Thereupon Ferdiad gave three severe woundings to Cu Chulainn. Cu Chulainn cried and shouted loudly to Loeg to make ready the gae bulga for him. Loeg attempted to get near it, but Ferdiad’s charioteer prevented him. Then Loeg grew very wroth at his brother, and he made a spring at him, and he closed his long, full-valiant hands over him, so that he quickly threw him to the ground and straightway bound him. And then he went from him quickly and courageously, so that he filled the pool and stayed the stream and set the gae bulga. And he cried out to Cu Chulainn that it was ready, for it was not to be discharged without a quick word of warning before it. Hence it is that Loeg cried out:
 “’Ware! beware the gae bulga, Battle-winning Culann’s Hound! and the rest.”
And he sent it to Cu Chulainn along the stream.
 Thus it was that Cu Chulainn let fly the white gae bulga from the fork of his irresistible right foot. Ferdiad began to defend the ford against Cu Chulainn, so that the noble Cu Chulainn arose with the swiftness of a swallow and the wail of the storm-play in the rafters of the firmament, so that he laid hold of the breadth of his two feet of the bed of the ford, in spite of the champion. Ferdiad prepared for the feat according to the report thereof. He lowered his shield, so that the spear went over its edge into the watery, water-cold river. And he looked at Cu Chulainn, and he saw all his various venomous feats made ready, and he knew not to which of them he should first give answer, whether to the “Fist’s breast-spear”, or to the “ Wild shield’s broad-spear”, or to the “Short spear from the middle of the palm”, or to the white gae bulga over the fair, watery river.
 When Ferdiad saw that his gillie had been thrown and heard the gae bulga called for, he thrust his shield down to protect the lower part of his body. Cu Chulainn gripped the short spear that was in his hand, cast it off the palm of his hand over the rim of the shield and over the edge of the corselet and hornskin, so that its farther half was visible after piercing Ferdiad’s heart in his bosom. Ferdiad gave a thrust of his shield upwards to protect the upper part of his body, though it was help that came too late. Loeg sent the gae bulga down the stream, and Cu Chulainn caught it in the fork of his foot, and when Ferdiad raised his shield Cu Chulainn threw the gae buka as far as he could cut underneath at Ferdiad, so that it passed through the strong, thick, iron apron of wrought iron, and broke in three parts the huge, goodly stone the size of a millstone, so that it cut its way through the body’s protection into him, till every joint and every limb was filled with its barbs.
 “Ah, that blow suffices”, sighed Ferdiad. “I am fallen of that! But, yet one thing more: mightily didst thou drive with thy right foot. And it was not fair of thee for me not to fall by thy hand.” And he yet spoke and uttered these words:

 Thereupon Cu Chulainn hastened towards Ferdiad and clasped his two arms about him, and bore him with all his arms and his armor and his dress northwards over the ford, so that it would be with his face to the north of the ford, in Ulster, the triumph took place and not to the west of the ford with the men of Erin. Cu Chullainn laid Ferdiad there on the ground, and a cloud and a faint and a swoon came over Cu Chulainn there by the head of Ferdiad.
[...]
 “What availeth it me to arise, O gillie?”, said Cu Cu Chullainn [to Loeg], “now that this one is fallen by my hand?”
[...]
 Loeg came and stripped Ferdiad. He took his armour off him and he saw the brooch and he placed the brooch in Cu Chulainn’s hand, and Cu Chulainn began to lament and mourn over Ferdiad, and he spoke these words:

 “Come, O Loeg, my master”, cried Cu Chulainn; “cut open Ferdiad and take the gae bolga out, because I may not be without my weapons.” [...]

[Now the story tells at length of the vengeance of Cuchulainn for the boys of Ulster. This is a rhetorical passage to which the “runs” of modern folk tales correspond. The dressing of the charioteer and the arming of the hero are described in many words. The distortion of Cuchulainn in his frenzy is presented in a long passage. His warchariot is armed with scythes. A list of his victims is given.] Cuchulainn killed a hundred and thirty kings in the Great Slaughter of Mag Muirthemne, and great numbers of dogs and horses and women and children and lesser people and mere rabble, for not one man out of every three of the Men of Ireland escaped without an injury to his leg or his head or his eye, or some lasting blemish.

After his fury and his great distortion, Cuchulainn showed himself in all his beauty to the women and girls and poets, for he did not think honorable the frightful shape he had worn the night before. Beautiful was the lad who came then to show himself to the hosts, son of Sualtam. [Here his beauty is described in a long rhetorical passage.] Maeve hid her face behind a fence of shields lest he should cast at her, but the girls asked the Men of Ireland to raise them on their shields to their shoulders to see the beauty of Cuchulainn. At last Maeve called upon Fer Diad to oppose Cuchulainn. Fer Diad was foster-brother of the hero. [This is the climax of the series of single combats.] Fer Diad has been threatened with disgrace if he refuses and is offered rich rewards if he consents. He laments his misfortune but cannot suffer dishonor. Fergus goes out to warn Cuchulainn that the terrible Fer Diad is coming against him, and again the dialogue is in verse. Fer Diad bid his charioteer harness his chariot, and the charioteer begs him not to go. He sets out, and Cuchulainn goes to meet him. [The language here is highly rhetorical, and the dialogues are repeated in verse after the prose. The whole episode makes 1,200 lines of the text.]

For three days Fer Diad and Cuchulainn fought, and neither gained any advantage over the other. Each night Cuchulainn sent leeches and herbs to heal the wounds of Fer Diad, and Fer Diad sent a share of his food to Cuchulainn. On the fourth day the choice of weapons lay with Cuchulainn, and he chose the “play of the ford.” Then Fer Diad was afraid, for he knew that it was in the ford that Cuchulainn used to defeat every enemy. For a long time they fought equally, and at last Cuchulainn called for the gae bolga, the mysterious weapon whose use he alone had learned from Scáthach, the woman-warrior. [It was a spear which entered the wound as one point but made thirty points within.] Laeg set the gae bolga on the water, and Cuchulainn sent it against Fer Diad, and so Fer Diad was killed. Cuchulain lamented the death of his friend. [There is a fine poem here.] He was himself prostrate from his wounds.

[...]