[9-9] Stowe and YBL. 51b, 35.

    [10-10] Stowe.

    [11-11] YBL. 51b, 36.

[W.5956.] Ferloga went his way, and he brought the sword with him in the flower of its safe-keeping, and fair flaming as a candle.  And the sword was placed in Ailill’s hand, and Ailill put it in Fergus’ hand, and Fergus offered welcome to the sword:[a] “Welcome, O Calad Colg[b] (’Hardblade’), Lete’s sword!” said he.  “Weary, O champion of Badb!  On whom shall I ply this weapon?” Fergus asked.  “On the men-of-war around thee,” Medb answered.  “No one shall find indulgence nor quarter from thee to-day, unless some friend of thy bosom find it!”

    [a] Here follows in YBL. 51b, 38-57 a difficult passage in rosc which
    I have omitted in the translation.  Only a portion of it has been
    preserved in LL. and is here translated.

    [b] Reading with Stowe, II. 1. 13, Add. and YBL. 51b, 45.

Whereupon, Fergus took his arms and went forward to the battle, [1]and he cleared a gap of an hundred in the battle-ranks with his sword in his two hands.[1] Ailill seized his weapons.  Medb seized her weapons and entered the battle. [2]The Mane seized their arms and came to the battle.  The macMagach seized their arms and came to the battle,[2] so that thrice the Ulstermen were routed before them from the north, till Cualgae[c] and sword drove them back again. [3]Or it was Cuchulain that drove the men of Erin before him, so that he brought them back into their former line in the battle.[3]

    [1-1] YBL. 52a, 6-8.

    [2-2] Stowe, and, similarly, Add.

    [c] The name of the wheeled towers described above, page 338 fl.

    [3-3] Stowe, H. 1. 13 and Add.

Conchobar heard that from his place in the line of battle, that the battle had gone against him thrice from the north.  Then he addressed his bodyguard, even the inner circle of the Red Branch:  “Hold ye here a while, ye men!” cried he; “even in the line [4]of battle[4] where I am, that I may go and learn by whom the battle has been thus forced against us thrice from the north.”  Then said his household:  “We will hold out,” said they, [5]"in the place wherein we are:[5] [W.5974.] for the sky is above us and the earth underneath and the sea round about us, [1]and[1] unless the heavens shall fall with their showers of stars on the man-face of the world, or unless the furrowed, blue-bordered ocean break o’er the tufted brow of the earth, or unless the ground yawns open, will we not move a thumb’s breadth backward from here till the very day of doom and of everlasting life, till thou come back to us!”

    [4-4] Stowe.

    [5-5] YBL. 52a, 14.

    [1-1] Stowe, H. 1. 13 and Add.