bodies of the slain.

[c] 'Of Erin,' Eg. 93.

[b] 'Eight and twenty,'. Eg. 93 and H. 2. 17.

Over him he put on the outside his battle-girdle of a champion, of tough,
tanned, stout leather cut from the forequarters of seven ox-hides of
yearlings, so that it reached from the slender parts of his waist to the
stout part under [W.2562.] his arm-pits. He was used to wear it to keep off
spears and points and irons and lances and arrows. For in like manner they
would bound back from it as if from stone or rock or horn they rebounded.
Then he took his silken, glossy trews with their band of spotted pale-gold
against the soft lower parts of his loins. His brown, well-sewn kilt of
brown leather from the shoulders of four ox-hides of yearlings, with his
battle-girdle of cow-skins, he put underneath over the shining silken trews
on the outside, [1]so that it covered him from the slender part of his
waist to the thick part of his thighs and reached up to the battle-belt of
the hero.[1] Then the king-hero [LL.fo.77a.] [2]and king-warrior[2] seized
his battle-arms of battle and fight and combat. This is what belonged to
those warlike weapons of battle: He took his eight little swords together
with the bright-faced, tusk-hilted straightsword [3]along with his
quiver;[3] he took his eight little spears besides his five-pronged
spear; he took his eight little darts together with his javelin with its
walrus-tooth ornaments; he took his eight little shafts along with his
play-staff; he took his eight shields for feats together with his dark-red
bent-shield, whereon a show-boar could lie in its hollow boss, with its
very sharp, razor-like, keen-cutting, hard [4]iron[4] rim all around it, so
that it would cut a hair against the stream because of its sharpness and
fineness and keenness. When the young warrior would perform the edge-feat
withal, it was the same whether he cut with his shield or his spear or his
sword. Next he put round his head his crested war-helm of battle and fight
and combat, [5]wherein were four carbuncle-gems on each point and each end
to adorn it,[5] whereout was uttered the cry of an hundred young warriors
with the long-drawn wail from each of its angles and corners. [W.2583.]
For this was the way that the fiends, the goblins and the sprites of the
glens and the demons of the air screamed before and above and around him,
what time he went forth for the shedding of blood of heroes and champions,
[1]exulting in