ts side,
Find, ye druids, in due form,
Who has set it upright there?
What host drove it in the ground?"

(A druid answers:)

"Yon forked pole--with fearful strength--
Which thou seest, Fergus, there,
One man cut, to welcome us,
With one perfect stroke of sword!

"Pointed it and shouldered it--
Though this was no light exploit--
After that he flung it down,
To uproot for one of you!

"Grenca was its name till now--
All will keep its memory--
Fork-ford[a] be its name for aye,
From the fork that's in the ford!"

[a] That is, _Ath Gabla_.

After the lay, spake Ailill: "I marvel and wonder, O Fergus, who could have
sharpened the fork and slain with such speed the four that had gone out
before us." "Fitter it were to marvel and wonder at him who with a single
stroke lopped the fork which thou seest, root and top, pointed and charred
it and flung it the length of a throw from the hinder part of his chariot,
from the tip of a single hand, so that it sank over two-thirds into the
ground and that naught save one-third is above; nor was a hole first dug
with his sword, but through a grey stone's flag it was thrust, and thus it
is geis for the men of Erin to proceed to the bed of this ford till one of
ye pull out the fork with the tip of one hand, even as he erewhile drove it
down."

"Thou art of our hosts, O Fergus," said Medb; [W.753.] [1]avert this
necessity from us,[1] and do thou draw the fork for us from the bed of the
ford." "Let a chariot be brought me," cried Fergus, [2]"till I draw it out,
that it may be seen that its butt is of one hewing."[2] And a chariot was
brought to Fergus, and Fergus laid hold [3]with a truly mighty grip[3] on
the fork, and he made splinters and [LL.fo.61a.] scraps of the chariot.
"Let another chariot be brought me," cried Fergus. [4]Another[4] chariot
was brought to Fergus, and Fergus made a tug at the fork and again made
fragments and splinters of the chariot, [5]both its box and its yoke and
its wheels.[5] "Again let a chariot be brought me," cried Fergus. And
Fergus exerted his strength on the fork, and made pieces and bits of the
chariot. There where the seventeen[a] chariots of the Connachtmen's
chariots were, Fergus made pieces and bits of them all, and yet he failed
to draw the fork from the bed of the ford. "Come now, let it be, O Fergus,"
cried Medb; "break our people's chariots no more. For hadst thou not been