Once
Finn and his men reached Alba they made fast the ship to the mooring posts of
the harbor, and Finn with five of his people went to the stronghold of the king
of Alba, and Finn struck the knocker upon the door. The doorkeeper asked who was
there; and it was told him that Finn mac Cumaill was there. "Let him be
admitted," said the king. Finn was thereupon admitted, and he himself and
his people went before he king. A kindly welcome was given to Finn by the king,
and he caused Finn to sit down in his own seat. Thereafter were given to them
mead mild and pleasant to drink, and strong fermented liquors, and the king set
to fetch the rest of the people of Finn, and he made them welcome in the
stronghold. Then Finn told the king the cause and matter for which he was a come
from the beginning to end, and that it was to seek counsel and aid against
Diarmuid O'Duibne that he was then come. " And truly thou oughtest to give
me an army, for Diarmuid it was that slew thy father and thy two brothers and
many of thy chiefs likewise."
"That
is true," said the king, " and I will give thee my own two sons and a
host of a thousand about each man of them." Joyful was Finn at the soldiers
that the king of Alba had given him, and Finn with his people took leave and
farewell of the king and of his household, and left them good wishes for life
and health, and the king sent the same on with the fian. Finn and his company
went their way, and no tidings are told of them until they reached the Brug upon
the Boyne, and he and his people went ashore. After that Finn sent messengers to
the house of Angus of the Brug to proclaim battle against Diarmuid.
"What
shall I do about this, O Oscar?" said Diarmuid.
"We
will both of us give them battle, and destroy them , and rend their flesh, and
not suffer a servant to escape alive of them, but we will slay them all,"
said Oscar.
The
next morning Diarmuid and Oscar rose, and harnessed their fair bodies in their
suits of arms of valor and battle, and those two mighty heroes went their way to
the place of that combat, and woe to those, either many or few, who might meet
those two good warriors in anger. Then Diarmuid and Oscar bound the rims of
their shields together that they might not separate from one another in the
fight. After that they proclaimed battle against Finn, and then the soldiers of
the king of Alba said that they and their people would go to strive with them
first. They came ashore forthwith, and rushed to meet and to encounter them, and
Diarmuid passed under them, through them , and over them, as a hawk would go
through small birds, or a whale through small fish, or a fox through a large
flock of sheep; and such was the dispersion and terror and scattering that those
good warriors wrought upon the strangers, that not a man to tell tidings or to
boast of great deeds escaped of them ,but all of them fell by Diarmuid and by
Oscar before the night came, and they themselves were smooth and free from hurt,
having neither cut nor wound. When Finn saw that great slaughter, he and his
people returned out to sea, and no tidings are told of them until they reached
Tir Tairngire (fairyland), where Finn's nurse was. Finn came to her, and she
received him joyfully. Finn told the cause of his travel and of his journey to
the hag from first to last, and the reason of his strife with Diarmuid, and he
told her that it was to seek counsel from her that he was then come; also that
no strength of a host or a multitude could conquer Diarmuid, if perchance magic
alone might not conquer him. "I will go with thee," said the hag,
" and I will practice magic against him." Finn was joyful threat, and
he remained with the hag that night; and they resolved to depart on the morrow.
Now
it is not told how they fared until they reached the Brug upon the Boyne, and
the hag threw a spell of magic about Finn and the fian, so that the men of Erin
knew not that they were there. It was the day before hat Oscar had parted from
Dairmuid, and Diarmuid chanced to be hunting and chasing on the day that the hag
concealed the fian. This was a revealed to the hag, and she caused herself to
fly by magic upon the leaf of a water Lilly having a hole in the middle of it,
in the fashion of the quern-stone of a mill, so that she rose with the blast of
the pure cold wind and came over Diarmuid, and began to aim at and strike him
through the hole with deadly darts, so that she wrought the hero great hurt in
the midst of his weapons and armor, and that he was unable to escape, so greatly
was he oppressed; and every evil that had ever come upon him was little compared
to that evil. What he thought in his own mind was, that unless he might strike
the hag through the hole that was in the leaf she would cause his death upon the
spot; and Diarmuid laid him upon his back having the Gae Derg in his hand, and
made a triumphant cast of exceeding courage with the javelin, so that he reached
the hag through the hole, and she fell dead upon the spot. Diarmuid beheaded her
there and then and took her head with him to Angus of the Brug.
Diarmuid
rose early on the morrow, and Angus rose and went where Finn was, and asked him
whether he would make peace with Diarmuid. Finn said that he would, in whatever
way Diarmuid would make peace. Then Angus went where the king of Erin was to ask
peace for Diarmuid, and Cormack said that he would grant him that. Again Angus
went where Diarmuid and Grainne were, and asked Diarmuid whether he would make
peace with Cormack and with Finn. Diarmuid said that he would if he obtained the
conditions which he should ask of them. " What are those conditions?"
said Angus.
"The
district," said Diarmuid, " which my father had, that is the district
of O'Duibne, Finn shall not hunt nor chase therein, and it must be free of rent
or tribute to the king of Erin; also the district of Benn Damuis, that is,
Dubcarn in Leinster as a gift for myself from Finn, for it is the best district
in Erin; and the district of Ces Corann from the high king of Erin as dowry with
his daughter; and those are the conditions upon which I would make peace with
them."
"Wouldst
thou make peace on those conditions if thou wert to get them?" asked Angus.
"I
could better bear to make peace by getting those conditions." Said Diarmuid.
Then Angus went with those tidings to where the king of Erin and Finn were, and
he got those conditions from him every one, and they forgave Diarmuid all he had
done as long as he had been outlawed, namely for the space of sixteen years; and
Cormac gave his other daughter for wife and mate to Finn, that he might let
Diarmuid be, and so they made peace with each other; and the place that Diarmuid
and Grainne settled in was Rath Grainne in the district of Ces Corann, far from
Finn and from Cormac. Then Grainne bore Diarmuid four sons and one daughter;
namely, Donnead, Eochaid, Connla, Selbsercach, and Druime; and he gave the
district of Benn Damuis, that is, Dubearn in Leinster, to the daughter, and he
sent attendants to server her there. They abode a long time fulfilling the terms
of the peace with each other, and people used to say that there was not living
at the same time with him a man richer in gold and silver ,in kine and
cattle-herds and sheep, and who made more successful raids, than Diarmuid.