“I will fight,” said the Dagda, “both with force and craft. Wherever the two armies meet, I will crush the bones of the Fomors with my club, till they are like hailstones under a horse’s feet.”
“And you, O Morrígú?” said Lugh.
“I will pursue them when they flee,” she replied. “And I always catch what I chase.”
“And you, O Cairpré, son of Etan?” said Lugh to the poet, “what can you do?”
“I will pronounce an immediately-effective curse upon them; by one of my satires I will take away all their honour, and, enchanted by me, they shall not be able to stand against our warriors.”
“And ye, O sorcerers, what will ye do?”
“We will hurl by our magic arts,” replied Mathgan, the head sorcerer, “the twelve mountains of Ireland at the Fomors. These mountains will be Slieve League, Denna Ulad, the Mourne Mountains, Bri Ruri, Slieve Bloom, Slieve Snechta, Slemish, Blai-Sliab, Nephin, Sliab Maccu Belgodon, Segais[[112]], and Cruachan Aigle[[113]]”.
Then Lugh asked the cup-bearers what they would do.
“We will hide away by magic,” they said, “the twelve chief lakes and the twelve chief rivers of Ireland from the Fomors, so that they shall not be able to find any water, however thirsty they may be; those waters will conceal themselves from the Fomors so that they shall not get a drop, while they will give drink to the people of the goddess Danu as long as the war lasts, even if it last seven years.” And they told Lugh that the twelve chief lakes were Lough Derg, Lough Luimnigh[[114]], Lough Corrib, Lough Ree, Lough Mask, Strangford Lough, Lough Læig, Lough Neagh, Lough Foyle, Lough Gara, Lough Reagh, and Márloch, and that the twelve chief rivers were the Bush, the Boyne, the Bann, the Nem, the Lee, the Shannon, the Moy, the Sligo, the Erne, the Finn, the Liffey, and the Suir.
Finally, the Druid, Figol, son of Mamos, said: “I will send three streams of fire into the faces of the Fomors, and I will take away two-thirds of their valour and strength, but every breath drawn by the people of the goddess Danu will only make them more valorous and strong, so that even if the fighting lasts seven years, they will not be weary of it.”