ilenn!

"We laid waste shrewd German's fort
O'er the broad, bespangled sea.
German we brought home alive
To our Scathach of broad shield!

"Then our famous nurse made fast
Our blood-pact[a] of amity,
That our angers should not rise
'Mongst the tribes of noble Elg!

"Sad the morn, a day in March,
Which struck down weak Daman's son.
Woe is me, the friend is fall'n
Whom I pledged in red blood's draught![a]

"Were it there I saw thy death,
Midst the great Greeks' warrior-bands,
I'd not live on after thee,
But together we would die!

"Woe, what us befel therefrom,
Us, dear Scathach's fosterlings,
Me sore wounded, red with blood,
Thee no more to drive thy car!

"Woe, what us befel therefrom,
Us, dear Scathach's fosterlings,
Me sore wounded, stiff with gore,
Thee to die the death for aye!

"Woe, what us befel therefrom,
Us, dear Scathach's fosterlings,
Thee in death, me, strong, alive.
Valour is an angry strife!"

[b] That is, Ferbaeth.

[c] That is, as prisoners.

[a] Referring to the Celtic custom of binding an alliance by each of
the parties thereto drinking the blood of the other.

"Good, O Cucuc," spake Laeg, "let us leave this ford now; too long are we
here!" "Aye, let us leave it, O my master Laeg," replied Cuchulain. "But
every combat and battle I have fought seems a game and a sport to me
compared with the combat and battle of Ferdiad." Thus he spake, and he
uttered these words:--

[W.4164.] "All was play, all was sport,
Till came Ferdiad to the ford!
One task for both of us,
Equal our reward.
Our kind, gentle nurse
Chose him over all!

"All was play, all was sport,
Till came Ferdiad to the ford!
One our life, one our fear,
One our skill in arms.
Shields gave Scathach twain
To Ferdiad and me!

"All was play, all was sport,
Till came Ferdiad to the ford!
Dear the shaft of gold[a]
I smote on the ford.
Bull-chief of the tribes,
Braver he than all!

"Only games and only sport,
Till came Ferdiad to the ford!
Lion, furious, flaming, fierce;
Swollen wave that wrecks like doom!

"Only games and only sport,
Till came Ferdiad to the ford!
Loved Ferdiad seemed to me
After me would live for aye!
Yesterday, a mounta