The Lost Mound

The Lost Mound

A young woman named Meabh (Mave) was walking around in Ireland one day when she found a cow chewing on some grass beside a large mound in the middle of the field not too far from a hill. She got closer to the cow and noticed that some rocks and earth had fallen away and were hidden by the grassy area. Upon further inspection and as she coaxed the cow to move to another area a few feet away, she then noticed something strange as there seemed to be a stone that was different from the others, and after removing some of the plant overgrowth around the stone she found some old runes carved into the wall beside the large stone.

She had studied runes with her mother and knew what they meant. It was a strange message that read “Enter and Behold the Power Within” so she followed the pattern of the runes with her fingers. All of a sudden the large stone started to shake, moved inwards and opened into a large room inside the mound. Suddenly the sconces on the walls lit up with fire so she could see the room, and as she walked in further she could see what looked like a sarcophagus in the middle. Again she looked around and saw runes everywhere. She read what seemed to be a story-like message that spoke about who was in this tomb. It spoke of a legendary warrior princess, daughter of Úgaine Mór, (Hugony the Great), the sixty-sixth high king of Ireland. Upon reading her name, Maebh recognized it as 'Muirisc, who had been a hero in the area and had been a very important figure. There was more to the message as she moved to one of the tables made of stone to one side. It said, “place your hand here to see if you are blessed”. She found it strange, but then again she was very curious so she found the stone with a handprint area next to the message and placed her right hand on it. All of a sudden she felt a strange sensation as energy flowed through her. She suddenly felt stronger than she had ever felt. In her mind, she heard a woman's voice speaking to her in the old Celtic tongue of what sounded like Goidelic which is the old form of the modern Gaelic. Her mother had spoken to her about this as she was growing up, but she had never really studied it. Somehow now she could understand all that was said to her. The voice said “I am Muirisc and you are of my line, dearest one, one of my descendants, my power is strong within you and all you need to do is to learn to tap into it. None other, so far, has been able to find their way to me.” Meabh was surprised by all that she heard and tried to calm down as so much information was flowing through her at this moment as she tried to understand what had just happened to her.

Meabh then started to understand all that was written in that room as she moved from one area of the room to another. She came to understand that the life story of Muirisc was written within this mound. Muirisc’s voice spoke to her once more in her mind and directed her to the tomb. Muirisc said to Meabh “look on the right side of the tomb in the middle and look for the rune of power carved into the tomb” and in her mind, she saw the rune shaped like an R with a tail. Meabh then goes to the place on the tomb that Muirisc had directed her to and found the rune. When she touched it she felt the energy flow through her, into the rune of power, and all of a sudden she felt it move slightly. Then it opened revealing what looked like a cow skin pouch, but when she touched it it was very soft and she knew it was the skin of a doe. Muirisc spoke to her once more as she had seen Meabh hesitate to take the bag out of its hiding place. “Meabh, take it, this is for you, and for all the women in your line that will follow you in the future. Remember they must be from your direct line, meaning from you to your daughter and so on down the line. No one else must have access to what is inside the bag or some terrible mishap will befall them and it will be certain death for whoever takes it from you or anyone that isn’t from our direct line.” Meabh then takes the bag out of the hiding place and holds it gently in her hands.

Muirisc then said to her “open it”. Meabh opened the very soft bag of doeskin and looked inside to see a ring and a brooch which had once belonged to Muirisc. Muirisc’s voice spoke once more and said: “You must wear this ring and it will help you pass any hardship you may face and even help you defend yourself if need be, as it will be your link to me when you are out of this room. With these two items, you will be able to channel the power that flows through you and so will all the female generations to come in your direct line only.” Muirisc then said, “Once you are done in this room you must lock it all up and leave it as you found it, and each generation in your line must visit here at least once in their lives and do the same as you before they use the ring. I hope that you pass this message down exactly as I have told you.” Meabh then said, “I will honour your request Muirisc, and I will follow it to the letter.”

Meabh then closed the opening on the tomb itself and put everything back the way it was, except for the doeskin pouch and what was inside. Once she was done reading all the walls she walked out of the room and back into the real world once more. She found the cow still chewing on the grass where she had placed it. She then closed the stone door and placed the overgrowth of the grassy area back over it so as to hide the stone a little more so that it looked more as she found it.

She started to walk back to town. As she walked, she had placed the ring on, then the brooch and the feeling of power washed across her and she felt even stronger. It gave her gooseflesh and she rubbed her arms. As she walked into town she decided to take a shortcut to get home a little faster. She had been so distracted that she didn’t notice that there were two men hidden within that shortcut, and as she got closer they ambushed her and tried to pin her down to have their way with her. She fought back and to her amazement, the power of her punches was so strong that each man ended up on the ground bleeding a good distance from her. This caught them also by total surprise and they decided to run off thinking if she could do that much damage so quickly they didn’t want more as they had mistakenly thought that she was an easy mark.

She got home and was in total amazement with herself and how she was able to fight off the two men so easily. She also thought back over all that had happened that day. Time passed and just as Muirisc had said, things happened to make her life a much easier existence. She got married and had a daughter, whom she named Muirisc, and when she was old enough she told her of what had happened to her. One day Meabh went back to the mount alone and placed the ring and brooch back into the doe bag and placed it back where she had found it and hid it all once again. She then told her daughter where to go and to not fear what was to come. Muirisc did as her mother said and returned with the doeskin bag and the ring and broach. Meabh was proud of her daughter.

One day at school one of Muirisc's classmates talked Muirisc into letting her look at the ring, and out of spite, the girl put it on before Muirisc could do anything. The girls said to Muirisc. “This ring is mine now you leathcheann.” At those words, Muirisc took the ring back as the bully fell to the ground in excruciating pain and died later. Muirisc never took the ring off until she took it back to the tomb so that her daughter could get it back just as she did. And so this went on for all future generations.