XX THE BATTLE OF VENTRV. 



counsel which they took, viz. to take their three kings and to give them 

 over to GoU Garb to stay the venom of his sword. 



Thus they were until the next morning. ' Who will fight to-day?' 

 said Finn. ' We will/ said Oisfn and Oscur mac Oisfn, 'and the nobles 

 of the clann Baiscne with us, for we get the best portion of the pleasures 

 of Erinn, and we must in the first place defend her.' Ballcan (i. e. Vulcan) 

 the king of France answers the challenge of the clann Baiscne : ' for it 

 is against them/ he says, ' that I have come to Erinn ^, and they will now 

 fall by me, and Finn himself the last, for when one has cut offtlie branches 

 of the tree, it is not hard to fell the tree itself.' Tlie fight between 

 Ballcan and his four red battahons against the clanna Baiscne is then 

 described, and the narrative is then complete in Rawl. until tlie second 

 gap at 1. 560, which is supplied by tlie Egerton version as follows : 



' The king of the men of Cepda with his people has fallen through 

 Cairbre. Then Finn wants to fight Daire Donn himself in single combat, 

 but Cailte mac Ronain asks to have the fighting of that day for himself. 

 Finn grants this, if Cailte can find a sufficient battalion to accompany him. 

 The other heroes at once offer their assistance. Finn himself gives him 

 one hundred' "shields," Oisin the same number, GoU Garb six hundred, 

 and so on. Tornn Trenbuillech, the son of the king of Spain, answers 

 the challenge of Cailte, who had killed his father. They attack each 

 other. Suddenly they see a large fleet entering the harbour, which Finn 

 thinks to be auxiliaries of the foreigners. But Oisin looking at them 

 says : " Seldom before wast thou mistaken in thy knowledge, my father, 

 but those are Fiachra, the son of the king of the Bretons, and the 

 Breton fiann, and Duaban Donn, the son of the king of Thomond, with 

 his own people." The fleet went ashore and saw the banner and 

 standard of Cailte inclining before the king of Spain. At that they 

 all hasten to the aid of Cdilte, and the king and all his men are slain. 

 Then Fergus Finnbel goes on board the ship of the high-king, and 

 arranges for a great fight between the kings on the third day. And he 

 went through the length of Erinn and especially to the house of Tadg 

 mac Nuadat, the grandfather of Finn mac Cumaill, whose wife was 

 Caeliir the daughter of the king of the Land of the White Men. And 



' He was the Menelaus of this war, Finn having eloped with his wife and daughter 

 at the same time, see 1. 21 in the Rawl. version. 



