" "You are not old enough, or strong enough, boy;
your bones are too soft," said the king. And when the boy went on
asking, his father shut him up in some close place, and put twelve
young men, his foster-brothers, in charge of him.
There was great anger on the young lad then, and he said to his
foster-brothers: "It is through courage and daring my father won a great
name for himself in his young youth, and why does he keep me from
winning a name for myself? And let you help me now," he said, "and I
will be a friend to you for ever." And he went on talking to them and
persuading them till he got round them all, and they agreed to go with
him to join Finn and the Fianna. And when the king was asleep, they went
into the house where the arms were kept, and every lad of them brought
away with him a shield and a sword and a helmet and two spears and two
greyhound whelps. And they went across Ess Ruadh in the north, and
through Connacht of many tribes, and through Caille an Chosanma, the
Woods of Defence, that were called the choice of every king and the true
honour of every poet, and into Ciarraighe, and so on to the White
Strand.
And when they came there Dolar Durba was on the strand, boasting before
the men of Ireland. And Oisin was rising up to go against him, for he
said he would sooner die fighting with him than see the destruction he
was doing every day on his people. And all the wise men and the fighting
men and the poets and the musicians of the Fianna gave a great cry of
sorrow when they heard Oisin saying that.
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