‘Easy for me to liken them! Mál son of Telband, and Munremar son of Gerrchenn, and Birderg son of Rúan. Three crown-princes, three champions of valour, three heroes the best behind weapons in Erin! A hundred heroes will fall by them in their first conflict, and they will share prowess with every man in the Hostel, and they will boast of the victory over a king or chief of the reavers, and afterwards they will chance to escape. The Destruction should not be wrought even because of those three.’
‘Woe to him that shall wreak the Destruction!’ says Lomna. ‘Better were the victory of saving them than the victory of slaying them! Happy he who should save them! Woe to him that shall slay them!’
‘It is not feasible,’ says Ingcél, etc. ‘And afterwards whom sawest thou?’