Answerer, or Fragarach

An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)

A magical sword belonging to the Irish Sea-God, Lir. It was brought from the Celtic Otherworld by Lugh , the Irish Sun-God, and it was believed that it could pierce any armour. Anthony St.: A great demon of enormous stature one day approached St. Anthony to offer his services. By way of response the saint looked at him sideways and spat in his face. The demon took the repulse so much to heart that he vanished without a word, and did not dare to appear on earth for a long time afterwards. It is hardly conceivable that St. Anthony could have treated the devil so rudely, if one did not know how many temptations he had suffered from him, though it is difficult to admit that he was the object of so many attacks on the part of the devil, when he himself said: "I fear the demon no more than I fear a fly, and with the sign of the cross I can at once put him to flight." St. Athanasius, who wrote the life of St. Anthony, mingled with his hero's adventures with the devil, certain incidents which contrast strangely enough with these. Some philosophers, astonished at the great wisdom of Anthony, asked him in what book he had discovered so fine a doctrine. The saint pointed with one hand to the earth, with the other to the sky. "There are my books," said he, "I have no others. If men will design to study as I do the marvels of creation, they will find wisdom enough there. Their spirit will soon soar from the creation to the Creator." And certainly these were not the words of a man who trafficked with the devil.