Shadowed and full of fell portenis was the night that King Connaire came to the Hostel of Da Derga. Already the King had broken five of his geas, the constraints that may be put upon mortal or god to bind them at peril of their lives. Now he felt the hard hand of doom lying heavy on his shoulders as he came seeking shelter. Leaning upon the doorpost, he encountered a woman of cruel and strange aspect, with the bright, cold yellow eye of a vulture and a visage like the depths of winter. And although allowing her within would break the sixth geas, the King consented that she might enter when she mocked him for refusing her. When asked her name, she whispered, "It is Cailleach." "And have you no other?" Connaire asked. "O, a-many," whispered she with an icy smile. "Stormcrow, Battle Raven, She-Wolf, Doom-teller – these and more are all my names." She smiled again. "And truly, King Connaire, I foresee for you that nothing of yours shall escape from this place but what the scavenger-birds carry away for their young".
