CHAPTER II

The Quest of the Sons of Turenn


Long ago, when the people of Dana yet held lordship in Erinn, they
were sorely afflicted by hordes of sea-rovers named Fomorians who used
to harry the country and carry off youths and maidens into captivity.
They also imposed cruel and extortionate taxes upon the people, for
every kneading trough, and every quern for grinding corn, and every
flagstone for baking bread had to pay its tax. And an ounce of gold
was paid as a poll-tax for every man, and if any man would not or
could not pay, his nose was cut off. Under this tyranny the whole
country groaned, but they had none who was able to band them together
and to lead them in battle against their oppressors.

Now before this it happened that one of the lords of the Danaans named
Kian had married with Ethlinn, daughter of Balor, a princess of the
Fomorians. They had a son named Lugh Lamfada, or Lugh of the Long Arm,
who grew up into a youth of surpassing beauty and strength. And if his
body was noble and mighty, no less so was his mind, for lordship and
authority grew to him by the gift of the Immortals, and whatever he
purposed that would he perform, whatever it might cost in time or
toil, in tears or in blood. Now this Lugh was not brought up in Erinn
but in a far-off isle of the western sea, where the sea-god Mananan