Posted on 03/16/2002 10:13:40 PM PST by brat
Once there lived in Ireland a terrible chief known as Crom Dubh. He lived beside the sea, in a place known as Downpatrick, and in the spot where Crom Dubh's house once stood is a huge deep hole known as Broken Fort. It gained its name because of St. Patrick, and this is the tale.
Crom Dubh was a cruel man, but he was chief, and so he had his own way with the people. He had two sons, Teideach and Connach, and they were worse than their father. The men owned two vicious and terrible hounds. Anyone who dared approach the home to try to overthrow the chief faced an attack by the fierce dogs, and if somehow the visitor escaped the dogs, Crom Dubh prepared worse punishment. He built an enormous fire at the edge of the cliff upon which his house stood and cast his enemies into that fire.
Now many said that Crom Dubh's power came from the secret knowledge he learned from a fairy sweetheart, and though he might have used his knowledge to do good, instead he used it to do evil. He charged the people rent they could not pay, and if they failed to pay him, he cast them into the fire. He sat as judge over all the people, and no one escaped punishment. Because of Crom Dubh's wizardry, no one had the power to cast him out.
Every year things grew worse, and people cowered in fear. Whenever they heard the barking of a dog, they hid, for fear this might be Crom Dubh's hounds prepared to attack.
The people came to believe that their chief was an all powerful being who made the night dark and the day light, who changed the seasons and who ruled all that happened in the world. They believed they were forever helpless before him.
But during this time, St. Patrick began to travel through Ireland, spreading the word that no man was all powerful, not even men such as Crom Dubh. He told the people about light and dark and about the seasons, and some of the people listened to him, although some did not.
Still, when the people heard of some of Patrick's miracles, they begged him to confront their evil chief.
And so Patrick traveled to the place where Crom Dubh lived. As he neared the house, the hounds caught his scent and charged toward him.
The dog's eyes blazed bright red, smoke poured from their ears, and they were just about to seize Patrick in their frothing mouths when he chanted a prayer.
The dogs stopped in their tracks. They lay down their ears and began to wag their tails, and the fire in their eyes subsided. When Crom Dubh saw this, he could not believe his eyes, and then he grew furious when he saw the dogs begin to lick Patrick and to walk quietly behind him as he continued on his way to the house.
Crom Dubh ran to the fire, prepared to throw the man into it, but Patrick had heard of its strength. He lifted a stone he held in his hand and threw it into the flames, and in one moment the flames dipped low, and the fire burned straight through the earth below.
To this day there is a spot in the ground known as the Hole of the Old Fire. When the tide rolls in, water rushes up from the bottom of the hole and makes such a loud, rushing noise that people for miles around can hear the sound.
Well, when Crom Dubh saw that the fire was out and his dogs were tame, he and his eldest son ran to their house. Patrick continued walking toward them.
As St. Patrick approached the house, he began to talk gently and the power of the words was so great, people say, even the fairy's art could not overcome him.
Inside the house the evil man and his son shook with fury, but Patrick gave a blow of his staff to the cliff under the house, and at that moment the cliff upon which Crom Dubh's house stood separated from the mainland. To this day a broken cliff stands on that spot, a place known as Dun Briste, or Broken Fort. And Crom Dubh and his son had to stay on that cliff many yards out to sea. There, it is said, the two men died.
When Connach, the younger son, saw what had happened to his father and brother, he shook with terror. He set fire to the mountaintop, and he was, people say, consumed by that fire.
The people of that land celebrated Patrick's triumph, and they never again lived in terror. Many of the people who had not believed in Patrick's message and his miracles became believers.
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