’Twas the clank of the Finian arms,
And the echoing shout of the men,
That wakened the slumbering monster:
Before them he rushed down the glen.
He attempted to distance the heroes—
The old boar of the bristling hide—
Which the spear and the shaft of the quiver
Of the hunter so often defied.
In another version Finn is here represented as saying to Diarmad—“Son of Doon, dost thou wish to win honour?”—thus the king spoke wrathfully; and added—“Slay that boar by thyself, thou gay victor, which the heroes so long has defied.” Diarmad attempts the task.
Then MacDoon of the keen-edged arms