“Evil death, and a short lifeBe on Caer the king!Let the spears of battle wound him,Under earth, under ramparts, under stones,Let the malediction be on him!”
“Evil death, and a short lifeBe on Caer the king!Let the spears of battle wound him,Under earth, under ramparts, under stones,Let the malediction be on him!”
“Evil death, and a short lifeBe on Caer the king!Let the spears of battle wound him,Under earth, under ramparts, under stones,Let the malediction be on him!”
“Evil death, and a short life
Be on Caer the king!
Let the spears of battle wound him,
Under earth, under ramparts, under stones,
Let the malediction be on him!”
And when Caer rose up in the morning he put his hand to his face and found it was disfigured with three blisters, a white, a red, and a green. And when he saw the blemish he fled away filled with fear that any man should see him, and took refuge in a fort with one of his faithful servants, and no one knew where he lay hid.
So Nuadhé took the kingdom and held it for a year, and had the queen to wife. But then grievous to him was the fate of Caer, and he set forth to search for him.
And he was seated in the king’s own royal chariot, with the king’s wife beside him, and the king’s greyhound at his feet, and all the people wondered at the beauty of the charioteer.
Now Caer was in the fort where he had found shelter, and when he saw them coming he said—
“Who is this that is seated in my chariot in the place of the champion, and driving my steeds?”
But when he saw that it was Nuadhé he fled away and hid himself for shame.
Then Nuadhé drove into the fort in the king’s chariot, and loosed the dogs to pursue Caer. And they found him hid under the flagstone behind the rock even where the dogs tracked him. And Caer fell down dead from shame on beholding Nuadhé, and the rock where he fell flamed up and shivered into fragments, and a splinter leaped up high as a man, and struck Nuadhé on the eyes, and blinded him for life. Such was the punishment decreed, and just and right was the vengeance of God upon the sin of the poet.