is then Fergus of the True Lips set out again and went through the
length of Ireland till he came to the house of Tadg, son of Nuada, that
was grandfather to Finn.

And there was great grief on Muirne, Finn's mother, and on Labran of the
Long Hand her brother, and on all her people, when they knew the great
danger he was in. And Tadg asked his wife who did she think would escape
with their lives from the great fighting at the White Strand. "It is a
pity the way they are there," said she; "for if all the living men of
the world were on one side, Daire Donn, the King of the World, would put
them all down; for there are no weapons in the world that will ever be
reddened on him. And on the night he was born, the smith of the Fomor
made a shield and a sword, and it is in the prophecy that he will fall
by no other arms but those. And it is to the King of the Country of the
Fair Men he gave them to keep, and it is with him they are now." "If
that is so," said Tadg, "you might be able to get help for Finn, son of
Cumhal, the only son of your daughter. And bid Labran Lamfada to go and
ask those weapons of him," he said. "Do not be asking me," said she, "to
go against Daire Donn that was brought up in my father's house." But
after they had talked for a while, they went out on the lawn, and they
sent Labran looking for the weapons in the shape of a great eagle.

And he went on from sea to sea, till at noon on the morrow he came to
the dun of the King of the Country of the Fair Men; and he went in his
own shape to the dun and saluted the king, and the king bade him
welcome, and asked him to stop with him for a while. "There is a thing I
want more than that," said Labran, "for the wife of a champion of the
Fianna has given me her love, and I cannot get her without fighting for
her; and it is the loan of that sword and that shield you have in your
keeping I am come asking now," he said.

There were seven rooms, now, in the king's house that opened into one
another, and on the first door was one lock, and on the second two
locks, and so on to the door of the last room that had seven locks; and
it was in that the sword and the shield that were made by the smith of
the Fomor were kept. And they were brought out and were given to Labran,
and stalks of luck were put with them, and they were bound together with
shield straps.

Then Labran of the Long Hand went back across the seas again, and he
reached his father's dun between the crow