The Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh (Moytura)

The Dagda had a house in Glenn Etin in the north, and he had to meet a woman in Glenn Etin a year from that day, about Samhain (Halloween) before the battle. The river Unis of Connacht roars to the south of it. He beheld the woman in Unius in Corann, washing herself, with one of her two feet at Allod Echae (Echumech), to the south of the water, and the other at Loscuinn, to the north of the water. Nine loosened tresses were on her head. The Dagda, conversed with her, and they made a union. “The bed of the Couple” is the name of the place thenceforward. The woman that is here mentioned is the Morrigu.

Then she told the Dagda that the Fomorians would land at Mag Scetne, and that he should summon Erin’s men of art to meet her at the Ford of Unius, and that she would go into Scetne to destroy Indech son of Dea Domnann, the king of the Fomorians and would deprive him of the blood of his heart and the kidneys of his valor.

Afterwards she gave two handfuls of that blood to the hosts that were waiting at the Ford of Unius. “Ford of Destruction” became its name, because of that destruction of the king. Then that was done by the wizards, and they chanted spells on the hosts of the Fomorians.

This was a week before Samhain, and each of them separated from the other until all the men of Ireland came together on Samhain. Six times thirty hundred was their number, that is, twice thirty hundred in every third.

Then Lugh sent the Dagda to spy out the Fomorians and to delay them until the men of Ireland should come to the battle. So the Dagda went to the camp of the Fomorians and asked them for a truce of battle. This was granted to him as he asked. Porridge was then made for him by the Fomorians, and this was done to mock him, for great was his love for porridge. They filled for him the king’s cauldron, five fists deep, into which went four-scored gallons of new milk and the like quantity of meal and fat. Goats and sheep and swine were put into it, and they were all boiled together with the porridge. They were spilt for him into a hole in the ground, and Indech told him that he would be put to death unless he consumed it all; he should eat his fill so that he might not reproach the Fomorians with inhospitality.

Then the Dagda took his ladle, and it was big enough for a man and woman to lie on the middle of it. These then were the bits that were in it, halves of salted swine and a quarter of lard.

“Good food this,” said the Dagda.

At the end of the meal he put his curved finger over the bottom of the hole on mold and gravel. Sleep came upon him then after eating his porridge. Bigger than a house-cauldron was his belly, and the Fomorians laughed at it. Then he went away from them to the strand of Eba. Not easy was it for the hero to move along owing to the bigness of his belly. Unseemly was his apparel. A cape to the hollow of his two elbows. A dun tunic around him, as far as the swelling of his rump. It was moreover, long breasted, with a hole in the peak. Two brogues on him of horse-hide, with the hair outside. Behind him a wheeled fork to carry which required the effort of eight men, so that its track after him was enough for the boundary-ditch of a province. Wherefore it is called “The Track of the Dagda’s Club.”

Then the Fomorians marched till they reached Scente. The men of Ireland were in Magh Aurfolaig. These two hosts were threatening battle.

“The men of Ireland venture to offer battle to us,” said Bres son of Elotha to Indech son of Dea Domnann.

“I will fight anon,” said Indech, “so that their bones will be small unless they pay their tributes.”

Because of Lugh’s knowledge the men of Ireland had made a resolution not to let him go into battle. So his nine fosterers were left to protect him, Tollus-dam and Ech-dam and Eru, Rechtaid the White and Fosad and Fedlimid, Ibor and Sclbar and Minn. They feared an early death for the hero owing to the multitude of his arts. Therefore they did not let him forth to the fight.