The Muirdris and Fergus mac Léti by unknown artist
"The next day Fergus put on the shoes of Iubdan and went forth to Loch Rury, and with him went the lords of Ulster. And when he reached the margin of the lake he drew his sword and went down into it, and soon the waters covered him.
After a while those that watched upon the bank saw a bubbling and a mighty commotion in the waters, now here, now there, and waves of bloody froth broke at their feet. At last, as they strained their eyes upon the tossing water, they saw Fergus rise to his middle from it, pale and bloody. In his right hand he waved aloft his sword, his left was twisted in the coarse hair of the monster's head, and they saw that his countenance was fair and kingly as of old. "Ulstermen, I have conquered," he cried; and as he did so he sank down again, dead with his dead foe, into their red grave in Loch Rury.
And the Ulster lords went back to Emania, sorrowful yet proud, for they knew that a seed of honour had been sown that day in their land from which should spring a breed of high-hearted fighting men for many a generation to come.
Of this was sung:
King Fergus, son of Léte
Went on the sandbank of Rudraige;
A horror which appeared to him — fierce was the conflict —
Was the cause of his disfigurement."
-The Saga of Fergus mac Léti by D.A. Binchy
&
The High Deeds of Finn and Other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland by T.W. Rolleston
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| The Muirdris and Fergus mac Léti by unknown artist. |
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