The Story of Macha Fleet-Foot
Macha Fleet-Foot was the wife of Crunnuc. It was belived that she was part sidhe, for it was said she could out run any deer, muchless any man alive. Crunnuc was attending a feast at the palace. When the King began to brag about his fine chariot and horses, Crunnuc, full of drink, began boasting his wife could race the chariot and win. The King took this as a great insult. He demanded that Crunnuc bring his wife to the royal track and they would see which the faster. Crunnuc immediatly saw the error of his ways, for his wife was about to give birth. Macha's stomach was swollen and she was to deliver any day, but to refuse the Kings challange would be further insult and possible arrest or worse. With a heavy heart and a guilty conscious Crunnuc returned home to Macha. When he told Macha of his foolish actions she grew quiet. Crunnuc beged her to runaway, to hide with the sidhe. Macha remained calm and refused. "Maby if the King see's me and my condition I can sway his heard heart," profesed Macha. After a day and nights rest the young couple returned to the castle.Both Macha and Crunnuc tried to dissuade the King, but to no good. The King ordered his best team brough out and hitched to the chariot. To make the vihicle lighter the King would take the rains himself. He was an expert driver and was very confedent of his and the horses ability. Once agin Macha raised her hand to the King. His face soften, but the chanting of the warriors watching the race wouldn't let the ruler back down. With a crack of the whip the race had begun. Macha ran gracefuly, her long strides pulling her well ahead of the chariot. It was said even the grass held it's breath watching Macha run. The King whipped it's horses with all his might, but they were no match for Macha Fleet-Foot. With every stride she pulled forword. There were warriors surrounding the race track but none reached out to help the woman as she ran by. Every one saw her face as the first pains began. As they crossed the finish line Macha doubled over. Than, as all stared, the woman raised her head. Pain streched her mouth into a hideous shape. The tendons on her neck stood out like ropes. Macha screamed, such a scream as no man there had heared befor. The laboring woman cried out, "You think you have power, you puling men? Watch, and I awill show you real power!" She was livid with hatred for the men that surrounded her. She flung her wordes like arrows across the crowd. Than she began to change. As the painess proggressed Macha became a creature like the earth benieth her feet, indifferent to man, consumed by the life within itself. On the racecourse of Emain Macha, on a sunny day when birds were singing and trumpet flowers blooming, there stood the living embodyment of the creator and destroyer. The mother goddess in the form of Sheela-na-Gig; hideous, sickening. One more scream tore from the creature that was once Macha Fleet-Foot, then there was a great rush of blood and she gave birth to a pair of twins. In the face of her anguish, the crowd had grown silent. Her voice tore the silence apart. Crouching over her babes on the bloodied earth, she cried, "Shame on your beards, men of Ulster! You would not take pity on me, so I shall have no pity for you. From this day, I curse you. You will learn the hard way what every woman knows. In times of great danger, every fighting man in this kingdom will be afflicted with the agony of the birthing pangs. You will then be at the mercy of your enemies as I have been at your mercy. I call this curse to last for nine nights and nine days unto the ninth generation. As each warrior's son sprouts his first beard hairs, he too will become subject to the pangs." MachaFleet-Fooot gathered her twins in her arms and fled into the forest, which was renamed the Sorrowful Forest from then on. Her curse remained though for nine generations.