THE HOUSE of CROM DUV
by Padraic Colum · from The King of Ireland's Son
Adapted Version
Once, there was a boy named Flann. He wanted to know his kin. Flann went on a big trip. He wanted to find out. He walked to a house. Three old women lived there. Flann wanted to ask them. He asked about his mother. He wanted to ask about his father. He walked a long way. He felt brave.
Flann came to a big river. He saw The fish man. The fish man dried his nets. Flann asked the river's name. The fish man said it had two names. He said people used other names. "Watch out," The fish man said. "Use the right name." "People like names." Flann listened. He thanked The fish man.
Flann came to the house. It was dark. He knocked on the door. "Who is there?" she asked. Flann went inside. Three old women sat by the fire. "I am Flann," he said boldly. "Who are my mother and father?" he asked. He showed a special mark. It was on his chest. He held his special stick.
The old women looked at Flann. "Help us," one old woman said. "Move this big stone." Flann was strong. He lifted the stone. A strange, noisy bird flew out. It flapped its wings. Flann felt very sleepy. He closed his eyes.
The old women talked. "The Big Man needs help," one said. "Flann can go." "He will get berries," one said. "Special berries from a tree." They woke Flann. "Go with the Big Man," they said. "You will be his helper."
The Big Man came. He was very tall. Flann walked with him. They walked to a big house. It had a tall fence. A big, sleepy bull watched them. The bull guarded the house. Flann felt a little scared.
Flann stayed in the courtyard. He watched the Big Man. The Big Man did many things. Flann met a kind girl. Her name was Morag. Many yellow cats were there. They watched a special tree.
Flann helped the Big Man. He helped around the house. Morag talked to Flann. "Look at the big ditch," she said. "It has yucky water." "It goes all around the house." Flann looked at the ditch.
One day, the Big Man went away. Morag looked at Flann. "Now is your chance," she said. She made bird shadows. The cats looked at the shadows. They did not watch Flann. Flann ran very fast.
Flann came to the big ditch. It had yucky water. Rory the Fox was there. "Hello, Flann," said Rory. "I can help you." Rory found a big leaf. "Use this," he said. "It will keep you safe." Flann used the leaf. He crossed the ditch.
Flann was free. He walked far away. But Flann felt alone. He missed Morag. He wanted his friend. "I must go back," he thought. "I must help Morag." Flann turned around.
Flann went back to the ditch. He crossed the yucky water. He climbed the tall fence. Morag was waiting there. The yellow cats watched him. They saw Flann this time.
"Come with me, Morag," Flann said. "We can go with me." Morag looked sad. "I cannot go," she said. "I need two berries." "From the special tree," she said.
"Come inside, Flann," Morag said. "I will tell you." "I have a special job." Flann went inside with Morag. They were near again. A new trip was starting.
Original Story
THE HOUSE OF CROM DUV
I
The story is now about Flann. He went through the East gate of the Town of the Red Castle and his journey was to the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth where he might learn what Queen and King were his mother and his father. It is with the youth Flann, once called the Gilly of the Goatskin, that we will go if it be pleasing to you, Son of my Heart. He went his way in the evening, when, as the bard said:—
The blackbird shakes his metal notes
Against the edge of day,
And I am left upon my road
With one star on my way.
And he went his way in the night, when, as the same bard said:—
The night has told it to the hills,
And told the partridge in the nest,
And left it on the long white roads,
She will give light instead of rest.
And he went on between the dusk and the dawn, when, as the same bard said again:—
Behold the sky is covered,
As with a mighty shroud:
A forlorn light is lying
Between the earth and cloud.
And he went on in the dawn, when as the bard said (and this is the last stanza he made, for the King said there was nothing at all in his adventure):—
In the silence of the morning
Myself, myself went by,
Where lonely trees sway branches
Against spaces of the sky.
And then, when the sun was looking over the first high hills he came to a river. He knew it was the river he followed before, for no other river in the country was so wide or held so much water. As he had gone with the flow of the river then he thought he would go against the flow of the river now, and so he might come back to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places he had traveled from.
He met a Fisherman who was drying his nets and he asked him what name the river had. The Fisherman said it had two names. The people on the right bank called it the Day-break River and the people on the left bank called it the River of the Morning Star. And the Fisherman told him he was to be careful not to call it the River of the Morning Star when he was on the right bank nor the Daybreak River when he was on the left, as the people on either side wanted to keep to the name their fathers had for it and were ill-mannered to the stranger who gave it a different name. The Fisherman told Flann he was sorry he had told him the two names for the River and that the best thing he could do was to forget one of the names and call it just the River of the Morning Star as he was on the left bank.
Flann went on with the day widening before him and when the height of the noon was past he came to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places he had traveled from. He went on with the bright day going before him and the brown night coming behind him, and at dusk he came to the black and burnt place where the Hags of the Long Teeth had their house of stone.
He saw the house with a puff of smoke coming through every crevice in the stones. He went to the shut door and knocked on it with the knocking-stone.
“Who’s without?” said one of the Hags.
“Who’s within?” said Flann.
“The Three Hags of the Long Teeth,” said one of the Hags, “and if you want to know it,” said she, “they are the runners and summoners, the brewers and candle-makers for Crom Duv, the Giant.”
Flann struck a heavier blow with the knocking-stone and the door broke in. He stepped into the smoke-filled house.
“No welcome to you, whoever you are,” said one of the three Hags who were seated around the fire.
“I am the lad who was called Gilly of the Goatskin, and whom you reared up here,” said he, “and I have come back to you.”
The three Hags turned from the fire then and screamed at him.
“And what brought you back to us, humpy fellow?” said the first Hag.
“I came back to make you tell me what Queen and King were my mother and father.”
“Why should you think a King and Queen were your father and mother?” they said to him.
“Because I have on my breast the stars of a son of a King,” said Flann, “and,” said he, “I have in my hand a sword that will make you tell me.”
He came towards them and they were afraid. Then the first Hag bent her knee to him, and, said she, “Loosen the hearthstone with your sword and you will find a token that will let you know who your father was.”
Flann put his sword under the hearthstone and pried it up. But if it were a token, what was under the hearthstone was an evil thing—a cockatrice. It had been hatched out of a serpent’s egg by a black cock of nine years. It had the head and crest of a cock and the body of a black serpent. The cockatrice lifted itself up on its tail and looked at him with red eyes. The sight of that head made Flann dizzy and he fell down on the floor. Then it went down and the Hags put the hearthstone above it.
“What will we do with the fellow?” said one of the Hags, looking at Flann who was in a swoon on the floor.
“Cut of his head with the sword that he threatened us with,” said another.
“No,” said the third Hag. “Crom Duv the Giant is in want of a servant. Let him take this fellow. Then maybe the Giant will give us what he has promised us for so long—a Berry to each of us from the Fairy Rowan Tree that grows in his courtyard.”
“Let it be, let it be,” said the other Hags. They put green branches on the fire so that Crom Duv would see the smoke and come to the house. In the morning he came. He brought Flann outside, and after awhile Flann’s senses came back to him. Then the Giant tied a rope round his arms and drove him before him with a long iron spike that he had for a staff.
II
Crom Duv’s arms stretched down to his twisted knees; he had long, yellow, overlapping horse’s teeth in his mouth, with a fall-down under-lip and a drawn-back upper-lip; he had a matted rug of hair on his head. He was as high as a haystack. He carried in his twisted hand an iron spike pointed at the end. And wherever he was going he went as quickly as a running mule.
He tied Flann’s hands behind his back and drew the rope round Flann’s body. Then he started off. Flann was dragged on as if at the tail of a cart. Over ditches and through streams; up hillsides and down into hollows he was hauled. Then they came into a plain as round as the wheel of a cart. Across the plain they went and into a mile-deep wood. Beyond the wood there were buildings—such walls and such heaps of stones Flann never saw before.
But before they had entered the wood they had come to a high grassy mound. And standing on that grassy mound was the most tremendous bull that Flann had ever seen.
“What bull is that, Giant?” said Flann.
Flann’s heart, I tell you, sank, when he saw the bull that guarded Crom Duv’s house. They went through the deep wood then, and came to the gate of the Giant’s Keep. Only a chain was across it, and Crom Duv lifted up the chain. The courtyard was filled with cattle black and red and striped. The Giant tied Flann to a stone pillar. “Are you there, Morag, my byre-maid?” he shouted.
“I am here,” said a voice from the byre. More cattle were in the byre and someone was milking them.
There was straw on the ground of the courtyard and Crom Duv lay down on it and went to sleep with the cattle trampling around him. A great stone wall was being built all round the Giant’s Keep—a wall six feet thick and built as high as twenty feet in some places and in others as high as twelve. The wall was still being built, for heaps of stones and great mixing-pans were about. And just before the door of the Keep was a Rowan Tree that grew to a great height. At the very top of the tree were bunches of red berries. Cats were lying around the stems of the tree and cats were in its branches—great yellow cats. More yellow cats stepped out of the house and came over to him. They looked Flann all over and went back, mewing to each other.
The cattle that were in the courtyard went into the byre one by one as they were called by the voice of the byre-maid. Crom Duv still slept. By and by a little red hen that was picking about the courtyard came near him and holding up her head looked Flann all over.
When the last cow had gone in and the last stream of milk had sounded in the milking-vessel the byre-maid came into the courtyard. Flann thought he would see a long-armed creature like Crom Duv himself. Instead he saw a girl with good and kind eyes, whose disfigurements were that her face was pitted and her hair was bushy. “I am Morag, Crom Duv’s byre-maid,” said she.
“Will Crom Duv kill me?” said Flann.
“No. He’ll make you serve him,” said the byre-maid.
“And what will he make me do for him?”
“He will make you help to build his wall. Crom Duv goes out every morning to bring his cattle to pasture on the plain. And when he comes back he builds the wall round his house. He’ll make you mix mortar and carry it to him, for I heard him say he wants a servant to do that.”
“I’ll escape from this,” said Flann, “and I’ll bring you with me.”
“Hush,” said Morag, and she pointed to seven yellow cats that were standing at Crom Duv’s door, watching them. “The cats,” said she, “are Crom Duv’s watchers here and the Bull of the Mound is his watcher out-side.”
“And is this Little Red Hen a watcher too?” said Flann, for the Little Red Hen was watching them sideways. “The Little Red Hen is my friend and adviser,” Morag, and she went into the house with two vessels of milk.
Crom Duv wakened up. He untied Flann and left him free. “You must mix mortar for me now,” he said. He went into the byre and came out with a great vessel of milk. He left it down near the mixing-pan. He went to the side of the house and came back with a trough of blood.
“What are these for, Crom Duv?” said Flann. “To mix the mortar with, gilly,” said the Giant. “Bullock’s blood and new milk is what I mix my mortar with, so that nothing can break down the walls that I’m building round the Fairy Rowan Tree. Every day I kill a bullock and every day my byre-maid fills a vessel of milk to mix with my mortar. Set to now, and mix the mortar for me.”
Flann brought lime and sand to the mixing-pan and he mixed them in bullock’s blood and new milk. He carried stones to Crom Duv. And so he worked until it was dark. Then Crom Duv got down from where he was building and told Flann to go into the house.
The yellow cats were there and Flann counted sixteen of them. Eight more were outside, in the branches or around the stem of the Rowan Tree. Morag came in, bringing a great dish of porridge. Crom Duv took up a wooden spoon and ate porridge out of vessel after vessel of milk. Then he shouted for his beer and Morag brought him vessel after vessel of beer. Crom Duv emptied one after the other..Then he shouted for his knife and when Morag brought it he began to sharpen it, singing a queer song to himself.
“He’s sharpening a knife to kill a bullock in the morning,” said Morag. “Come now, and I’ll give you your supper.”
She took him to the kitchen at the back of the house. She gave him porridge and milk and he ate his supper. Then she showed him a ladder to a room above, and he went up there and made a bed for himself. He slept soundly, although he dreamed of the twenty-four yellow cats within, and the tremendous Bull of the Mound outside Crom Duv’s Keep.
III
This is how the days were spent in the house of Crom Duv. The Giant and his two servants, Flann and Morag, were out of their beds at the mouth of the day. Crom Duv sounded his horn and the Bull of the Mound bellowed an answer. Then he started work on his wall, making Flann carry mortar to him. Morag put down the fire and boiled the pots. Pots of porridge, plates of butter and pans of milk were on the table when’ Crom Duv and Flann came in to their breakfasts. Then, when the Giant had driven out his cattle to the pasture Flann cleaned the byre and made the mortar, mixing lime and sand with bullock’s blood and new milk. In the afternoon the Giant came back and he and Flann started work on the wall.
All the time the twenty-four yellow cats lay on the branches of the Rowan Tree or walked about the court-yard or lapped up great crocks of milk. Morag’s Little Red Hen went hopping round the courtyard. She seemed to be sleepy or to be always considering something. If one of the twenty-four yellow cats looked at her the Little Red Hen would waken up, murmur something, and hop away.
One day the cattle came home without Crom Duv. “He has gone on one of his journeys,” said Morag, “and will not be back for a night and a day.”
“Then it is time for me to make my escape,” said Flann.
“How can you make your escape, my dear, my dear?” said Morag. “If you go by the front the Bull of the Mound will toss you in the air and then trample you into the ground.”
“But I have strength and cunning and activity enough to climb the wall at the back.”
“But if you climb the wall at the back,” said Morag, “you will only come to the Moat of Poisoned Water.” “The Moat of Poisoned Water?” “The Moat of Poisoned Water,” said Morag. “The water poisons the skin of any creature that tries to swim across the Moat.”
Flann was downcast when he heard of the Moat of Poisoned Water. But his mind was fixed on climbing the wall. “I may find some way of crossing the poisoned water,” he said, “so bake my cake and give me provision for my journey.”
Morag baked a cake and put it on the griddle. And when it was baked she wrapped it in a napkin and gave it to him. “Take my blessing with it,” said she, “and if you escape, may you meet someone who will be a better help to you than I was. I must keep the twenty-four cats from watching you while you are climbing the wall.”
“And how will you do that?” said Flann.
She showed him what she would do. With a piece of glass she made on the wall of the byre the shadows of flying birds. Birds never flew across the House of Crom Duv and the cats were greatly taken with the appearances that Morag made with the piece of glass. Six cats watched, and then another six came, and after them six more, and after them the six that watched in the Rowan Tree. And the twenty-four yellow cats sat round and watched with burning eyes the appearances of birds that Morag made on the byre-wall. Flann looked back and saw her seated on a stone, and he thought the Byre-Maid looked lonesome.
He tried with all his activity, all his cunning and all his strength, and at last he climbed the wall at the back of Crom Duv’s house. He gave a whistle to let Morag know he was over. Then he went through a little wood and came to the Moat of Poisoned Water.
Very ugly the dead water looked. Ugly stakes stuck up from the mud to pierce any creature that tried to leap across. And here and there on the water were patches of green poison as big as cabbage leaves. Flann drew back from the Moat. Leap it he could not, and swim it he dare not. And just as he drew back he saw a creature he knew come down to the bank opposite to him. It was Rory the Fox. Rory carried in his mouth the skin of a calf. He dropped the skin into the water and pushed it out before him. Then he got into the water and swam very cautiously, always pushing the calf’s skin before him. Then Rory climbed up on the bank where Flann was, and the skin, all green and wrinkled, sank down into the water.
Rory was going to turn tail, but then he recognized Flann. “Master,” said he, and he licked the dust on the ground.
“What are you doing here, Rory?” said Flann.
“I won’t mind telling you if you promise to tell no other creature,” said Rory.
“I won’t tell,” said Flann.
“Well then,” said Rory, “I have moved my little family over here. I was being chased about a good deal, and my little family wasn’t safe. So I moved them over here.” The fox turned and looked round at the country behind him. “It suits me very well,” said he; “no creature would think of crossing this moat after me.”
“Well,” said Flann, “tell me how you are able to cross it.”
“I will,” said the fox, “if you promise never to hunt me nor any of my little family.”
“I promise,” said Flann.
“Well,” said Rory, “the water poisons every skin. Now the reason that I pushed the calf’s skin across was that it might take the poison out of the water. The water poisons every skin. But where the skin goes the poison is taken out of the water for a while, and a living creature can cross behind it if he is cautious.”
“I thank you for showing me the way to cross the moat,” said Flann.
“I don’t mind showing you,” said Rory the Fox, and he went off to his burrow.
There were deer-skins and calf-skins both sides of the moat. Flann took a calf’s skin. He pushed it into the water with a stick. He swam cautiously behind it. When he reached the other side of the moat, the skin, all green and wrinkled, sank in the water.
Flann jumped and laughed and shouted when he found himself in the forest and clear of Crom Duv’s house. He went on. It was grand to see the woodpecker hammering on the branch, and to see him stop, busy as he was to say “Pass, friend.” Two young deer came out of the depths of the wood. They were too young and too innocent to have anything to tell him, but they bounded alongside of him as he raced along the Hunter’s Path. He jumped and he shouted again when he saw the river before him—the river that was called the Daybreak River on the right bank and the River of the Morning Star on the left. He said to himself, “This time, in troth, I will go the whole way with the river. A moving thing is my delight. The river is the most wonderful of all the things I have seen on my travels.”
Then he thought he would eat some of the cake that Morag had baked for him. He sat down and broke it. Then as he ate it the thought of Morag came into his mind. He thought he was looking at her putting the cake on the griddle. He went a little way along the river and then he began to feel lonesome. He turned back, “I’ll go to Crom Duv’s House,” said he, “and show Morag the way to escape. And then she and I will follow the river, and I won’t be lonesome while she’s with me.”
So back along the Hunter’s Path Flann went. He came to the Moat of Poisoned Water. He found a deer-skin and pushed it into the water and then swam cautiously across the moat. He climbed the wall then, and when he put his head above it he saw Morag. She was watching for him.
“Crom Duv has not come back yet,” said she, “but oh, my dear, my dear, I can’t prevent the yellow cats from watching you come over the wall.”
First six cats came and then another six and they sat round and watched Flann come down the wall. They did nothing to him, but when he came down on the ground they followed him wherever he went.
“You crossed the moat,” said Morag, “then why did you come back?”
“I came back,” said Flann, “to bring you with me.”
“But,” said she, “I cannot leave Crom Duv’s house.”
“I’ll show you how to cross the moat,” said he, “and we’ll both be glad to be going by the moving river.”
Tears came into Morag’s eyes. “I’d go with you, my dear,” said she, “but I cannot leave Crom Duv’s house until I get what I came for.”
“And what did you come for, Morag?” said he.
“I came,” said she, “for two of the rowan berries that grow on the Fairy Rowan Tree in Crom Duv’s court-yard. I know now that to get these berries is the hardest task in the world. Come within,” said she, “and if we sit long enough at the supper-board I will tell you my story.”
They sat at the supper-board long, and Morag told
Story DNA
Plot Summary
Flann, a young man seeking his royal parentage, confronts the Hags of the Long Teeth, who trick him and hand him over to the monstrous Giant Crom Duv as a servant. Imprisoned in Crom Duv's fortified keep, Flann befriends the byre-maid Morag and learns of the many dangers guarding the Giant's domain. With Morag's help and the cunning advice of Rory the Fox, Flann escapes the keep and crosses a deadly moat. However, feeling lonely in his newfound freedom, Flann returns to rescue Morag, only to discover she has her own perilous quest: to obtain magical berries from the Fairy Rowan Tree within Crom Duv's courtyard.
Themes
Emotional Arc
uncertainty to determination to self-sacrifice
Writing Style
Narrative Elements
Cultural Context
Padraic Colum was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival, often drawing on Irish folklore and mythology for his stories, imbuing them with a distinct Gaelic flavor and poetic language.
Plot Beats (14)
- Flann, the Gilly of the Goatskin, journeys to the Hags of the Long Teeth to learn his parentage.
- He encounters a Fisherman who warns him about the river's two names, emphasizing local customs.
- Flann reaches the Hags' house, breaks in, and demands to know his parents, showing a king's star-mark and a sword.
- The Hags trick him into lifting a hearthstone, releasing a cockatrice, which causes him to swoon.
- The Hags decide to give Flann to Crom Duv the Giant as a servant in exchange for berries from the Fairy Rowan Tree.
- Crom Duv, a monstrous giant, drags Flann to his heavily fortified keep, guarded by the Bull of the Mound.
- Flann is tied up in the courtyard, observes the Giant's routine, and meets Morag, the byre-maid, and the twenty-four yellow cats guarding the Rowan Tree.
- Flann works for Crom Duv, building a wall, and learns about the Moat of Poisoned Water from Morag.
- When Crom Duv is away, Morag helps Flann escape by distracting the cats with bird shadows.
- Flann reaches the Moat of Poisoned Water and learns from Rory the Fox how to cross it using an animal skin to absorb the poison.
- Flann crosses the moat and finds freedom, but feels lonely and decides to return for Morag.
- He recrosses the moat and climbs the wall, where Morag is waiting, but the cats are now aware of his presence.
- Flann expresses his desire to take Morag with him, but she reveals she cannot leave until she obtains two berries from the Fairy Rowan Tree.
- Morag invites Flann inside to tell him her story, implying the immense difficulty of her task.
Characters
Flann
A young man, once known as 'Gilly of the Goatskin,' implying a humble or rugged upbringing. He is strong enough to wield a sword effectively and climb walls. The Hags refer to him as 'humpy fellow,' which might indicate a slight stoop or an insult rather than a physical deformity.
Attire: Initially, implied to be simple, perhaps a goatskin garment from his past name. Later, he carries a sword, suggesting a more capable, if still practical, attire suitable for a journey.
Wants: To discover his true parentage (a King and Queen) and to escape Crom Duv's servitude. Later, to rescue Morag.
Flaw: Can be easily tricked or overwhelmed by magical creatures (like the cockatrice), and his compassion can lead him back into danger.
Begins as a quest for self-identity and freedom, then evolves into a quest for escape and the rescue of a companion, showing growth in compassion and selflessness.
Determined, courageous, curious about his origins, resourceful (using the fox's method), compassionate (returning for Morag), and somewhat naive (falling for the cockatrice trap).
First Hag of the Long Teeth
One of three hags, implied to be ancient and withered. Her most distinguishing feature is 'long teeth.' She is capable of screaming and bending her knee in fear.
Attire: Implied to be simple, dark, and practical garments, perhaps made of rough wool or homespun fabric, suitable for living in a smoke-filled stone house.
Wants: To serve Crom Duv and receive the promised Berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree. To keep Flann from discovering his parentage.
Flaw: Fear of Flann's sword and the power it represents; subservience to Crom Duv.
Remains static, a representation of the oppressive past Flann must escape.
Cruel, cunning, fearful when threatened, subservient to Crom Duv, and greedy (desiring a Berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree).
Crom Duv
A giant as high as a haystack. His arms stretch down to his twisted knees. He has long, yellow, overlapping horse's teeth, a fall-down under-lip, and a drawn-back upper-lip. He has a matted rug of hair on his head.
Attire: No specific clothing is mentioned, implying a very primitive or natural state, perhaps just a rough hide or simple, oversized garment that blends with his rugged appearance.
Wants: To maintain his power and control over his domain and servants. He needs servants for his household tasks.
Flaw: His reliance on others for tasks, and possibly a certain predictability in his movements.
Remains static, a powerful obstacle for Flann and Morag.
Cruel, demanding, powerful, and slow to fulfill promises (regarding the berries). He treats others as property or servants.
Morag
A byre-maid, implying a strong, practical build from farm work. She is described as looking 'lonesome' and is capable of climbing walls.
Attire: Simple, practical clothing suitable for a byre-maid, likely made of coarse linen or wool in muted colors, perhaps with an apron. Her attire would be worn from labor.
Wants: To obtain two berries from the Fairy Rowan Tree in Crom Duv's courtyard, which she believes is the hardest task in the world.
Flaw: Her inability to leave Crom Duv's house until her quest is complete, which ties her to her captivity.
Begins as a captive helper, and her story is yet to be fully revealed, but she shows a strong internal drive and a potential for freedom.
Kind, helpful (aiding Flann), resourceful (using the glass to distract cats), loyal (to her quest for the berries), and somewhat melancholic due to her situation.
Rory the Fox
A red fox, cunning and cautious. He is described as having a 'little family,' indicating a mature adult.
Attire: Natural fox fur.
Wants: To protect his family from hunters and find a safe haven, which he found across the Moat of Poisoned Water.
Flaw: His need for secrecy and his fear of being hunted.
A static character who provides crucial information and assistance to Flann.
Cunning, secretive, protective of his family, and grateful when treated with respect. He is a survivor.
The Fisherman
A man who dries his nets by the river. Implied to be a local, accustomed to the river and its peculiarities.
Attire: Practical, sturdy clothing suitable for a fisherman, likely made of coarse wool or linen, possibly with a waterproof cloak or hat, in muted, natural colors.
Wants: To dry his nets and go about his daily work. To warn strangers about local customs.
Flaw: A bit overly concerned with local naming conventions.
A static character who provides exposition.
Helpful, knowledgeable about local customs, but also somewhat anxious about offending local sensibilities regarding the river's name.
The Cockatrice
A creature with the head and crest of a cock and the body of a black serpent. It has red eyes and can lift itself up on its tail.
Attire: Its natural scales and feathers.
Wants: To guard the hearthstone, or simply to exist as a malevolent creature.
Flaw: Not explicitly stated, but it is contained by the hearthstone.
A static obstacle.
Evil, dangerous (its sight makes Flann dizzy).
Locations
House of the Hags of the Long Teeth
A house of stone, black and burnt, with smoke coming through every crevice. The interior is smoke-filled, with three Hags seated around a fire. A heavy hearthstone covers a hidden evil.
Mood: Eerie, foreboding, dangerous, mysterious, oppressive.
Flann returns to confront the Hags about his parentage, discovers the cockatrice, and is taken by Crom Duv.
Crom Duv's Courtyard
A courtyard within Crom Duv's domain, featuring a Fairy Rowan Tree. It is watched by twenty-four yellow cats.
Mood: Guarded, magical (due to the tree), tense, dangerous.
Morag helps Flann escape by distracting the cats, and later Flann returns to help Morag get the rowan berries.
Moat of Poisoned Water
A very ugly, dead water moat surrounding Crom Duv's house. Ugly stakes stick up from the mud, and patches of green poison as big as cabbage leaves float on the surface.
Mood: Dangerous, repulsive, eerie, obstacle.
Flann must cross this moat to escape and later to return to Crom Duv's house, learning the trick from Rory the Fox.
Hunter's Path through the Forest
A path winding through a dense forest, where woodpeckers hammer on branches and young deer bound alongside. It leads to the river.
Mood: Liberating, natural, peaceful, joyful.
Flann experiences freedom and joy after escaping Crom Duv's domain, then decides to return for Morag.