“It is here that I will have my marriage feast, too,” said Faolan.
The forester, who was an old man, said perhaps he might have a marriage feast at that time as well as the others. At this they all laughed.
The giant and his wife were then satisfied; and the company set out for the forester’s cabin. When they reached the cabin, the forester said to Dyeermud, “As I served you, I hope that you will do me a good turn.”
“I will do you a good turn,” said Dyeermud, “if I lose my life in doing it.”
“Cut off my head,” said the forester.
“I will not,” replied Dyeermud.
“Well,” said the old man, “if you do not, you will leave me in great distress; for I, too, am under enchantment, and there is no power to save me unless you, Dyeermud, cut off my head with the sword that killed the oldest of the oxen.”
When Dyeermud saw how he could serve the forester, he cut off his head with one blow, and there rose up before him a young man of twenty-one years.
“My name is Arthur, son of Deara,” said the young man to Dyeermud; “I was enchanted by my stepmother, and I am in love with your sister since I saw her two years ago on Ventry Strand, when you were in combat with the Champion of the Eastern World. Will you let your sister marry me?”
“I will,” replied Dyeermud; “and she will not marry any man but the one that I will choose for her.”