er the front
of the huge iron towers on wheels, so that this it was that checked the
swift course and the great, hasty onslaught of the well-grounded,
swiftly-moving, mighty chariots. The three stout, strong, battle-proof
towers on wheels careered over rough places and over obstacles, over rocks
and over heights. There coursed the thirty entire chargers, powerful,
strong-backed, four abreast, the equal of ninety entire chargers, with
[W.5622.] manes more than big, bold[a] and leaping, with sack-like,
distended nostrils, high-headed, towering, over-powering, wonderful, so
that they shook with their ramping the thick shell of the sad-sodded
earth. They flecked the plain behind them with the foam dripping from the
[1]swift[1] Danish steeds, from the bits and bridles, from the traces and
tracks of the huge, maned, mighty[b] steeds, greater than can be told! They
excited strife with their din of arms. They plunged headlong in their
swift impatience. They aroused great terror at their accoutrement, at their
armour, at their cunning, at their power, at their hugeness, at their
destructive, terrible, hostile vengeance on the four grand, proud provinces
of Erin. Amazing to me was their appearance because of the unwontedness of
their trappings both in form and in garb. Three wonderful flights of birds
with variety of appearance hovered over them. The first flock was all red,
the second flock was white as swans, the third flock as black as ravens.
Three red-mouthed, crow-shaped demons of battle sped around them as swift
as hares, circling the three wheeled towers, and this is what they
prophesied:--

"Sheaves[c] of battle,
Might of quelling,
Ill of war-deeds,
Sating of foul ravens!
Sodden ground, blood-red;
Men low in dust;
Sheaves[c] on sword-blades!"

[6-6] The following passage, to page 342, is taken from Stowe and
H. 1. 13; it is not found in LL.

[1-1] H. 1. 13 and Add. 18,748.

[2-2] That is, the movable towers.

[a] Following the emendation _bairnech_, suggested by Windisch.

[1-1] H. 1. 13.

[b] Following the emendation _moradbal_, suggested by Windisch.

[c] That is, the layers of the slain.

"They wheeled about and brought them twelve[d] battle-pillars of thick,
huge, iron pillars. As thick as the middle of a warrior's thigh, as tall as
a champion's spear was each battle-fork of them, and they placed four forks
under each [W.5646.] wheeled-tower.