PROTEUS
"Dane vikings, torcs of tomahawks aglitter on their breasts when Malachi wore the collar of gold. A school of turlehide whales stranded in hot noon, spouting, hobbling in the shallows. Then from the starving cagework city a horde of jerkined dwarfs, my people, with flayers' knives, running, scaling, hacking in green blubbery whalemeat." (U3.301)
Malachi was a King of Ireland in the 10c. who defeated 2 champions of the Danes, carrying away as trophies respectively a collar of gold and a sword.The poem 'Let Erin Remember the Days of Old' by Thomas Moore (Irish Melodies V. 2) starts with:
'Let Erin remember the days of old,
Ere her faithless sons betray'd her;
When Malachi wore the collar of gold,
Which he won from her proud invader,
When her kings, with standard of green unfurl'd,
Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger!'
