And when it was told that Dermat had been
killed by the wild boar, the air was rent with cries of lamentation.
At length, when silence had fallen upon her grief, Grania arose, and
ordered that five hundred men should go to the hill and bring to her the
body of Dermat. Then turning to Finn she begged of him to leave with her
Dermat's hound. And Finn would not. But a noble, hearing that Grania
wished the hound took him from the hand of Finn and gave him to the
Princess.
Now as the men left Rath-Grania to bring home the body of Dermat, it was
revealed to Angus of Bruga that the hero lay dead on the hill. And he at
once set out on the wings of the wind and reached the sorrowful place ere
Grania's messengers had come there. And they, when they came, found Angus
mourning over the body of Dermat, and he asked them wherefore they were
come.
When it was told Angus that Grania had sent them to bring the body of
Dermat to Rath-Grania, he stayed for some time wrapt in thought. At length
he spake these words: 'Let it be told the Princess that I will take with
me the body of Dermat to my home, that he may be preserved by my power as
though he still lived. For though I cannot bring him back to life, yet
each day shall he speak with me for some space.'
And Angus turned to his men that he had brought with him there and ordered
that Dermat's body should be placed on a golden bier, with the red and
yellow javelins, one on either side, points upward.
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