ed belt
Around thee till death!

"Our comradeship dear;
Thy noble eye's gleam;
Thy golden-rimmed shield;
Thy sword,[a] treasures worth!

[4]"Thy white-silver torque
Thy noble arm binds.
Thy chess-board worth wealth;
Thy fair, ruddy cheek![4]

"To fall by my hand,
I own was not just!
'Twas no noble fight.
Alas, golden brooch!

[1]"Thy death at Cu's hand
Was dire, O dear calf![a]
Unequal the shield
Thou hadst for the strife!

"Unfair was our fight,
Our woe and defeat!
Fair the great chief;
Each host overcome
And put under foot!
Alas, golden brooch!"[1]

[1-1] Stowe.

[2-2] Stowe.

[3-3] Stowe.

[a] Reading with YBL. 39b, 31, as more intelligible than the
'chess-board' of LL., which occurs in the next stanza.

[4-4] YBL. 39b, 31-33.

[1-1] YBL. 39b, 35-39.

[a] A term of endearment which survives in Modern Irish.

[W.4092.] "Come, O Laeg my master," cried Cuchulain; "now cut open Ferdiad
and take the Gae Bulga out, because I may not be without my weapons." Laeg
came and cut open Ferdiad and he took the Gae Bulga out of him. And
Cuchulain saw his weapons bloody and red-stained by the side of Ferdiad,
and he uttered these words:--

"O Ferdiad, in gloom we meet.
Thee I see both red and pale.
I myself with unwashed arms;
Thou liest in thy bed of gore!

"Were we yonder in the East,
Scathach and our Uathach near,
There would not be pallid lips
Twixt us two, and arms of strife!

"Thus spake Scathach trenchantly (?),
Words of warning, strong and stern:
'Go ye all to furious fight;
German, blue-eyed, fierce will come!'

"Unto Ferdiad then I spake,
And to Lugaid generous,
To the son of fair Baetan,[b]
German we would go to meet!

"We came to the battle-rock,
Over Lake Linn Formait's shore.
And four hundred men we brought[c]
From the Isles of the Athissech!

"As I stood and Ferdiad brave
At the gate of German's fort,
[LL.fo.88b.] I slew Rinn the son of Nel;
He slew Ruad son of Fornel!

[W.4122.] "Ferdiad slew upon the slope
Blath, of Colba 'Red-sword' son.
Lugaid, fierce and swift, then slew
Mugairne of the Tyrrhene Sea!

"I slew, after going in,
Four times fifty grim, wild men.
Ferdiad killed--a furious horde--
Dam Dremenn and Dam D