And when the hunting was over, the chief men of the Fianna came back to where Finn was, and every one asked who was the queen that was with him.  And Finn told them her name, and what it was brought her to Ireland.  “We welcome her that made that journey,” said they all; “for there is not in Ireland or in Alban a better man than the man she is come looking for, unless Finn himself.”

And as to Lugaidh’s Son, it was on the far side of Slieve Bladhma he was hunting that day, and he was the last to come in.  And he went into Finn’s tent, and when he saw the woman beside him he questioned Finn the same as the others had done, and Finn told him the whole story.  “And it is to you she is come,” he said; “and here she is to you out of my hand, and all the war and the battles she brings with her; but it will not fall heavier on you,” he said, “than on the rest of the Fianna.”

And she was with Lugaidh’s Son a month and a year without being asked for.  But one day the three battalions of the Fianna were on the Hill of the Poet in Leinster, and they saw three armed battalions equal to themselves coming, against them, and they asked who was bringing them.  “It is Mal, son of Aiel, is bringing them,” said Finn, “to avenge his wife on the Fianna.  And it is a good time they are come,” he said, “when we are gathered together at the one spot.”

Then the two armies went towards one another, and Mal, son of Aiel, took hold of his arms, and three times he broke through the Fianna, and every time a hundred fell by him.  And in the middle of the battle he and Lugaidh’s Son met, and they fought against one another with spear and sword.  And whether the fight was short or long, it was Mal fell by Lugaidh’s Son at the last.

And Aoife stood on a hill near by, as long as the battle lasted.  And from that out she belonged to Lugaidh’s Son, and was a mother of children to him.

BOOK TWO:  FINN’S HELPERS

CHAPTER I. THE LAD OF THE SKINS

Besides all the men Finn had in his household, there were some that would come and join him from one place or another.  One time a young man wearing a dress of skins came to Finn’s house at Almhuin, and his wife along with him, and he asked to take service with Finn.

And in the morning, as they were going to their hunting, the Lad of the Skins said to Finn:  “Let me have no one with me but myself, and let me go into one part of the country by myself, and you yourself with all your men go to another part.”  “Is it on the dry ridges you will go,” said Finn, “or is it in the deep bogs and marshes, where there is danger of drowning?” “I will go in the deep boggy places,” said he.

So they all went out from Almhuin, Finn and the Fianna to one part, and the Lad of the Skins to another part, and they hunted through the day.  And when they came back at evening, the Lad of the Skins had killed more than Finn and all his men together.