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 the mighty deeds wrought underneath it[1].  His veil of concealment was thrown over him then, of raiment from Tir Tairngire (’the Land of Promise’) which had been brought to him [2]as a gift[2] by Manannan son of Ler (’the Sea’) from the king of Tir na Sorcha (’the Land of Light’), [3]his foster-father in magic[3]. [4]His fair, purple-red fan was placed in front of his face.  Past it and through it and over it everything was visible to him and no one wounded him past it nor through it nor over it[4].

    [1-1] Eg. 93 and H. 2. 17.

    [2-2] Eg. 93 and H. 2. 17.

    [3-3] LU. 1914.

    [4-4] Eg. 93 and H. 2. 17.

    [5-5] Eg. 93 and H. 2. 17.

    [1-1] Eg. 93 and H. 2. 17.

    [2-2] Eg. 93 and H. 2. 17.

    [3-3] Stowe and LU. 1927.

    [4-4] Eg. 93.

Then took place the first twisting-fit [5]and rage[5] of [6]the royal hero[6] Cuchulain, so that he made a terrible, many-shaped, wonderful, unheard of thing of himself.  His flesh trembled about him like a pole against the torrent or like a bulrush against the stream, every member and every joint and every point and every knuckle of him from crown to ground.  He made a mad whirling-feat of his body within his hide.  His feet and his shins and his knees slid so that they came behind him.  His heels and his calves and his hams shifted so that they passed to the front.  The muscles of his calves moved so that they came to the front of his shins, so that each huge knot was the size of a soldier’s balled fist.  He stretched the sinews of his head so that they stood out on the nape of his neck, and as large as the head of a month-old child was each of the hill-like lumps, huge, incalculable, vast, immeasurable.

    [5-5] Eg. 93 and H. 2. 17.

    [6-6] Eg. 93 and H. 2. 17.