Page:Kuno Meyer - Cath Finntrága.djvu/34

6 Bran, the son of Febal, from Temair Luachra. West from the Round Hill of the Fiann, that is called Cruachan Adrann, he was that night, and he asleep there; and what awoke him was the noise of the shields splitting, and the clashing of the swords, and the striking together of the spears cutting the bodies of the true warriors, and the cries of the women and children, of the dogs and horses in the flames. And Conncrithir arose at these cries, and what he said was: ‘Great are the deeds that are done through my fault to-night,’ he said, ‘and woe to the mother that bore me, after the sleep I have made, and howbeit, Finn and the fianns of Erinn shall not see me alive after this, and I will go into the midst of the foreigners so that some of them shall fall by me or till I fall by them.’

He girded his body in his battle-array and sent the swift-pointed .... of running after the foreigners. And not far did he go when he saw three women before him on the road, each of them dressed in a warrior's armour, and he ran after them, but did not overtake them, and he put his hand under his spear to throw it. ‘Stop, O warrior,’ said a woman of them, ‘for thou knowest that it is not right for thee to redden thy arms on us (?), and we women.’ ‘Who are ye yourselves?’ said Conncrithir. ‘Three daughters of Terg the son of Dolar, from the shore of the sea Tiberias in the east are we,’ said they, ‘and we have all three fallen in love with thee from afar, and none of us loves thee less than the other; and we have come to help thee, for we knew that thou wouldst be the first man of the fianns of Erinn that would make a stand against the foreigners.’ ‘What is your help to me to be?’ said Conncrithir. ‘Our help to thee will be good,’ said they, ‘for