Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Metrical Dindshenchas (Author: [unknown])

poem/story 17

ATH GRENCHA

  1. Ath Grencha shall change its name through the deed of the Hound—that fierce warrior: here is the gibbet with the four points, a puzzle for the men of Erin.
  2. On two arms, as token of battle, are the head of Fraech and the head of Fochnam: on two arms likewise are the head of Err and the head of Indell.
  3. The four chariot-drivers—glorious career! the sons of Aurard son of Anchinn, their blood escapes across the fields; they are gory, encrimsoned.
  4. The ogam that is on the shining gibbet, let the druids interpret perpetually! and tell who precisely set them thereon, and how many planted it in the ground.
  5. ‘The piercing gibbet, which cost many an effort, that I see here,’ said Fergus; ‘one man cut it, hail to him! at one flashing stroke of sword.’
  6. ‘He sharpened it and bore it on his back: in sooth, 'twas no weakling's feat; and then he pitched it in the soil for any man of you to pluck from the ground.’

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  8. ‘Aurard he tricked on the plain in his chariot, drawn by Cruan and Cnamrad: at Fán Cruain, by the road side, he met death and destruction.’
  9. ‘Orlam's charioteers I espy, lying mangled in a bed of gore: hail to him who fooled them!—scant honour have they among monuments and beacon-names.’
  10. ‘Here is Aurard: great is his Plain, yet the shining gibbet stirred him to grief, whereon his sons' heads were set—sad was that greeting.’
  11. ‘Ath Grencha was the ford's name till now; its memory shall endure in all men's minds: but Ath Gabla shall its name be till doomsday, from the gibbet thou seest in the ford.’