“Then I am a smith.”  “We have a smith ourselves, Colum Cuaillemech of the Three New Ways.”  “Then I am a champion.”  “That is no use to us; we have a champion before, Ogma, brother to the king.”  “Question me again,” he said; “I am a harper.”  “That is no use to us; we have a harper ourselves, Abhean, son of Bicelmos, that the Men of the Three Gods brought from the hills.”  “I am-a poet,” he said then, “and a teller of tales.”  “That is no use to us; we have a teller of tales ourselves, Ere, son of Ethaman.”  “And I am a magician.”  “That is no use to us; we have plenty of magicians and people of power.”  “I am a physician,” he said.  “That is no use; we have Diancecht-for our physician.”  “Let me be a cup-bearer,” he said.  “We do not want you; we have nine cup-bearers ourselves.”  “I am a good worker in brass.”  “We have a worker in brass ourselves, that is Credne Cerd.”

Then Lugh said:  “Go and ask the king if he has any one man that can do all these things, and if he has, I will not ask to come into Teamhair.”  The door-keeper went into the king’s house then and told him all that.  “There is a young man at the door,” he said, “and his name should be the Ildanach, the Master of all Arts, for all the things the people of your house can do, he himself is able to do every one of them.”  “Try him with the chess-boards,” said Nuada.  So the chess-boards were brought out, and every game that was played, Lugh won it.  And when Nuada was told that, he said:  “Let him in, for the like of him never came into Teamhair before.”

Then the door-keeper let him pass, and he came into the king’s house and sat down in the seat of knowledge.  And there was a great flag-stone there that could hardly be moved by four times twenty yoke of oxen, and Ogma took it up and hurled it out through the house, so that it lay on the outside of Teamhair, as a challenge to Lugh.  But Lugh hurled it back again that it lay in the middle of the king’s house.  He played the harp for them then, and he had them laughing and crying, till he put them asleep at the end with a sleepy tune.  And when Nuada saw all the things Lugh could do, he began to think that by his help the country might get free of the taxes and the tyranny put on it by the Fomor.  And it is what he did, he came down from his throne, and he put Lugh on it in his place, for the length of thirteen days, the way they might all listen to the advice he would give.

This now is the story of the birth of Lugh.  The time the Fomor used to be coming to Ireland, Balor of the Strong Blows, or, as some called him, of the Evil Eye, was living on the Island of the Tower of Glass.  There was danger for ships that went near that island, for the Fomor would come out and take them.  And some say the sons of Nemed in the old time, before the Firbolgs were in Ireland, passed near it in their ships, and what they saw was a tower of glass in the middle of the sea, and on the tower something that had the appearance of men, and they went against it with Druid spells to attack it.  And the Fomor worked against them with Druid spells of their own; and the sons of Nemed attacked the tower, and it vanished, and they thought it was destroyed.  But a great wave rose over them then, and all their ships went down and all that were in them.