Page:Kuno Meyer - Cath Finntrága.djvu/25

Rh Murni Muncháem, the daughter of Tadg, the mother of Finn, was at that time under great affliction, and her brothers, and Labrán Lámfada, the son of Tadg mac Núadat. "Oh Caelúr," said Tadg, "which of the kings dost thou think will escape alive from this great fight?" "That is sad," said Caelúr. "If the men of the world were on one side, Daire Donn, the son of Loiscenn Lomglúnech, would overthrow them all, for his whole body consists but of one piece, and no weapons in the world will get red on him. And in the night that Daire Donn was born, his birth was announced to Vulcan, the smith of hell, and he wrought a shield and a sword in that night, and he is fated to fall by no other arms but these. And after Daire Donn had conquered the world, he obtained knowledge of those arms, and it was necessary to let him have them, and he gave them to my father to keep, and he has them now." "Oh Caelúr," said Tadg, "well mightest thou get druidical help through Labrán Lámfada, who would go thither and ask for those weapons to help the only son of thy daughter, Finn mac Cumaill." "Speak not thus," said Caelúr, "that I should aid against him who was brought up on one knee with me." However, though they talked thus, they went out to the meadow, and Labrán was sent in the shape of a great eagle, and he went across one sea to the other, until at noon the next day he reached the fort of his grandfather, the king of the Land of the White Men, and then he went in his own shape to the fort and greeted the king, and the king bade him welcome and desired him to stay. "Greater need than that is upon me," said Labrán. "The wife of a warrior of the Túatha Dé Danand has fallen in love with me, and I cannot take her without fighting for her, and to seek the loan of those weapons in thy possession have I come now." "How do I know, that it is not against the King of the World thou wilt bear them?" said the king. "Truly not so," said Labrán, "for he . . . now, as he has taken Erinn and has given his chieftaincy to the son of thy daughter, to Finn Mac Cumaill." Then the weapons were given to Labrán, and .... of stalks of luck were put into them, and they were bound with shield-straps. And he went across the same seas and reached the fort of his father between the cry of the cock and day, and the trance of death fell upon him and urine of blood flowed from him. "Oh son," said Tadg, "good is this errand which thou hast done, and nobody ever did the same distance in such a short time as