Stone-Grown…

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When Father Fish was… Chief-king of… the Crafty Folk… at Tara… He was called great… By the poets… But why?… It is as if chief-king were not enough?… Chief here is ‘high’… ‘Ard Roi’… Is high-king… But even so… Were his deeds great?… Like Alfred… Or Alexander… Even though Alex’s were not so great… Fancy cutting the Gordian Knot… When asked to figure out how to untie it?… Doh!… And Alfred… Well he burned bannocks… So he was clearly not such a great cook!… ‘Great’ applied to Father Fish by the poets… Applies to size… He was… A giant!… He is a giant too… In the Second Battle of Moytura…

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And in that tale… He is employed… By pirates… To build things… Presumably stone things… Though wood as well… Because he is so big and strong… It is difficult to disassociate him… From stones… In the folk record… At least… And, well… The folk record… Usually knows best… How it really happened… Moytura… Is a field… Or plain… Of towers… Or pillars… That is… Standing Stones… But this battle… Is later… If time can be said to play a part… His sons… Of which… There are several… Seem always to be associated with barrows… Long or short… More stones… In fact… But this time… Covered with earth.

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And before… We get… To the tale… Proper… Some thoughts… Which rushed in… Largely unbidden… Stone-Grown… Is a pun… As you will see… But you are meant… To groan… When hearing a pun… It is the expected form… Of response… But for how long?… And decreed… By whom?… And why?… Those questions… We will leave with you… So… Stone-Grown… Begets Stone-Thrown… Which begets… Home-Grown… And in this time of new generations… This might be salient… And calls to mind the phrase… A stones throw away meaning quite close… But who taught the stone to throw things away?