This satire of Cairpré's was, we are assured, so virulent that it caused great red blotches to break out all over Bress's face. This in itself constituted a blemish such as should not be upon a king, and the Tuatha Dé Danann called upon Bress to abdicate and let Nuada take the throne again.
Bress was obliged to do so. He went back to the country of the Fomors, underneath the sea, and complained to his father Elathan, its king, asking him to gather an army to reconquer his throne. The Fomors assembled in council--Elathan, Tethra, Balor, Indech, and all the other warriors and chiefs--and they decided to come with a great host, and take Ireland away, and put it under the sea where the people of the goddess Danu would never be able to find it again.
At the same time, another assembly was also
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being held at Tara, the capital of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Nuada was celebrating his return to the throne by a feast to his people. While it was at its height, a stranger clothed like a king came to the palace gate. The porter asked him his name and errand.
"I am called Lugh," he said. "I am the grand-son of Diancecht by Cian, my father, and the grand-son of Balor by Ethniu, my mother."
"But what is your profession?" asked the porter; "for no one is admitted here unless he is a master of some craft."
"I am a carpenter," said Lugh.
"We have no need of a carpenter. We already have a very good one; his name is Luchtainé.
"I am an excellent smith," said Lugh.
"We do not want a smith. We have a very good one; his name is Goibniu."
"I am a professional warrior," said Lugh.
"We have no need of one. Ogma is our champion."
"I am a harpist," said Lugh.
"We have an excellent harpist already."
"I am a warrior renowned for skilfulness rather than for mere strength."
"We already have a man like that."
"I am a poet and tale-teller," said Lugh.
"We have no need of such. We have a most accomplished poet and tale-teller."
"I am a sorcerer," said Lugh.
"We do not want one. We have numberless sorcerers and druids."
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"I am a physician," said Lugh.
"Diancecht is our physician."
"I am a cup-bearer," said Lugh.
"We already have nine of them."
"I am a worker in bronze."
"We have no need of you. We already have a worker in bronze. His name is Credné."
"Then ask the king," said Lugh, "if he has with him a man who is master of all these crafts at once, for, if he has, there is no need for me to come to Tara."
So the door-keeper went inside, and told the king that a man had come who called himself Lugh the Ioldanach 1, or the "Master of all Arts", and that he claimed to know everything.
The king sent out his best chess-player to play against the stranger. Lugh won, inventing a new move called "Lugh's enclosure".
Then Nuada invited him in. Lugh entered, and sat down upon the chair called the "sage's seat", kept for the wisest man.
Ogma, the champion, was showing off his strength. Upon the floor was a flagstone so large that four-score yokes of oxen would have been needed to move it. Ogma pushed it before him along the hall, and out at the door. Then Lugh rose from his chair, and pushed it back again. But this stone, huge as it was, was only a portion broken from a still greater rock outside the palace. Lugh picked it up, and put it back into its place.
The Tuatha Dé Danann asked him to play the
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harp to them. So he played the "sleep-tune", and the king and all his court fell asleep, and did not wake until the same hour of the following day. Next he played a plaintive air, and they all wept. Lastly, he played a measure which sent them into transports of joy.
When Nuada had seen all these numerous talents of Lugh, he began to wonder whether one so gifted would not be of great help against the Fomors. He took counsel with the others, and, by their advice, lent his throne to Lugh for thirteen days, taking the "sage's seat" at his side.
Lugh summoned all the Tuatha Dé Danann to a council.
"The Fomors are certainly going to make war on us," he said. "What can each of you do to help?"
Diancecht the Physician said: "I will completely cure everyone who is wounded, provided his head is not cut off, or his brain or spinal marrow hurt."
"I," said Goibniu the Smith, "will replace every broken lance and sword with a new one, even though the war last seven years. And I will make the lances so well that they shall never miss their mark, or fail to kill. Dulb, the smith of the Fomors, cannot do as much as that. The fate of the fighting will be decided by my lances."
"And I," said Credné the Bronze-worker, "will furnish all the rivets for the lances, the hilts for the swords, and the rims and bosses for the shields."
"And I," said Luchtainé the Carpenter, "will provide all the shields and lance-shafts."
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Ogma the Champion promised to kill the King of the Fomors, with thrice nine of his followers, and to capture one-third of his army.
"And you, O Dagda," said Lugh, "what will you do?"
"I will fight," said the Dagda, "both with force and craft. Wherever the two armies meet, I will crush the bones of the Fomors with my club, till they are like hailstones under a horse's feet."
"And you, O Morrígú?" said Lugh.
"I will pursue them when they flee," she replied. "And I always catch what I chase."
"And you, O Cairpré, son of Etan?" said Lugh to the poet, "what can you do?"
"I will pronounce an immediately-effective curse upon them; by one of my satires I will take away all their honour, and, enchanted by me, they shall not be able to stand against our warriors."
"And ye, O sorcerers, what will ye do?"
"We will hurl by our magic arts," replied Mathgan, the head sorcerer, "the twelve mountains of Ireland at the Fomors. These mountains will be Slieve League, Denna Ulad, the Mourne Mountains, Bri Ruri, Slieve Bloom, Slieve Snechta, Slemish, Blai-Sliab, Nephin, Sliab Maccu Belgodon, Segais 1, and Cruachan Aigle 2".
Then Lugh asked the cup-bearers what they would do.
"We will hide away by magic," they said, "the twelve chief lakes and the twelve chief rivers of Ireland from the Fomors, so that they shall not be
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able to find any water, however thirsty they may be; those waters will conceal themselves from the Fomors so that they shall not get a drop, while they will give drink to the people of the goddess Danu as long as the war lasts, even if it last seven years." And they told Lugh that the twelve chief lakes were Lough Derg, Lough Luimnigh 1, Lough Corrib, Lough Ree, Lough Mask, Strangford Lough, Lough Læig, Lough Neagh, Lough Foyle, Lough Gara, Lough Reagh, and Márloch, and that the twelve chief rivers were the Bush, the Boyne, the Bann, the Nem, the Lee, the Shannon, the Moy, the Sligo, the Erne, the Finn, the Liffey, and the Suir.
Finally, the Druid, Figol, son of Mamos, said: "I will send three streams of fire into the faces of the Fomors, and I will take away two-thirds of their valour and strength, but every breath drawn by the people of the goddess Danu will only make them more valorous and strong, so that even if the fighting lasts seven years, they will not be weary of it.
All decided to make ready for a war, and to give the direction of it to Lugh.
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Footnotes
78:1 The principal sources of information for this chapter are the Harleian MS. 5280 entitled The Second Battle of Moytura, of which translations have been made by Dr. Whitley Stokes in the Revue Celtique and M. de Jubainville in his L’Épopée Celtique en Irlande, and Eugene O’Curry s translation in Vol. IV. of Atlantis of the Fate of the Children of Tuirenn.
78:2 Pronounced Kian.
85:1 Pronounced Ildāna.
87:1 The Curlieu Hills, between Roscommon and Sligo.
87:2 Croagh Patrick.
88:1 The estuary of the Shannon.
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