went hunting with the gentry on his estate. A little red creature appeared and said, "Who would knock out one of the king's teeth today?" The giant known as Niora-nora appeared, knocked out one of the king's teeth and left. The same thing happened next day and the day after, until the king had lost three teeth. The king took to his bed and doctors could do nothing for him.

His two sons, the heir and second in line, sailed to an island to find the missing teeth and a simple servant called Iain went with them. The island was on fire when they arrived. The heirs were afraid, but Iain put out the fire and killed a giant there.

A beautiful woman who was with the giant told him the father's teeth could be found down a hole. The others were afraid again and Iain went down the hole and came upon a copper castle. He killed everyone and cut off the head of the giant who lived there.

The giant's wife said he would have to do the same thing at the silver castle. The same thing happened there and the next giant's wife told him if he shot an arrow through a mole on the face of the king of the giants at the gold castle, it would kill him. He did that and the giant died three days later.

Iain got the king's teeth and a bottle from the fountain of youth. He also took other things such as dogs and the bright, white sword from each of the castles. He took the giants' wives too and went back up the hole to where the heirs were. They fought over the women. Finally, Iain sent a corpse up through the hole instead of himself and they let him go.

The heirs sailed away taking three foal's teeth and a bottle of dirty water with them and went home. Iain was left there with the dogs, the sword and everything else, and didn't know what to do. He saw a narrow boat being sailed by an old man. He offered him the three castles if he would take him to the King of Ireland's house. He was taken home and when the giants' wives saw him they recognised him. Iain stayed at the smith's house.

Next day the smith said a peck of gold was being wagered that no dog could beat those of one of the women in a race. Iain gave him two dogs and they won the race. The woman called the dogs to her and the smith didn't get the peck of gold or anything. The same thing happened twice more and the smith lost all Iain's dogs to the three women.

The wife of the giant from the gold castle asked the smith where he got the dogs and asked him to make her a bright, white sword or his head would be on a spike. He told Iain about this. The smith heard the anvil working during the night and next day the bright, white sword and the other things were there. He took them to the woman and she was satisfied. This happened twice more when the other women asked for more beautiful versions of the same things. The third woman threatened to put the smith's head on a spike unless he told the one who had made them to come and see her. He told Iain this.

Iain went to the castle and the heirs didn't know what to do when they saw him coming. They were trying to get the foal's teeth and the dirty water into the king's mouth. Iain took the three teeth from his pocket and the bottle from the fountain of youth. He washed out the king's mouth and put his teeth back in. The king got up, restored to health.

The wife of the giant from the gold castle threatened the king's wife until she admitted that the cook and the butler were the heirs' fathers and that Iain was the king's son. The heirs married the women from the copper and silver castles and Iain married the woman from the gold castle. The king was as well as he'd ever been.

The contributor heard the story from his mother or her brothers.

Track Duration (h:m:s) - 00:25:05
Date Recorded - 1957.06
Language - Gaelic
Genre - Story
Collection - School of Scottish Studies

Track ID - 32528
Original Tape ID - SA1957.038
Original Track ID - SA1957.38.B3+39.A1
Audio Quality - Good
Audio Format - R2R



Recording Location:
  County - Sutherland
  Parish - Tongue
  Village - Tongue

Item Notes -

Permanent Link - http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/32528/1


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