Oisin, and it is he was their maker
of poems, and their good fighter afterwards.

CHAPTER V. THE BEST MEN OF THE FIANNA

And while Oisin was in his young youth, Finn had other good men along
with him, and the best of them were Goll, son of Morna, and Caoilte, son
of Ronan, and Lugaidh's Son.

As to Goll, that was of Connacht, he was very tall and light-haired, and
some say he was the strongest of all the Fianna. Finn made a poem in
praise of him one time when some stranger was asking what sort he was,
saying how hardy he was and brave in battle, and as strong as a hound or
as the waves, and with all that so kind and so gentle, and open-handed
and sweet-voiced, and faithful to his friends.

And the chessboard he had was called the Solustairtech, the Shining
Thing, and some of the chessmen were made of gold, and some of them of
silver, and each one of them was as big as the fist of the biggest man
of the Fianna; and after the death of Goll it was buried in Slieve
Baune.

And as to Caoilte, that was a grey thin man, he was the best runner of
them all. And he did a good many great deeds; a big man of the Fomor he
killed one time, and he killed a five-headed giant in a wheeling door,
and another time he made an end of an enchanted boar that no one else
could get near, and he killed a grey stag that had got away from the
Fianna through twenty-seven years. And another time he brought Finn out
of Teamhair, where he was kept by force by the High King, because of
some rebellion the Fianna had stirred up. And when Caoilte heard Finn
had been brought away to Teamhair, he went out to avenge him. And the
first he killed was Cuireach, a king of Leinster that had a great name,
and he brought his head up to the hill that is above Buadhmaic. And
after that he made a great rout through Ireland, bringing sorrow into
every house for the sake of Finn, killing a man in every place, and
killing the calves with the cows.

And every door the red wind from the east blew on, he would throw it
open, and go in and destroy all before him, setting fire to the fields,
and giving the wife of one man to another.

And when he came to Teamhair, he came to the palace, and took the
clothes off the door-keeper, and he left his own sword that was worn
thin in the king's sheath, and took the king's sword that had great
power in it. And he went into the palace then in the disguise of a
servant, to see how he could best free Finn.

And when even