tsman," said Lugh; "I am a good carpenter." There was an
excellent carpenter in Tara already, and none other needed.-"It
is a smith I am," said Lugh. But they had a smith there who was
professor of the three new designs in smithcraft, and none else
would be desired. Then he was a champion; but they had Ogma son
of Ethlenn for champion, and would not ask a better. Then he was
a harper; and a poet; and an antiquary; and a necromancer;
and an artificer; and a cup-bearer. But they were well supplied
with men of all those crafts, and there was no place for him.--
"Then go and ask the king," said Lugh, "if he will not be needing
a man who is excellent in all those crafts at once"; and that
way he got admission.

After that he was drawing up the smiths and carpenters, and
inquiring into their abilities, and giving them their tasks in
preparation for the battle. There was Goibniu, the smith of the
Danaans.--"Though the men of Ireland should be fighting for seven
years," said Goibniu, "for every spear that falls off its handle,
and for every sword that breaks, I will put a new weapon in its
place; and no erring or missing cast shall be thrown with a
spear of my making; and no flesh it may enter shall ever taste
the sweets of life after;--and this is more than Dub the smith of
the Fomorians can do." And there was Creidne the Brazier: he
would not do less well than Goibniu the Smith would; and there
was Luchtine the Carpenter: evil on his beard if he did less
than Creidne;--and so with the long list of them.

It was on the first day of November the battle began; and when
the sun went to his setting, the weapons of the Fomorians were
all bent and notched, but those of the Gods were like new. And
new they were: new and new after every blow struck or cast
thrown. For with three strokes of his hammer Goibniu would be
fashioning a spear-head, and after the third stroke there could
be no bettering it. With three chippings of his knife, Luchtine
had cut a handle for it; and at the third chipping there would
be no fault to find with the handle either by Gods or men. And
as quickly as they made the spear-heads and the shafts, Creidne
the Brazier had the rivets made to rivet them; and if there were
bettering those rivets, it would not be by any known workmanship.
When Goibniu had made a spear-head, he took it in his tongs, and
hurled it at the lintel of the door so that it stuck fast there,
the socket outward. When Luchti