Once it was said that he asked of a sub-king,
namely Eochy mac Luchta, who was famed for hospitality and generosity,
the single thing that Eochy would have been grieved to give, namely
his eye, and Eochy had but one eye. But the King plucked it out by the
roots and gave it to him; and Atharna went away disappointed, for he
had looked that Eochy would ransom his eye at a great price.
Now Conor mac Nessa, King of Ulster, and all the Ulster lords, having
grown very powerful and haughty, became ill neighbours to all the
other kingdoms in Ireland. On fertile Leinster above all they fixed
their eyes, and sought for an opportunity to attack and plunder the
province. Conor resolved at last to move Atharna to go to the King of
Leinster, in the hope that he himself might be rid of Atharna, by the
King of Leinster killing him for his insolence and his exactions, and
that he might avenge the death of his bard by the invasion of
Leinster.
Atharna therefore set out for Leinster accompanied by his train of
poets and harpers and gillies and arrived at the great Dun of Mesgedra
the King, at Naas in Kildare. Here he dwelt for twelve months wasting
the substance of the Leinstermen and in the end when he was minded to
return to Ulster he went before the King Mesgedra and the lords of
Leinster and demanded his poet's fee.
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