for they had to struggle with the Fomori. Nemed and his sons, one of whom bore the unusual Irish name of Artur, conquered the Fomori in three or four battles, in which there fell of their leaders two called Gann and Genann, while another called Conaing (p. 262), having performed great feats of valour, survived to carry on the contest.[1] Nemed died, and the Fomori were now able to exercise great tyranny over his people; for Conaing, from whom Tor Conaing, or Conaing's Tower in Tory Island, took its name, and Morc, a name already familiar to you (p. 262), collected a fleet, by means of which they levied a heavy tribute in Erinn. This consisted in giving to them every Eve of Samhain or the Winter Calends no less than two-thirds of the children, of the corn and of the milk, besides other grievous exactions that were to be brought direct to Tory Island to More and Conaing. The warriors of the sons of Nemed mustered at length to fight the Fomori, to the number of 30,000 by land and as many by sea, and they succeeded in destroying Conaing's Tower, and in slaying Conaing himself and his sons: this is the tower described by Nennius as one of glass in the middle of the sea (p. 263). The Fomori now received reinforcements, consisting of a fleet brought from Africa by Morc; and in the battle which ensued the combatants were overwhelmed by the sea so that only a handful of the Nemedians escaped, the crew of one boat and three chiefs. After due preparations these left for the east, leaving their kinsmen under the complete tyranny of the Fomori, with Morc at their head; but there is another account more
- ↑ Keating, pp. 84-7.
