And he tried
hard to follow after her, and made every attempt, and cried out with
grief and rage, but he had no power to move, and when he could hear his
mother no more he fell on the grass and his wits went from him. And when
he awoke it is on the side of the hill he was, where the hounds found
him. And he searched a long time for the place where he was brought up,
but he could not find it.
And the name the Fianna gave him was Oisin, and it is he was their maker
of poems, and their good fighter afterwards.
CHAPTER V. THE BEST MEN OF THE FIANNA
And while Oisin was in his young youth, Finn had other good men along
with him, and the best of them were Goll, son of Morna, and Caoilte, son
of Ronan, and Lugaidh's Son.
As to Goll, that was of Connacht, he was very tall and light-haired, and
some say he was the strongest of all the Fianna. Finn made a poem in
praise of him one time when some stranger was asking what sort he was,
saying how hardy he was and brave in battle, and as strong as a hound or
as the waves, and with all that so kind and so gentle, and open-handed
and sweet-voiced, and faithful to his friends.
And the chessboard he had was called the Solustairtech, the Shining
Thing, and some of the chessmen were made of gold, and some of them of
silver, and each one of them was as big as the fist of the biggest man
of the Fianna; and after the death of Goll it was buried in Slieve
Baune.
And as to Caoilte, that was a grey thin man, he was the best runner of
them all.
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