Gods and Fighting Men

ip. And there were two door-keepers at Teamhair, Gamal, son of Figal, and Camel, son of Riagall. And a young man came

uachaid." "Then I am a smith." "We have a smith ourselves, Colum Cuaillemech of the Three New Ways." "Then I am a champion." "That is no use to us; we have a champion before, Ogma, brother to the king." "Question me again," he said; "I am a harper." "That is no use to us; we have a harper ourselves, Abhean, son of Bicelmos, that the Men of the Three Gods brought from the hills." "I am-a poet," he said then, "and a teller of tales." "Tha

ere is a young man at the door," he said, "and his name should be the Ildánach, the Master of all Arts, for all the things the people of your house can do, he himself is able to do every one of them." "Try him with th

de of Teamhair, as a challenge to Lugh. But Lugh hurled it back again that it lay in the middle of the king's house. He played the harp for them then, and he had them laughing and crying, till he put them asleep at the end with a sleepy tune. And when Nuada saw all the things Lugh could do, h

me out and take them. And some say the sons of Nemed in the old time, before the Firbolgs were in Ireland, passed near it in their ships, and what they saw was a tower of glass in the middle of the sea, and on the tower something that had the appearance of men, and they went against it

ve. It is the way it got that power, he was passing one time by a house where his father's Druids were making spells of death, and the window being open he looked in, and the smoke of the poisonous spells was

aughter whose name was Ethlinn; and when he heard what the Druid said, he shut her up in the tower on the island. And he put twe

es she would see men passing in the currachs, and sometimes she would see a man in her

robbery as he was used, seizing every ship that passed by,

, Goibniu and Samthainn and Cian. Cian was a lord of land, and Goibniu was the smith that had such a great name. Now Cian had a wonderful cow, the Glas Gaibhn

lding her by a halter. When he came to the forge his two brothers were there together, for Samthainn had brought some steel to

came up to him and told him he heard his two brothers that were in the forge saying to one another that they would use all his steel for their own swords, and make his of iron. "By my word," said Samthainn, "they will not deceive me so easily. Let you hold the cow,

ther, and to wander about as if his wits had left him, not knowing what way to get his cow back from Balor. At last he went to a Druid to ask an advice from

, and asked them for shelter for a high queen she was after saving from some hardship, and the women in the tower did not like to refuse a woman of the Tuatha de Danaan, and they let her and her comrade in. Then Birog by her enchantment

And as they were carrying the child across an arm of the sea, the pin dropped out, and the child slipped from the cloth into the water, and they thought he was drowned. But he was brought

the blood marks on it to this day; but it is likely it was some other man he str

the Dagda, and with Ogma; and Goibniu and Diancecht were called to them there. A full year they stopped there, making their plans together in secret, the way the Fomor would not know they were going to

t day three years, and every one of them went his own way,

re not long there before they saw an armed troop coming towards them from the east, over the plain; and there was a young man in front of the troop, i

air. And it is the way Lugh was, he had Manannan's horse, the Aonbharr, of the One Mane, under him, that was as swift as the naked cold wind of spring, and the sea was the same as dry land to her, and the rider was never killed off her back. And he had Manannan's breast-plate on him, that kept whoever was wearing it from wounds, and a helmet on his head with two beautiful precious ston

of Ireland was with the Tuatha de D

rent and taxes from the men of Ireland; and the names of the four that were the hardest and the most cruel were Eine and Eathfaigh and Coron and Compar; and the

king and all the Tuatha de Danaan stood up before them. And Lugh of the Long Hand said: "

ing harm on us," said the king, "for we would meet our own death and destruction through it." "It is too long a time you have been under this oppression," said Lugh. And with that he started up and made an attack on the Fomor, killing and wounding them, till he had made an en

ry from beginning to end, and how a young well-featured lad had come into Ireland and had killed all the tax-gathe

e young man?" said Bal

er and mine. And it was foretold," she said, "that from the time he wo

mhor, and Liath, son of Lobais, and the nine poets of the Fomor that had learning and the gift of foreknowledge, and

he Riders of the Fomor along with me, and I will give battle to this Ildánach, this master of all arts, and I will strike his head off and bring it here to you, to the g

k in them, and the two swift Luaths were sent out to gather the army to Bres. And when they w

and tie that island that is called Ireland to the back of your ships, and let the destroying water take its place, and

e wide-lying sea, and they never turned from their course till they came to the harbour of Eas Dara. And from that they sent out an army th