Early Irish Myths and Sagas - Jeffrey Gantz [104]
Lóegure Búadach went to watch the first night, for he was the eldest of the three. Towards morning, he saw a giant approaching out of the ocean from the west, from as far away as the eye could see. This giant was huge and ugly and terrifying; it seemed to Lóegure that he was as tall as the sky and that the glimmer of the sea was visible between his legs. He came towards Lóegure, and his fists were full of stripped oak trunks; each would have been a burden for a team of Oxen, and they had not been cut with repeated blows, either – each trunk had been severed with just one blow of a sword. The giant cast a trunk, but Lóegure let it go by; two or three more trunks were cast, but they did not even strike Lóegure’s shield, much less Lóegure himself. Lóegure in turn cast his spear at the giant and also failed. After that, the giant stretched out his hand towards Lóegure; the hand was so large that it spanned the three ridges that had been between the combatants when they were casting at each other, and it seized Lóegure. For all Lóegure’s size and excellence, he fitted in the giant’s grip like a one-year-old child, and the giant ground him between his palms the way a fidchell piece would be ground by mill stones. When Lóegure was half dead, the giant dropped him over the stronghold wall and into the ditch at the entrance to the royal house. Since there was no entrance into the stronghold, Conall Cernach and Cú Chulaind and the people inside thought that Lóegure had leapt over the stronghold wall as a challenge to the other heroes.
At the end of the following day, Conall Cernach went out to watch, for he was older than Cú Chulaind, and everything that had happened to Lóegure the previous night happened to him also. The third night, Cú Chulaind went out to watch, and it was that night that the Three Greys of Sescend Úairbéoil and the Three Cowherds of Brega and the Three Sons of Dornmár Céoil gathered to destroy the stronghold. It was also that night that, according to prophecy, the monster in the lake nearby would devour everything in the stronghold, both man and beast. Cú Chulaind watched through the night, then, and many evil things happened. At midnight, he heard a loud noise approaching. ‘Who goes there?’ he shouted. ‘If friends, let them halt; if enemies, let them flee.’ At that, the enemies raised a great shout; Cú Chulaind sprang at them, then, and nine of them fell dead to the ground. He put their heads into his watch seat, but scarcely had he sat down to watch when another nine shouted at him. He killed three nines in all and made a single heap of their heads and goods.
Night was drawing to a close, and Cú Chulaind was sad and weary when he heard the lake rising up as if it were a heavy sea. Tired as he was, his ardour would not let him remain, so he went towards the great noise, and he saw the monster – it seemed to have risen thirty cubits above the lake. The monster leapt at the stronghold and opened its mouth so wide that one of the royal houses would have fitted in its gullet. At that, Cú Chulaind remembered his coursing feat, and, leaping into the air, he circled the beast as quickly as a winnowing sieve. Then he put one hand on the monster’s neck and the other down its gullet; he tore out its heart and threw that on the ground, and the beast fell heavily from the air. Cú Chulaind then hacked away until he made mincemeat of the monster, and he took its head and put it with the pile of other heads.
Dawn was drawing on, and Cú Chulaind was wretched and broken when he saw the giant coming towards him from the western sea, just as Lóegure and Conall had seen. ‘A bad night for you,’ said the giant. ‘A worse one for you, churl!’ said Cú Chulaind. At that, the giant cast a tree trunk, but Cú Chulaind let it go by; two or three more casts were made, but they did not strike even Cú Chulaind’s shield, much less Cú Chulaind himself. Cú Chulaind in