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in the corner of each mantle.

A vat of intoxicating mead

was being distributed to the household.

It is there yet, its state unchanging –

it is always full.

There is too in the house a woman

who would be distinguished among the women of Eriu:

she appears with yellow hair

and great beauty and charm.

Fair and wondrous

her conversation with everyone,

and the hearts of all men break

with love and affection for her.

This woman said, then,

‘Who is that lad I do not recognize?

Come here a while if it is you,

servant of the man of Muirthemne.’

I went very slowly,

fearing for my honour.

She said to me ‘Will he come to us,

the excellent only son of Deichtine?’

A pity that son did not go himself,

with everyone asking for him;

he could have seen for himself

the great house I visited.

If I possessed all of Eriu

and the kingship of yellow Brega,

I would give it all, no bad bargain,

to live in the place I visited.

‘Good that,’ said Cú Chulaind. ‘Good, indeed, and good that you should go, for everything in that land is good,’ said Lóeg. And he spoke on about the delights of the síd:

I saw a bright and noble land

where neither lie nor falsehood is spoken.

There lives a king who reddens troops:

Labraid Lúathlám ar Cladeb.

Passing across Mag Lúada,

I was shown An Bile Buada;

At Mag Denda I seized

a pair of two-headed snakes.

As we were together,

Lí Ban said to me

‘A dear miracle it would be

if you were Cú Chulaind and not you.’

A troop of beautiful women – victory without restraint –

the daughters of Áed Abrat,

but the beauty of Fand – brilliant sound –

neither king nor queen can match.

I could enumerate, as I know them,

the descendants of sinless Adam,

and still the beauty of Fand

would find no equal.

I saw gleaming warriors

slashing with their weapons;

I saw coloured garments,

garb that was not ignoble.

I saw gentle women feasting;

I saw their daughters.

I saw noble youths

traversing the wooded ridge.

I saw musicians in the house,

playing for the women;

but for the speed with which I left,

I would have been rendered helpless.

I have seen the hill where stood

the beautiful Eithne Ingubai,

but the woman I speak of now

would deprive troops of their senses.

Cú Chulaind went to this land, then; he took his chariot, and they reached the island. Labraid welcomed him, and all the women welcomed him, and Fand gave him a special welcome. ‘What now?’ asked Cú Chulaind. Labraid answered ‘Not difficult that – we will take a turn round the assembled host.’ They went out and found the host and looked it over, and the enemy seemed innumerable. ‘Go now,’ Cú Chulaind said to Labraid, so Labraid left, but Cú Chulaind remained with the host. Two druidic ravens announced Cú Chulaind’s presence; the host perceived this and said ‘No doubt the ravens are announcing the frenzied one of Eriu.’ And the host hunted them down until there was for the birds no place in the land.

Early one morning, Echu luil went to wash his hands in a spring; Cú Chulaind spied the man’s shoulder through an opening in his mantle and cast a spear through it. Thirty-three of the host were killed by Cú Chulaind. Finally, Senach Síaborthe attacked, and they fought a great battle before Cú Chulaind killed him. Labraid came, then, and routed the entire host; he asked Cú Chulaind to desist from the slaughter, but Lóeg said ‘I fear that the man will turn his anger against us, for he has not yet had his fill of fighting. Have three vats of cold water brought, that his rage might be extinguished.’ The first vat that Cú Chulaind entered boiled over, and the second became so hot that no one could endure it, but the third grew only moderately warm.

When the women saw Cú Chulaind, Fand recited this poem:

Stately the chariot-warrior who travels the road,

though he be young and beardless;

fair the driver who crosses the plain,

at evening, to Óenach Fidgai.

The song he sings is not the music of the Síde:

it is the stain of blood that is on him;

the wheels of