The struggle lasted day after day, till his men spoke to the High King and said to him, “We can never conquer unless you meet Fin in single combat.”
The king challenged Fin to meet him on the third day. Fin accepted, though he was greatly in dread; for he knew that the trunk of the High King’s body was formed of one bone, and that no sword in the world could cut it but the king’s own sword, which was kept in the Eastern World by his grandsire, the King of the Land of the White Men. That old king had seven chambers in a part of his castle, one inside the other. On the door of the outer chamber was one lock, on the second two, and so on to the door of the seventh and innermost chamber, which had seven locks, and in that chamber the sword and shield of the High King were kept. In the service of Daire Donn was a champion, a great wizard, who wished ill to the High King. This man went to Fin, and said, “I will bring you the sword and shield from the Eastern World.”
“Good will be my reward to you,” said Fin, “if you bring them in time.”
Away went the man in a cloud of enchantment, and soon stood before the old king. “Your grandson,” said he, “is to fight with Fin MacCool, and has sent me for his weapons.”
The old king had the sword and shield brought quickly, and gave them. The man hurried back to Erin, and gave the weapons to Fin on the eve of the battle.
Next morning, the High King came to the strand full of confidence. Believing himself safe, he thought he could kill Fin MacCool easily; but when he stood in front of the chief of the Fenians, and saw his own venomous sword unsheathed in the hand of his enemy, and knew that death was fated him from that blade, his face left him for a moment, and his fingers were unsteady.
He rallied, and thinking to win by surprise, rushed suddenly, fiercely and mightily, to combat. One of Fin’s men sprang out, and dealt a great blow with a broadaxe; it laid open the helmet, cut some of the hair of the High King, but touched not the skin of his body. The High King with one blow made two parts of the Fenian, and, rushing at Fin, cut a slice from his shield, and a strip of flesh from his thigh. Fin gave one blow then in answer, which made two equal parts of the king, so that one eye, one ear, one arm, and one leg of him dropped on one side, and the other eye, ear, arm, and leg went to the other side.
Now, the hosts of the High King, and the Fenians of Erin, fought till there was no man standing in the field except one. He raised the body of the High King, and said, “It was bad for us, O Fenians of Erin, but worse for you; I go home in health, and ye have fallen side by side. I will come again soon, and take all Erin.”
“Sad am I,” said Fin, as he lay on the field, “that I did not find death before I heard these words from the mouth of a foreigner, and he going into the Great World with tidings. Is there any man alive near me?”
“I am,” said Fergus Finbel; “and there is no warrior who is not lying in his blood save the chief man of the High King and your own foster-son, Caol.”