counsel which they took, viz. to take their three kings and to give them over to Goll Garb to stay the venom of his sword.
Thus they were until the next morning. ‘Who will fight to-day?’ said Finn. ‘We will,’ said Oisín and Oscur mac Oisín, ‘and the nobles of the clann Baiscne with us, for we get the best portion of the pleasures of Erinn, and we must in the first place defend her.’ Ballcán (i.e. Vulcan) the king of France answers the challenge of the clann Baiscne: ‘for it is against them,’ he says, ‘that I have come to Erinn[1], and they will now fall by me, and Finn himself the last, for when one has cut off the branches of the tree, it is not hard to fell the tree itself.’—The fight between Ballcán and his four red battalions against the clanna Baiscne is then described, and the narrative is then complete in Rawl. until the second gap at l. 560, which is supplied by the Egerton version as follows:—
‘The king of the men of Cepda with his people has fallen through Cairbre. Then Finn wants to fight Daire Donn himself in single combat, but Cáilte mac Ronáin asks to have the fighting of that day for himself. Finn grants this, if Cáilte can find a sufficient battalion to accompany him. The other heroes at once offer their assistance. Finn himself gives him one hundred “shields,” Oisín the same number, Goll Garb six hundred, and so on. Tornn Trénbuillech, the son of the king of Spain, answers the challenge of Cáilte, who had killed his father. They attack each other. Suddenly they see a large fleet entering the harbour, which Finn thinks to be auxiliaries of the foreigners. But Oisín looking at them says: “Seldom before wast thou mistaken in thy knowledge, my father, but those are Fíachra, the son of the king of the Bretons, and the Breton fiann, and Duabán Donn, the son of the king of Thomond, with his own people.” The fleet went ashore and saw the banner and standard of Cáilte inclining before the king of Spain. At that they all hasten to the aid of Cáilte, and the king and all his men are slain. Then Fergus Finnbél goes on board the ship of the high-king, and arranges for a great fight between the kings on the third day. And he went through the length of Erinn and especially to the house of Tadg mac Núadat, the grandfather of Finn mac Cumaill, whose wife was Caelúr the daughter of the king of the Land of the White Men. And
- ↑ He was the Menelaus of this war, Finn having eloped with his wife and daughter at the same time, see l. 21 in the Rawl. version.
