And
Tadg's wife Liban, daughter of Conchubar Abratrudh of the Red Brows, and
his two brothers, and a great many of the people of Munster, were taken
by the foreigners and brought away to the coasts of Fresen. And Cathmann
took Liban to be his own wife, and he put hardship on Tadg's two
brothers: Eoghan he put to work a common ferry across a channel of the
coast, and Airnelach to cut firing and to keep up fires for all the
people; and all the food they got was barley seed and muddy water.
And as to Tadg himself, it was only by his courage and the use of his
sword he made his escape, but there was great grief and discouragement
on him, his wife and his brothers to have been brought away. But he had
forty of his fighting men left that had each killed a man of the
foreigners, and they had brought one in alive. And this man told them
news of the country he came from. And when Tadg heard that, he made a
plan in his own head, and he gave orders for a curragh to be built that
would be fit for a long voyage. Very strong it was, and forty ox-hides
on it of hard red leather, that was after being soaked in bark. And it
was well fitted with masts, and oars, and pitch, and everything that was
wanting. And they put every sort of meat, and drink, and of clothes in
it, that would last them through the length of a year.
When all was ready, and the curragh out in the tide, Tadg said to his
people: "Let us set out now on the high sea, looking for our own people
that are away from us this long time.
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