eatest toil, [2]this, greatest toil,[2]
Battle with the Hound of gore!
Liefer would I battle twice
With two hundred men of Fal!

"Sad the fight, [2]and sad the fight,[2]
I and Hound of feats shall wage!
We shall hack both flesh and blood;
Skin and body we shall hew!

"Sad, O god, [2]yea, sad, O god,[2]
That a woman should us part!
My heart's half, the blameless Hound;
Half the brave Hound's heart am I!

"By my shield, [2]O, by my shield,[2]
If Ath Cliath's brave Hound should fall,
I will drive my slender glaive
Through my heart, my side, my breast!

"By my sword, [2]O, by my sword,[2]
If the Hound of Glen Bolg fall!
No man after him I'll slay,
Till I o'er the world's brink spring!

"By my hand, [2]O, by my hand![2]
Falls the Hound of Glen in Sgail,
Medb with all her host I'll kill,
And then no more men of Fal!

"By my spear, [2]O, by my spear![2]
Should Ath Cro's brave Hound be slain,
I'll be buried in his grave;
May one grave hide me and him!

[3]"Liefer would I, [2]liefer far,[2]
Arms should slay me in fierce fight,
Than the death of heroes' Hound,"[a]
Should be food for ravenous birds?[3]

"Tell him this, [2]O, tell him this,[2]
To the Hound of beauteous hue,
Fearless Scathach hath foretold
My fall on a ford through him!

[W.3149.] "Woe to Medb, [1]yea, woe to Medb,[1]
Who hath used her [3]guile[3] on us;
She hath set me face to face
'Gainst Cuchulain--hard the toil!"

[2-2] Stowe, Add. 18,748 and Eg. 209.

[3-3] YBL. 2234.

[1-1] Eg. 106, Eg. 209.

[2-2] Eg. 209.

[a] The word is illegible in the manuscript.

[3-3] Eg. 106.

[1-1] Eg. 209.

[3-3] Reading with Eg. 209.

"Ye men," spake Medb, in the wonted fashion of stirring up disunion and
dissension, [4]as if she had not heard Ferdiad at all,[4] "true is the word
Cuchulain speaks." "What word is that?" asked Ferdiad. "He said, then,"
replied Medb, "he would not think it too much if thou shouldst fall by his
hands in the choicest feat of his skill in arms, in the land whereto he
should come." "It was not just for him to speak so," quoth Ferdiad; "for it
is not cowardice or lack of boldness that he hath ever seen in me [5]by day
or by night.[5] [6]And I speak not so to him, for I have it not to say of
him.[6] And I swear by my arms [7]of valour,[