"Rise thou, and depart from this Boar," said Conall.
"What claim wilt thou bring why I should do this?" said Ket.
"'Tis true indeed," said Conall, "thou art contending in renown with
me. I will give thee one claim only, O Ket! I swear by the oath of my
tribe that since the day that I first received a spear into my hand I
have seldom slept without the head of a slain man of Connaught as my
pillow; and I have not let pass a day or a night in which a man of
Connaught hath not fallen by my hand."
"'Tis true indeed," said Ket, "thou art a better warrior than I. Were
but Anluan here, he could battle with thee in another fashion; shame
upon us that he is not in this house!"
"Aye, but Anluan is here! "cried Conall, and therewith he plucked
Anluan's head from his belt. And he threw the head towards Ket, so
that it smote him upon the chest, and a gulp of the blood was dashed
over his lips. And Ket came away from the Boar, and Conall placed
himself beside it.
"Now let men come to contend for renown with me!" cried Conall. But
among the men of Connaught there was none who would challenge him, and
they raised a wall of shields, like a great vat around him, for in that
house was evil wrangling, and men in their malice would make cowardly
casts at him. And Conall turned to divide the Boar, and he took the
end of the tail in his mouth. And although the tail was so great that
it was a full load for nine men, yet he sucked it all into his mouth so
that nothing of it was left; and of this hath been said:
Strong hands on a cart thrust him forward;
His great tail, though for nine men a load,
Was devoured by the brave Conall Cernach,
As the joints he so gaily bestowed.
Now to the men of Connaught Conall gave nothing except the two
fore-legs of the Boar, and this share seemed to be but small to the men
of Connaught, and thereon they sprang up, and the men of Ulster also
sprang up, and they rushed at each other. They buffeted each other so
that the heap of bodies inside the house rose as high as the side-walls
of it; and streams of blood flowed under the doors.
The hosts brake out through the doors into the outer court, and great
was the din that uprose; the blood upon the floor of the house might
have driven a mill, so mightily did each man strike out at his fellow.
And at that time Fergus plucked up by the roots a great oak-tree that
stood in the outer court in the midst of it; and they all burst out of
the court, and the battle went on outside.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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