“These people we’ve left at the Tungelig Stream
they make no distinctions between the big and the little,
the bad and the good,
the head and the hoof.
They all live like equals.
With no leaders they’ll be an easy group to take by surprise.
Why don’t we rob them?”
∞
Then the five brothers attacked the camp
and took for themselves all the cattle and food
all the people and servants
all the possessions and tents.
Then Alan the Fair spoke to her five sons and gave them this advice:
“You five were all born from one womb.
If, like the five single arrows that you held
you separate yourselves, each going alone,
then each of you can be broken by anyone.
If you are drawn together by a singular purpose
bound like the five shafts in a bundle
how can anyone break you?”
When Dobun reached the travelling camp
he saw she was indeed a good woman,
fine to look at with noble manners,
well known and respected by her own people,
given the name of Alan the Fair.
⋅ Nota Bene ⋅
(The book I’m reading is an adaptation, not a translation. Some of the translations are available for free online which is a relief since this book, regardless of the version, is very expensive. From what I could see of the little I skimmed, the differences are between styles — this is more of a poem than a prose — and the transliteration of names. I think this adaptation is easier to read and it does get the gist across. As for the actual translations, it is always worth checking out the footnotes.)
Hiraeth 