INTRODUCTION. xxi 



Murni Munchaem, the daughter of Tadg, the mother of P^inn, was at 

 that time under great afifliction, and her brothcrs. and Labran Lamfada, 

 the son of Tadg mac Nuadat. " Oh Caclur," said Tadg, " which of the 

 kings dost thou think will cscape aUve from this great fight? " "That 

 is sad," said Caelur. " If the men of the world werc on one side, Daire 

 Donn, the son of Loiscenn Lomghuiech, w^ould 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 w^rought 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 

 Caelur," said Tadg, " well mightest thou get druidical help through 

 Labran Lamfada, who would go thither and ask for those weapons 

 to help the only son of thy daughter, Finn mac Cumaill," " Speak not 

 thus," said Caelur, " 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 Labran 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 Labran. " The wife of a warrior of the Tuatha 

 De 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 thcm ? " said the king. " Truly not so," said 

 Labran, " for he . . . now, as he has taken Erinn and has givcn his 

 chieftaincy to the son of thy daughter, to Finn Mac Cumaill." Then the 

 weapons were given to Labran, 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 evcr did the same distance in such a short time as 



