From Scottish Folklore
It was said in olden days that Eirinn (Ireland) was the better chase than Albainn (Scotland); that there were many great beamed deer in it, rather than in this Albainn. It was this which used to cause the Fhinn to be so often in Eirinn; but true Albanian Gaul (Sotch highlanders) they were.
The red-haired Cairbre came in as king over the fifth part of Eirinn, at the southern end. The Fhinn were now over in Eirinn, and Fionn had dwelling-houses in every place in which it was most usual for them to stay.
The ord Fhiann (hammer of Fionn) was a bell. It was not to be struck but in time of great rejoicing, and in time of hard straits, and it could be heard in the five-fifths of Eirinn.
They had a house on the land of the red-haired Cairbre, and they came on the northern side of Eirinn to hunt.
Padruig was asking Oisean –
“Would their set of arms be on them when they went to hunt?”
Oisean said to him –
“Without our armour and our arms;
We should not go to hunt like that.
There would be arms, and stout headgear,
And in each man’s grasp were two great spears.”
When the Fhinn went to hunt to the northward, they left Osgar to keep the house, and three hundred of the old warriors with him, for they were heavy for walking. Said Oisean, when he was going to tell the old story to Padruig.
(Oisean)
“I will not style my strain, ‘my Prince,’
How sad is Oisean to-night,
Osgar and the Cairbre stalwart
Ebb away in strife of corses.
“The venomous spear in the hand of Caibre,
In anger’s hour, how baneful was it;
The raven would utter with fear,
That with it should be slain the Osgar.”
(Raven)
“It is worse,” to himself he’d say
That black raven in his craze,
“These five to be washing about a trough,
Than blood of men to be gorging us.”
(Osgar)
“Why should our own blood choke us?
What weakness is on our eyelids?
That we for such small cause should weep.”
(Washerwoman)
“The raven will croak to-morrow early
Upon thy cheek in the field of battle;
From the socket thine eye shall be forced;
Out of this thus much will come.”
Said one of the old warriors, as she saw the hue of the blood on the water that she had washing the clothes of Osgar:
“Surely it is a shroud thou washest
Red is the look that is upon it,
But until this day had come,
That shroud’s spaeing was not evil.”
(Osgar)
“Thou witch there thy clothes that washest,
Make for us a sure soothsaying;
By us shall a man of them fall,
Ere that we all go to nothing?”
(She)
“Five hundred by thee shall die;
Wounded by thee the king’s self;
Thus much, and a man of law (cut) off,
Off the world all that came.”
(Osgar)
“Let him not hear thee, Rasg MacRuaidh,
Nor one that belongs to his people’
Let not the Een hear thee this night,
Lest we be spiritless all.”
(Oisean)
“Heard ye of the raid of Een,
The time he wended to Eirinn;
There came the fierce Carbre of spears,
And grasped all Eirinn under sway.
“Away went we with eager hurry,
As many Feen as were of us;
We laid our army and our people
On the northern side of Eirinn.
“There was sent down by Cairbre
Word for Feene’s hardy Osgar,
To go down to the Feen’s cariousal,
And he would get his cess according.
“He rose who never baulked a foeman,
The beauteous Osgar to the king’s hearth,
Three hundred stalwart men with him,
To answer his will and need.
“We found honour, we found food,
As we ever before had found;
We were merrily within,
With Cairbre in the house of the king.”
(Cairbre)
“Upon the last drinking day,”
Said the Cairbre with a voice so high,
“An exchange of spear-shafts I’d like from thee,
Thou brown Osgar of the Alba.”
(Osgar)
“What shaft’s exchange wouldst thou wish,
Thou red-haired Cairbre of the ports of ships?
Oft were my spear and myself with thee,
In the day of battle and combat (free).”
(Cairbre)
“I’d need no less than cess and kain
From any warrior your shores within,
And I’d need no less for my life’s term,
Than to get as I ask for it every arm.”
(Osgar)
“In south, there’s nor gold nor precious thing,
That might be asked from us by the king,
Without dishonour or disgrace,
That were not thing, oh Tjeearnai’’s.”
“But exchange of shafts without head’s exchange,
That were unjust to demand from us;
The reason thou hast asked it is,
That I am without Een and father.”
(Cairbre)
“Although the Feene and thy father
Were as good as they were ever;
I’d need no less for my life’s term,
Than to get as I ask for it every arm.”
(Osgar)
“Were but the Feene and my father
As well in life as they were ever;
That thou scarcely shouldst win
Thy dwelling’s breadth in Eirinn.”
(Oisean)
“Coldness fell on the warrior’s keen,
At hearing the skirmishing;
There were rough vows bandied there,
Between the Cairbre and the Osgar.”
(Cairbre)
“I will give a lasting vow,”
So would say the red-haired Cairbre,
That he’d plant the seven-edge spear
Between his reins and his navel.
“Another vow against that,”
So would say the Osgar valiant,
That he’d plant the nine-edged spear
About the shaping of face and hair.”
(Reciter)
“The Cairbre had a place made in a pillar of rock, and
there could not be a bit of him out but his face.
“That lasting vow, then; that lasting vow,”
So would say the red-haired Cairbre,
That he would bring chase and sorrow
To Albainn upon the morrow.
“Another vow against that,”
So would say the Osgar valiant,
that he’d plant the nine-edged spear
About the shaping of face and hair.
“That night we were without aid,
Hither and thither about the river;
There was an isthmus in the midst;
There was a great isthmus betwixt us.
“An oola was heard with a soft voice,
On a sweet-toned harp, bewailing death;
Up rose Osgar in heavy wrath,
And seized his arms in his mighty grasp.
“Uprose we upon the morrow,
The whole of our people, as many as we were;
We raised a raid upon Silabh Goill,
So swiftly, actively, strongly.
“When we arrived there within
The pass of combat of the narrow glen,
Then warmed the Cairbre high,
Brandishing, and coming to meet us.
“Five score of Gaidhael fierce,
That came to land in time of storm;
These fell yonder by the hand of Osgar,
‘Tis a rousing for the King of Eirinn.
“Give score of men and bows
That came to Cairbre’s succour;
These fell yonder by the hand of Osgar,
‘Tis a rousing for the King of Eirinn.
“Seven score of men or war,
That came from the snowy shore;
These fell yonder by the hand of Osgar,
The shame is for the king of Eirinn.
“Seven score men of gray glaives,
That never went backwards a single pace,
There fell yonder, by the hand of Osgar,
The shame is for the King of Eirinn.
“Four hundred of might men,
That came to use from the Lion’s land,
These fell yonder, by the hand of Osgar –
The shame is for the King of Eirinn.
“Five score of a royal breed,
Whose birthright was valour and great deeds,
These fell yonder, by the hand of Osgar,
The shame is for the King of Eirinn.
“Mangan MacSeire, who was a foe
That could combat a hundred gray glaives,
That one fell yonder, by the hand of Osgar –
The shame is for the King of Eirinn.
“The fivew who were nearest the king
Of great valour and deeds,
These fell yonder, by the hand of Osgar –
The shame is for the King of Eirinn.
“When the red-haired Cairbre saw
Osgar a-hewing the people,
The envenom’d dart in his hand
He let it off to meet him.
Osgar fell on his right knee,
And the deadly spear through his waist;
He gave another cast thither,
And the King of Eirinn was slain by him.”
(Cairbre)
“Arise Art, and grasp thy glaive,
And stand in the place of my father;
And if thou get;st thy due of the world,
I’ll think that thou art a king’s son.”
(Oisean)
“He gave another cast aloft,
Its height appeared to us sufficient;
There fell by him, by his aim’s greatness,
Art MacCairbre at the next spear cast.”
(Reciter)
“The Cairbre was dead, and Osgar was upon his knees,
And the spear through him. Cairbre had a ceap made
Against the rock, and they put the ceap (helmet) on the
crag, so that Osgar might think he was alive.”
(Oisean)
“They set about the king his ceap,
Cairbtre’s people, rough in fight,
That they might reap the fruit of the field,
When they sat that Osgar was wounded.
“He lifted a slab from a hard plain,
From off the earth of the ruddy side;
He broke the pillar on which was the ceap,
The last deed of my worthy son.”
(Osgar)
“Raise me now with you, Eanna,
Never before have you lifted me;
Take me now to a clear mound,
That you may strip off me my armour.”
(Oisean)
“There was heard at the northern strand,
Shouts of people and edge of arms;
Our warriors suddenly started,
Before that Osgar was yet dead.”
(Osgar)
“Death’s shrouds be about thee, thou victory’s son,
A second time will thou lie to us;
These are my grandsire’s ships,
And they are coming with succour to us.”
(Oisean)
“We all gave blessing to Fionn:
What though he saluted not us
Until we reached the hillock of tears,
Where was Osgar of the keen arms.”
(Reciter)
“Fionn could heal any wound that might be on any
being in the Een, unless there should be poison in it.”
(Fionn)
“Worse, my son, wert thou for it,
The battle-day of Bein Eidinn;
The sickles might float through thy waist,
It was my hand that made thy healing.”
(Osgar)
“My healing does not increase,
No more shall it be done for ever;
The Cairbre planted the seven-edged spear
Between my reins and my navel.
“I planted the nine-edged spear
About the shaping of his face and hair;
The deep sting in my right side,
The leech has no skill to heal it.”
(Fionn)
“Worse, my son, wert thou for it,
On the battle day of Dun Dealgan;
The geese might float through thy waist,
It was my hand that made thy healing.”
(Osgar)
“My healing does not increase,
No more shall it be done for ever;
The Cairbre planted the seven edge spear
Between my reins and my navel.
“I planted the nine edged spear
About the shaping of his face and hair;
The deep sting in my right side,
The leech has no skill to heal it.”
(Oisean)
“That was the time that Fionn went
Up to the mound above him;
The tears streamed down from his eyelids,
And he turned his back to us.”
(Fionn)
“My own calf, thou calf of my calf,
Thou child of my fair tender child,
My heart is bounding like an elk,
Not till the last day, rises Osgar.
“The whining of the hounds by my side,
And the wailing of the ancient warriors,
The crying of women in turns –
These were the things that pierced my heart-strings.
“So it was that I ever thought
No fleshly heart was in my breast;
But a heart of the holly spikes,
All over-clad with steel.
“Pity it was not I that fell
In the battle of Corses, not scarce in deeds;
And thou in the east and the west ward,
Thou’dst be before the Fiantan Osgair.”
(Conan)
“Although it had been thou that fell
In the battle of Corses, not scarce in deeds;
Alas! In the east or the west ward,
Groaning for thee would not be Osgar.”
(Oisean)
“We raised with us lovely Osgar,
On shoulders and on lofty spear shafts;
We had a glorious carrying
Until we reached the house of Fionn.
“No wife would weep her own son,
No man bewail his brother kind;
As many as we were around the house,
We were all bewailing Osgar.”
(Fionn)
“Death of Osgar that tortured my heart,
Eirinn’s men’s lord, our mighty loss;
Where in thy time was ever seen,
One so hardy behind a blade.”
(Oisean)
“Fionn never gave over trembling and woe,
From that day till the day of for ever;
He would not take, and he would not desire,
A third of his life though I should say.”
Source:
Popular Tales of the West Highlands, J.F. Campbell, Volume 3, 1892
Kotharian Lightning 