“Never mind,” said Elin Gow; “misfortune cannot be avoided. We will do our best.”
The Tongue-speaker went to the king then, and said, “There is a man outside who has come for Glas Gainach.”
The king went out, and asked Elin Gow what he wanted or what brought him. He told him, as he told the speaker, that it was for the cow he had come.
“And is it in combat or in peace that you want to get her?”
“’Tis in peace,” said Elin Gow.
“You can try with swords or with herding, whichever you wish.”
“We will choose the herding,” said Elin Gow.
“Well,” said the king, “this is how we will bind ourselves. You are to bring Glas Gainach here to me every evening safe and sound during seven years, and, if you fail, ’tis your head that you will lose. Do you see those heads on the spikes there behind? ’Tis on account of Glas Gainach they are there. If you come home with the cow every night, she will be yours when seven years are spent,—I bind myself to that,” said the king.
“Well,” said Elin Gow, “I am satisfied with the conditions.”