“Very well, father, I’ll put an end to that soon,” said Shawn. He rose on the following morning, caught his hurley in his right hand, and his ball in the left. He threw up the ball, then struck it with the hurley, and was driving it that way before him till he reached the north of Erin, and never let his ball touch the ground even one time. He inquired for his father’s opponent. When he found out the house, he knocked at the door. “Is your master inside?” asked he.
“He is,” said the servant.
“Go,” said Shawn, “and tell him that I want him, and not to delay, as I must be at dinner in Brandon this evening.”
The master of the house came out, and, seeing a boy there before him, thought it strange that he should speak rudely to a man like himself. “If you don’t beg my pardon this minute, I’ll take the head off you,” said the man.
“Well,” said Shawn, “I am not here to beg pardon of you nor of any man; but I came to have satisfaction for the trouble you put on my father, and I far away from him.”
“Who is your father?”
“My father is Breogan of Brandon.”
Out the man went; and the two stood on a fine green plain, and began to fight with swords, cutting each other’s flesh. They were not long at the swords when Shawn said, “It is getting late, and I must be at home before dinner to-day, as I promised; there is no use in delaying.” With that he rose out of his body, and gave the man a blow between the head and shoulders that put the head a mile from the body. Shawn caught the head before it touched earth; then, grasping it by the hair, he left the body where it fell, took his hurley in his right hand, threw his ball in the air, and drove it far to the south with the hurley; and he drove it across Erin in that way, the ball never touching ground from the far north of Erin to Brandon. Holding the ball and hurley in his hand, he went into the house, and laid the head at his father’s feet.
“Now, my dear father,” said he, “here is the head of your enemy; he’ll trouble you no more from this out.”
When Breogan’s wife saw the head, she was cut to the heart and troubled; though she would not let any man know it. One day when the father and son came home from killing ducks, she was groaning, and said she was ready to die.