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These were picked up by the poets and a reconciliation was effected between the two parties. But Fionn affirmed that he would make no peace with clann-Morna until the matter had been judged by the king, Cormac mac Art, and by his daughter Ailve, and by his son Cairbre of Ana Life' and by Fintan the chief poet.
Fionn went on his travels again. All desires save one are fleeting, but that one lasts for ever. Fionn, with all desires, had the lasting one, for he would go anywhere and forsake anything for wisdom; and it was in search of this that he went to the place where Finegas lived on a bank of the Boyne Water. But for dread of the clann-Morna he did not go as Fionn.
He stated that Fionn's brother Cairell struck Cona'n mac Morna, that Goll's two sons came to help Cona'n, that Oscar went to help Cairell, and with that Fionn's people and the clann-Morna rose at each other, and what had started as a brawl ended as a battle with eleven hundred of Fionn's people and sixty-one of Goll's people dead.
She could not keep him with her for dread of the clann-Morna. The sons of Morna had been fighting and intriguing for a long time to oust her husband, Uail, from the captaincy of the Fianna of Ireland, and they had ousted him at last by killing him.
Fergus then turned to the side of Goll mac Morna, and he sang of the Forts, the Destructions, the Raids, and the Wooings of clann-Morna; and as the poems succeeded each other, Goll grew more and more jovial and contented. When the songs were finished Goll turned in his seat. "Where is my runner?" he cried. He had a woman runner, a marvel for swiftness and trust. She stepped forward.
The time must have been nigh when he would think of taking the world itself by the nose, to haul it over tussocks and drag it into his pen; for he was of the breed in whom mastery is born, and who are good masters. But reports of his prowess were getting abroad. Clann-Morna began to stretch itself uneasily, and, one day, his guardians sent him on his travels.
"What is your judgement?" the king asked Feehal. Feehal then pronounced: "I hold that clann-Morna were attacked first, and that they are to be free from payment of damages." "And as regards Fionn?" said Cormac. "I hold that on account of his great losses Fionn is to be exempt from payment of damages, and that his losses are to be considered as damages." "I agree in that judgement," said Fintan.
"I marvel," said the king in a discontented voice, "that, considering the numbers against them, the losses of clann-Morna should be so small." Fionn blushed when he heard that. Fergus replied: "Goll mac Morna covered his people with his shield. All that slaughter was done by him." "The press was too great," Fionn grumbled. "I could not get at him in time or "
"Or what?" said Goll with a great laugh. Fionn shook his head sternly and said no more. "What is your judgement?" Cormac demanded of his fellow-judges. Flahri pronounced first. "I give damages to clann-Morna." "Why?" said Cormac. "Because they were attacked first." Cormac looked at him stubbornly. "I do not agree with your judgement," he said. "What is there faulty in it?" Flahri asked.
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