There was a great battle on the following day, the queen fell and her sons, except two. Balor’s sons were all killed, and the Lochlin men driven away.
Balor rose up in anger when the news came to Lochlin. “I’ll have satisfaction for my sons,” said he. “I will burn all Erin!”
Besides his two eyes Balor had a third one, an evil eye, in the middle of his forehead, with the power to burn everything in the world that it looked upon. Over this eye he kept seven steel shields, and a lock on each one of them.
“I will destroy Erin, and no man can stop me,” said Balor; “for no man can kill me but the son of my daughter. She has no son, and if she had itself, he could kill me only with the red spear made by Gaivnin Gow, and it cast into my eye the moment I raise the last shield from it, when I am standing on Muin Duv[4] [Black Back] to burn Erin.”
One day the two brothers were talking, and Cian, the youngest son of the queen of the Firbolgs, said to his only living brother, “We have done great harm to Gaivnin Gow. It is by us that the cow went from him, and we should bring her back.”
“That is more than we can do,” said the second brother, “unless we get help from Bark an Tra, the druid.”
The two brothers went to Bark an Tra, and Cian told their story.
“The work is a hard one; I don’t know can you do it,” said the druid; “but you can try; I will help you. The cow is with Balor Beiman, in Lochlin. He stole her halter when he went from Erin; and she followed it the day your brother left her outside the forge. No man can bring the cow with him unless he has the halter, and it is hard to get that.
“Balor Beiman can be killed only by the son of his daughter; he has her behind seven locked doors. No living person sees the daughter but himself. He sees her every day, takes food and drink to her. To bring back the cow you must make the acquaintance of Balor’s daughter. I will give you a cloak of darkness; put it over you, and make your way to Lochlin. When Balor goes to see his daughter, you go with him. He opens one door, goes in and locks it, opens the second, goes in and locks that, and so on. When he is inside in his daughter’s chamber the seven doors are locked behind him.”
Cian put on the cloak of darkness, and no man could see him; he went to Lochlin then, and followed Balor to his daughter’s chamber. He waited till the night when she was sleeping, went then to her bedside, and put his hand on her heavily.