Editing Lugh (section)

===Sling-stone===

According to the brief accounts in the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Lugh used the "sling-stone" (''cloich tabaill'') to slay his grandfather, Balor the Strong-Smiter in the [[Cath Maige Tuired|Battle of Magh Tuired]].<ref>''op. cit.'' ¶312, ¶312, ¶364</ref> The narrative {{lang|ga|Cath Maige Tured}}, preserved in a unique 16th-century copy, words it slightly different saying that Lugh used the sling-stone{{efn|{{langx|sga|liic talma}} § 133, i.e. {{lang|ga|lía}} "stone" of the '{{lang|ga|tailm}} "sling".}} to destroy the evil eye of Balor of the Piercing Eye (Bolur Birugderc).<ref name=cmt-133/>

The ammunition that Lugh used was not just a stone, but a ''tathlum''<ref>eDIL s.v. [http://www.dil.ie/40228 táthluib] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303082341/http://www.dil.ie/40228 |date=3 March 2020 }}</ref> according to a certain poem in Egerton MS. 1782 ([[olim]] W.  Monck Mason MS.),<ref name=ocurry-manners2-p252/><ref name=gwynn-tathlum/> the first quatrain of which is as follows:
{{Verse translation
 | lang       = ga
 | italicsoff = 
 | rtl1       = 
 | Táthlum tromm thenntide tenn
   robūi ag Tūath Dé Danann,
   hī robriss súil Balair búain
   tall ar toghail in tromshlúaigh 
 | A tathlum, heavy, fiery, firm,
   Which the Tuatha Dé Danann had with them,
   It was that broke the fierce Balor's eye,
   Of old, in the battle of the great armies.
 | attr1      =Meyer (1905) ed.<ref>{{citation |editor-last=Meyer |editor-first=Kuno |editor-link=Kuno Meyer |title=Von dem Schleuderstein Tathlum<!--: aus Egerton 1782, fo. 41 a1. übersetzt von O'Curry, ''Manners and Customs'' II, S. 252--> |journal=Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie |volume=5 |year=1905 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7Qw1tGXmCUC&pg=PA504 |page=504 |access-date=3 March 2020 |archive-date=16 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916221128/https://books.google.com/books?id=s7Qw1tGXmCUC&pg=PA504#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>
 | attr2      =O'Curry (1873) tr.<ref name=ocurry-manners2-p252>{{cite book |last=O'Curry |first=Eugene |author-link=Eugene O'Curry |chapter=Lecture XII Sling-Stones of composition manufacture |title=On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish |volume=2 |publisher=Williams and Norgate |year=1873 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IX0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA252 |page=252 |access-date=3 March 2020 |archive-date=16 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916221123/https://books.google.com/books?id=IX0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA252#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> 
}}

The poem goes on to describe the composition of this tathlum, as being formed from the blood collected from toads, bears, lions, vipers and the neck-base<ref>eDIL s.v. [http://www.dil.ie/31755 méide] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916221140/https://dil.ie/31755 |date=16 September 2024 }} 'the lower part of the neck at its union with the trunk '</ref> of Osmuinn,{{efn|O'Curry italicizes it as a proper name. Meyer edits the text as ''ós muin'', but Edward J. Gwynn sheds no light as to meaning since he skips over this ingredient while listing up all the other components derived from animals.<ref name=gwynn-tathlum/>}} mixed with the sands of the Armorian Sea and the Red Sea.<ref name=ocurry-manners2-p252/>