“And that is my story, Patrick, and I have told you no lie in it,” said Oisin.  “And O Patrick,” he said, “if I was the same the day I came here as I was that day, I would have made an end of all your clerks, and there would not be a head left on a neck after me.”

“Go on with your story,” said Patrick, “and you will get the same good treatment from me you got from Finn, for the sound of your voice is pleasing to me.”

So Oisin went on with his story, and it is what he said:  “I have nothing to tell of my journey till I came back into green Ireland, and I looked about me then on all sides, but there were no tidings to be got of Finn.  And it was not long till I saw a great troop of riders, men and women, coming towards me from the west.  And when they came near they wished me good health; and there was wonder on them all when they looked at me, seeing me so unlike themselves, and so big and so tall.

“I asked them then did they hear if Finn was still living, or any other one of the Fianna, or what had happened them.  ’We often heard of Finn that lived long ago,’ said they, ’and that there never was his equal for strength or bravery or a great name; and there is many a book written down,’ they said, ’by the sweet poets of the Gael, about his doings and the doings of the Fianna, and it would be hard for us to tell you all of them.  And we heard Finn had a son,’ they said, ’that was beautiful and shining, and that there came a young girl looking for him, and he went away with her to the Country of the Young.’

“And when I knew by their talk that Finn was not living or any of the Fianna, it is downhearted I was, and tired, and very sorrowful after them.  And I made no delay, but I turned my face and went on to Almhuin of Leinster.  And there was great wonder on me when I came there to see no sign at all of Finn’s great dun, and his great hall, and nothing in the place where it was but weeds and nettles.”

And there was grief on Oisin then, and he said:  “Och, Patrick!  Och, ochone, my grief!  It is a bad journey that was to me; and to be without tidings of Finn or the Fianna has left me under pain through my lifetime.”

“Leave off fretting, Oisin,” said Patrick, “and shed your tears to the God of grace.  Finn and the Fianna are slack enough now, and they will get no help for ever.”  “It is a great pity that would be,” said Oisin, “Finn to be in pain for ever; and who was it gained the victory over him, when his own hand had made an end of so many a hard fighter?”

“It is God gained the victory over Finn,” said Patrick, “and not the strong hand of an enemy; and as to the Fianna, they are condemned to hell along with him, and tormented for ever.”

“O Patrick,” said Oisin, “show me the place where Finn and his people are, and there is not a hell or a heaven there but I will put it down.  And if Osgar, my own son, is there,” he said, “the hero that was bravest in heavy battles, there is not in hell or in the Heaven of God a troop so great that he could not destroy it.”