And that was the
end for that time of the little quarrel at Almhuin.
But it broke out again, one time there was a falling out between Finn
and Goll as to the dividing of a pig of the pigs of Manannan. And at
Daire Tardha, the Oak Wood of Bulls, in the province of Connacht, there
was a great fight between Finn's men and the sons of Morna. And the sons
of Morna were worsted, and fifteen of their men were killed; and they
made their mind up that from that time they would set themselves against
any friends of Finn or of his people. And it was Conan the Bald gave
them that advice, for he was always bitter, and a maker of quarrels and
of mischief in every place.
And they kept to their word, and spared no one. There was a
yellow-haired queen that Finn loved, Berach Brec her name was, and she
was wise and comely and worthy of any good man, and she had her house
full of treasures, and never refused the asking of any. And any one that
came to her house at Samhain time might stay till Beltaine, and have his
choice then to go or to stay. And the sons of Morna had fostered her,
and they went where she was and bade her to give up Finn and she need be
in no dread of them. But she said she would not give up her kind lover
to please them; and she was going away from them to her ship, and Art,
son of Morna, made a cast of his spear that went through her body, that
she died, and her people brought her up from the strand and buried her.
And as to Goll, he took a little hound that Finn thought a great deal
of, Conbeg its name was, and he drowned it in the sea; and its body was
brought up to shore by a wave afterwards, and it was buried under a
little green hill by the Fianna.
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