{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_5679/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_5679","id":"gutenberg_5679","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5679","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Poetry","Epic literature, Irish -- Translations into English","Heroes -- Ireland -- Legends","Mythology, Celtic -- Ireland","Tales -- Ireland"],"text":"HEROIC ROMANCES OF IRELAND\n\n\nTRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE AND VERSE, WITH PREFACE, SPECIAL\nINTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES\n\nBY\n\nA. H. LEAHY\n\n\nIN TWO VOLUMES\n\nVOL. II\n\n\n\n\n\n@@{Redactors Note: In the original book the 'Literal Translation' is\nprinted on facing pages to the poetic translation. In this etext the\nliteral translation portions have been collated after the poetic\ntranslation, for the sake of readability. Hence the page numbers are\nnot sequential--JBH}\n\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE TO VOL. II\n\n\nIt seems to have been customary in ancient Ireland to precede by\nshorter stories the recital of the Great Tain, the central story of the\nIrish Heroic Age.  A list of fourteen of these \"lesser Tains,\" three of\nwhich are lost, is given in Miss Hull's \"Cuchullin Saga\"; those\npreserved are the Tain bo Aingen, Dartada, Flidais, Fraich, Munad,\nRegamon, Regamna, Ros, Ruanadh, Sailin, and Ere.  Of these, five only\nhave been edited, viz. the Tain bo Dartada, Flidais, Fraich, Regamon,\nand Regamna; all these five are given in this volume.\n\nThe last four tales are all short, and perhaps are more truly\n\"preludes\" (remscela) than the Tain bo Fraich, which has indeed enough\nof interest in itself to make it an independent tale, and is as long as\nthe four put together.  All the five tales have been rendered into\nverse, with a prose literal translation opposite to the verse\nrendering, for reasons already given in the preface to the first\nvolume.  A short introduction, describing the manuscript authority, is\nprefixed to each; they all seem to go back in date to the best literary\nperiod, but appear to have been at any rate put into their present form\nlater than the Great Tain, in order to lead up to it.  A possible\nexception to this may be found at the end of the Tain bo Flidais, which\nseems to give a different account of the end of the war of Cualgne, and\nto claim that Cuchulain was defeated, and that Connaught gained his\nland for its allies.  It may be mentioned that the last four tales are\nexpressly stated in the text to be \"remscela\" to the Great Tain.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION IN VERSE\n\n\n\nWhen to an Irish court of old\nCame men, who flocked from near and far\nTo hear the ancient tale that told\nCuchulain's deeds in Cualgne's War;\n\nOft, ere that famous tale began,\nBefore their chiefest bard they hail,\nAmid the throng some lesser man\nArose, to tell a lighter tale;\n\nHe'd fell how Maev and Ailill planned\nTheir mighty hosts might best be fed,\nWhen they towards the Cualgne land\nAll Irelands swarming armies led;\n\nHow Maev the youthful princes sent\nTo harry warlike Regamon,\nHow they, who trembling, from her went,\nHis daughters and his cattle won;\n\nHow Ailill's guile gained Darla's cows,\nHow vengeful fairies marked that deed;\nHow Fergus won his royal spouse\nWhose kine all Ireland's hosts could feed;\n\nHow, in a form grotesque and weird,\nCuchulain found a Power Divine;\nOr how in shapes of beasts appeared\nThe Magic Men, who kept the Swine;\n\nOr how the rowan's guardian snake\nWas roused by order of the king;\nOr how, from out the water, Fraech\nTo Finnabar restored her ring.\n\nAnd though, in greater tales, they chose\nSpeech mired with song, men's hearts to sway,\nSuch themes as these they told in prose,\nLike speakers at the \"Feis\" to-day.\n\nTo men who spake the Irish tongue\nThat form of Prose was pleasing well,\nWhile other lands in ballads sung\nSuch tales as these have loved to tell:\n\nSo we, who now in English dress\nThese Irish tales would fain\nAnd seek their spirit to express,\nHave set them down in ballad verse;\n\nAnd, though to Celts the form be strange,\nSeek not too much the change to blame;\n'Tis but the form alone we change;\nThe sense, the spirit rest the same.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n\nTHE PRELUDES TO THE RAID OF CUALGNE\n\n\nTAIN BO FRAICH - Page 1\n\nTHE RAID FOR DARTAID'S CATTLE - Page 69\n\nTHE RAID FOR THE CATTLE OF REGAMON - Page 83\n\nTHE DRIVING OF THE CATTLE OF FLIDAIS - Page 101\n\nTHE APPARITION OF THE GREAT QUEEN TO CUCHULAIN - Page 127\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nIRISH TEXT AND LITERAL TRANSLATION OF PART OF THE COURTSHIP OF ETAIN -\nPage 143\n\n\n\n\nTAIN BO FRAICH\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe Tain bo Fraich, the Driving of the Cattle of Fraech, has apparently\nonly one version; the different manuscripts which contain it differing\nin very small points; most of which seem to be due to scribal errors.\n\nPractically the tale consists of two quite separate parts.  The first,\nthe longer portion, gives the adventures of Fraech at the court of\nAilill and Maev of Connaught, his courtship of their daughter,\nFinnabar, and closes with a promised betrothal.  The second part is an\naccount of an expedition undertaken by Fraech to the Alps \"in the north\nof the land of the Long Beards,\" to recover stolen cattle, as well as\nhis wife,\" who is stated by O'Beirne Crowe, on the authority of the\n\"Courtship of Trebland\" in the Book of Fermoy, to have been Trebland, a\nsemi-deity, like Fraech himself.  Except that Fraech is the chief actor\nin both parts, and that there is one short reference at the end of the\nsecond part to the fact that Fraech did, as he had promised in the\nfirst part, join Ailill and Maev upon the War of Cualnge, there is no\nconnection between the two stories.  But the difference between the two\nparts is not only in the subject-matter; the difference in the style is\neven yet more apparent.  The first part has, I think, the most\ncomplicated plot of any Irish romance, it abounds in brilliant\ndescriptions, and, although the original is in prose, it is, in\nfeeling, highly poetic.  The second part resembles in its simplicity\nand rapid action the other \"fore tales\" or preludes to the War of\nCualnge contained in this volume, and is of a style represented in\nEnglish by the narrative ballad.\n\nIn spite of the various characters of the two parts, the story seems to\nhave been regarded as one in all the manuscripts which contain it; and\nthe question how these two romances came to be regarded as one story\nbecomes interesting.  The natural hypothesis would be that the last\npart was the original version, which was in its earlier part re-written\nby a man of genius, possibly drawing his plot from some brief statement\nthat Finnabar was promised to Fraech in return for the help that he and\nhis recovered cattle could give in the Great War; but a difficulty,\nwhich prevents us from regarding the second part as an original legend,\nat once comes in.  The second part of the story happens to contain so\nmany references to nations outside Ireland that its date can be pretty\nwell fixed.  Fraech and his companions go, over the sea from Ulster,\ni.e. to Scotland; then through \"north Saxon-land\" to the sea of Icht\n(i.e. the sea of Wight or the English Channel); then to the Alps in the\nnorth of the land of the Long-Beards, or Lombards.  The Long-Beards do\nnot appear in Italy until the end of the sixth century; the suggestion\nof North Saxon-Land reaching down to the sea of Wight suggests that\nthere was then a South Saxon-Land, familiar to an Irish writer, dating\nthis part of the story as before the end of the eighth century, when\nboth Saxons and Long-Beards were overcome by Charlemagne.  The second\npart of the story is, then, no original legend, but belongs to the\nseventh or eighth century, or the classical period; and it looks as if\nthere were two writers, one of whom, like the author of the Egerton\nversion of Etain, embellished the love-story part of the original\nlegend, leaving the end alone, while another author wrote an account of\nthe legendary journey of the demi-god Fraech in search for his stolen\ncattle, adding the geographical and historical knowledge of his time.\nThe whole was then put together, like the two parts of the Etain story;\nthe difference between the two stories in the matter of the wife does\nnot seem to have troubled the compilers.\n\nThe oldest manuscript authority for the Tain bo Fraich is the Book of\nLeinster, written before 1150.  There are at least two other manuscript\nauthorities, one; in Egerton, 1782 (published by Professor Kuno Meyer\nin the Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Celt. Philologie, 1902); the other is in MS. XL.,\nAdvocates' Library, Edinburgh (published in the Revue Celtique, Vol.\nXXIV.).  Professor Meyer has kindly allowed me to copy his comparison\nof these manuscripts and his revision of O'Beirne Crowe's translation\nof the Book of Leinster text.  The text of the literal translation\ngiven here follows, however, in the main O'Beirne Crowe's translation,\nwhich is in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy for 1870; a few\ninsertions are made from the other MSS.; when so made the insertion is\nindicated by a note.\n\nFor those who may be interested in the subsequent history of Fraech, it\nmay be mentioned that he was one of the first of the Connaught\nchampions to be slain by Cuchulain in the war of Cualnge; see Miss\nFaraday's translation (Grimm Library, page 35).\n\n\n\n\nPERSONS IN THE STORY\n\n\n\nMORTALS\n\n\nAilill, King of Connaught.\n\nMedb (or Maev), Queen of Connaught.\n\nFindbar (or Finnabar), their daughter.\n\nFroech (or Fraech), (pronounced Fraych); son of a Connaught man and a\nfairy mother.\n\nConall Cernach (Conall the Victorious), champion of Ulster.\n\nTwo Irish women, in captivity in the Alps, north of Lombardy.\n\nLothar (or Lothur), a follower of Fraech.\n\nBicne, a follower of Conall.\n\n\n\n\nIMMORTALS\n\n\n\nBefind, Fraech's fairy mother.\n\nBoand (pronounced like \"owned\"), sister to Befind; Queen of the Fairies.\n\nThree fairy harpers.\n\n\n\n\nTAIN BO FRAICH\n\n\n\nTHE RAID FOR THE CATTLE OF FRAECH\n\n\nNow the news of the love of that maid to Fraech, at his home where he\ndwelt, was brought,\nAnd he called his folk, and with all he spoke, and for speech with the\nmaid he sought:\nAnd they counselled him thus: \"Let a message from thee be sent to thy\nfairy kin\nTo entreat their aid when we seek that maid; a boon we may chance to\nwin:\nFor the wondrous robes of the fairy land, and for gifts from the\nfairies plead;\nAnd sure thy mother's sister's hand will give to thee all thy need.\"\n\nTo Mag Breg,[FN#1] where his mother's sister dwelt, to Boand he away\nhath gone,\nAnd she gave to him mantles of dark black-blue, like a beetle's back\nthey shone:\nFour dark-grey rings in each cloak she gave were sewn, and a brooch\nshone, bright\nWith the good red gold in each mantle's fold; she gave tunics pale and\nwhite,\nAnd the tunics were bordered with golden loops, that forms as of beasts\ndisplayed;\nAnd a fifty she added of well-rimmed shields, that of silver white were\nmade.\n\n\n[FN#1]  Pronounced Maw Brayg.\n\n\nThen away they rode, in each hero's hand was a torch for a kingly hall,\nFor studs of bronze, and of well-burned gold, shone bright on the\nspears of all;\nOn carbuncle sockets the spears were set, their points with jewels\nblazed;\nAnd they lit the night, as with fair sunlight, as men on their glory\ngazed.\n\nBy each of the fifty heroes' side was a sword with a hilt of gold;\nAnd a soft-grey mare was for each to ride, with a golden curb\ncontrolled;\nAt each horse's throat was a silver plate, and in front of that plate\nwas swung,\nWith a tinkling sound to the horse's tread, a bell with a golden tongue.\non each steed was a housing of purple hide, with threads of silver\nlaced,\nAnd with spiral stitch of the silver threads the heads of beasts were\ntraced,\nAnd each housing was buckled with silver and gold: of findruine[FN#2]\nwas made the whip\nFor each rider to hold, with a crook of gold where it came to the horse\nman's grip.\n\n\n[FN#2]  Pronounced \"find-roony,\" the unknown \"white-bronze\" metal.\n\n\nBy their sides, seven chase-hounds were springing\nAt leashes of silver they strained,\nAnd each couple a gold apple, swinging\nOn the fetter that linked them, sustained:\nAnd their feet with bronze sheaths had been guarded,\nAs if greaves for defence they had worn,\nEvery hue man hath seen, or hath fancied,\nBy those chase-hounds in brilliance was borne.\n\nSeven trumpeters strode on the road before, with colour their cloaks\nwere bright,\nAnd their coats, that shone with the gauds they wore, flashed back as\nthey met the light;\nOn trumpets of silver and gold they blew, and sweet was the trumpets'\nsound,\nAnd their hair, soft and yellow, like fairy threads, shone golden their\nshoulders round.\n\nThree jesters marched in the van, their-crowns were of silver, by gilt\nconcealed,\nAnd emblems they. carried of quaint device, engraved on each jester's\nshield;\nThey had staves which with crests were adorned, and ribs down their\nedges in red bronze ran;\nThree harp-players moved by the jesters' sides, and each was a kingly\nman.\nAll these were the gifts that the fairy gave, and gaily they made their\nstart,\nAnd to Croghan's[FN#3] hold, in that guise so brave, away did the host\ndepart.\n\n\n[FN#3]  Pronounced Crow-han.\n\n\nOn the fort stands a watchman to view them,\nAnd thus news down to Croghan he calls:\n\"From yon plain comes, in fulness of numbers,\nA great army to Croghan's high walls;\nAnd, since Ailill the throne first ascended,\nSince the day we hailed Maev as our Queen,\nNever army so fair nor so splendid\nYet hath come, nor its like shall be seen.\"\n\n\"'Tis strange,\" said he,\" as dipped in wine,\nSo swims, so reels my head,\nAs o'er me steals the breath divine\nOf perfume from them shed.\"\n\n\"A fair youth,\" said he, \"forth with them goeth,\nAnd the grace of such frolicsome play,\nAnd such lightness in leap as he showeth\nHave I seen not on earth till to-day:\nFor his spear a full shot's length he flingeth,\nYet the spear never reacheth to ground,\nFor his silver-chained hounds follow after,\nIn their jaws is the spear ever found!\"\nThe Connaught hosts without the fort\nTo see that glory rushed:\nSixteen within, of baser sort,\nWho gazed, to death were crushed.\n\nTo the fort came the youths, from their steeds they leapt, for the\nsteeds and the stabling cared,\nAnd they loosed the hounds that in leash they kept, for the hunt were\nthe hounds prepared;\nSeven deer, seven foxes and hares, they chased to the dun on Croghan's\nplain,\nSeven boars they drave, on the lawn in haste the game by the youths was\nslain:\nWith a bound they dashed into Bree, whose flood by the lawns of Croghan\nflows;\nSeven otters they caught in its stream, and brought to a hill where the\ngateway rose.\n\n'Twas there that Fraech and the princes sat at the castle-gate to rest,\nAnd the steward of Croghan with Fraech would speak, for such was the\nking's behest:\nOf his birth it was asked, and the men he led all truth to the herald\nspake:\n\"It is Idath's son who is here,\" they said, and they gave him the name\nof Fraech.\nTo Ailill and Maev went the steward back of the stranger's name to tell;\n\"Give him welcome,\" said they: \"Of a noble race is that youth, and I\nknow it well;\nLet him enter the court of our house,\" said the king, the gateway they\nopened wide;\nAnd the fourth of the palace they gave to Fraech, that there might his\nyouths abide.\n\nFair was the palace that there they found,\nSeven great chambers were ranged it round;\nRight to the walls of the house they spread,\nFacing the hall, where the fire glowed red:\nRed yew planks, that had felt the plane,\nDappled the walls with their tangled grain:\n\nRails of bronze at the side-walls stood,\nPlates of bronze had made firm the wood,\nSeven brass bolts to the roof-tree good\nFirmly the vaulting tied.\n\nAll that house had of pine been made,\nPlanks, as shingles, above were laid;\nSixteen windows the light let pass,\nEach in a frame of the shining brass:\nHigh through the roof was the sky seen bright;\nGirder of brass made that opening tight,\nUnder the gap it was stretched, and light\nFell on its gleaming side.\n\nAll those chambers in splendour excelling,\nThe midmost of all in the ring,\nRose a room, set apart as the dwelling\nOf Queen Maev, and of Ailill the king.\nFour brass columns the awning supported\nFor their couch, there was bronze on the wall;\nAnd two rails, formed of silver, and gilded,\nIn that chamber encircled it all:\nIn the front, to mid-rafters attaining,\nRose in silver a wand from the floor;\nAnd with rooms was that palace engirdled,\nFor they stretched from the door to the door.\n\n'Twas there they went to take repose,\nOn high their arms were hung;\nAnd down they sank, and welcome rose,\nAcclaimed by every tongue.\n\nBy the queen and the king they were welcome made, the strangers they\nturned to greet;\nAnd their courtesy graciously Fraech repaid: \"'Twas thus we had hoped\nto meet.\"\n\"Not for boasting to-day are ye come!\" said Maev; the men for the chess\nshe set:\nAnd a lord of the court in the chess-man sport by Fraech in a match was\nmet.\n'Twas a marvellous board of findruine fair was prepared, when they\nplayed that game,\nFour handles, and edges of gold it had, nor needed they candles' flame;\nFor the jewels that blazed at the chess-board's side, a light, as from\nlamps, would yield;\nAnd of silver and gold were the soldiers made, who engaged on that\nmimic field.\n\n\"Get ye food for the chiefs!\" said the king; said Maev, \"Not yet, 'tis\nmy will to stay,\nTo sit with the strangers, and here with Fraech in a match at the chess\nto play!\"\n\"Let thy game be played!\" said Ailill then, \"for it pleaseth me none\nthe less:\"\nAnd Queen Maev and Fraech at the chess-board sate, and they played at\nthe game of chess.\n\nNow his men, as they played, the wild beasts late caught were cooking,\nthey thought to feed;\nAnd said Ailill to Fraech, \"Shall thy harpmen play?\" \"Let them play,\"\nsaid Fraech, \"indeed:\"\nNow those harpers were wondrous men, by their sides they had sacks of\nthe otter's skin,\nAnd about their bodies the sacks were tied, and they carried their\nharps within,\nWith stitches of silver and golden thread each case for a harp was\nsewed;\nAnd, beneath the embroidery gleaming red, the shimmer of rubies showed!\n\nThe skin of a roe about them in the middle, it was as white as snow;\nblack-grey eyes in their centre. Cloaks of linen as white as the tunic\nof a swan around these ties.[FN#4]  Harps of gold and silver and\nbronze, with figures of serpents and birds, and hounds of gold and\nsilver: as they moved those strings those figures used to run about the\nmen all round.\n\n\n[FN#4]  This is the Egerton version, which is clearly right here.  The\nBook of Leinster gives: \"These figures accordingly used to run,\" &c.,\nleaving out all the first part of the sentence, which is required to\nmake the meaning plain.\n\n\nThey play for them then so that twelve of the people[FN#5] of Ailill\nand Medb die with weeping and sadness.\n\n\n[FN#5]  The Book of Leinster omits \"of Ailill and Medb.\"\n\n\nGentle and melodious were the triad, and they were the Chants of\nUaithne[FN#6] (Child-birth). The illustrious triad are three brothers,\nnamely Gol-traiges (Sorrow-strain), and Gen-traiges (Joy-strain), and\nSuan-traiges (Sleep-strain). Boand from the fairies is the mother of\nthe triad:\n\n\n[FN#6]  Pronounced something like Yew-ny.\n\n\nAt every one of the harpers' waists was girded the hide of a roe,\nAnd black-grey spots in its midst were placed, but the hide was as\nwhite as snow;\nAnd round each of the three of them waved a cloak, as white as the wild\nswan's wings:\nGold, silver, and bronze were the harps they woke; and still, as they\ntouched the strings,\nThe serpents, the birds, and the hounds on the harps took life at the\nharps' sweet sound,\nAnd those figures of gold round the harpmen rose, and floated in music\nround.\n\nThen they played, sweet and sad was the playing,\nTwelve of Ailill's men died, as they heard;\nIt was Boand[FN#7] who foretold them that slaying,\nAnd right well was accomplished her word.\n\n\n[FN#7]  Pronounced with sound of \"owned.\"\n\n\n'Tis the three Chants of Child-Birth\nGive names to those Three;\nOf the Harp of the Dagda[FN#8]\nThe children they be.\n\n\n[FN#8]  The Dagda seems to have been the chief god of the old Celtic\nmythology.\n\n\nTo those harpers a fairy\nIs mother, of yore\nTo that Harp, men call Child-Birth,\nQueen Boand the three bore.\n\nThey are three noble brothers,\nAnd well are they known;\nThey are kindly and gentle,\nAnd tuneful of tone.\n\nOne is Joy-Song, one Sorrow's,\nOne, \"Song that gives Sleep,\"\nAnd the Harp's strains, their father's,\nRemembered they keep.\n\nFor when Boand was at bearing,\nCame Sorrow the first,\nFrom the Harp, its strings tearing\nWith cry, Sorrow burst.\n\nThen there came to her pleasure\nFor birth of a boy;\nAnd a sweet smiling measure\nThe Harp played, 'twas Joy.\n\nAnd she swooned in her anguish,\nFor hard the third birth:\nFrom the Harp, her pains soothing,\nSleep's strain came on earth.\n\nThen from Boand passed her slumber,\nAnd, \"Uaithne,\"[FN#9] she cried,\nThy three sons, thou sharp Child-Birth,\nI take to my side.\n\n\n[FN#9]  Pronounced something like Yew-ny.\n\n\nCows and women by Ailill\nAnd Maev shall be slain;\nFor on these cometh Sorrow,\nAnd Joy, and Sleep's strain:\n\nYea, and men, who these harpers,\nThy children, shall hear,\nBy their art to death stricken,\nShall perish in fear.\"\n\nThen the strains died away in the palace,\nThe last notes seemed to sink, and to cease:\n\"It was stately,\" said Fergus, \"that music.\"\nAnd on all came a silence, and peace.\n\nSaid Fraech, \"The food divide ye!\nCome, bring ye here the meat!\"\nAnd down to earth sank Lothar,\nOn floor he set his feet;\n\nHe crouched, on haunches sitting,\nThe joints with sword he split;\nOn bones it fell unerring,\nNo dainty part he hit!\n\nThough long with sword he hewed, and long\nWas meat by men supplied,\nHis hand struck true; for never wrong\nWould Lothar meat divide.\n\nThree days at the chess had they played; three nights, as they sat at\nthe game, had gone:\nAnd they knew not the night for the sparkling light from the jewels of\nFraech that shone;\nBut to Maev turned Fraech, and he joyously cried, \"I have conquered\nthee well at the chess!\nYet I claim not the stake at the chess-board's side, lest thy palace's\nwealth be less.\"\n\n\"For no lengthier day have I sat in such play,\" said Maev, \"since I\nhere first came.\"\n\"And well may the day have seemed long,\" said Fraech, \"for three days\nand three nights was the game!\"\nThen up started Maev, and in shame she blushed that the chiefs she had\nfailed to feed;\nTo her husband, King Ailill, in wrath she rushed: \"We have both done a\ngoodly deed!\nFor none from our stores hath a banquet brought for the youths who are\nstrangers here!\"\nAnd said Ailill, \"In truth for the play was thy thought, and to thee\nwas the chess more dear.\"\n\"We knew not that darkness had come,\" said Maev, \"'tis not chess thou\nshould'st thus condemn;\nThough the day had gone, yet the daylight shone from the heart of each\nsparkling gem;\nThough the game we played, all could meal have made, had men brought of\nthe night advice,\nBut the hours sped away, and the night and the day have approached and\nhave fled from us thrice!\"\n\"Give command,\" said the king, \"that those wailing chants, till we give\nthem their food, be stilled.\"\nAnd food to the hands of each they gave, and all with the meat were\nfilled;\nAnd all things merrily went, for long the men with a feast were fed,\nFor, as feasting they sat, thrice rose the day, thrice night above\nearth was spread.\n\nThey brought Fraech, when that banquet was ended,\nTo the House of Debate, which was near,\nAnd they asked of his errand: \"In friendship,\nFor a visit,\" said Fraech, \"am I here!\"\n\"And 'twas joy that we felt, when receiving\nThis your host,\" said the king, \"ye have brought\nMuch of pleasure to all, and with grieving,\nWhen ye go, shall your presence be sought!\"\n\n\"Then,\" said Fraech, \"for a week we abide here.\"\nFor two weeks in that dun they abode:\nAnd the Connaught men pressed round to view them,\nAs each eve home from hunting they rode.\n\nYet Fraech was sad, with Findabar\nA word he sought in vain;\nThough he in truth from home so far\nHad come that word to gain.\n\nFraech, as night was ending,\nSprang from out his bed;\nSought the brook, intending\nThere to lave his head.\n\nThere King Ailill's daughter\nStood, and there her maid:\nThey that hour from water\nSought the cleansing aid.\n\n\"Stay,\" he cried, and speaking\nCaught the maiden's hand;\n\"Thee alone as seeking,\nI have reached this land:\n\nHere am I who sought thee,\nStay, and hear me woo!\"\n\"Ah! thy speech hath brought me\nJoy,\" she said, \"most true;\n\nYet, thy side if nearing,\nWhat for thee can I?\"\n\"Maid!\" he cried, \"art fearing\nHence with me to fly?\"\n\n\"Flight I hold disloyal,\"\nAnswered she in scorn;\n\"I from mother royal,\nI to king was born;\n\nWhat should stay our wedding?\nNone so mean or poor\nThou hast seemed, nor dreading\nKin of mine; be sure:\n\nI will go! 'tis spoken,\nThou beloved shalt be!\nTake this ring as token,\nLent by Maev to me!\n\n'Twas my mother who bid me to save it,\nFor the ring she in secret would hide;\n'Tis as pledge of our love that I gave it,\nAs its pledge it with thee should abide.\n\nTill that ring we can freely be showing\nI will tell them I put it astray!\"\nAnd, the love of each other thus knowing,\nFraech and Finnabar went on their way.\n\n\"I have fear,\" said the king, \"that with Fraech yon maid to his home as\nhis wife would fly;\nYet her hand he may win, if he rides on the Raid with his kine when the\ntime draws nigh.\"\nThen Fraech to the Hall of Debate returned, and he cried: \"Through Some\nsecret chink\nHath a whisper passed?\" and the king replied, \"Thou would'st fit in\nthat space, I think!\"\n\n\"Will ye give me your daughter?\" said Fraech: said the king, \"In sight\nof our hosts she goes;\nIf, as gift to suffice for her marriage price, thy hand what I ask\nbestows.\"\n\"I will give thee what price thou dost name,\" said Fraech, \"and now let\nits sum be told!\"'\n\"Then a sixty steeds do I claim,\" said the king, \"dark-grey, and with\nbits of gold;\nAnd twelve milch-cows, from their udders shall come the milk in a\ncopious stream,\nAnd by each of the cows a white calf shall run; bright red on its ears\nshall gleam;\nAnd thou, with thy harpers and men, shalt ride by my side on the\nCualgne[FN#10] Raid,\nAnd when all thy kine driven here shall stand, shall the price of her\nhand be paid!\"\n\n\n[FN#10]  Pronounced Kell-ny.\n\n\nNow I swear by the edge of my sword,\" said Fraech, \"I swear by my arms\nand shield,\nI would give no such pledge, even Maev to take, were it her thou wert\nfain to yield!\"\nAnd he went from the House of Debate, but Maev with Ailill bent low in\nplot:\nAll around us our foes,\" said the king, \"shall close, if Finnabar stays\nhere not;\nMany kings of Erin, who seek that maid, shall hear of her borne away,\nAnd in wrath they will rush on our land; 'twere best that Fraech we\ndevise to slay;\nEre that ruin he bring, let us make our spring, and the ill yet\nunwrought arrest.\"\n\"It were pity such deed should be done,\" said Maev, \"and to slay in our\nhouse our guest!\n'Twill bring shame on us ever.\" \"No shame to our house,\" said King\nAilill, \"that death shall breed!\"\n(And he spake the words twice)--\"but now hear my advice, how I plan we\nshould do this deed.\"\n\nAll the plot had been planned; to their house at last\nKing Ailill and Maev through the doorway passed;\nAnd the voice of the king uprose:\n\"'Tis now that the hounds should their prey pursue,\nCome away to the hunt who the hounds would view;\nFor noon shall that hunting close.\"\nSo forth went they all, on the chase intent,\nAnd they followed till strength of the hounds was spent,\nAnd the hunters were warm; and to bathe they went\nWhere the river of Croghan flows.\n\nAnd, \"'Tis told me,\" said Ailill, \"that Fraech hath won\nA great fame for the feats he in floods hath done:\nWilt thou enter these streams by our side that run?\nWe are longing to see thee swim!\"\nAnd said Fraech: \"Is it good then indeed thy stream?\nAnd said Ailill: \"Of danger no need to dream,\nFor many a youth from the Connaught Court\nIn its current hath bathed, and hath swum it in sport,\nNor of any who tried have we heard report\nThat ill hath been found by him!\"\n\nThen Fraech from his body his garments stripped,\nAnd he sprang down the bank, and he swiftly slipped\nIn the stream: and the king's glance fell\nOn a belt, left by Fraech on the bank; the king\nBent low; in the purse saw his daughter's ring,\nAnd the shape of the ring could tell.\n\"Come hither, O Maev,\" Ailill softly cried;\nAnd Queen Maev came up close to her husband's side\n\"Dost thou know of that ring?\" in the purse she spied\nThe ring, and she knew it well.\nThen Ailill the ring from the purse withdrew,\nAnd away from the bank the fair gem he threw;\nAnd the ring, flashing bright, through the air far flew,\nTo be lost in the flood's swift swell.\n\nAnd Fraech saw the gem as it brightly flashed,\nAnd a salmon rose high, at the light it dashed,\nAnd, as back in the stream with the ring he splashed,\nAt the fish went Fraech with a spring:\nBy its jole was the salmon secured, and thrown\nTo a nook in the bank, that by few was known;\nAnd unnoticed he threw it, to none was it shown\nAs it fell to the earth, with the ring.\n\nAnd now Fraech from the stream would be going:\nBut, \"Come not,\" said the king, \"to us yet:\nBring a branch from yon rowan-tree, showing\nIts fair berries, with water-drops wet.\"\n\nThen Fraech, swimming away through the water,\nBrake a branch from the dread rowan-tree,\nAnd a sigh came from Ailill's fair daughter;\n\"Ah! how lovely he seemeth,\" said she.\n\nFair she found him, swimming\nThrough that pool so black\nBrightly gleamed the berries,\nBound athwart his back.\n\nWhite and smooth his body,\nBright his glorious hair;\nEyes of perfect greyness,\nFace of men most fair:\n\nSoft his skin, no blemish,\nFault, nor spot it flawed;\nSmall his chin, and steady,\nBrave his brow, and broad.\n\nStraight he seemed, and stainless;\nTwixt his throat and chin\nStraying scarlet berries\nTouched with red his skin.\n\nOft, that sight recalling,\nFindabar would cry:\n\"Ne'er was half such beauty,\nNaught its third came nigh!\"\n\nTo the bank he swam, and to Ailill was thrown, with its berries, the\ntree's torn limb:\n\"Ah! how heavy and fair have those clusters grown; bring us more,\" and\nhe turned to swim;\nThe mid-current was reached, but the dragon was roused that was guard\nto that rowan-tree;\nAnd it rose from the river, on Fraech it rushed: \"Throw a sword from\nthe bank!\" cried he.\nAnd no man on the bank gave the sword: they were kept by their fear of\nthe queen and the king;\nBut her clothes from her Finnabar stripped, and she leapt in the river\nhis sword to bring.\nAnd the king from above hurled his five-barbed spear; the full length\nof a shot it sped:\nAt his daughter it flew, and its edge shore through two tresses that\ncrowned her head:\nAnd Fraech in his hand caught the spear as it fell, and backward its\npoint he turned.\nAnd again to the land was the spear launched well: 'twas a feat from\nthe champions learned.\nThough the beast bit his side as that spear was cast, yet fiercely the\ndart was flung,\nThrough the purple robe of the king it passed, through the tunic that\nnext him clung!\n\nThen up sprang the youths of the court, their lord in danger they well\nmight deem,\nBut the strong hand of Fraech had closed firm on the sword, and\nFinnabar rose from the stream.\nNow with sword in his hand, at the monster's head hewed Fraech, on its\nside it sank,\nAnd he came from the river with blade stained red, and the monster he\ndragged to the bank.\nTwas then Bree's Dub-lind in the Connaught land the Dark Water of\nFraech was named,\nFrom that fight was it called, but the queen and the king went back to\ntheir dun, ashamed!\n\n\"It is noble, this deed we have done!\" said Maev: \"'Tis pitiful,\"\nAilill cried:\n\"For the hurt of the man I repent, but to her, our daughter, shall woe\nbetide!\nOn the morrow her lips shall be pale, and none shall be found to aver\nthat her guilt,\nWhen the sword for his succour to Fraech she gave, was the cause why\nher life was spilt!\nNow see that a bath of fresh bacon broth be prepared that shall heal\nthis prince,\nAnd bid them with adze and with axe the flesh of a heifer full small to\nmince:\nLet the meat be all thrown in the bath, and there for healing let\nFraech be laid!\"\nAnd all that he ordered was done with care; the queen his command\nobeyed.\n\nThen arose from Fraech's trumpets complaining,\nAs his men travelled back to the dun;\nTheir soft notes lamentation sustaining,\nAnd a many their deaths from them won;\n\nAnd he well knew its meaning;\nAnd, \"Lift me, my folk,\"\nHe cried, \"surely that keening\nFrom Boand's women broke:\nMy mother, the Fairy, is nigh.\"\n\nThen they raised him, and bore him\nWhere wild rose the sound;\nTo his kin they restored him;\nHis women pressed round:\n\nAnd he passed from their sight out of Croghan;\nFor that night from earth was he freed,\nAnd he dwelt with his kin, the Sid-Dwellers\nIn the caverns of Croghan's deep Sid.[FN#11]\n\n\n[FN#11]  Pronounced Sheed; Sid is the fairy mound.\n\n\nAll at nine, next morrow,\nGazed, for back he came,\nRound their darling pressing\nMany a fairy dame:\n\nBrave he seemed, for healing\nAll his wounds had got;\nNone could find a blemish,\nNone a sear or spot.\n\nFifty fairies round him,\nLike in age and grace;\nLike each form and bearing;\nLike each lovely face.\n\nAll in fairy garments,\nAll alike were dressed;\nNone was found unequal;\nNone surpassed the rest.\n\nAnd the men who stood round, as they neared them,\nWere struck with a marvellous awe;\nThey were moved at the sight, and they feared them,\nAnd hardly their breath they could draw.\n\nAt the Liss all the fairies departed,\nBut on Fraech, as they vanished, they cried:\nAnd the sound floated in of their wailing,\nAnd it thrilled through the men, and they sighed.\n\nThen first that mournful measure,\n\"The Ban-Shee[FN#12] Wail,\" was heard;\nAll hearts with grief and pleasure\nThat air, when harped, hath stirred.\n\n\n[FN#12]  Spelt \"Ban Side,\" the fairy women.\n\n\nTo the dun came Fraech, and the hosts arose, and welcome by all was\nshown:\nFor it seemed as if then was his birth among men, from a world to the\nearth unknown!\nUp rose for him Maev and King Ailill, their fault they confessed, and\nfor grace they prayed,\nAnd a penance they did, and for all that assault they were pardoned,\nand peace was made.\nAnd now free from all dread, they the banquet spread, the banqueting\nstraight began:\nBut a thought came to Fraech, and from out of his folk he called to his\nside a man.\n\n\"Now hie thee,\" he said, \"to the river bank, a salmon thou there shalt\nfind;\nFor nigh to the spot where in stream I sank, it was hurled, and 'twas\nleft behind;\nTo Finnabar take it, and bid her from me that the salmon with skill she\nbroil:\nIn the midst of the fish is the ring: and none but herself at the task\nmust toil;\nAnd to-night, as I think, for her ring they call \": then he turned to\nthe feast again,\nAnd the wine was drunk, and the revellers sunk, for the fumes of it\nseized their brain,\nAnd music and much of delights they had; but the king had his plans\nlaid deep,\n\"Bring ye all of my jewels,\" he cried-on the board they were poured in\na dazzling heap.\n\"They are wonderful, wonderful!\" cried they all: \"Call Finnabar!\" said\nthe king;\nAnd his daughter obeyed, and her fifty maids stood round in a lovely\nring.\nMy daughter,\" said Ailill, \"a ring last year I gave thee, is't here\nwith thee yet?\nBring it hither to show to the chiefs, and anon in thy hand shall the\ngem be set.\"\n\"That jewel is lost,\" said the maid, \"nor aught of the fate of the ring\nI know!\"\nThen find it,\" said Ailill, \"the ring must be brought, or thy soul from\nthy limbs must go!\"\n\n\"Now, nay!\" said they all, \"it were cruel\nThat such fate for such fault should be found:\nThou hast many a fair-flashing jewel\nIn these heaps that lie scattered around!\"\nAnd said Fraech: \"Of my jewels here glowing\nTake thy fill, if the maid be but freed;\n'Tis to her that my life I am owing,\nFor she brought me the sword in my need.\"\n\n\"There is none of thy gems that can aid her,\"\nSaid Ailill, \"nor aught thou canst give;\nThere is one thing alone that shall save her;\nIf the ring be restored, she shall live!\n\nSaid Finnabar; \"Thy treasure\nTo yield no power is mine:\nDo thou thy cruel pleasure,\nFor strength, I know, is thine.\"\n\n\"By the god whom our Connaught land haileth,\nI swear,\" answered Ailill the king,\n\"That the life on thy lips glowing faileth,\nIf thou place in my hand not the ring!\"\nAnd that hard,\" he laughed softly, \"the winning\nOf that jewel shall be, know I well;\nThey who died since the world had beginning\nShall come back to the spot where they fell\nEre that ring she can find, and can bear it\nTo my hand from the spot where 'twas tossed,\nAnd as knowing this well, have I dared her\nTo restore what for aye hath been lost!\"\n\n\"No ring for treasure thus despised,\"\nShe said, \"exchanged should be;\nYet since the king its worth hath prized,\nI'll find the gem for thee!\"\n\nNot thus shalt thou fly,\" said the king, \"to thy maid let the quest of\nthe ring be bid!\"\nAnd his daughter obeyed, and to one whom she sent she told where the\nring was hid:\n\n\"But,\" Finnabar cried, \"by my country's god I swear that from out this\nhour,\nWill I leave this land, and my father's hand shall no more on my life\nhave power,\nAnd no feasting shall tempt me to stay, no draughts of wine my resolve\nshall shake!\"\n\"No reproach would I bring, if as spouse,\" said the king, \"thou a groom\nfrom my stalls would'st take!\nBut that ring must be found ere thou goest! \"Then back came her maid,\nand a dish she bore:\nAnd there lay a salmon well broiled, as sauce with honey 'twas\ngarnished o'er:\nBy the daughter of Ailill herself with skill had the honey-sweet sauce\nbeen made.\nAnd high on the breast of the fish, the ring of gold that they sought\nwas laid.\nKing Ailill and Maev at the ring gazed hard; Fraech looked, in his\npurse he felt:\nNow it seemeth,\" he said, \"'twas to prove my host that I left on the\nbank my belt,\n\nAnd Ailill now I challenge\nAll truth, as king to tell;\nWhat deed his cunning fashioned,\nAnd what that ring befell.\"\n\n\"There is naught to be hidden,\" said Ailill;\n\"It was mine, in thy purse though it lay\nAnd my daughter I knew as its giver:\nSo to river I hurled it away.\n\nNow Fraech in turn I challenge\nBy life and honour's claim:\nSay how from yon dark water\nThat ring to draw ye came.\"\n\n\"There is naught to be hidden,\" he answered,\n\"The first day that I came, on the earth,\nNear the court round thy house, was that jewel;\nAnd I saw all its beauty and worth:\n\nIn my purse then I hid it; thy daughter,\nWho had lost it, with care for it sought;\nAnd the day that I went to that water\nWas the news of her search to me brought:\n\nAnd I asked what reward she would give me,\nIf the gem in her hand should be placed;\nAnd she answered that I, if I found it,\nFor a year by her love should be graced.\n\nBut not then could the ring be delivered:\nFor afar in my chamber it lay:\nTill she gave me the sword in the river,\nWe met not again on that day.\n\n'Twas then I saw thee open\nMy purse, and take the ring:\nI watched, and towards the water\nThat gem I saw thee fling:\n\nI saw the salmon leaping,\nThe ring it caught, and sank:\nI came behind, and seized it;\nAnd brought the fish to bank.\n\nThen I wrapped it up close in my mantle;\nAnd 'twas hid from inquisitive eyes;\nAnd in Finnabar's hand have I placed it:\nAnd now there on the platter it lies!\"\n\nNow all who this or that would know\nTo ask, and praise began:\nSaid Finnabar, \"I'll never throw\nMy thoughts on other man!\"\n\nNow hear her word,\" her parents cried,\n\"And plight to her thy troth,\nAnd when for Cualgne's[FN#13] kine we ride\nDo thou redeem thine oath.\n\n\n[FN#13]  Pronounced Kell-ny.\n\n\nAnd when with kine from out the east\nYe reach our western land;\nThat night shall be thy marriage feast;\nAnd thine our daughter's hand.\"\n\n\"Now that oath will I take,\" answered back to them Fraech, \"and the\ntask ye have asked will do!\"\nSo he tarried that night till the morning's light; and they feasted the\nwhole night through;\nAnd then homewards bound, with his comrades round, rode Fraech when the\nnight was spent,\nAnd to Ailill and Maev an adieu he gave, and away to their land they\nwent.\n\n\n\n\nTAIN BO FRAICH\n\n\n\nPart I\n\n\n\nLITERAL TRANSLATION\n\n\nFRAECH, son of Idath of the men of Connaught, a son he to Befind from\nthe Side: a sister she to Boand.  He is the hero who is the most\nbeautiful that was of the men of Eriu and of Alba, but he was not\nlong-lived.  His mother gave him twelve cows out of the Sid (the fairy\nmound), they are white-eared.  He had a good housekeeping till the end\nof eight years without the taking of a wife.  Fifty sons of kings, this\nwas the number of his household, co-aged, co-similar to him all between\nform and instruction. Findabair, daughter of Ailill and Medb, loves him\nfor the great stories about him.  It is declared to him at his house.\nEriu and Alba were full of his renown and the stories about him.\n\n\nTo Fraech[FN#14] was Idath[FN#15] father,\nA Connaught man was he:\nAnd well we know his mother\nWho dwells among the Shee;[FN#16]\nBefind they call her, sister\nTo Boand,[FN#17] the Fairy Queen;\nAnd Alba ne'er, nor Erin,\nSuch grace as Fraech's hath seen.\nYet wondrous though that hero's grace,\nHis fairy lineage high,\nFor years but few his lovely face\nWas seen by human eye.\n\n\n[FN#14]  Pronounced Fraych.\n\n[FN#15]  Pronounced Eeda.\n\n[FN#16]  The Fairies.\n\n[FN#17]  Pronounced with the sound of \"owned.\"\n\n\nFraech had twelve of white-eared fairy-cattle,\n'Twas his mother those cattle who gave:\nFor eight years in his home he dwelt wifeless,\nAnd the state of his household was brave;\nFifty princes, whose age, and whose rearing,\nAnd whose forms were as his, with him played;\nAnd his glory filled Alba and Erin\nTill it came to the ears of a maid:\nFor Maev and Ailill's[FN#18] lovely child,\nFair Findabar, 'twas said,\nBy tales of Fraech to love beguiled,\nWith Fraech in love would wed.\n\n\n[FN#18]  Pronounced Al-ill.\n\n\nAfter this going to a dialogue with the maiden occurred to him; he\ndiscussed that matter with his people.\n\n\"Let there be a message then sent to thy mother's sister, so that a\nportion of wondrous robing and of gifts from the Side (fairy folk) be\ngiven thee from her.\"  He goes accordingly to the sister, that is to\nBoand, till he was in Mag Breg, and he carried away fifty dark-blue\ncloaks, and each of them was like the back of a black chafer,[FN#19]\nand four black-grey, rings on each cloak, and a brooch of red gold on\neach cloak, and pale white tunics with loop-animals of gold around\nthem. And fifty silver shields with edges, and a candle of a\nking's-house in the hand of them (the men), and fifty studs of\nfindruine[FN#20] on each of them (the lances), fifty knobs of\nthoroughly burned gold on each of them; points (i.e. butt-ends) of\ncarbuncle under them beneath, and their point of precious stones. They\nused to light the night as if they were the sun's rays.\n\n\n[FN#19]  The Book of Leinster gives \"fifty blue cloaks, each like\nfindruine of art.\"\n\n[FN#20]  Pronounced \"find-roony,\" the unknown \"white-bronze\" metal.\n\n\nAnd there were fifty gold-hilted swords with them, and a soft-grey\nmare under the seat of each man, and bits of gold to them;\na plate of silver with a little bell of gold around the neck of each\nhorse.  Fifty caparisons[FN#21] of purple with threads of silver out of\nthem, with buckles of gold and silver and with head-animals (i.e.\nspiral ornaments).  Fifty whips of findruine, with a golden hook on the\nend of each of them.  And seven chase-hounds in chains of silver, and\nan apple of gold between each of them.  Greaves of bronze about them,\nby no means was there any colour which was not on the hounds.\n\n\n[FN#21]  The word for caparisons is \"acrann,\" the usual word for a\nshoe.  It is suggested that here it may be a caparison of leather:\n\"shoes\" seem out of place here.  See Irische Texts, iii.\n\n\n\nSeven trumpeters with them with golden and silver trumpets with many\ncoloured garments, with golden fairy-yellow heads of hair, with shining\ntunics.  There were three jesters before them with silver diadems under\ngilding.  Shields with engraved emblems (or marks of distinction) with\neach of them; with crested staves, with ribs of bronze (copper-bronze)\nalong their sides.  Three harp-players with a king's appearance about\neach of them opposite to these.[FN#22]  They depart for Cruachan with\nthat appearance on them.\n\n\n[FN#22]  The word for caparisons is \"acrann,\" the usual word for a\nshoe.  It is suggested that here it may be a caparison of leather:\n\"shoes\" seem out of place here.  See Irische Texts, iii. 2. p. 531.\n\n\nThe watchman sees them from the dun when they had come into the plain\nof Cruachan.  \"A multitude I see,\" he says, \"(come) towards the dun in\ntheir numbers.  Since Ailill and Maev assumed sovereignty there came\nnot to them before, and there shall not come to them, a multitude,\nwhich is more beautiful, or which is more splendid.  It is the same\nwith me that it were in a vat of wine my head should be, with the\nbreeze that goes over them.\n\n\"The manipulation and play that the young hero who is in it makes--I\nhave not before seen its likeness.  He shoots his pole a shot's\ndischarge from him; before it reaches to earth the seven chase-hounds\nwith their seven silver chains catch it.\"\n\nAt this the hosts come from the dun of Cruachan to view them.  The\npeople in the dun smother one another, so that sixteen men die while\nviewing them.\n\n\nThey alight in front of the dun.  They tent their steeds, and they\nloose the chase-hounds.  They (the hounds) chase the seven deer to\nRath-Cruachan, and seven foxes, and seven hares, and seven wild boars,\nuntil the youths kill them in the lawn of the dun.  After that the\nchase-hounds dart a leap into Brei; they catch seven otters.  They\nbrought them to the elevation in front of the chief rath.  They (Fraech\nand his suite) sit down there.\n\nA message comes from the king for a parley with them.  It is asked\nwhence they came, they name themselves according to their true names,\n\"Fraech, son of Idath this,\" say they.  The steward tells it to the\nking and queen.  \"Welcome to them,\" say Ailill and Maev; \"It is a noble\nyouth who is there,\" says Ailill, \"let him come into the Liss (outer\ncourt).\"  The fourth of the house is allotted to them.  This was the\narray of the house, a seven fold order in it; seven apartments from\nfire to side-wall in the house all round.  A rail (or front) of bronze\nto each apartment; a partitioning of red yew under variegated planing\nall.\n\nThree plates of bronze in the skirting of each apartment.  Seven plates\nof brass from the ceiling (?) to the roof-tree in the house.\n\nOf pine the house was made; it is a covering of shingle it had\nexternally.  There were sixteen windows in the house, and a frame of\nbrass, to each of them; a tie of brass across the roof-light.  Four\nbeams of brass on the apartment of Ailill and Medb, adorned all with\nbronze, and it in the exact centre of the house.  Two rails of silver\naround it under gilding.  In the front a wand of silver that reached\nthe middle rafters of the house.  The house was encircled all round\nfrom the door to the other.[FN#23]\n\n\n[FN#23]  It should be noted that it is not certain whether the word\n\"imdai,\" translated apartments, really means \"apartments\" or \"benches.\"\n The weight of opinion seems at present to take it as above.\n\n\nThey hang up their arms in that house, and they sit, and welcome is\nmade to them.\n\n\"Welcome to you,\" say Ailill and Medb.  \"It is that we have come for,\"\nsays Fraech.  \"It shall not be a journey for boasting[FN#24] this,\"\nsays Medb, and Ailill and Medb arrange the chess-board after that.\nFraech then takes to the playing of chess with a man of their (?)\npeople.\n\n\n[FN#24]  This is the rendering in the Yellow Book of Lecan, considered\nby Meyer to be the true reading.  The Book of Leinster text gives\n\"aig-baig,\" a word of doubtful meaning.  The Eg. MS. has also a\ndoubtful word.\n\n\nIt was a beauty of a chess-board.  A board of findruine in it with four\nears[FN#25] and edges of gold.  A candle of precious stones at\nilluminating for them.  Gold and silver the figures that were upon the\ntable.  \"Prepare ye food for the warriors,\" said Ailill.  \"Not it is my\ndesire,\" said Medb, but to go to the chess yonder against Fraech.\"\n\"Get to it, I am pleased,\" said Ailill, and they play the chess then,\nand Fraech.\n\n\n[FN#25]  The \"ears\" were apparently handles shaped like ears.  The same\nword is used for the rings in the cloaks, line 33 above.\n\n\nHis people were meanwhile at cooking the wild animals.  \"Let thy\nharpers play for us,\" says Ailill to Fraech.  \"Let them play indeed!\"\nsays Fraech.  A harp-bag[FN#26] of the skins of otters about them with\ntheir adornment of ruby (or coral), beneath their adornment of gold and\nsilver.\n\n\n[FN#26]  Meyer translates this: \"the concave part of the harp.\"\n\n\nIt is from the music which Uaithne, the Dagda's harp, played that the\nthree are named.   The time the woman was at the bearing of children it\nhad a cry of sorrow with the soreness of the pangs at first: it was\nsmile and joy it played in the middle for the pleasure of bringing\nforth the two sons: it was a sleep of soothingness played the last son,\non account of the heaviness of the birth, so that it is from him that\nthe third of the music has been named.\n\nBoand awoke afterwards out of the sleep.   \"I accept,\" she says, \"thy\nthree sons O Uaithne of full ardour, since there is Suan-traide and\nGen-traide, and Gol-traide on cows and women who shall fall by Medb and\nAilill, men who shall perish by the hearing of art from them.\"\n\nThey cease from playing after that in the palace: \"It is stately it has\ncome,\" says Fergus.   \"Divide ye to us,\" says Fraech to his people,\n\"the food, bring ye it into the house.\"  Lothur went on the floor of\nthe house: he divides to them the food.  On his haunches he used to\ndivide each joint with his sword, and he used not to touch the food\npart: since he commenced dividing, he never hacked the meat beneath his\nhand.\n\nThey were three days and three nights at the playing of the chess on\naccount of the abundance of the precious stones in the household of\nFraech.  After that Fraech addressed Medb.  \"It is well I have played\nagainst thee (i.e. have beaten thee),\" he says, \"I take not away thy\nstake from the chess-board that there be not a decay of hospitality for\nthee in it.\"\n\n\"Since I have been in this dun this is the day which I deem longest in\nit ever,\" says Medb.  \"This is reasonable,\" says Fraech, \"they are\nthree days and three nights in it.\"  At this Medb starts up.  It was a\nshame with her that the warriors were without food.  She goes to\nAilill: she tells it to him.  \"A great deed we have done,\" said she,\n\"the stranger men who have come to us to be without food.\"  \"Dearer to\nthee is playing of the chess,\" says Ailill.  \"It hinders not the\ndistribution to his suite throughout the house.  They have been three\ndays and three nights in it but that we perceived not the night with\nthe white light of the precious stones in the house.\"  \"Tell them,\"\nsays Ailill, \"to cease from the lamenting until distribution is made to\nthem.\"  Distribution is then made to them, and things were pleasing to\nthem, and they stayed three days and three nights in it after that over\nthe feasting.\n\nIt is after that Fraech was called into the house of conversation, and\nit is asked of him what brought him.  \"A visit with you,\" said he, \"is\npleasing to me.\"  \"Your company is indeed not displeasing with the\nhousehold,\" said Ailill, \"your addition is better than your diminution.\"\n\n\"We shall stay here then,\" says Fraech, \"another week.\"  They stay\nafter that till the end of a fortnight in the dun, and they have a hunt\nevery single day towards the dun.  The men of Connaught used to come to\nview them.\n\nIt was a trouble with Fraech not to have a conversation with the\ndaughter: for that was the profit that had brought him.  A certain day\nhe starts up at the end of night for washing to the stream.  It is the\ntime she had gone and her maid for washing.  He takes her hand.  \"Stay\nfor my conversing,\" he says; \"it is thou I have come for.\"  \"I am\ndelighted truly,\" says the daughter; \"if I were to come, I could do\nnothing for thee.\"  \"Query, wouldst thou elope with me?\" he says.\n\n\"I will not elope,\" says she, \"for I am the daughter of a king and a\nqueen.  There is nothing of thy poverty that you should not get me\n(i.e. thy poverty is not so great that thou art not able to get me)\nfrom my family; and it shall be my choice accordingly to go to thee, it\nis thou whom I have loved.  And take thou with thee this ring,\" says\nthe daughter, \"and it shall be between us for a token.  My mother gave\nit to me to put by, and I shall say that I put it astray.\"  Each of\nthem accordingly goes apart after that.\n\n\"I fear,\" says Ailill, \"the eloping of yon daughter with Fraech, though\nshe would be given to him on solemn pledge that he would come towards\nus with his cattle for aid at the Spoil.\"  Fraech goes to them to the\nhouse of conversation.  \"Is it a secret (cocur, translated \"a whisper\"\nby Crowe) ye have?\" says Fraech.  \"Thou wouldest fit in it,\" says\nAilill.\n\n\"Will ye give me your daughter?\" says Fraech.  \"The hosts will clearly\nsee she shall be given,\" says Ailill, \"if thou wouldest give a dowry as\nshall be named.\"  \"Thou shalt have it,\" says Fraech.  \"Sixty black-grey\nsteeds to me, with their bits of gold to them, and twelve milch cows,\nso that there be milked liquor of milk from each of them, and an\near-red, white calf with each of them; and thou to come with me with\nall thy force and with thy musicians for bringing of the cows from\nCualgne; and my daughter to be given thee provided thou dost come\" (or\nas soon as[FN#27] thou shalt come).  \"I swear by my shield, and by my\nsword, and by my accoutrement, I would not give that in dowry even of\nMedb.\"  He went from them out of the house then.  Ailill and Medb hold\na conversation.  \"It shall drive at us several of the kings of Erin\naround us if he should carry off the daughter.  What is good is, let us\ndash after him, and let us slay him forthwith, before he may inflict\ndestruction upon us.\"  \"It is a pity this,\" says Medb, \"and it is a\ndecay of hospitality for us.\"  \"It shall not be a decay of hospitality\nfor us, it shall not be a decay of hospitality for us, the way I shall\nprepare it.\"\n\n\n[FN#27]  This is Thurneysen's rendering (\"Sagen aus dem alten Irland,\"\np. 121).\n\n\nAilill and Medb go into the palace.  \"Let us go away,\" says Ailill,\nthat we may see the chase-hounds at hunting till the middle of the day,\nand until they are tired.\"  They all go off afterwards to the river to\nbathe themselves.\n\n\"It is declared to me,\" says Ailill, \"that thou art good in water.\nCome into this flood, that we may see thy swimming.\"  \"What is the\nquality of this flood?\" he says.  \"We know not anything dangerous in\nit,\" says Ailill, \"and bathing in it is frequent.\"  He strips his\nclothes off him then, and he goes into it, and he leaves his girdle\nabove.  Ailill then opens his purse behind him, and the ring was in it.\n Ailill recognises it then.  \"Come here, O Medb,\" says Ailill.  Medb\ngoes then.  \"Dost thou recognise that?\" says Ailill.  \"I do recognise,\"\nshe says.  Ailill flings it into the river down.\n\nFraech perceived that matter.  He sees something, the salmon leaped to\nmeet it, and caught it in his mouth.  He (Fraech) gives a bound to it,\nand he catches its jole, and he goes to land, and he brings it to a\nlonely[FN#28] spot on the brink of the river.  He proceeds to come out\nof the water then.  \"Do not come,\" says Ailill, \"until thou shalt bring\nme a branch of the rowan-tree yonder, which is on the brink of the\nriver: beautiful I deem its berries.\"  He then goes away, and breaks a\nbranch off the trees and brings it on his back over the water.  The\nremark of Find-abair was: \"Is it not beautiful he looks?\"  Exceedingly\nbeautiful she thought it to see Fraech over a black pool: the body of\ngreat whiteness, and the hair of great loveliness, the face of great\nbeauty, the eye of great greyness; and he a soft youth without fault,\nwithout blemish, with a below-narrow, above-broad face; and he\nstraight, blemishless; the branch with the red berries between the\nthroat and the white face.  It is what Find-abair used to say, that by\nno means had she seen anything that could come up to him half or third\nfor beauty.\n\n\n[FN#28]\"Hidden spot\" (Windisch\n\n\nAfter that he throws the branches to them out of the water.  \"The\nberries are stately and beautiful, bring us an addition of them.\"  He\ngoes off again until he was in the middle of the water.  The serpent\ncatches him out of the water.  \"Let a sword come to me from you,\" he\nsays; and there was not on the land a man who would dare to give it to\nhim through fear of Ailill and Medb.  After that Find-abair strips off\nher clothes, and gives a leap into the water with the sword.  Her\nfather lets fly a five-pronged spear at her from above, a shot's throw,\nso that it passes through her two tresses, and that Fraech caught the\nspear in his hand.  He shoots the spear into the land up, and the\nmonster in his side.  He lets it fly with a charge of the methods of\nplaying of championship, so that it goes through the purple robe and\nthrough the tunic (? shirt) that was about Ailill.\n\nAt this the youths who were about Ailill rise to him.  Find-abair goes\nout of the water and leaves the sword in Fraech's hand, and he cuts the\nhead off the monster, so that it was on its side, and he brought the\nmonster with him to land.  It is from it is Dub-lind Fraech in Brei, in\nthe lands of the men of Connaught.  Ailill and Medb go to their dun\nafterwards.\n\n\"A great deed is what we have done,\" says Medb.  \"We repent,\" says\nAilill, \"of what we have done to the man; the daughter however,\" he\nsays, \"her lips shall perish [common metaphor for death] to-morrow at\nonce, and it shall not be the guilt of bringing of the sword that shall\nbe for her.  Let a bath be made by you for this man, namely, broth of\nfresh bacon and the flesh of a heifer to be minced in it under adze and\naxe, and he to be brought into the bath.\"  All that thing was done as\nhe said.  His trumpeters then before him to the dun. They play then\nuntil thirty of the special friends of Ailill die at the long-drawn (or\nplaintive) music.  He goes then into the dun, and he goes into the\nbath.  The female company rise around him at the vat for rubbing, and\nfor washing his head.  He was brought out of it then, and a bed was\nmade.  They heard something, the lament-cry on Cruachan.  There were\nseen the three times fifty women with crimson tunics, with green\nhead-dresses, with brooches of silver on their wrists.\n\nA messenger is sent to them to learn what they had bewailed.  \"Fraech,\nson of Idath,\" says the woman, \"boy-pet of the king of the Side of\nErin.\"  At this Fraech heard their lament-cry.\n\nThirty men whom King Ailill loved dearly\nBy that music were smitten to die;\nAnd his men carried Fraech, and they laid him\nIn that bath, for his healing to lie.\n\nAround the vat stood ladies,\nThey bathed his limbs and head;\nFrom out the bath they raised him,\nAnd soft they made his bed.\n\nThen they heard a strange music;\nThe wild Croghan \"keen\";\nAnd of women thrice fifty\nOn Croghan were seen.\n\nThey had tunics of purple,\nWith green were they crowned;\nOn their wrists glistened silver,\nWhere brooches were bound.\n\nAnd there neared them a herald\nTo learn why they wailed;\n\"'Tis for Fraech,\" was their answer,\n\"By sickness assailed;\n\n'Tis for Fraech, son of Idath,[FN#29]\nBoy-darling is he\nOf our lord, who in Erin\nIs king of the Shee!\"[FN#30]\n\nAnd Fraech heard the wail in their cry;\n\n\n[FN#29]  Pronounced Eeda.\n\n[FN#30]  The Fairies.\n\n\n\"Lift me out of it,\" he says to his people; \"this is the cry of my\nmother and of the women of Boand.\"  He is lifted out at this, and he is\nbrought to them.  The women come around him, and bring him from them to\nthe Sid of Cruachan (i.e. the deep caverns, used for burial at\nCruachan).\n\nThey saw something, at the ninth hour on the morrow he comes, and fifty\nwomen around him, and he quite whole, without stain and without\nblemish; of equal age (the women), of equal form, of equal beauty, of\nequal fairness, of equal symmetry, of equal stature, with the dress of\nwomen of the fairies about them so that there was no means of knowing\nof one beyond the other of them. Little but men were suffocated around\nthem.  They separate in front of the Liss.[FN#31] They give forth their\nlament on going from him, so that they troubled[FN#32] the men who were\nin the Liss excessively.  It is from it is the Lament-cry of the Women\nof the Fairies with the musicians of Erin.\n\n\n[FN#31]  The Liss is the outer court of the palace.\n\n[FN#32]  \"Oo corastar tar cend,\" \"so that they upset, or put beside\nthemselves.\"  Meyer takes literally, \"so that they fell on their backs\"\n(?)\n\n\nHe then goes into the dun.  All the hosts rise before him, and bid\nwelcome to him, as if it were from another world he were coming.\n\nAilill and Medb arise, and do penance to him for the attack they had\nmade at him, and they make peace. Feasting commenced with them then at\nonce. Fraech calls a servant of his suite:\n\n\"Go off,\" he says, \"to the spot at which I went into the water.  A\nsalmon I left there--bring it to Find-abair, and let herself take\ncharge over it; and let the salmon be well broiled by her, and the ring\nis in the centre of the salmon.  I expect it will be asked of her\nto-night.\"  Inebriety seizes them, and music and amusement delight\nthem.  Ailill then said: \"Bring ye all my gems to me.\"  They were\nbrought to him then, so that the were before him.  \"Wonderful,\nwonderful,\" says every one.  \"Call ye Find-abair to me,\" he says.\nFind-abair goes to him, and fifty maidens around her.  \"O daughter,\"\nsays Ailill, \"the ring I gave to thee last year, does it remain with\nthee?  Bring it to me that the warriors may see it.  Thou shalt have it\nafterwards.\"  \"I do not know,\" she says, \"what has been done about it.\"\n \"Ascertain then,\" says Ailill, \"it must be sought, or thy soul must\ndepart from thy body.\"\n\n\"It is by no means worth,\" say the warriors, \"there is much of value\nthere, without that.\"  \"There is naught of my jewels that will not go\nfor the maid,\" says Fraech, \"because she brought me the sword for\npledge of my soul.\"\n\n\"There is not with thee anything of gems that should aid her unless she\nreturns the ring from her,\" says Ailill.\n\n\"I have by no means the power to give it,\" says the daughter, \"what\nthou mayest like do it in regard to me.\"  \"I swear to the god to whom\nmy people swear, thy lips shall be pale (literally, shall perish)\nunless thou returnest it from thee,\" says Ailill.  \"It is why it is\nasked of thee, because it is impossible; for I know that until the\npeople who have died from the beginning of the world.  Come, it comes\nnot out of the spot in which it was flung.\"  \"It shall not come for a\ntreasure which is not appreciated,\"[FN#33] says the daughter, \"the ring\nthat is asked for here, I go that I may bring it to thee, since it is\nkeenly it is asked.\"  \"Thou shalt not go,\" says Ailill; \"but let one go\nfrom thee to bring it.\"\n\n\n[FN#33]  This is Windisch's rendering (Irische Texte, I. p. 677: s.v.\nmain).\n\n\nThe daughter sends her maid to bring it.\n\n\"I swear to the god to whom my territories swear, if it shall be found,\nI shall by no means be under thy power any longer though I should be at\ngreat drinking continually.\" (?)[FN#34]  \"I shall by no means prevent\nyou from doing that, namely even if it were to the groom thou shouldst\ngo if the ring is found,\" says Ailill.  The maid then brought the dish\ninto the palace, and the broiled salmon on it, and it dressed under\nhoney which was well made by the daughter; and the ring of gold was on\nthe salmon from above.\n\n\n[FN#34]  \"dian dumroib for sar-ol mogreis.\" Meyer gives \"if there is\nany one to protect me.\" The above is Crowe's rendering.\n\n\nAilill and Medb view it.  After that Fraech looks at it, and looks at\nhis purse.  \"It seems to me it was for proof that I left my girdle,\"\nsays Fraech.  \"On the truth of the sovereignty,\" says Fraech, \"say what\nthou did'st about the ring.\"  \"This shall not be concealed from thee,\"\nsays Ailill; \"mine is the ring which was in thy purse, and I knew it is\nFind-abair gave it to thee.  It is therefore I flung it into the Dark\nPool.  On the truth of thine honour and of thy soul, O Fraech, declare\nthou what way the bringing of it out happened.\"\n\n\"It shall not be concealed on thee,\" says Fraech.  \"The first day I\nfound the ring in front of the outer court, and I knew it was a lovely\ngem.  It is for that reason I put it up industriously in my purse.  I\nheard, the day I went to the water, the maiden who had lost it\na-looking for it.  I said to her: 'What reward shall I have at thy\nhands for the finding of it?'  She said to me that she would give a\nyear's love to me.\n\n\"It happened I did not leave it about me; I had left it in the house\nbehind me.  We met not until we met at the giving of the sword into my\nhand in the river.  After that I saw the time thou open'st the purse\nand flungest the ring into the water: I saw the salmon which leaped for\nit, so that it took it into its mouth.  I then caught the salmon, took\nit up in the cloak, put it into the hand of the daughter.  It is that\nsalmon accordingly which is on the dish.\"\n\nThe criticising and the wondering at these stories begin in the house\nhold.  \"I shall not throw my mind on another youth in Erin after thee,\"\nsays Find-abair.  \"Bind thyself for that,\" say Ailill and Medb, \"and\ncome thou to us with thy cows to the Spoil of the Cows from Cualnge;\nand when thou shalt come with thy cows from the East back, ye shall wed\nhere that night at once and Find-abair.\"  \"I shall do that thing,\" says\nFraech.  They are in it then until the morning.  Fraech sets about him\nself with his suite.  He then bids farewell to Ailill and Medb.  They\ndepart to their own territories then.\n\n\n\n\nTAIN BO FRAICH\n\n\n\nPART II\n\n\nUnto Fraech it hath chanced, as he roved from his lands\nThat his cattle were stolen by wandering bands:\nAnd there met him his mother, and cried, \"On thy way\nThou hast tarried, and hard for thy slackness shalt pay!\nIn the Alps of the south, the wild mountains amid,\nHave thy children, thy wife, and thy cattle been hid:\nAnd a three of thy kine have the Picts carried forth,\nAnd in Alba they pasture, but far to the north!\"\n\n\"Now, alack!\" answered Fraech, \"what is best to be done?\"\n\"Rest at home,\" said his mother, \"nor seek them my son;\nFor to thee neither cattle, nor children, nor wife\nCan avail, if in seeking thou losest thy life;\nAnd though cattle be lacking, the task shall be mine\nTo replace what is lost, and to grant thee the kine.\"\n\n\"Nay, not so,\" answered Fraech, \"by my soul I am sworn,\nThat when cattle from Cualgne by force shall be torn\nTo King Ailill and Maev on my faith as their guest\nI must ride with those cattle for war to the west!\"\n\"Now but vainly,\" she said, \"is this toil on thee cast;\nThou shalt lose what thou seekest\", and from him she passed.\n\nThree times nine of his men for that foray were chosen, and marched by\nhis side,\nAnd a hawk flew before, and for hunting, was a hound with a\nhunting-leash tied;\n\nTo Ben Barchi they went, for the border of Ulster their faces were set:\nAnd there, of its marches the warder, the conquering Conall they met.\nFraech hailed him, the conquering Conall, and told him the tale of his\nspoil;\n\"'Tis ill luck that awaits thee,\" said Conall, \"thy quest shall be\nfollowed with toil!\n\"'Twill be long ere the goal thou art reaching, though thy heart in the\nseeking may be.\"\n\"Conall Cernach,[FN#35] hear thou my beseeching said Fraech, \"let thine\naid be to me;\nI had hoped for this meeting with Conall, that his aid in the quest\nmight be lent.\"\n\"I will go with thee truly,\" said Conall: with Fraech and his comrades\nhe went.\n\n\n[FN#35]  Pronounced Cayr-nach.\n\n\nThree times nine, Fraech and Conall before them,\nOver ocean from Ireland have passed;\nThrough the Land of North Saxony bore them,\nAnd the South Sea they sighted at last.\nAnd again on the sea billows speeding,\nThey went south, over Ichtian foam;\nAnd marched on: southward still was their leading:\nTo the land where the Long-Beards have home:\nBut when Lombardy's bounds they were nearing\nThey made stand; for above and around\nWere the high peaks of Alpa appearing,\nAnd the goal that they sought had been found.\n\nOn the Alps was a woman seen straying, and herding the flocks of the\nsheep,\n\"Let our warriors behind be delaying,\" said Conall, \"and south let us\nkeep:\n\n'Twere well we should speak with yon woman, perchance she hath wisdom\nto teach!\"\nAnd with Conall went Fraech at that counsel; they neared her, and held\nwith her speech.\n\n\"Whence have come you?\" she said: \"Out of Ireland are we,\"\nAnswered Conall: \"Ill luck shall for Irishmen be\nIn this country,\" she cried, \"yet thy help I would win;\nFrom thy land was my mother; thou art to me kin!\"\n\n\"Of this land we know naught, nor where next we should turn,\"\nAnswered Conall.; \"its nature from thee we would learn.\"\n\"'Tis a grim land and hateful,\" the woman replied,\n\"And the warriors are restless who forth from it ride;\nFor full often of captives, of women and herd\nOf fair kine by them taken is brought to me word.\"\n\n\"Canst thou say what latest spoil,\" said Fraech, \"they won?\"\n\"Ay,\" she said, \"they harried Fraech, of Idath[FN#36] son\nHe in Erin dwelleth, near the western sea;\nKine from him they carried, wife, and children three\nHere his wife abideth, there where dwells the king,\nTurn, and see his cattle, yonder pasturing.\"\n\n\n[FN#36]  Pronounced Eeda.\n\n\nOut spoke Conall Cernach;[FN#37] \"Aid us thou\" he cried:\n\"Strength I lack,\" she answered, \"I can only guide.\"\n\"Here is Fraech,\" said Conall, \"yon his stolen cows\":\n\"Fraech!\" she asked him, \"tell me, canst thou trust thy spouse?\"\n\"Why,\" said Fraech, \"though trusty, doubtless, when she went;\nNow, since here she bideth, truth may well be spent.\"\n\"See ye now yon woman?\" said she, \"with your herd,\nTell to her your errand, let her hear your word;\nTrust in her, as Irish-sprung ye well may place;\nMore if ye would ask me, Ulster reared her race.\"\n\n\n[FN#37]  Pronounced Cayr-nach.\n\n\nTo that woman they went, nor their names from her hid;\nAnd they greeted her; welcome in kindness she bid:\n\"What hath moved you,\" she said, \"from your country to go?\"\n\"On this journey,\" said Conall, \"our guide hath been woe:\nAll the cattle that feed in these pastures are ours,\nAnd from us went the lady that's kept in yon towers.\"\n\"'Tis ill-luck,\" said the woman, \"that waits on your way,\nAll the men of this hold doth that lady obey;\nYe shall find, amid dangers, your danger most great\nIn the serpent who guardeth the Liss at the gate.\"\n\n\"For that lady,\" said Fraech, \"she is none of my\nShe is fickle, no trust from me yet did she win:\nBut on thee we rely, thou art trusty, we know;\nNever yet to an Ulsterman Ulster was foe.\"\n\n\"Is it men out of Ulster,\" she said, \"I have met?\"\n\"And is Conall,\" said Fraech, \"thus unknown to you yet?\nOf all heroes from Ulster the battle who faced\nConall Cernach is foremost.\" His neck she embraced,\nAnd she cried, with her arms around Conall: \"Of old\nOf the conquering Conall our prophets have told;\nAnd 'tis ruin and doom to this hold that you bring;\nFor that Conall shall sack it, all prophecies sing.\"\n\n\"Hear my rede,\" she told him: \"When at fall of day\nCome the kine for milking, I abroad will stay;\nI the castle portal every eve should close:\nYe shall find it opened, free for tread of foes:\nI will say the weakling calves awhile I keep;\n'Tis for milk, I'll tell them: come then while they sleep;\nCome, their castle enter, all its wealth to spoil;\nOnly rests that serpent, he our plans may foil:\nHim it rests to vanquish, he will try you most;\nSurely from that serpent swarms a serpent host!\"\n\n\"Trust us well,\" answered Conall, \"that raid will we do!\nAnd the castle they sought, and the snake at them flew:\nFor it darted on Conall, and twined round his waist;\nYet the whole of that castle they plundered in haste,\nAnd the woman was freed, and her sons with her three\nAnd away from her prison she went with them free:\nAnd of all of the jewels amassed in that dun\nThe most costly and beauteous the conquerors won.\n\nThen the serpent from Conall was loosed, from his belt\nIt crept safely, no harm from that serpent he felt:\nAnd they travelled back north to the Pictish domains,\nAnd a three of their cattle they found on the plains;\nAnd, where Olla Mae Briuin[FN#38] his hold had of yore,\nBy Dunolly their cattle they drove to the shore.\n\n\n[FN#38]  Pronounced \"Brewin.\"\n\n\nIt chanced at Ard Uan Echach,[FN#39] where foam is hurled on high,\nThat doom on Bicne falling, his death he came to die:\n'Twas while the cows were driven that Bicne's life was lost:\nBy trampling hooves of cattle crushed down to death, or tossed;\nTo him was Loegaire[FN#40] father, and Conall Cernach chief\nAnd Inver-Bicne's title still marks his comrades' grief.\n\n\n[FN#39]  Pronounced \"Ard Oon Ay-ha,\"\n\n[FN#40]  Pronounced \"Leary.\"\n\n\nAcross the Stream of Bicne the cows of Fraech have passed,\nAnd near they came to Benchor, and there their horns they cast:\n'Tis thence the strand of Bangor for aye is named, 'tis said:\nThe Strand of Horns men call it; those horns his cattle shed.\n\nTo his home travelled Fraech, with his children, and\nAnd his cattle, and there with them lived out his life,\nTill the summons of Ailill and Maev he obeyed;\nAnd when Cualgne was harried, he rode on the Raid.\n\n\n\n\nTAIN BO FRAICH\n\n\n\nPART II\n\n\nLITERAL TRANSLATION\n\nIt happened that his cows had been in the meanwhile stolen.  His mother\ncame to him.  \"Not active (or \"lucky\") of journey hast thou gone; it\nshall cause much of trouble to thee,\" she says.  \"Thy cows have been\nstolen, and thy three sons, and thy wife, so that they are in the\nmountain of Elpa.  Three cows of them are in Alba of the North with the\nCruthnechi (the Picts).\"  \"Query, what shall I do?\" he says to his\nmother.  \"Thou shalt do a non-going for seeking them; thou wouldest not\ngive thy life for them,\" she says.  \"Thou shalt have cows at my hands\nbesides them.\"  \"Not so this,\" he says: \"I have pledged my hospitality\nand my soul to go to Ailill and to Medb with my cows to the Spoil of\nthe Cows from Cualnge.\"  \"What thou seekest shall not be obtained,\"\nsays his mother.  At this she goes off from him then.\n\nHe then sets out with three nines, and a wood-cuckoo (hawk), and a\nhound of tie with them, until he goes to the territory of the\nUlstermen, so that he meets with Conall Cernach (Conall the Victorious)\nat Benna Bairchi (a mountain on the Ulster border).\n\nHe tells his quest to him.  \"What awaits thee,\" says the latter, \"shall\nnot be lucky for thee.  Much of trouble awaits thee,\" he says, \"though\nin it the mind should be.\"  \"It will come to me,\" says Fraech to\nConnall, \"that thou wouldest help me any time we should meet.\" (?)  \"I\nshall go truly,\" says Conall Cernach.  They set of the three (i.e. the\nthree nines) over sea, over Saxony of the North, over the Sea of Icht\n(the sea between England and France), to the north of the Long-bards\n(the dwellers of Lombardy), until they reached the mountains of Elpa.\nThey saw a herd-girl at tending of the sheep before them.  \"Let us go\nsouth,\" says Conall, \"O Fraech, that we may address the woman yonder,\nand let our youths stay here.\"\n\nThey went then to a conversation.  She said, \"Whence are ye?\"  \"Of the\nmen of Erin,\" says Conall.  \"It shall not be lucky for the men of Erin\ntruly, the coming to this country.  From the men of Erin too is my\nmother.  Aid thou me on account of relationship.\"\n\n\"Tell us something about our movements.  What is the quality of the\nland we have to come to?\"  \"A grim hateful land with troublesome\nwarriors, who go on every side for carrying off cows and women as\ncaptives,\" she says.  \"What is the latest thing they have carried off?\"\nsays Fraech.  \"The cows of Fraech, son of Idath, from the west of Erin,\nand his wife, and his three sons.  Here is his wife here in the house\nof the king, here are his cows in the country in front of you.\"  \"Let\nthy aid come to us,\" says Conall.  Little is my power, save guidance\nonly.\"  \"This is Fraech,\" says Conall, and they are his cows that have\nbeen carried off.\"  \"Is the woman constant in your estimation?\" she\nsays.  \"Though constant in our estimation when she went, perchance she\nis not constant after coming.\"  \"The woman who frequents the cows, go\nye to her; tell ye of your errand; of the men of Ireland her race; of\nthe men of Ulster exactly.\"\n\nThey come to her; they receive her, and they name themselves to her,\nand she bids welcome to them.  \"What hath led you forth?\" she says.\n\"Trouble hath led us forth,\" says Conall; \"ours are the cows and the\nwoman that is in the Liss.\"\n\n\"It shall not be lucky for you truly,\" she says, \"the going up to the\nmultitude of the woman; more troublesome to you than everything,\" she\nsays, \"is the serpent which is at guarding of the Liss.\"  \"She is not\nmy country-name(?),\" says Fraech, \"she is not constant in my\nestimation; thou art constant in my estimation; we know thou wilt not\nlead us astray, since it is from the men of Ulster thou art.\"  \"Whence\nare ye from the men of Ulster?\" she says.  \"This is Conall Cernach\nhere, the bravest hero with the men of Ulster,\" says Fraech.  She\nflings two hands around the throat of Conall Cernach.  \"The destruction\nhas come in this expedition,\" she says, \"since he has come to us; for\nit is to him the destruction of this dun has been prophesied.  I shall\ngo out to my house,\"[FN#41] she says, \"I shall not be at the milking of\nthe cows.  I shall leave the Liss opened; it is I who close it every\nnight.[FN#42]  I shall say it is for drink the calves were sucking.\nCome thou into the dun, when they are sleeping; only trouble.  some to\nyou is the serpent which is at the dun; several tribes are let loose\nfrom it.\"\n\n\n[FN#41]  \"To my house\" is in the Egerton MS. only.\n\n[FN#42]  \"Every night\" is in the Egerton MS. only.\n\n\n\"We will go truly,\" says Conall.  They attack the Liss; the serpent\ndarts leap into the girdle of Conall Cernach, and they plunder the dun\nat once.  They save off then the woman and the three sons, and they\ncarry away whatever was the best of the gems of the dun, and Conall\nlets the serpent out of his girdle, and neither of them did harm to the\nother.  And they came to the territory of the people of the Picts,\nuntil they saw three cows of their cows in it.  They drove off to the\nFort of Ollach mac Briuin (now Dunolly near Oban) with them, until they\nwere at Ard Uan Echach (high-foaming Echach).  It is there the gillie\nof Conall met his death at the driving of the cows, that is Bicne son\nof Loegaire; it is from this is (the name of) Inver Bicne (the Bicne\nestuary) at Benchor.  They brought their cows over it thither.  It is\nthere they flung their horns from them, so that it is thence is (the\nname of) Tracht Benchoir (the Strand of Horn casting, perhaps the\nmodern Bangor?).\n\nFraech goes away then to his territory after, and his wife, and his\nsons, and his cows with him, until he goes with Ailill and Medb for the\nSpoil of the Cows from Cualnge.\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAID FOR DARTAID'S CATTLE\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThis tale is given by Windisch (Irische Texte, II. pp. 185-205), from\ntwo versions; one, whose translation he gives in full, except for one\ndoubtful passage, is from the manuscript in the British Museum, known\nas Egerton, 1782 (dated 1414); the other is from the Yellow Book of\nLecan (fourteenth century), in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.\n\nThe version in the Yellow Book is sometimes hard to read, which seems\nto be the reason why Windisch prefers to translate the younger\nauthority, but though in some places the Egerton version is the fuller,\nthe Yellow Book version (Y.B.L.) often adds passages, some of which\nWindisch has given in notes; some he has left untranslated.  In the\nfollowing prose version as much of Y.B.L. as adds anything to the\nEgerton text has been translated, with marks of interrogation where the\nattempted rendering is not certain: variants from the text adopted are\nplaced below the prose version as footnotes.  The insertions from\nY.B.L. are indicated by brackets; but no note is taken of cases where\nthe Egerton version is fuller than Y.B.L.\n\nThe opening of the story (the first five lines in the verse rendering)\nis in the eleventh century Book of the Dun Cow: the fragment agrees\nclosely with the two later texts, differing in fact from Y.B.L. in one\nword only.  All three texts are given in the original by Windisch.\n\nThe story is simple and straightforward, but is a good example of fairy\nvengeance, the description of the appearance of the troop recalls\nsimilar descriptions in the Tain bo Fraich, and in the Courtship of\nFerb.  The tale is further noticeable from its connection with the\nprovince of Munster: most of the heroic tales are connected with the\nother three provinces only. Orlam, the hero of the end of the tale, was\none of Cuchulain's earliest victims in the Tain bo Cualgne.\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAID FOR DARTAID'S CATTLE\n\n\n\nFROM THE EGERTON MS. 1782 (EARLY FIFTEENTH-CENTURY), AND THE YELLOW\nBOOK OF LECAN (FOURTEENTH-CENTURY)\n\n\nEOCHO BEC,[FN#43] the son of Corpre, reigning in the land of\nClew,[FN#44]\nDwelt in Coolny's[FN#45] fort; and fostered sons of princes not a few:\nForty kine who grazed his pastures gave him milk to rear his wards;\nRoyal blood his charges boasted, sprung from Munster's noblest lords.\nMaev and Ailill sought to meet him: heralds calling him they sent:\n\"Seven days hence I come\" said Eocho; and the heralds from him went.\nNow, as Eocho lay in slumber, in the night a vision came;\nBy a youthful squire attended, rose to view a fairy dame:\n\"Welcome be my greeting to you!\" said the king: \"Canst thou discern\nWho we are?\" the fairy answered, \"how didst thou our fashion learn?\"\n\"Surely,\" said the king, \"aforetime near to me hath been thy place!\"\n\"Very near thee have we hovered, yet thou hast not seen my face.\"\n\"Where do ye abide?\" said Eocho. \"Yonder dwell we, with the Shee:[FN#46]\n\"In the Fairy Mound of Coolny!\" \"Wherefore come ye hereto me?\"\n\"We have come,\" she said, \"a counsel as a gift to thee to bring!\"\n\"Speak! and tell me of the counsel ye have brought me,\" said the king.\n\"Noble gifts,\" she said, \"we offer that renown for thee shall gain\nWhen in foreign lands thou ridest; worship in thine own domain;\nFor a troop shall circle round thee, riding close beside thy hand:\nStately it shall be, with goodly horses from a foreign land!\"\n\"Tell me of that troop,\" said Eocho, \"in what numbers should we ride? \"\nFifty horsemen is the number that befits thee,\" she replied:\n\n\n[FN#43]  Pronounced Yeo-ho Bayc.\n\n[FN#44]  Cliu, a district in Munster.\n\n[FN#45]  Spelt Cuillne, in Y.B.L. it is Cuille.\n\n[FN#46]  The Fairies, spelt Sidh.\n\n\n\"Fifty horses, black in colour; gold and silver reins and bits;\nFifty sets of gay equipment, such as fairies well befits;\nThese at early dawn to-morrow shall my care for thee provide:\nLet thy foster-children with thee on the road thou makest ride!\nRightly do we come to help thee, who so valiantly in fray\nGuardest for us soil and country!\" And the fairy passed away.\n\nEocho's folk at dawn have risen; fifty steeds they all behold:\nBlack the horses seemed; the bridles, stiff with silver and with gold,\nFirmly to the gate were fastened; fifty silver breeches there\nHeaped together shone, encrusted all with gold the brooches were:\nThere were fifty knightly vestments, bordered fair with golden thread:\nFifty horses, white, and glowing on their ears with deepest red,\nNigh them stood; of reddish purple were the sweeping tails and manes;\nSilver were the bits; their pasterns chained in front with brazen\nchains:\nAnd, of fair findruine[FN#47] fashioned, was for every horse a whip,\nFurnished with a golden handle, wherewithal the goad to grip.\n\n\n[FN#47]  Pronounced \"findroony.\"\n\n\n\nThen King Eocho rose, and ready made him; in that fair array\nForth they rode, nor did they tarry till they came to Croghan[FN#48] Ay.\nScarcely could the men of Connaught bear to see that sight, amazed\nAt the dignity and splendour of the host on which they gazed;\nFor that troop was great; in serried ranks the fifty riders rode,\nSplendid with the state recounted; pride on all their faces glowed.\n\"Name the man who comes!\" said Ailill; \"Easy answer!\" all replied,\nEocho Bee, in Clew who ruleth, hither to thy court would ride\":\nCourt and royal house were opened; in with welcome came they all;\nThree long days and nights they lingered, feasting in King Ailill's\nhall.\nThen to Ailill, king of Connaught, Eocho spake: \"From out my land\n{50} Wherefore hast thou called me hither?\" \"Gifts are needed from thy\nhand,\"\nAilill said; \"a heavy burden is that task upon me laid,\nTo maintain the men of Ireland when for Cualgne's kine we raid.\"\n\n\n[FN#48]  Pronounced Crow-han.\n\n\n\nEocho spoke: \"What gift requirest thou from me?\" \"For milking-kine,\"\nAilill said, \"I ask\"; and Eocho, \"Few of these indeed are mine!\nForty sons of Munster's princes have I in my halls to rear;\nThese, my foster-sons, beside me m my troop have journeyed here;\nFifty herdsmen guard the cattle, forty cows my wards to feed,\nSeven times twenty graze beside them, to supply my people's need.\"\n\n\"If, for every man who follows thee as liege, and owns a farm,\nThou a cow wilt yield,\" said Ailill, \"then from foes with power to harm\nI will guard thee in the battle!\" \"Keep then faithfully thy vows,\"\nEocho said, \"this day as tribute shall to Croghan come the cows.\"\n\nThrice the sun hath set and risen while they feasting there abide,\nMaev and Ailill's bounty tasting, homeward then they quickly ride:\nBut the sons of Glaschu met them, who from western Donnan came;\nDonnan, from the seas that bound it, Irross Donnan hath for name;\nSeven times twenty men attacked them, and to battle they were brought,\nAt the isle of O'Can\u00e0da, fiercely either party fought;\nWith his foster children round him, Eocho Bec in fight was killed,\nAll the forty princes perished, with that news the land was filled;\nAll through Ireland lamentation rose for every youthful chief;\nFour times twenty Munster princes, weeping for them, died of grief.\n\nNow a vision came to Ailill, as in sleep he lay awhile,\nor a youth and dame approached him, fairer none in Erin's Isle:\n\"Who are ye?\" said Ailill; \"Conquest,\" said the fairy, \"and Defeat\n\"Though Defeat I shun,\" said Ailill, \"Conquest joyfully I meet.\"\n\"Conquest thou shalt have!\" she answered: \"Of the future I would ask,\nCanst thou read my fate?\" said Ailill: \"Light indeed for me the task,\"\nSaid the dame: \"the kine of Dartaid, Eocho's daughter, may be won:\nForty cows she owns; to gain them send to her thy princely son,\nOrlam, whom that maiden loveth: let thy son to start prepare,\nForty youths from Connaught with him, each of them a prince's heir:\nChoose thou warriors stout and stately; I will give them garments\nbright,\nEven those that decked the princes who so lately fell in fight:\n\nBridles, brooches, all I give thee; ere the morning sun be high\nThou shalt count that fairy treasure: to our country now we fly.\"\n\nSwiftly to the son of Tassa sped they thence, to Corp the Gray:\nOn the northern bank of Naymon was his hold, and there he lay;\nAnd before the men of Munster, as their champion did he stand:\nHe hath wrought-so runs the proverb-evil, longer than his hand.\nAs to Corp appeared the vision: \"Say,\" he cried, \"what names ye boast!\"\n\"Ruin, one is called,\" they answered; \"one, The Gathering of the Host!\"\nAn assembled host I welcome,\" answered them the gray Corp Lee;\n\"Ruin I abhor\": \"And ruin,\" they replied, \"is far from thee;\nThou shalt bring on sons of nobles, and of kings a ruin great\":\n\"Fairy,\" said Corp Lee, the Gray one, \"tell me of that future fate.\"\n\n\"Easy is the task,\" she answered, \"youths of every royal race\nThat in Connaught's land hath dwelling, come to-morrow to this place;\nMunster's kine they hope to harry, for the Munster princes fell\nYesterday with Connaught fighting; and the hour I plainly ten:\nAt the ninth hour of the morning shall they come: the band is small:\nHave thou valiant men to meet them, and upon the raiders fall!\nMunster's honour hath been tarnished! clear it by a glorious deed!\nThou shalt purge the shame if only in the foray thou succeed.\"\n\n\"What should be my force?\" he asked her: \"Take of heroes seven score\nFor that fight,\" she said, \"and with them seven times twenty warriors\nmore:\nFar from thee we now are flying; but shall meet thee with thy power\nWhen to-morrow's sun is shining; at the ninth, the fated hour.\"\n\nAt the dawn, the time appointed, all those steeds and garments gay\nWere in Connaught, and they found them at the gate of Croghan Ay;\nAll was there the fay had promised, all the gifts of which we told:\nAll the splendour that had lately decked the princes they behold.\nDoubtful were the men of Connaught; some desired the risk to face;\nSome to go refused: said Ailill, \"It should bring us to disgrace\n\nIf we spurned such offered bounty\": Orlam his reproaches felt;\nSprang to horse; and towards the country rode, where Eocho's daughter\ndwelt:\nAnd where flows the Shannon river, near that water's southern shore,\nFound her home; for as they halted, moated Clew[FN#49] rose high before.\n\n\n[FN#49]  Spelt Cliu.\n\n\nDartaid met them ere they halted, joyful there the prince to see:\nAll the kine are not assembled, of their count is lacking three!\"\n\"Tarry not for search,\" said Orlam, \"yet provision must we take\nOn our steeds, for hostile Munster rings us round. Wilt home forsake,\nMaiden? wilt thou ride beside us?\" \"I will go indeed,\" she said.\nThen, with all thy gathered cattle, come with us; with me to wed!\nSo they marched, and in the centre of their troop the kine were set,\nAnd the maiden rode beside them: but Corp Lee, the Gray, they met;\nSeven times twenty heroes with him; and to battle they must go,\nAnd the Connaught nobles perished, fighting bravely with the foe:\nAll the sons of Connaught's princes, all the warriors with them died:\nOrlam's self escaped the slaughter, he and eight who rode beside:\nYet he drave the cows to Croghan; ay, and fifty heifers too!\nBut, when first the foe made onset, they the maid in battle slew.\nNear a lake, did Eocho's[FN#50] daughter, Dartaid, in the battle fall,\nFrom that lake, and her who perished, hath been named that region all:\nEmly Darta is that country; Tain bo Dartae is the tale:\nAnd, as prelude, 'tis recited, till the Cualgne[FN#51] Raid they hail.\n\n\n[FN#50]  Pronounced Yeo-ho.\n\n[FN#51]  Pronounced Kell-ny.\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAID FOR DARTAID'S CATTLE\n\n\n\nLITERAL TRANSLATION\n\n\nThe Passages that occur only in the Yellow Book (Y.B.L.) are indicated\nby being placed in square brackets.\n\n\nEOCHO BEC, the son of Corpre, king of Cliu, dwelt in the Dun of\nCuillne,[FN#52] and with him were forty fosterlings, all sons of the\nkings of Munster; he had also forty milch-cows for their sustenance. By\nAilill and Medb messengers were sent, asking him to come to a\nconference. \"[In a week,\"][FN#53] said Eocho, \"I will go to that\nconference;\" and the messengers departed from him.\n\n\n[FN#52]  The eleventh century MS., the Leabhar na h-Uidhri, which gives\nthe first four lines of this tale as a fragment, adds here as a note:\n\"this is in the land of the O'Cuanach\": apparently the O'Briens of\nCuanach.\n\n[FN#53]  At Samhuin day (Egerton).\n\n\nOne night Eocho lay there in his sleep, when he saw something approach\nhim; a woman, and a young man in her attendance.  \"Ye are welcome!\"\nsaid Eocho.  [\"Knowest thou us?\"] said she, \"Where hast thou learned to\nknow us?\"  \"It seems to me as if I had been near to you.\"  \"I think\nthat we have been very near to one another, though we have not seen\neach other face to face!\"  \"In what place do ye dwell?\" said Eocho.\n\"Yonder in Sid Cuillne (the fairy mound of Cuillne),\" said she.  \"And,\nwherefore have ye come?\"  \"In order to give thee counsel,\" said she.\nFor what purpose is the counsel,\" said he, \"that thou givest me?\"\n\n\"Something,\" she said, \"that will bring thee honour and renown on thy\njourney at home and abroad.  A stately troop shall be round thee, and\ngoodly foreign horses shall be under thee.\"[FN#54]  \"With how many\nshall I go?\" said Eocho.  \"Fifty horsemen is the number that is\nsuitable for thee,\" she answered.\n\n\n[FN#54]  Y.B.L. adds a passage that Windisch does not translate: it\nseems to run thus: \"Unknown to thee is the half of what thou hast met:\nit seems to us that foreign may be thy splendour\"(?)\n\n\n\"To-morrow in the morning fifty black horses, furnished with bridles of\ngold and silver, shall come to thee from me; and with them fifty sets\nof equipment of the equipment of the Side; and all of thy\nfoster-children shall go with thee; well it becomes us to help thee,\nbecause thou art valiant in the defence of our country and our soil.\"\nThen the woman left him.\n\nEarly in the morning they arise, there they see something: the fifty\nblack horses, furnished with bridles of gold and silver tied fast to\nthe gate of the castle, also fifty breeches of silver with\nembellishment of gold; and fifty youths' garments with their edges of\nspun gold, and fifty white horses with red ears and long tails,\npurple-red were all their tails and their manes, with silver bits\n(?)[FN#55] and foot-chains of brass upon each horse; there were also\nfifty whips of white bronze (findruine), with end pieces of gold that\nthereby they might be taken into hands.[FN#56]\n\n\n[FN#55]  co m-belgib (?) Windisch translates \"bridles,\" the same as\ncona srianaib above.\n\n[FN#56]  Y.B.L. adds, \"Through wizardry was all that thing: it was\nrecited (?) how great a thing had appeared, and he told his dream to\nhis people.\"\n\n\nThen King Eocho arises, and prepares himself (for the journey): they\ndepart with this equipment to Cruachan Ai:[FN#57] and the people were\nwell-nigh overcome with their consequence and appearance: their troop\nwas great, goodly, splendid, compact: [fifty heroes, all with that\nappearance that has just been related.\n\n\"How is that man named?\" said Ailill.  \"Not hard, Eocho Bec, the king\nof Cliu.\"  They entered the Liss (outer court), and the royal house;\nwelcome was given to them, he remained there three days and three\nnights at the feasting.]\n\n\n[FN#57]  Egerton here gives \"Ailill and Medb made them welcome;\" it\nomits the long passage in square brackets.\n\n\n\"Wherefore have I have been invited to come?\" said Eocho to Ailill: \"To\nlearn if I can obtain a gift from thee,\" said Ailill; \"for a heavy need\nweighs upon me, even the sustenance of the men of Ireland for the\nbringing of the cattle from Cualgne.\"\n\n\"What manner of gift is it that thou desirest?\" said Eocho.  \"Nothing\nless than a gift of milking-kine,\" said Ailill.  \"There is no\nsuperfluity of these in my land,\" said Eocho; \"I have forty\nfosterlings, sons of the kings of Munster, to bring them up (to\nmanhood); they are here in my company, there are forty cows to supply\nthe needs of these, to supply my own needs are seven times twenty\nmilch-cows [there are fifty men for this cause watching over them].\n\n\"Let me have from thee,\" said Ailill, \"one cow from each farmer who is\nunder thy lordship as my share; moreover I will yield thee assistance\nif at any time thou art oppressed by superior might.\"  \"Thus let it be\nas thou sayest,\" said Eocho; \"moreover, they shall come to thee this\nvery day.\"\n\nFor three days and three nights they were hospitably entertained by\nAilill and Medb, and then they departed homewards, till they met the\nsons of Glaschu, who came from Irross Donnan (the peninsula of Donnan,\nnow Mayo); the number of those who met them was seven times twenty men,\nand they set themselves to attack each other, and to strive with each\nother in combat, and [at the island of O'Conchada (Inse Ua Conchada)]\nthey fought together.  In that place fell the forty sons of kings round\nEocho Bec, and that news was spread abroad over all the land of\nIreland, so that four times twenty kings' sons, of the youths of\nMunster, died, sorrowing for the deaths of these princes.\n\nOn another night, as Ailill lay in his sleep, upon his bed, he saw some\nthing, a young man and a woman, the fairest that could be found in\nIreland.  \"Who are ye?\" said Ailill.  \"Victory and Defeat are our\nnames,\" she said.  \"Victory indeed is welcome to me, but not so\nDefeat,\" said Ailill.  \"Victory shall be thine in each form!\" said she.\n [\"What is the next thing after this that awaits us?\" said Ailill.\n\"Not hard to tell thee,\" said she] \"let men march out from thy palace\nin the morning, that thou mayest win for thyself the cattle of Dartaid,\nthe daughter of Eocho.  Forty is the number of her milch-cows, it is\nthine own son, Orlam mac Ailill, whom she loves.  Let Orlam prepare for\nhis journey with a stately troop of valiant men, also forty sons of\nthose kings who dwell in the land of Connaught; and by me shall be\ngiven to them the same equipment that the other youths had who fell in\nyon fight, bridles and garments and brooches; [early in the morning\nshall count of the treasure be made, and now we go to our own land,\"\nsaid she].\n\nThen they depart from him, and forthwith they go to [Corp[FN#58] Liath\n(the Gray),] who was the son of Tassach.  His castle was on the bank of\nthe river Nemain, upon the northern side, he was a champion of renown\nfor the guarding of the men of Munster; longer than his hand is the\nevil he hath wrought.  To this man also they appeared, and \"What are\nyour names?\" said he: \"Tecmall and Coscrad (Gathering of Hosts, and\nDestruction),\" said they.  \"Gathering of Hosts is indeed good,\" said\nCorp Liath, \"an evil thing is destruction\": \"There will be no\ndestruction for thee, and thou shalt destroy the sons of kings and\nnobles\": \"And what,\" said Corp Liath, \"is the next thing to be done?\"\n\n\n[FN#58]  The Egerton MS. gives the name, Corb Cliach.\n\n\n\"That is easy to say,\" they said;[FN#59] \"each son of a king and a\nqueen, and each heir of a king that is in Connaught, is now coming upon\nyou to bear off cows from your country, for that the sons of your kings\nand queens have fallen by the hand of the men of Connaught.  To-morrow\nmorning, at the ninth hour they will come, and small is their troop; so\nif valiant warriors go thither to meet them, the honour of Munster\nshall be preserved; if indeed thine adventure shall meet with success.\"\n\n\n[FN#59]  Y.B.L. gives the passage thus: \"Assemble with you the sons of\nkings, and heirs of kings, that you may destroy the sons of kings and\nheirs of kings.\"  \"Who are they?\" said Corp Liath.  \"A noble youth it\nis from Connaught: he comes to yon to drive your cows before him, after\nthat your young men were yesterday destroyed by him, at the ninth hour\nof the morning they will come to take away the cows of Darta, the\ndaughter of Eocho.\"\n\n\n\"With what number should I go?\" he said. \"Seven times twenty heroes\nthou shouldest take with thee,\" she replied, [\"and seven times twenty\nwarriors besides\"]: \"And now\" said the woman, \"we depart to meet thee\nto-morrow at the ninth hour.\"\n\nAt the time (appointed), when morning had come, the men of Connaught\nsaw the horses and the raiment of which we have spoken, at the gate of\nthe fort of Croghan, [even as she (the fairy) had foretold, and as we\nhave told, so that at that gate was all she had promised, and all that\nhad been seen on the sons of kings aforetime], and there was a doubt\namong the people whether they should go on that quest or not.  \"It is\nshame,\" said Ailill, \"to refuse a thing that is good\"; and upon that\nOrlam departed [till[FN#60] he came to the house of Dartaid, the\ndaughter of Eocho, in Cliu Classach (Cliu the Moated), on the Shannon\nupon the south (bank).\n\n\n[FN#60]  Egerton Version has only \"towards Chu till he came to the home\nof Dartaid, the daughter of Eocho: the maiden rejoiced,\" &c. From this\npoint to the end the version in the Yellow Book is much fuller.\n\n\n[There they halted], and the maiden rejoiced at their coming: \"Three of\nthe kine are missing.\"  \"We cannot wait for these; let the men take\nprovision on their horses, [for rightly should we be afraid in the\nmidst of Munster.  Wilt thou depart with me, O maiden?\" said he.  \"I\nwill indeed go with thee,\" said she].  \"Come then thou,\" said he, \"and\nwith thee all of thy cows.\"\n\n[Then the young men go away with the cows in the midst, and the maiden\nwas with them; but Corp Liath, the son of Tassach, met them with seven\ntimes twenty warriors to oppose their march.  A battle was fought], and\nin that place fell the sons of the kings of Connaught, together with\nthe warriors who had gone with them, all except Orlam and eight\nothers,[FN#61] who carried away with them the kine, even the forty\nmilch-cows, and fifty heifers, [so that they came into the land of\nConnaught]; but the maiden fell at the beginning of the fight.\n\n\n[FN#61]  Y.B.L. inserts Dartaid's death at this point: \"and Dartaid\nfell at the beginning of the fight, together with the stately sons of\nConnaught.\"\n\n\nHence is that place called Imlech Dartaid, (the Lake Shore of Darta),\nin the land of Cliu, [where Dartaid, the daughter of Eocho, the son of\nCorpre, fell: and for this reason this story is called the Tain bo\nDartae, it is one of the preludes to the Tain bo Cualnge].\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAID FOR THE CATTLE OF REGAMON\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe two versions of this tale, given by Windisch in the Irische Texte,\nII. pp. 224-238, are from the same manuscripts as the two versions of\nthe Raid of the Cattle of Dartaid; namely the Yellow Book of Lecan, and\nthe Egerton MS. 1782.  In the case of this tale, the Yellow Book\nversion is more legible, and, being not only the older, but a little\nmore full than the other version, Windisch has translated this text\nalone: the prose version, as given here, follows this manuscript,\nnearly as given by Windisch, with only one addition from the Egerton\nMS.; the omissions in the Egerton MS. are not mentioned, but one or two\nchanges in words adopted from this MS. are mentioned in the foot-notes\nto the prose rendering.\n\nThe whole tone of the tale is very unlike the tragic character of those\nromances, which have been sometimes supposed to represent the general\ncharacter of old Irish literature: there is not even a hint of the\nsuper-natural; the story contains no slaughter; the youthful raiders\nseem to be regarded as quite irresponsible persons, and the whole is an\nexcellent example of an old Celtic: romance with what is to-day called\na \"good ending.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAID FOR THE CATTLE OF REGAMON\n\n\n\nFROM THE YELLOW BOOK OF LECAN\n\n(A MANUSCRIPT OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY)\n\n\nWhen Ailill and Maev in the Connaught land abode, and the lordship held,\nA chief who many a field possessed in the land of Connaught dwelled:\nA great, and a fair, and a goodly herd of kine had the chieftain won:\nAnd his fame in the fight was in all men's word; his name was Regamon.\nNow seven daughters had Regamon; they dwelt at home with their sire:\nYet the seven sons of King Ailill and Maev their beauty with love could\nfire:\nAll those seven sons were as Mani[FN#62] known; the first was as Morgor\nhailed,\nFor his love was great: it was Mingar's fate that in filial love he\nfailed:\nThe face was seen of the mother-queen on the third; and his father's\nface\nDid the fourth son show: they the fifth who know cannot speak all his\nstrength and grace:\nThe sixth son spoke, from his lips the words like drops of honey fell:\nAnd last came one who all gifts possessed that the tongue of a man can\ntell;\nFor his father's face that Mani had, in him was his mother seen;\nAnd in him abode every grace bestowed on the king of the land or the\nqueen.\n\n\n[FN#62]  Pronounced Mah-nee.\n\n\nOf the daughters of Regamon now we speak: two names those maidens bore:\nFor as Dunnan three ever known shall be; Dunlaith[FN#63] was the name\nfor four:\nAnd in Breffny's land is the Ford Dunlaith, and the fame of the four\nrecalls;\nThe three ye know where the Dunnan's flow in western Connaught falls.\nWith Fergus, Ailill and Maev were met: as at council all conferred;\n\"It were well for our folk,\" thus Ailill spoke, \"if the lord of that\ncattle-herd,\nThat strays in the fields of Regamon, would tribute to us pay:\nAnd to gain that end, let us heralds send, to his burg who may make\ntheir way,\nAnd bear to our court that tribute back; for greatly we soon shall need\nSuch kine when we in the time of war our hosts shall have to feed;\nAnd all who share in our counsels know that a burden will soon be mine,\nWhen the men must be fed of Ireland, led on the Raid for the\nCuailgne[FN#64] Kine!\"\nThus Ailill spoke; and Queen Maev replied, \"The men to perform that task\nRight well I know; for our sons will go, if we for their aid but ask!\nThe seven daughters of Regamon do the Mani in love now seek:\nIf those maidens' hands they can gain by the deed, they will heed the\nwords we speak.\"\nTo his side King Ailill has called his sons, his mind to the youth he\nshows.\n\"Best son,\" says Maev, \"and grateful he, from filial love who goes!\"\nAnd Morgor said, \"For the love that we owe, we go at our sire's behest:\"\n\"Yet a greater reward,\" thus Mingar spake, \"must be ours, if we go on\nthis quest!\nFor naught have we of hero-craft; and small shall be found our might;\nAnd of valiant breed are the men,\" said he, \"with whom we shall have to\nfight.\n\n\n[FN#63]  Pronounced Dun-lay.\n\n[FN#64]  Pronounced Kell-ny.\n\n\nAs men from the shelter of roof who go, and must rest in the open field,\nSo thy sons shall stand, if they come to a land where a foe might be\nfound concealed!\nWe have dwelt till now in our father's halls, too tenderly cared for\nfar:\nNor hath any yet thought, that to us should be taught the arts that\nbelong to war!\"\n\nQueen Maev and Ailill their sons have sped, away on the quest they went,\nWith seven score men for the fight, whom the queen for help of her sons\nhad sent:\nTo the south of the Connaught realm they reached, the burg that they\nsought was plain\nFor to Ninnus land they had come, and were nigh to the Corcomroe domain.\n\"From our band,\" said Mani Morgor, \"some must go, of that burg to learn\nHow entrance we may attain to win, and back with the news return\nWe must test the strength of the maidens' love!\" On Mingar the task was\nset,\nAnd with two beside him, he searched the land, till three of the maids\nthey met:\nBy springs of water they found the maids, drew swords, and against them\nleapt!\n\"O grant our lives!\" was the maiden's cry, \"and your lives shall be\nsafely kept!\"\n\"For your lives,\" he said, \"will ye grant a boon, set forth in three\nwords of speech?\"\n\"At our hands,\" said she, \"shall granted be, whatever thy tongue shall\nteach;\nYet ask not cattle; those kine have we no power to bestow, I fear\":\n\"Why, 'tis for the sake of the kine,\" he said, \"that all of us now are\nhere!\"\n\n\"Who art thou then?\" from her faltering broke: \"Mani Mingar am I,\" he\nreplied;\nI am son to King Ailill and Maev: And to me thou art welcome,\" the\nmaiden cried;\n\"But why have ye come to this land?\" said she: For kine and for\nbrides,\" he said,\nHave we come to seek: And 'tis right,\" said she, such demands in a\nspeech to wed:\nYet the boon that you ask will our folk refuse, and hard will your task\nbe found;\nFor a valiant breed shall you meet, I fear, in the men who guard this\nground!\"\n\"Give your aid,\" he said, \"then as friends: But time,\" said she, \"we\nmust have for thought;\nFor a plan must be made, e'er thy word be obeyed, and the kine to thy\nhands be brought:\nHave ye journeyed here with a force of men? how great is the strength\nof your band?\"\n\"Seven score are there here for the fight,\" he said, \"the warriors are\nnear at hand!\"\n\"Wait here,\" said she; \"to my sisters four I go of the news to tell:\n\"And with thee we side!\" all the maidens cried, \"and we trust we shall\naid thee well,\"\n\nAway from the princes the maidens sped, they came to their sisters four,\nAnd thus they spoke: \"From the Connaught land come men, who are here at\nyour door;\nThe sons of Ailill and Maev have come; your own true loves are they!\"\n\"And why have they come to this land?\" they said; \"For kine and for\nbrides, they say,\nHave they come to seek:\" \"And with zeal their wish would we joyfully\nnow fulfil\nIf but powers to aid were but ours,\" they said, \"which would match with\nour right good will:\n\nBut I fear the youths in this burg who dwell, the plans that we make\nmay foil;\nor far from the land may chase that band, and drive them away from\ntheir spoil!\"\n\"Will ye follow us now, with the prince to speak?\" They willingly gave\nconsent,\nAnd together away to the water-springs the seven maidens went.\nThey greeted Mani; \"Now come!\" said he, \"and bring with you out your\nherds:\nAnd a goodly meed shall reward your deed, if you but obey my words;\nFor our honour with sheltering arms is nigh, and shall all of you\nsafely keep,\nYe seven daughters of Regamon!\" The cattle, the swine, and sheep\nTogether the maidens drove; none saw them fly, nor to stay them sought,\nTill safe to the place where the Mani stood, the herd by the maids was\nbrought.\n\nThe maidens greeted the sons of Maev, and each by her lover stood;\nAnd then Morgor spoke: \"Into twain this herd of kine to divide were\ngood,\nAt the Briuin[FN#65] Ford should the hosts unite; too strait hath the\npath been made\nFor so vast a herd\": and to Morgor's word they gave heed, and his\nspeech obeyed.\nNow it chanced that Regamon, the king, was far from his home that day,\nFor he to the Corco Baiscinn land had gone, for a while to stay;\n\n\n[FN#65]  Pronounced Brewin.\n\n\nWith the Firbolg[FN#66] clans, in debate, he sat; and a cry as the\nraiders rode,\nWas behind him raised: to the king came men, who the news of that\nplunder showed:\nThen the king arose, and behind his foes he rode, and o'ertook their\nflight,\nAnd on Mani Morgor his host pressed hard, and they conquered his men in\nthe fight.\n\"To unite our band,\" thus Morgor cried, \"fly hence, and our comrades\nfind!\nCall the warriors back from the cattle here, and leave the maids behind;\nBid the maidens drive to our home the herd as far as the Croghan Fort,\nAnd to Ailill and Maev of our perilous plight let the maidens bear\nreport.\"\nThe maidens went to the Croghan Fort, to Maev with their news they\npressed:\n\"Thy sons, O Maev, at the Briuin Ford are pent, and are sore distressed,\nAnd they pray thee to aid them with speed\": and Maev her host for the\nwar prepared,\nWith Ailill the warriors of Connaught came; and Fergus beside them\nfared,\nAnd the exiles came, who the Ulster name still bore, and towards that\nFord\nAll that host made speed, that their friends in need might escape from\nthe vengeful sword.\n\n\n[FN#66]  Pronounced Feer-bol.\n\n\nNow Ailill's sons, in the pass of that Ford, had hurdles strongly set:\nAnd Regamon failed through the ford to win, ere Ailill's troops were\nmet:\nOf white-thorn and of black-thorn boughs were the hurdles roughly\nframed,\nAnd thence the name of the ford first came, that the Hurdle Ford is\nnamed;\n\nFor, where the O'Feara[FN#67] Aidne folk now dwell, can ye plainly see\nIn the land of Beara[FN#68] the Less, that Ford, yet called Ath[FN#69]\nClee Maaree,\nIn the north doth it stand; and the Connaught land divideth from\nCorcomroe;\nAnd thither, with Regamon's troops to fight, did Ailill's army go.\n\n\n[FN#67]  Pronounced O'Fayra Ain-ye.\n\n[FN#68]  Pronounced Bayra.\n\n[FN#69]  Spelt Ath Cliath Medraidi. Ath is pronounced like Ah.\n\n\nThen a truce they made; to the youths, that Raid who designed, they\ngave back their lives;\nAnd the maidens fair all pardoned were, who had fled with the youths,\nas wives,\nWho had gone with the herd, by the maids conferred on the men who the\nkine had gained:\nBut the kine, restored to their rightful lord, in Regamon's hands\nremained;\nThe maiden band in the Connaught land remained with the sons of Maev;\nAnd a score of cows to each maiden's spouse the maidens' father gave:\nAs his daughters' dower, did their father's power his right in the cows\nresign,\nThat the men might be fed of Ireland, led on the Raid for the\nCualgne[FN#70] Kine.\nThis tale, as the Tain bo Regamon, is known in the Irish tongue;\nAnd this lay they make, when the harp they wake, ere the Cualgne Raid\nbe sung.\n\n\n[FN#70]  Pronounced Kell-ny.\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAID FOR THE CATTLE OF REGAMON\n\n\n\nLITERAL TRANSLATION\n\n\nIn the time of Ailill and Medb, a glorious warrior and holder of land\ndwelt in the land of Connaught, and his name was Regamon.  He had many\nherds of cattle, all of them fair and well-shaped: he had also seven\ndaughters with him.  Now the seven sons of Ailill and Medb loved these\n(daughters): namely the seven Maine, these were Maine Morgor (Maine\nwith great filial love), Maine Mingar (Maine with less filial love),\nMaine Aithremail (Maine like his father), Maine Mathremail (Maine like\nhis mother), Maine Milbel (Maine with the mouth of honey),[FN#71] Maine\nMoepert (Maine too great to be described), Maine Condageb-uile (Maine\nwho combined all qualities): now this one had the form both of father\nand mother, and had all the glory that belonged to both parents.\n\n\n[FN#71]  The name of Maine Annai, making an eighth son, is given in\nY.B.L., but not in the Egerton MS.\n\n\nThe seven daughters of Regamon were the three Dunann, and the four\nDunlaith;[FN#72] from the names of these is the estuary of Dunann in\nwestern Connaught, and the Ford of Dunlaith in Breffny.\n\n\n[FN#72]  So Egerton, which Windisch follows here; the reading of Y.B.L.\nis Dunmed for the daughters, and Dumed for the corresponding ford.\n\n\nNow at a certain time, Ailill and Medb and Fergus held counsel\ntogether.  \"Some one from us,\" said Ailill, \"should go to Regamon, that\na present of cattle may be brought to us from him; to meet the need\nthat there is on us for feeding the men of Ireland, when the kine are\nraided from Cualgne.\"  \"I know,\" said Medb, \"who would be good to go\nthither, if we ask it of them; even the Maine; on account of their love\nfor the daughters.\"\n\nHis sons were called to Ailill, and he spoke with them.  \"Grateful is\nhe, and a better journey does he go,\" said Maev, \"who goes for the sake\nof his filial love.\"  \"Truly it shall be that it is owing to filial\nlove that we go,\" said Mani Morgor.  \"But the reward should (also) for\nthis be the better,\" said Mani Mingar; \"it stands ill with our heroism,\nill with our strength.\n\nIt is like going from a house into the fields, (going) into the domains\nor the land of foes.  Too tenderly have we been brought up; none hath\nlet us learn of wars; moreover the warriors are valiant towards whom we\ngo!\"\n\nThey took leave of Ailill and Medb, and betook themselves to the quest.\n They set out, seven times twenty heroes was the number, till they were\nin the south of Connaught, in the neighbourhood of the domain of\nCorcomroe[FN#73] in the land of Ninnus, near to the burg.  \"Some of\nyou,\" said Mani Morgor, \"should go to find out how to enter into the\nburg; and to test the love of maidens.\"  Mani Mingar, with two others,\nwent until he came upon three of the maidens at the water-springs, and\nat once he and his comrades drew their swords against them.  \"Give life\nfor life!\" said the maiden.  \"Grant to me then my three full words!\"\nsaid Mani Mingar.  \"Whatever thy tongue sets forth shall be done,\" said\nthe maiden, \"only let it not be cows,[FN#74] for these have we no power\nto give thee.\"  \"For these indeed,\" said Mani, \"is all that now we\ndo.\"[FN#75]\n\n\n[FN#73]  Properly \"Coremodruad,\" the descendants of Modh Ruadh, third\nson of Fergus by Maev; now Corcomroe in County Clare.\n\n[FN#74]\"Only let it not be cows\" is in the Egerton MS. alone.\n\n[FN#75]  \"That we do\" is Egerton MS. (cich indingnem), Y.B.L. has\n\"cechi m-bem.\"\n\n\n\"Who art thou?\" said she: \"Mani Mingar, son of Ailill and Medb,\" said\nhe: \"Welcome then,\" she said, \"but what hath brought with you here?\"\n\"To take with us cattle and maidens,\" he said: \"'Tis right,\" she said,\n\"to take these together; (but) I fear that what has been demanded will\nnot be granted, the men are valiant to whom you have come.\" \"Let your\nentreaties be our aid!\" he said.  \"We would desire,\" she said, \"that it\nshould be after that counsel hath been taken that we obey you.\"\n\n\"What is your number?\" said she: \"Seven times twenty heroes,\" he said,\n\"are with us.\"  \"Remain here,\" she said, \"that we may speak with the\nother maidens\": \"We shall assist you,\" said the maidens, \"as well as we\ncan.\"\n\nThey went from them, and came to the other maidens, and they said to\nthem: \"Young heroes from the lands of Connaught are come to you, your\nown true loves, the seven sons of Ailill and Medb.\"  \"Wherefore are\nthey come?\" \"To take back with them cattle and wives.\" \"That would we\ngladly have, if only we could; (but) I fear that the warriors will\nhinder them or drive them away,\" said she.  \"Go ye out, that ye may\nspeak with the man.\"  \"We will speak with him,\" they said.  The seven\nmaidens went to the well, and they greeted Mani.  \"Come ye away,\" he\nsaid, \"and bring your cattle with you.  That will be a good deed.  We\nshall assist you with our honour and our protection, O ye daughters of\nRegamon,\" said he.[FN#76]  The maidens drove together their cows and\ntheir swine, and their sheep, so that none observed them; and they\nsecretly passed on till they came to the camp of their comrades.  The\nmaidens greeted the sons of Ailill and Medb, and they remained there\nstanding together.  \"The herd must be divided in two parts,\" said Mani\nMerger, \"also the host must divide, for it is too great to travel by\nthe one way; and we shall meet again at Ath Briuin (the Ford of\nBriuin).\"  So it was done.\n\n\n[FN#76]  Windisch conjectures this instead of \"said the warriors,\"\nwhich is in the text of Y.B.L.\n\n\nKing Regamon was not there on that day.  He was in the domain of Corco\nBaiscinn,[FN#77] to hold a conference with the Firbolgs.  His people\nraised a cry behind him, message was brought to Regamon, and he went in\npursuit with his army.  The whole of the pursuing host overtook Mani\nMorgor, and brought defeat upon him.\n\n\n[FN#77]  In the south-west of Clare.\n\n\n\"We all,\" said Mani, \"must go to one place, and some of you shall be\nsent to the cattle to summon the young men hither, and the maidens\nshall drive the cattle over the ford to Cruachan, and shall give Ailill\nand Medb tidings of the plight in which we are here.\"  The maidens went\nto Cruachan, and told all the tale.  \"Thy sons are at Ath Briuin in\ndistress, and have said that help should be brought to them.\"  The men\nof Connaught with Ailill, and Medb, and Fergus, and the banished men of\nUlster went to Ath Briuin to help their people.\n\nThe sons of Ailill had for the moment made hurdles of white-thorn and\nblack-thorn in the gut[FN#78] of the ford, as defence against Regamon\nand his people, so that they were unable to pass through the ford ere\nAilill and his army came; so thence cometh the name Ath Cliath\nMedraidi[FN#79] (the Hurdle Ford of Medraide), in the country of Little\nBethra in the northern part of the O'Fiachrach Aidne between Connaught\nand Corcomroe. There they met together with all their hosts.\n\n\n[FN#78]  Literally \"mouth.\"\n\n[FN#79]  Ath Cliath oc Medraige, now Maaree, in Ballycourty parish, Co.\nGalway (Stokes, Bodleian Dinnshenchus, 26).  It may be mentioned that\nin the Dinnshenchus, the cattle are said to have been taken \"from\nDartaid, the daughter of Regamon in Munster,\" thus confusing the Raids\nof Regamon and Dartaid, which may account for O'Curry's incorrect\nstatement in the preface to Leabhar na h-Uidhri, p. xv.\n\n\nA treaty was then made between them on account of the fair young men\nwho had carried off the cattle, and on account of the fair maidens who\nhad gone with them, by whose means the herd escaped.  Restitution of\nthe herd was awarded to Regamon, and the maidens abode with the sons of\nAilill and Medb; and seven times twenty milch-cows were given up, as a\ndowry for the maidens, and for the maintenance of the men of Ireland on\nthe occasion of the assembly for the Tain bo Cualnge; so that this tale\nis called the Tain bo Regamon, and it is a prelude to the tale of the\nTain bo Cualnge. Finit, amen.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DRIVING OF THE CATTLE OF FLIDAIS\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe Tain bo Flidais, the Driving of the Cows of Flidais, does not, like\nthe other three Preludes to the Tain bo Cualnge, occur in the Yellow\nBook of Lecan; but its manuscript age is far the oldest of the four, as\nit occurs in both the two oldest collections of Old Irish romance, the\nLeabbar na h-Uidhri (abbreviated to L.U.), and the Book of Leinster\n(abbreviated to L.L.), besides the fifteenth century Egerton MS., that\ncontains the other three preludes.  The text of all three, together\nwith a translation of the L.U. text, is given by Windisch in Irische\nTexte, II. pp. 206-223; the first part of the story is missing in L.U.\nand is supplied from the Book of Leinster (L.L.) version.  The prose\ntranslation given here follows Windisch's translation pretty closely,\nwith insertions occasionally from L.L.  The Egerton version agrees\nclosely with L.L., and adds little to it beyond variations in spelling,\nwhich have occasionally been taken in the case of proper names.  The\nLeabhar na h-Uidhri version is not only the oldest, but has the most\ndetails of the three; a few passages have, however, been supplied from\nthe other manuscripts which agree with L.U. in the main.\n\nThe whole tale is much more like an old Border riding ballad than are\nthe other three Preludes; it resembles the tone of Regamon, but differs\nfrom it in having a good deal of slaughter to relate, though it can\nhardly be called tragic, like Deirdre and Ferb, the killing being taken\nas a matter of course.  There is nothing at all supernatural about the\nstory as contained in the old manuscripts, but a quite different'\nversion of the story given in the Glenn Masain Manuscript, a fifteenth\ncentury manuscript now in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, gives\nanother complexion to the tale.\n\nThe translation of this manuscript is at present being made in the\nCeltic Review by Professor Mackinnon; the version it gives of the story\nis much longer and fuller than that in the Leabhar na h-Uidhri, and its\naccompanying manuscripts.  The translation as printed in the Celtic\nReview is not as yet (July 1905) completed, but, through Professor\nMackinnon's kindness, an abstract of the general features of the end of\nthe story may be given here.\n\nThe Glenn Masain version makes Bricriu, who is a subordinate character\nin the older version, one of the principal actors, and explains many of\nthe allusions which are difficult to understand in the shorter version;\nbut it is not possible to regard the older version as an abridgment of\nthat preserved in the Glenn Masain MS., for the end of the story in\nthis manuscript is absolutely different from that in the older ones,\nand the romance appears to be unique in Irish in that it has versions\nwhich give two quite different endings, like the two versions of\nKipling's The Light that Failed.\n\nThe Glenn Masain version commences with a feast held at Cruachan, when\nFergus and his exiles had joined their forces with Connaught as a\nresult of the murder of the Sons of Usnach, as told in the earlier part\nof the manuscript.  At this feast Bricriu. engages in conversation with\nFergus, reproaching him for his broken promises to the Ulstermen who\nhad joined him, and for his dalliance with Queen Maev.  Bricriu, who in\nother romances is a mere buffoon, here appears as a distinguished poet,\nand a chief ollave; his satire remains bitter, but by no means\nscurrilous, and the verses put into his mouth, although far beneath the\nstandard of the verses given to Deirdre in the earlier part of the\nmanuscript, show a certain amount of dignity and poetic power.  As an\nexample, the following satire on Fergus's inability to keep his\npromises may be cited:--\n\n\nFergus, hear thy friend lamenting!\nBlunted is thy lofty mind;\nThou, for hire, to Maev consenting,\nHast thy valour's pride resigned.\n\nEre another year's arriving,\nShould thy comrades, thou didst vow,\nThree-score chariots fair be driving,\nShields and weapons have enow!\n\nWhen thy ladies, bent on pleasure,\nCrowd towards the banquet-hall,\nThou of gold a goodly measure\nPromised hast to grant to all!\n\nIll to-night thy friends are faring,\nNaught hath Fergus to bestow;\nHe a poor man's look is wearing,\nNever yet was greater woe!\n\n\nAfter the dialogue with Fergus, Bricriu, with the poets that attend\nhim, undertakes a journey to Ailill the Fair, to obtain from him the\nbounty that Fergus had promised but was unable to grant.  He makes a\nfairly heavy demand upon Ailill's bounty, but is received hospitably,\nand gets all he had asked for, as well as honour for his poetic\ntalents.  He then asks about Ailill's wife Flidais, and is told about\nher marvellous cow, which was able to supply milk to more than three\nhundred men at one night's milking.  Flidais returns from a journey, is\nwelcomed by Bricriu, who produces a poem in honour of her and her cow,\nand is suitably recompensed.\n\nA long conversation is then recorded between Flidais and Bricriu in\nwhich Bricriu extols the great deeds of Fergus, supplying thereby a\ncommentary on the short statement at the beginning of the older\nversion, that Flidais' love to Fergus was on account of the great deeds\nwhich had been told her that he had done.  Flidais declares to Bricriu\nher love for Fergus, and Bricriu, after a vain attempt to dissuade the\nqueen from her purpose, consents to bring a message to Fergus that\nFlidais and her cow will come to him if he comes to her husband's\ncastle to seek her. He then returns to Connaught laden with gifts.\n\nThe story now proceeds somewhat upon the lines of the older version.\nBricriu approaches Fergus on his return, and induces him to go in the\nguise of an ambassador to Ailill the Fair, with the secret intention of\ncarrying off Flidais.  Fergus receives the sanction of Maev and her\nhusband for his errand, and departs, but not as in the older version\nwith a few followers; all the Ulster exiles are with him.  Dubhtach, by\nkilling a servant of Maev, embroils Fergus with the queen of Connaught;\nand the expedition reaches Ailill the Fair's castle.  Fergus sends\nBricriu, who has most unwillingly accompanied him, to ask for\nhospitality; he is hospitably received by Ailill, and when under the\ninfluence of wine reveals to Ailill the plot.  Ailill does not, as in\nthe older version, refuse to receive Fergus, but seats him beside\nhimself at a feast, and after reproaching him with his purpose\nchallenges him to a duel in the morning.  The result of the duel, and\nof the subsequent attack on the castle by Fergus' friends, is much as\nstated in the older version, but the two stories end quite differently.\n The L.U. version makes Flidais assist in the War of Cualgne by feeding\nthe army of Ailill each seventh day with the produce of her cows; she\ndies after the war as wife of Fergus; the Glenn Masain version, in the\n\"Pursuit of the Cattle of Flidais,\" makes the Gamanrad clan, the\nhero-clan of the West of Ireland, pursue Maev and Fergus, and rescue\nFlidais and her cow; Flidais then returns to the west with Muiretach\nMenn, the son of her murdered husband, Ailill the Fair.\n\nThe comparison of these two versions, from the literary point of view,\nis most interesting.  The stress laid on the supernatural cow is\npeculiar to the version in the later manuscript, the only analogy in\nthe eleventh century version is the semi-supernatural feeding of the\narmy of Ireland, but in this it is a herd (buar), not a single animal,\nthat is credited with the feat, and there is really nothing\nsupernatural about the matter; it is only the other version that\nenables us to see the true bearing of the incident.  The version in the\nGlenn Masain Manuscript looks much more ancient in idea than that in\nthe older texts, and is plainly capable of a mythic interpretation.  It\nis not of course suggested that the Glenn Masain version is ancient as\nit stands: there are indeed enough obvious allusions in the text to\ncomparatively late works to negative such a supposition, independently\nof linguistic evidence, but it does look as if the author of the\neleventh century text had a super natural tale to work upon, some of\nwhose incidents are preserved in the Glenn Masain version, and that he\nsucceeded in making out of the traditional account a story that\npractically contains no supernatural element at all, so that it\nrequires a knowledge of the other version to discover the slight trace\nof the supernatural that he did keep, viz. the feeding of the army of\nIreland by the herd (not the cow) of Flidais.\n\nIt is possible that the common origin of the two versions is preserved\nfor us in another place, the Coir Annam, which, though it as it stands\nis a Middle Irish work, probably keeps ancient tradition better than\nthe more finished romances.  In this we find, following Stokes'\ntranslation, given in Irische Texte, III. P. 295, the following\nentries:--\n\n\"Adammair Flidaise Foltchain, that is Flidais the Queen, one of the\ntribe of the god-folk (the Tuatha de Danaan), she was wife of Adammair,\nthe son of Fer Cuirp, and from her cometh the name Buar Flidaise, the\nCattle of Flidais.\n\n\"Nia Segamain, that is seg (deer) are a main (his treasure), for in his\ntime cows and does were milked in the same way every day, so that he\nhad great wealth in these things beyond that of all other kings.  The\nFlidais spoken of above was the mother of Nia Segamain, Adammair's son,\nfor two kinds of cattle, cows and does, were milked in the days of Nia\nSegamain, and by his mother was that fairy power given to him.\"\n\nIt seems, then, not impossible that the original legend was much as\nstated in the Coir Annam, viz. that Flidais was a supernatural being,\nmilking wild deer like cows, and that she was taken into the Ulster\nCycle and made part of the tale of Fergus.\n\nThis adoption was done by an author who made a text which may be\nregarded as the common original of the two versions; in his tale the\nsupernatural character of Flidais was retained.  The author of the L.U.\nversion cut out the supernatural part, and perhaps the original embassy\nof Bricriu; it may, however, be noted that the opening of the older\nversion comes from the L.L. text, which is throughout shorter than that\nin L.U., and the lost opening of L.U. may have been fuller.  The author\nof the Glenn Masain version kept nearer to the old story, adding,\nhowever, more modern touches.  Where the new character of Bricriu comes\nfrom is a moot point; I incline to the belief that the idea of Bricriu\nas a mere buffoon is a later development.  But in neither version is\nthe story, as we have it, a pre-Christian one.  The original\npre-Christian idea of Flidais was, as in the Coir Annam, that of a\nbeing outside the Ulster Cycle altogether.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DRIVING OF THE CATTLE OF FLIDAIS\n\n\nFROM THE LEABHAR NA H-UIDHRI (ELEVENTH-CENTURY MS.), THE BEGINNING AND\nA FEW ADDITIONS FROM THE BOOK OF LEINSTER (TWELFTH CENTURY)\n\n\nA land in West Roscommon, as Kerry known of old,\nWas ruled by Ailill Fair-haired; of him a tale is told:\nHow Flidais,[FN#80] Ailill's[FN#81] consort, each week, and near its\nend,\nTo Ro's great son, to Fergus, her herald still would send;\n'Twas Fergus' love she sought for; the deeds by Fergus done,\nIn glorious tales recited, had Flidais' fancy won.\n\n\n[FN#80]  Pronounced Flid-das.\n\n[FN#81]  Pronounced Al-ill.\n\n\nWhen Fergus fled from Ulster, and Connaught's land he sought,\nTo Ailill, king of Connaught, this tale of love he brought:\n\"Now give me rede,\" said Fergus, \"how best we here should act,\nThat Connaught's fame and honour by none may stand attacked;\nSay, how can I approach them, and strip thy kingdom bare,\nAnd yet the fame of Ailill, that country's monarch, spare?\"\n\"'Tis hard indeed to teach thee,\" cried Ailill, sore perplexed;\n\"Let Maev come nigh with counsel what course to follow next!\"\n\n\"Send thou to Ailill Fair-haired to ask for aid!\" said Maev,\n\"He well may meet a herald, who comes his help to crave\nLet Fergus go to crave it: no harm can there be seen;\nAnd better gifts from Ailill shall Fergus win, I ween!\"\n\n\nSo forth to Ailill Fair-haired went Fergus, son of Ro;\nAnd thirty, Dubhtach[FN#82] leading, he chose with him to go;\nAnd yet another Fergus his aid to Fergus brought;\nMac Oonlama[FN#83] men called him; his sire one-handed fought.\n\n\n[FN#82]  Pronounced Doov-ta.\n\n[FN#83]  Spelt Mac Oenlama, son of the one-handed one.\n\n\nBeside the Ford of Fenna, in Kerry's north they came,\nThey neared the hold, and from it rang welcome's loud acclaim:\n\"What quest,\" said Ailill Fair-haired, \"hath brought these warriors\nhere?\"\n\"Of Ailill, son of Magach, we stand,\" they said, \"in fear;\nA feud we hold against him; with thee would fain abide!\"\n\"For each of these,\" said Ailill, \"who Fergus march beside,\nIf they were foes to Connaught, for long they here might stay,\nAnd ne'er till peace was granted, I'd drive these men away:\nFor Fergus, naught I grant him a tale of him men tell\nThat Fergus 'tis whom Flidais, my wife, doth love too well!\"\n\n\"It is kine that I ask for,\" said Fergus, \"and hard is the task on me\nset:\nFor the men who have marched here beside me, the means to win life I\nmust get.\"\n\"I will give no such present,\" said Ailill,\" thou comest not here as my\nguest:\nMen will say, 'twas from fear that I gave it, lest my wife from my arms\nthou should'st wrest:\nYet an ox of my herds, and some bacon, if thou wilt, shall my hand to\nthee give;\nThat the men who have marched here beside thee on that meat may be\nstayed, and may live!\"\n\n\"I eat no bread thus thrown me!\" fierce Fergus straight replied:\n\"I asked a gift of honour; that gift thine hand denied.\"\n\"Avoid my house,\" said Ailill in wrath, \"now get thee hence!\n\"We go indeed,\" said Fergus; \"no siege we now commence:\nYet here,\" he cried, \"for duel beside yon ford I wait,\nIf thou canst find a champion to meet me at thy gate.\"\n\nThen up and answered Ailill: \"'Tis mine this strife must be\nAnd none shall hurt mine honour, or take this task from me:\nNone hold me back from battle!\"--the ford for fight he sought:\n\"Now Dubhtach, say,\" said Fergus, \"to whom this war is brought!\nOr thou or I must meet him.\" And Dubhtach said, \"I go;\nFor I am younger, Fergus, and bolder far with foe.\"\n\nTo the ford for the battle with Ailill he hies,\nAnd he thrust at him fiercely, and pierced through his thighs;\nBut a javelin by Ailill at Dubhtach was cast,\nAnd right through his body the shaft of it passed:\nAnd a shield over Dubhtach, laid low in the dust,\nSpread Fergus; and Ailill his spear at him thrust;\nAnd through Fergus' shield had the spear made its way,\nWhen Fergus Mae Oonlama joined in the fray,\nAnd his shield he uplifted, his namesake to guard;\nBut at Fergus Mac Oonlama Ailill thrust hard,\nAnd he brake through the fence of Mac Oonlama's shield;\nAnd he leaped in his pain; as they lay on the field,\nOn his comrades he fell: Flidais forth to them flew,\nAnd her cloak on the warriors to shield them she threw.\n\nThen against all the comrades of Fergus turned Ailill the Fair-haired\nto fight,\nAnd he chased them away from his castle, and slew as they scattered in\nflight;\nA twenty he reached, and he slew them: they fell, on that field to\nremain;\nAnd but seven there were of that thirty who fled, and their safety\ncould gain:\nThey came to the palace of Croghan, they entered the gates of that hold,\nAnd to Maev and to Ailill of Connaught the tale of the slaughter they\ntold.\n\nThen roused himself King Ailill, of Connaught's land the king,\nWith Maev to march to battle, their aid to friends to bring:\nAnd forth from Connaught's kingdom went many a lord of worth,\nBeside them marched the exiles who gat from Ulster birth:\nSo forward went that army, and reached to Kerry's land,\nAnd near the Ford of Fenna they came, and there made stand.\n\nWhile this was done, the wounded three\nWithin the hold lay still,\nAnd Flidais cared for all, for she\nTo heal their wounds had skill.\n\nTo Ailill Fair-Haired's castle the Connaught host was led,\nAnd toward the foeman's ramparts the Connaught herald sped;\nHe called on Ailill Fair-haired to come without the gate,\nAnd there to meet King Ailill, and with him hold debate.\n\"I come to no such meeting,\" the angry chief replied;\n\"Yon man is far too haughty: too grossly swells his pride!\"\n\nYet 'twas peaceful meeting,\nSo the old men say,\nAilill willed; whose greeting\nHeralds bore that day.\nFergus, ere he perished,\nFirst he sought to aid\nHe that thought who cherished\nFriendship's claims obeyed:\nThen his foe he vainly\nHoped in truce to bind:\nPeace, 'tis said, was plainly\nDear to Connaught's mind!\n\nThe wounded men, on litters laid,\nWithout the walls they bore\nTo friendly hands, with skill to aid,\nAnd fainting health restore.\n\nAt the castle of Ailill the Fair-Haired the Connaught-men rushed in\nattack,\nAnd to win it they failed: from his ramparts in defeat were his foes\ndriven back:\nFor long in that contest they struggled, yet naught in the fight they\nprevailed -\nFor a week were the walls of the castle of Ailill the Fair-Haired\nassailed,\nSeven score of the nobles of Connaught, and all of them warriors of\nmight,\nFor the castle of Ailill contended, and fell as they strove in the\nfight.\n\n\"'Tis sure that with omen of evil this castle was sought by our folk!\"\nThus Bricroo,[FN#84] the Poisonous Scoffer, in mockery, jeering them,\nspoke:\n\"The taunt,\" answered Ailill Mae Mata, \"is true, and with grief I\nconfess\nThat the fame of the heroes of Ulster hereafter is like to be less,\nFor a three of the Ulstermen's champions in stress of the fight have\nbeen quelled;\nAnd the vengeance we wait for from Ulster hath long been by Ulster\nwithheld;\nAs a pillar of warfare each hero, 'twas claimed, could a battle sustain;\nYet by none of the three in this battle hath a foeman been conquered,\nor slain!\nIn the future for all of these champions shall scorn and much mocking\nbefall:\nOne man hath come forth from yon castle; alone he hath wounded them\nall--\nSuch disgrace for such heroes of valour no times that are past ever saw,\nFor three lords of the battle lie conquered by mannikins, fashioned of\nstraw!\"\n\n\n[FN#84]  Spelt Bricriu.  The usual epithet of Bricriu, \"Bricriu of the\nPoison Tongue,\" is indicated in the verse rendering.\n\n\n\"Ah! woe is me,\" said Bricroo, \"how long, thus stretched on ground,\nThe length of Father Fergus hath here by all been found!\nBut one he sought to conquer; a single fight essayed,\nAnd here he met his victor, and low on land is laid.\"\n\nThen rose the men of Ulster a hardy war to wage,\nAnd forward rushed, though naked, in strong and stubborn rage:\nAgainst the castle gateway in wrathful might they dashed,\nAnd down the shattered portal within the castle crashed.\nThen close by Ulster's champions was Connaught's battle formed;\nAnd Connaught's troops with Ulster by might the castle stormed;\nBut fitly framed for battle were men whom there they met,\nWild war, where none showed pity between the hosts was set:\nAnd well they struck; each hero commenced with mighty blows\nTo crush and slay, destruction was heaped by foe on foes.\n\nOf the wounding at length and the slaughter all weary the champions had\ngrown,\nAnd the men who the castle of Ailill had held were at length over\nthrown:\nOf those who were found in that castle, and its walls had defended so\nwell,\nSeven hundred by warriors of Ulster were smitten to death, and they\nfell:\nAnd there in his castle fell Ailill the Fair-haired, and fighting he\ndied,\nAnd a thirty of sons stood about him, and all met their death by his\nside.\n\nThe chief of those who perished, by Ailill's side who stood\nWithin his hold, were Noodoo;[FN#85] and Awley[FN#86] named the Good;\nAnd Feeho[FN#87] called the Broad-backed; and Corpre Cromm the Bent;\nAn Ailill, he from Breffny to help of Ailill went;\nA three whose name was Angus-fierce was each warrior's face;\nThree Eochaid, sea-girt Donnan[FN#88] had cradled erst their race;\nAnd there fell seven Breslen, from plains of Ay[FN#89] who came;\nAnd fifty fell beside them who all had Donnell's name.\n\n\n[FN#85]  Spelt Nuado.\n\n[FN#86]  Spelt Amalgaid.\n\n[FN#87]  Spelt Fiacho.\n\n[FN#88]  Irross Donnan, the promontory of Donnan (now Mayo).\n\n[FN#89]  Mag Ai, a plain in Roscommon.\n\n\nFor to Ailill the Fair-Haired for warfare had marched all the\nGamanra[FN#90] clan,\nAnd his friends from the sea-girded Donnan had sent to his aid every\nman;\nAll these had with Ailill been leaguered, their help to him freely they\nbrought,\nAnd that aid from them Ailill. took gladly, he knew that his hold would\nbe sought;\nHe knew that the exiles of Ulster his captives from prison would save,\nAnd would come, their surrender demanding; that Ailill mac Mata and Maev\nWould bring all Connaught's troops to the rescue: for Fergus that aid\nthey would lend,\nAnd Fergus the succour of Connaught could claim, and with right, as a\nfriend.\n\n\n[FN#90]  Spelt Gamanrad.\n\n\nHero clans in Erin three of old were found;\nOne in Irross Donnan, oceans Donnan bound,\nThence came Clan Gamanra; Deda's warlike clan\nNursed in Tara Loochra[FN#91] many a fighting man.\nDeda sprang from Munster; far in Ulster's north\nOft from Emain Macha Rury's[FN#92] clan went forth:\nVainly all with Rury strove to fight, the twain\nRury's clan hath vanquished; Rury all hath slain!\n\n\n[FN#91]  Temair Luachra, an ancient palace near Abbeyfeale, on the\nborders of the counties of Limerick and Kerry. \"Tara,\" as is well\nknown, is a corruption of Temair, but is now established.\n\n[FN#92]  Spelt Rudraige.\n\n\nThen rose up the warriors of Ulster, the hold they had conquered to\nsack;\nAnd the folk of Queen Maev and King Ailill followed close on the\nUlstermen's track:\nAnd they took with them captives; for Flidais away from her castle they\ntore;\nAnd the women who dwelt in the castle away to captivity bore:\n\nAnd all things therein that were precious they seized on as booty; the\ngold\nAnd the silver they seized, and the treasures amassed by the men of\nthat hold:\nThe horns, and the goblets for drinking, the vats for the ale, and the\nkeys,\nThe gay robes with all hues that were glowing lay there for the raiders\nto seize:\nAnd much cattle they took; in that castle were one hundred of milk\ngiving kine;\nAnd beside them a seven score oxen; three thousand of sheep and of\nswine.\n\nThen Flidais went with Fergus, his wedded wife to be;\nFor thus had Maev and Ailill pronounced their high decree:\nThey bade that when from Cualgne to drive the kine they went,\nFrom those who then were wedded should aid for war be sent.\nAnd thus it fell thereafter: when Ireland went that Raid,\nBy milk from cows of Flidais, the lives of all were stayed;\nEach seventh day she sent it; and thus fulfilled her vows,\nAnd thus the tale is ended, men tell of Flidais' Cows.\n\nThen, all that Raid accomplished, with Fergus Flidais dwell\nAnd he of Ulster's kingdom a part in lordship held:\nHe ruled in Mag I Murthemne[FN#92], yea, more than that, he won\nThe land where once was ruler Cuchulain, Sualtam's son:\nAnd by the shore of Bali thereafter Flidais died,\nAnd naught of good for Fergus did Flidais' death betide:\nFor worse was all his household; if Fergus aught desired,\nFrom Flidais' wealth and bounty came all his soul required.\n\nIn the days that followed, when his wife was dead,\nFergus went to Connaught; there his blood was shed:\nThere with Maev and Ailill he a while would stay;\nMen had made a story, he would learn the lay!\nThere he went to cheer him, hearing converse fair:\nKine beside were promised; home he these would bear:\nSo he went to Croghan, 'twas a deadly quest,\nThere he found his slaughter, death within the west:\nSlain by jealous Ailill, Fergus low was laid:\nFlidais' tale is ended: now comes Cualgne's Raid!\n\n\n[FN#92]  Pronounced Maw Moortemmy\n\n\n\n\nTHE DRIVING OF THE CATTLE OF FLIDAIS\n\n\n\nLITERAL TRANSLATION\n\n\nFlidais was the wife of Ailill Finn (the Fair-haired) in the district\nof Kerry.[FN#93]  She loved Fergus the son of Rog on account of the\nglorious tales about him; and always there went messengers from her to\nhim at the end of each week.\n\n\n[FN#93]  Kerry is the district now called Castlereagh, in the west of\nthe present county of Roscommon.\n\n\nSo, when he came to Connaught, he brought this matter before[FN#94]\nAilill: \"What[FN#95] shall I do next in this matter?\" said Fergus: \"it\nis hard for me to lay bare your land, without there being loss to thee\nof honour and renown therewith.\"  \"Yes, what shall we do next in the\nmatter?\" said Ailill; \"we will consider this in counsel with Maev.\"\n\"Let one of us go to Ailill Finn,\" (said Maev), \"that he may help us,\nand as this involves a meeting of some one with him, there is no reason\nwhy it should not be thyself who goest to him: the gift will be all the\nbetter for that!\"\n\n\n[FN#94]  i.e. Ailill of Connaught.\n\n[FN#95]  This sentence to the end is taken from the Egerton version,\nwhich seems the clearer; the Book of Leinster gives: \"What shall I do\nnext, that there be no loss of honour or renown to thee in the matter?\"\n\n\nThen Fergus set out thereon, in number thirty men; the two Ferguses\n(i.e. Fergus mac Rog, and Fergus mac Oen-lama) and Dubhtach; till they\nwere at the Ford of Fenna in the north of the land of Kerry.  They go\nto the burg, and welcome is brought to them.[FN#96]  \"What brings you\nhere?\" said Ailill Finn.  \"We had the intention of staying with you on\na visit, for we have a quarrel with Ailill the son of Magach.\"\n\n\n[FN#96]  The Book of the Dun Cow (Leabhar na h-Uidhri) version begins\nat this point.\n\n\n\"If it were one of thy people who had the quarrel, he should stay with\nme until he had made his peace. But thou shalt not stay,\" said Ailill\nFinn, \"it has been told me that my wife loves thee!\"  \"We must have a\ngift of cows then,\" said Fergus, \"for a great need lies on us, even the\nsustenance of the troop who have gone with me into exile.\"  \"Thou shalt\ncarry off no such present from me,\" he said, \"because thou art not\nremaining with me on a visit.  Men will say that it is to keep my wife\nthat I gave thee what thou hast required.  I[FN#97] will give to your\ncompany one ox and some bacon to help them, if such is your pleasure.\"\n\"I will eat not thy bread although offered (lit. however),\" said\nFergus, \"because I can get no present of honour from thee!\"\n\n\n[FN#97]  L.L. and Egerton make the end of this speech part of the\nstory: \"There was given to them one ox with bacon, with as much as they\nwished of beer, as a feast for them.\"\n\n\n\"Out of my house with you all, then!\" said Ailill.\n\n\"That shall be,\" said Fergus; \"we shall not begin to lay siege to thee\nand they betake themselves outside.\n\n\"Let a man come at once to fight me beside a ford at the gate of this\ncastle!\" said Fergus.\n\n\"That[FN#98] will not for the sake of my honour be refused,\" said\nAilill; \"I will not hand it (the strife) over to another: I will go\nmyself,\" said he.  He went to a ford against him.  \"Which of us,\" said\nFergus, \"O Dubhtach, shall encounter this man?\"  \"I will go,\" said\nDubhtach; \"I am younger and keener than thou art!\"  Dubhtach went\nagainst Ailill.  Dubhtach thrust a spear through Ailill so that it went\nthrough his two thighs.  He (Ailill) hurled a javelin at Dubhtach, so\nthat he drove the spear right through him, (so that it came out) on the\nother side.\n\n\n[FN#98]  The end of the speech is from L.L.: the L.U. text gives the\nwhole speech thus: \"For my honour's sake, I could not draw back in this\nmatter.\"\n\n\nFergus threw his shield over Dubhtach.  The former (Ailill) thrust his\nspear at the shield of Fergus so that he even drove the shaft right\nthrough it.  Fergus mac Oen-laimi comes by.  Fergus mac Oen-laimi holds\na shield in front of him (the other Fergus).  Ailill struck his spear\nupon this so that it was forced right through it.  He leaped so that he\nlay there on the top of his companions.  Flidais comes by from the\ncastle, and throws her cloak over the three.\n\nFergus' people took to flight; Ailill pursues them.  There remain\n(slain) by him twenty men of them.  Seven of them escape to Cruachan\nAi, and tell there the whole story to Ailill and Medb.\n\nThen Ailill and Medb arise, and the nobles of Connaught and the exiles\nfrom Ulster: they march into the district of Kerry Ai with their troops\nas far as: the Ford of Fenna.\n\nMeanwhile the wounded men were being cared for by Flidais in the\ncastle, and their healing was undertaken by her.\n\nThen the troops come to the castle.  Ailill Finn is summoned to Ailill\nmac Mata to come to a conference with him outside the castle.  \"I will\nnot go,\" he said; \"the pride and arrogance of that man there is great.\"\n\nIt was,[FN#99] however, for a peaceful meeting that Ailill mac Mata had\ncome to Ailill the Fair-haired, both that he might save Fergus, as it\nwas right he should, and that he might afterwards make peace with him\n(Ailill Fair haired), according to the will of the lords of Connaught.\n\n\n[FN#99]  This passage is sometimes considered to be an interpolation by\na scribe or narrator whose sympathies were with Connaught.  The passage\ndoes not occur in the Book of Leinster, nor in the Egerton MS.\n\n\nThen the wounded men were brought out of the castle, on hand-barrows,\nthat they might be cared for by their own people.\n\nThen the men attack him (Ailill Finn): while they are storming the\ncastle, and they could get no hold on him, a full week long went it\nthus with them.  Seven times twenty heroes from among the nobles of\nConnaught fell during the time that they (endeavoured) to storm the\ncastle of Ailill the Fair-haired.\n\n\"It was with no good omen that with which you went to this castle,\"\nsaid Bricriu.  \"True indeed is the word that is spoken,\" said Ailill\nmac Mata.  \"The expedition is bad for the honour of the Ulstermen, in\nthat their three heroes fall, and they take not vengeance for them.\nEach one (of the three) was a pillar of war, yet not a single man has\nfallen at the hands of one of the three!  Truly these heroes are great\nto be under such wisps of straw as axe the men of this castle!  Most\nworthy is it of scorn that one man has wounded you three!\"\n\n\"O woe is me,\" said Bricriu, \"long is the length upon the ground of my\nPapa Fergus, since one man in single combat laid him low!\"\n\nThen the champions of Ulster arise, naked as they were, and make a\nstrong and obstinate attack in their rage and in the might of their\nviolence, so that they forced in the outer gateway till it was in the\nmidst of the castle, and the men of Connaught go beside them.  They\nstorm the castle with great might against the valiant warriors who were\nthere.  A wild pitiless battle is fought between them, and each man\nbegins to strike out against the other, and to destroy him.\n\nThen, after they had wearied of wounding and overcoming one another,\nthe people of the castle were overthrown, and the Ulstermen slay seven\nhundred warriors there in the castle with Ailill the Fair-Haired and\nthirty of his sons; and Amalgaid the Good;[FN#100] and Nuado; and\nFiacho Muinmethan (Fiacho the Broad-backed); and Corpre Cromm (the Bent\nor Crooked); and Ailill from Brefne; and the three Oengus Bodbgnai (the\nFaces of Danger); and the three Eochaid of Irross (i.e. Irross Donnan);\nand the seven Breslene from Ai; and the fifty Domnall.\n\n\n[FN#100]  \"The Good\" is in the Book of Leinster and the Egerton text,\nnot in the Leabhar na h-Uidhri: the two later texts omit Nuado.\n\nFor the assembly of the Gamanrad were with Ailill, and each of the men\nof Domnan who had bidden himself to come to him to aid him: they were\nin the same place assembled in his castle; for he knew that the exiles\nfrom Ulster and Ailill and Medb with their army would come to him to\ndemand the surrender of Fergus, for Fergus was under their protection.\n\nThis was the third race of heroes in Ireland, namely the Clan Gamanrad\nof Irross Donnan (the peninsula of Donnan), and (the other two were)\nthe Clan Dedad in Temair Lochra, and the Clan Rudraige in Emain Macha.\nBut both the other clans were destroyed by the Clan Rudraige.\n\nBut the men of Ulster arise, and with them the people of Medb and of\nAilill; and they laid waste the castle, and take Flidais out of the\ncastle with them, and carry off the women of the castle into captivity;\nand they take with them all the costly things and the treasures that\nwere there, gold and silver, and horns, and drinking cups, and keys,\nand vats; and they take what there was of garments of every colour, and\nthey take what there was of kine, even a hundred milch-cows, and a\nhundred and forty oxen, and thirty hundred of little cattle.\n\nAnd after these things had been done, Flidais went to Fergus mac Rog\naccording to the decree of Ailill and Medb, that they might thence have\nsustenance (lit. that their sustenance might be) on the occasion of the\nRaid of the Cows of Cualgne.  As[FN#101] a result of this, Flidais was\naccustomed each seventh day from the produce of her cows to support the\nmen of Ireland, in order that during the Raid she might provide them\nwith the means of life.  This then was the Herd of Flidais.\n\n\n[FN#101]  L.L. and Egerton give \"For him used every seventh day,\" &c.\n\n\nIn consequence[FN#102] of all this Flidais went with Fergus to his\nhome, and he received the lordship of a part of Ulster, even Mag\nMurthemni (the plain of Murthemne), together with that which had been\nin the hands of Cuchulain, the son of Sualtam.  So Flidais died after\nsome time at Trag B\u00e0li (the shore of Bali), and the state of Fergus'\nhousehold was none the better for that.  For she used to supply all\nFergus' needs whatsoever they might be (lit. she used to provide for\nFergus every outfit that he desired for himself).  Fergus died after\nsome time in the land of Connaught, after the death of his wife, after\nhe had gone there to obtain knowledge of a story.  For, in order to\ncheer himself, and to fetch home a grant of cows from Ailill and Medb,\nhe had gone westwards to Cruachan, so that it was in consequence of\nthis journey that he found his death in the west, through the jealousy\nof Ailill.\n\n\n[FN#102]  L.L. and Egerton give \"thereafter,\" adopted in verse\ntranslation.\n\n\nThis, then, is the story of the Tain bo Flidais; it[FN#103] is among\nthe preludes of the Tain bo Cualnge.\n\n\n[FN#103]  This sentence does not occur in the Leabhar na h-Uidhri.  It\nis given as in the Egerton version: the Book of Leinster gives \"it is\namong the preludes of the Tain.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE APPARITION OF THE GREAT QUEEN TO CUCHULAIN\n\n\n\n(TAIN BO REGAMNA)\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nThis tale is given by the same two manuscripts that give the Tain bo\nDartada and the Tain bo Regamon; namely the Yellow Book of Lecan, and\nEgerton 1782.  The text of both is given by Windisch, Irische Texte,\nII. pp. 239-254; he gives a translation of the version in the Yellow\nBook, with a few insertions from the Egerton MS., where the version in\nY.B.L. is apparently corrupt: Miss Hull gives an English translation of\nWindisch's rendering, in the Cuchullin Saga, pages 103 to 107.  The\nprose version given here is a little closer to the Irish than Miss\nHull's, and differs very little from that of Windisch.  The song sung\nby the Morrigan to Cuchulain is given in the Irish of both versions by\nWindisch; he gives no rendering, as it is difficult and corrupt: I can\nmake nothing of it, except that it is a jeering account of the War of\nCualgne.\n\nThe title Tain bo Regamna is not connected with anything in the tale,\nas given; Windisch conjectures \"Tain bo Morrigna,\" the Driving of the\nCow of the Great Queen (Morrigan); as the woman is called at the end of\nthe Egerton version.  The Morrigan, one of the three goddesses of war,\nwas the chief of them: they were Morrigan, Badb, and Macha.  She is\nalso the wife of the Dagda, the chief god of the pagan Irish.  The\nYellow Book version calls her Badb in this tale, but the account in the\nTain bo Cualnge (Leabhar na h-Uidhri facsimile, pp. 74 and 77), where\nthe prophecies are fulfilled, agrees with the Egerton version in\ncalling the woman of this tale the Morrigan or the Great Queen.\n\n\n\n\nTHE APPARITION OF THE GREAT QUEEN TO CUCHULAIN\n\n\n(ALSO CALLED \"TAIN BO REGAMNA\")\n\n\n\nFROM THE YELLOW BOOK OF LECAN (FOURTEENTH CENTURY)\n\n\nAT Dun Imrid lay Cuchulain,[FN#104] and slept, when a cry rang out;\nAnd in fear he heard from the north-land come ringing that terrible\nshout:\nHe fell, as he woke from his slumber, with the thud of a weight, to the\nground,\nFrom his couch on that side of the castle that the rising sun first\nfound.\nHe left his arms in the castle, as the lawns round its walls he sought,\nBut his wife, who followed behind him, apparel and arms to him brought:\nThen he saw his harnessed chariot, and Laeg,[FN#105] his charioteer,\nFrom Ferta Laig who drave it: from the north the car drew near:\n\"What bringeth thee here?\" said Cuchulain: said Laeg, \"By a cry I was\nstirred,\nThat across the plain came sounding.\" \"And whence was the cry thou hast\nheard?\"\n\"From the north-west quarter it travelled, it crossed the great\nCayll[FN#106] Cooen road!\"\n\"Follow on, on that track,\" said Cuchulain, \"till we know what that\nclamour may bode!\"\n\n\n[FN#104]  Pronounced Cu-hoolin.\n\n[FN#105]  Pronounced Layg.\n\n[FN#106]  Spelt Caill Cuan.\n\n\nAt the ford of the Double Wonder, at Ah[FN#107] Fayrta, the car made\nstand\nFor a chariot rattled toward them, from the clay-soiled\nCoolgarry[FN#108] land\nAnd before them came that chariot; and strange was the sight they saw:\nFor a one-legged chestnut charger was harnessed the car to draw;\nAnd right through the horse's body the pole of the car had passed,\nTo a halter across his forehead was the pole with a wedge made fast:\nA red woman sat in the chariot, bright red were her eyebrows twain\nA crimson cloak was round her: the folds of it touched the plain:\nTwo poles were behind her chariot: between them her mantle flowed;\nAnd close by the side of that woman a mighty giant strode;\nOn his back was a staff of hazel, two-forked, and the garb he wore\nWas red, and a cow he goaded, that shambled on before.\n\n\n[FN#107]  Spelt Ath Ferta, or more fully Ath da Ferta, the ford of the\ntwo marvels.\n\n[FN#108]  Spelt Culgaire.\n\n\nTo that woman and man cried Cuchulain, \"Ye who drive that cow do wrong,\nFor against her will do ye drive her!\" \"Not to thee doth that cow\nbelong,\"\nSaid the woman; \"no byre of thy comrades or thy friends hath that cow\nyet barred.\"\n\"The kine of the land of Ulster,\" said Cuchulain, \"are mine to guard!\"\n\"Dost thou sit on the seat of judgment?\" said the dame, \"and a sage\ndecree\nOn this cow would'st thou give, Cuchulain?--too great is that task for\nthee!\"\nSaid the hero, \"Why speaketh this woman? hath the man with her never a\nword?\"\n\"'Twas not him you addressed,\" was her answer, \"when first your\nreproaches we heard.\"\n\"Nay, to him did I speak,\" said Cuchulain, \"though 'tis thou to reply\nwho would'st claim!\"\n'Ooer-gay-skyeo-loo-ehar-skyeo[FN#109] is the name that he bears,\" said\nthe dame.\n\n\n[FN#109]  Spelt Uar-gaeth-sceo-luachair-sceo\n\n\n\"'Tis a marvellous name!\" said Cuchulain, \"if from thee all my answer\nmust come,\nLet it be as thou wishest; thy comrade, this man, as it seemeth, is\ndumb.\nTell me now of thine own name, O woman.\"\n\"Faebor-bayg-byeo-ill,\"[FN#110] said the man.\n\"Coom-diewr-folt-skayv-garry-skyeo-ooa is her name, if pronounce it you\ncan!\"\nThen Cuchulain sprang at the chariot: \"Would ye make me a fool with\nyour jest?\"\nHe cried, as he leapt at the woman; his feet on her shoulders he\npressed,\nAnd he set on her head his spear-point: \"Now cease from thy sharp\nweapon-play!\"\nCried the woman. Cuchulain made answer: Thy name to me truth fully say!\"\n\"Then remove thyself from me!\" she answered: I am skilled in satirical\nspells;\nThe man is called Darry I mac Feena[FN#111]: in the country of\nCualgne[FN#112] he dwells;\nI of late made a marvellous poem; and as fee for the poem this cow\nDo I drive to my home.\" \"Let its verses,\" said Cuchulain,\" be sung to\nme now!\"\n\"Then away from me stand!\" said the woman: \"though above me thou\nshakest thy spear,\nIt will naught avail thee to move me.\" Then he left her, but lingered\nnear,\nBetween the poles of her chariot: the woman her song then sang;\nAnd the song was a song of insult. Again at the car he sprang,\nBut nothing he found before him: as soon as the car he had neared,\nThe woman, the horse, and the chariot, the cow, and the man disappeared.\n\n\n[FN#110]  Spelt Faebor-begbeoil-cuimdiuir-folt-seenb-gairit-sceo-uath.\n\n[FN#111]  Spelt Daire mac Fiachna: he is the owner of the Dun of\nCualgne in the Great Tain.\n\n[FN#112]  Pronounced Kell-ny.\n\n\nAt a bird on a bough, as they vanished, a glance by Cuchulain was cast,\nAnd he knew to that bird's black body the shape of the woman had passed:\nAs a woman of danger I know you,\" he cried, \"and as powerful in spell!\"\nFrom to-day and for ever,\" she chanted, \"this tale in yon clay-land\nshall dwell!\"\nAnd her word was accomplished; that region to-day is the Grella\nDolloo,[FN#113]\nThe Clay-land of Evil: its name from the deeds of that woman it drew.\n\n\n[FN#113]  Spelt Grellach Dolluid.\n\n\n\"Had I known it was you,\" said Cuchulain, \"not thus had you passed from\nmy sight!\"\nAnd she sang, \"For thy deed it is fated that evil shall soon be thy\nplight!\"\nThou canst. do naught against me,\" he answered. \"Yea, evil in sooth can\nI send;\nOf thy Bringer of Death I am guardian, shall guard it till cometh thine\nend:\nFrom the Under-world Country of Croghan this cow have I driven, to breed\nBy the Dun Bull of Darry[FN#114] Mae Feena, the Bull that in Cualgne\ndoth feed.\nSo long as her calf be a yearling, for that time thy life shall endure;\nBut, that then shall the Raid have beginning, the dread Raid of\nCualgne, be sure.\"\n\n\n[FN#114]  Spelt Daire mac Fiachna.\n\n\n\"Nay, clearer my fame shall be ringing,\" the hero replied,\" for the\nRaid:\nAll bards, who my deeds shall be singing, must tell of the stand that I\nmade,\nEach warrior in fight shall be stricken, who dares with my valour to\nstrive:\nThou shalt see me, though battle-fields thicken, from the Tain Bo\nreturning alive!\"\n\n\"How canst thou that strife be surviving?\" the woman replied to his\nsong,\n\"For, when thou with a hero art striving, as fearful as thou, and as\nstrong,\nWho like thee in his wars is victorious, who all of thy feats can\nperform,\nAs brave, and as great, and as glorious, as tireless as thou in a storm,\nThen, in shape of an eel round thee coiling, thy feet at the Ford I\nwill bind,\nAnd thou, in such contest when toiling, a battle unequal shalt find.\"\n\n\"By my god now I swear, by the token that Ulstermen swear by,\" he cried;\n\"On a green stone by me shall be broken that eel, to the Ford if it\nglide:\nFrom woe it shall ne'er be escaping, till it loose me, and pass on its\nway!\"\nAnd she said: \"As a wolf myself shaping, I will spring on thee, eager\nto slay,\nI will tear thee; the flesh shall be rended from thy chest by the\nwolf's savage bite,\nTill a strip be torn from thee, extended from the arm on thy left to\nthy right!\nWith blows that my spear-shaft shall deal thee,\" he said, \"I will force\nthee to fly\nTill thou quit me; my skill shall not heal thee, though bursts from thy\nhead either eye!\"\nI will come then,\" she cried, \"as a heifer, white-skinned, but with\nears that are red,\nAt what time thou in fight shalt endeavour the blood of a hero to shed,\nWhose skill is full match for thy cunning; by the ford in a lake I will\nbe,\nAnd a hundred white cows shall come running, with red ears, in like\nfashion to me:\n\nAs the hooves of the cows on thee trample, thou shalt test 'truth of\nmen in the fight':\nAnd the proof thou shalt have shall be ample, for from thee thy head\nthey shall smite!\"\nSaid Cuchulain: \"Aside from thee springing, a stone for a cast will I\ntake,\nAnd that stone at thee furiously slinging, thy right or thy left leg\nwill break:\nTill thou quit me, no help will I grant thee.\" Morreegan,[FN#115] the\ngreat Battle Queen,\nWith her cow to Rath Croghan departed, and no more by Cuchulain was\nseen.\nFor she went to her Under-World Country: Cuchulain returned to his\nplace.\nThe tale of the Great Raid of Cualgne this lay, as a prelude, may grace.\n\n\n[FN#115]  Spelt Morrigan.\n\n\n\n\nTHE APPARITION OF THE GREAT QUEEN TO CUCHULAIN\n\n\n\nLITERAL TRANSLATION\n\n\nWhen Cuchulain lay in his sleep at Dun Imrid, there he heard a cry from\nthe north; it came straight towards him; the cry was dire, and most\nterrifying to him.  And he awaked in the midst of his sleep, so that he\nfell, with the fall of a heavy load, out of his couch,[FN#116] to the\nground on the eastern side of his house.  He went out thereupon without\nhis weapons, so that he was on the lawns before his house, but his wife\nbrought out, as she followed behind him, his arms and his clothing.\nThen he saw Laeg in his harnessed chariot, coming from Ferta Laig, from\nthe north; and \"What brings thee here?\" said Cuchulain.  \"A cry,\" said\nLaeg, \"that I heard sounding over the plains.  \"On what side was it?\"\nsaid Cuchulain.  \"From the north-west it seemed,\" said Laeg, \"that is,\nacross the great road of Caill Cuan.\"[FN#117]  \"Let us follow after to\nknow of it (lit. after it, to it for us),\" said Cuchulain.\n\n\n[FN#116]  Or \"out of his room.\" The word is imda, sometimes rendered\n\"bed,\" as here by Windisch sometimes also \"room,\" as in the Bruidne da\nDerga by Whitley Stokes.\n\n[FN#117]  Lough Cuan was the old name for Strangford Lough.\n\n\nThey went out thereupon till they came to Ath da Ferta.  When they were\nthere, straightway they heard the rattle of a chariot from the quarter\nof the loamy district of Culgaire.  Then they saw the chariot come\nbefore them, and one chestnut (lit. red) horse in it.  The horse was\none footed, and the pole of the chariot passed through the body of the\nhorse, till a wedge went through it, to make it fast on its forehead.\nA red[FN#118] woman was in the chariot, and a red mantle about her, she\nhad two red eye-brows, and the mantle fell between the two\nferta[FN#119] of her chariot behind till it struck upon the ground\nbehind her.  A great man was beside her chariot, a red[FN#120] cloak\nwas upon him, and a forked staff of hazel at his back, he drove a cow\nin front of him.\n\n\n[FN#118]  The above is the Egerton text: the text of Y.B.L. gives \"A\nred woman there, with her two eyebrows red, and her cloak and her\nraiment: the cloak fell,\" &c.\n\n[FN#119]  It is not known certainly what the ferta were: Windisch\ntranslates \"wheels,\" but does not give this meaning in his Dictionary:\nthe ferta were behind the car, and could be removed to sound the depth\nof a ford.  It is suggested that they were poles, projecting behind to\nbalance the chariot; and perhaps could be adjusted so as to project\nless or farther.\n\n[FN#120]  This is the Egerton text; the Y.B.L. text gives \"a tunic\nforptha on him the meaning of forptha is unknown.\n\n\n\"That cow is not joyful at being driven by you!\" said Cuchulain.  \"The\ncow does not belong to you,\" said the woman, \"she is not the cow of any\nfriend or acquaintance of yours.\"  \"The cows of Ulster,\" said\nCuchulain, \"are my proper (care).\"  \"Dost thou give a decision about\nthe cow?\" said the woman; \"the task is too great to which thy hand is\nset, O Cuchulain.\"  \"Why is it the woman who answers me?\" said\nCuchulain, \"why was it not the man?\"  \"It was not the man whom you\naddressed,\" said the woman.  \"Ay,\" said Cuchulain, \"(I did address\nhim), though thyself hath answered for him:\"\n\"h-Uar-gaeth-sceo-luachair-sceo[FN#121] is his name,\" said she.\n\n\n[FN#121]  Cold-wind-and-much-rushes.\n\n\n\"Alas! his name is a wondrous one,\" said Cuchulain.  \"Let it be thyself\nwho answers,[FN#122] since the man answers not.  What is thine own\nname?\" said Cuchulain.  \"The woman to whom thou speakest,\" said the\nman, \"is Faebor-begbeoil-cuimdiuir-folt-scenbgairit-sceo-uath.\"[FN#123]\n \"Do ye make a fool of me?\" cried Cuchulain, and on that Cuchulain\nsprang into her chariot: he set his two feet on her two shoulders\nthereupon, and his spear on the top of her head.  \"Play not sharp\nweapons on me!\"  \"Name thyself then by thy true name!\" said Cuchulain.\n\"Depart then from me!\" said she: \"I am a female satirist in truth,\" she\nsaid, \"and he is Daire mac Fiachna from Cualnge: I have brought the cow\nas fee for a master-poem.\"  \"Let me hear the poem then,\" said\nCuchulain.  \"Only remove thyself from me,\" said the woman; \"it is\nnone[FN#124] the better for thee that thou shakest it over my head.\"\nThereon he left her until he was between the two poles (ferta) of her\nchariot, and she sang to him[FN#125] . . . . . . Cuchulain threw a\nspring at her chariot, and he saw not the horse, nor the woman, nor the\nchariot, nor the man, nor the cow.\n\n\n[FN#122]  Y.B.L. corrupt; Egerton version adopted here.\n\n[FN#123]\nLittle-mouthed-edge-equally-small-hair-short-splinter-much-clamour.\n\n[FN#124]  Not is it better for thee that\" is in Egerton alone.\n\n[FN#125]  See the introduction for the omission of the poem.\n\n\nThen he saw that she had become a black bird upon a branch near to him.\n \"A dangerous[FN#126] (or magical) woman thou art,\" said Cuchulain:\n\"Henceforward,\" said the woman, \"this clay-land shall be called dolluid\n(of evil,)\" and it has been the Grellach Dolluid ever since.  \"If only\nI had known it was you,\" said Cuchulain, \"not thus should we have\nseparated.\"  \"What thou hast done,\" said she, \"shall be evil to thee\nfrom it.\"  \"Thou hast no power against me,\" said Cuchulain.  \"I have\npower indeed,\" said the woman; \"it is at the guarding of thy death that\nI am; and I shall be,\" said she. \"I brought this cow out of the\nfairy-mound of Cruachan, that she might breed by the Black Bull[FN#127]\nof Cualnge, that is the Bull of Daire Mae Fiachna.  It is up to that\ntime that thou art in life, so long as the calf which is in this cow's\nbody is a yearling; and it is this that shall lead to the Tain bo\nCualnge.\"  \"I shall myself be all the more glorious for that Tain,\"\nsaid Cuchulain: \"I shall slay their warriors: I shall break their great\nhosts: I shall be survivor of the Tain.\"\n\n\n[FN#126]  Windisch is doubtful about the meaning of this word. He gives\nit as \"dangerous\" in his translation; it may also mean \"magical,\"\nthough he thinks not. In a note he says that the meaning \"dangerous\" is\nnot certain.\n\n[FN#127]  In Egerton \"the Dun of Cualnge.\"\n\n\n\"In what way canst thou do this?\" said the woman, \"for when thou art in\ncombat against a man of equal strength (to thee), equally rich in\nvictories, thine equal in feats, equally fierce, equally untiring,\nequally noble, equally brave, equally great with thee, I will be an\neel, and I will draw a noose about thy feet in the ford, so that it\nwill be a great unequal war for thee.\"  \"I swear to the god that the\nUlstermen swear by,\" said Cuchulain, \"I will break thee against a green\nstone of the ford; and thou shalt have no healing from me, if thou\nleavest me not.\"  \"I will in truth be a grey wolf against thee,\" said\nshe, \"and I will strip a stripe[FN#128] from thee, from thy right\n(hand) till it extends to thy left.\"\n\n\n[FN#128]  This word is left doubtful in Windisch's translation.  The\nword is breth in Y.B.L. and breit in Egerton.  Breit may be a strip of\nwoollen material, or a strip of land; so the meaning of a strip of\nflesh seems possible.\n\n\n\"I will beat thee from me,\" said he, \"with the spear, till thy left or\nthy right eye bursts from thy head, and thou shalt never have healing\nfrom me, if thou leavest me not.\"  \"I shall in truth,\" she said, \"be\nfor thee as a white heifer with red ears, and I will go into a lake\nnear to the ford in which thou art in combat against a man who is thine\nequal in feats, and one hundred white, red-eared cows shall be behind\nme and 'truth of men' shall on that day be tested; and they shall take\nthy head from thee.\"  \"I will cast at thee with a cast of my sling,\"\nsaid Cuchulain, \"so as to break either thy left or thy right leg from\nunder thee; and thou shalt have no help from me if thou leavest me not.\"\n\nThey[FN#129] separated, and Cuchulain went back again to Dun Imrid, and\nthe Morrigan with her cow to the fairy mound of Cruachan; so that this\ntale is a prelude to the Tain bo Cualnge.\n\n\n[FN#129]  All this sentence up to \"so that this tale\" is from the\nEgerton version.  The Yellow Book of Lecan gives \"The Badb thereon went\nfrom him, and Cuchulain went to his own house, so that,\" &c.\n\n\n\n\nTEXT OF LEABHAR NA H-UIDHRI\n\n\n\n\nGIVING THE CONCLUSION OF THE \"COURTSHIP OF ETAIN\"\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe following pages give, with an interlinear word for word[FN#130]\ntranslation, the text of Leabhar na h-Uidhri, page 130 b. line 19 to\nthe end of page 132 a. of the facsimile.  The text corresponds to the\nend of the tale of the Court ship of Etain in vol. i., from page 27,\nline 21, to the end of the story; it also contains the poem which is in\nthat volume placed on page 26, but occurs in the manuscript at the\nplace where the first line of it is quoted on page 30 of vol. i.\n\n\n[FN#130]  The Irish idiom of putting the adjective after the noun is\nnot always followed in the translation.\n\n\nIt is hoped that the text may be found to be convenient by scholars:\nspecial care has been taken to make it accurate, and it has not, with\nthe exception of the poem just referred to, been published before\nexcept in the facsimile; the remainder of the text of the L.U. version\nof the Courtship of Etain, together with the poem, has been given by\nWindisch in the first volume of the Irische Texte.\n\nThe immediate object of the publication of this text, with its\ninterlinear translation, is however somewhat different; it was desired\nto give any who may have become interested in the subject, from the\nromances contained in the two volumes of this collection, some idea of\ntheir exact form in the original, and of the Irish constructions and\nmetres, as no Irish scholarship is needed to follow the text, when\nsupplemented by the interlinear translation.  The translation may be\nrelied on, except for a few words indicated by a mark of interrogation.\n\nThe passage is especially well suited to give an idea of the style of\nIrish composition, as it contains all the three forms used in the\nromances, rhetoric, regular verse, and prose: the prose also is varied\nin character, for it includes narrative, rapid dialogue, an antiquarian\ninsertion, and two descriptive passages.  The piece of antiquarian\ninformation and the resume of the old legend immediately preceding the\nsecond rhetoric can be seen to be of a different character to the\nflowing form of the narrative proper; the inserted passage being full\nof explanatory words, conid, issairi, is aice, &c., and containing no\nimagery.  The two descriptions, though short, are good examples of two\nstyles of description which occur in some other romances; neither of\nthese styles is universal, nor are they the only styles; the favour\nshown to one or the other in a romance may be regarded as a\ncharacteristic of its author.\n\nThe first style, exemplified by the description of Mider's appearance,\nconsists of a succession of images presented in short sentences,\nsometimes, as in this case, with no verb, sometimes with the verb batar\nor a similar verb repeated in each sentence, but in all cases giving a\nbrilliant word-picture, absolutely clear and definite, of what it is\nintended to convey.  The second style, exemplified here by the\ndescription of the horses that Mider offers to Eochaid, consists of a\nseries of epithets or of substantives, and is often imitated in modern\nIrish.  These passages are usually difficult to translate, as many\nwords appear to be coined for the purpose of the descriptions; but, in\nthe best writings, the epithets are by no means arbitrary; they are\nplaced so as to contrast sharply with each other, and in many cases\nsuggest brilliant metaphors; the style being in this respect more like\nLatin than English.  Absolutely literal translations quite fail to\nbring out the effect of such passages; for not only is the string of\nadjectives a distinctively Irish feature, but both in English and in\nGreek such metaphors are generally expressed more definitely and by\nshort sentences.  There is also a third style of description which does\nnot appear in the prose of any of the romances in this collection, but\nappears often in other romances, as in the Bruidne da Derga, Bricriu's\nFeast, and the Great Tain; it resembles the first style, but the\nsentences are longer, yet it does not give clear descriptions, only\nleaving a vague impression.  This style is often used for descriptions\nof the supernatural; it may be regarded as actual reproductions of the\noldest pre-Christian work, but it is also possible that it is the\nresult of legends, dimly known to the authors of the tales, and\nrepresented by them in the half-understood way in which they were\napprehended by them: the Druidic forms may have been much more clear.\nSuch passages are those which describe Cuchulain's distortions; the\nonly passage of the character in this collection is in the verse of the\nSick-bed, vol. i. page 77.  Five of the romances in the present\ncollection have no descriptive passages in the prose; the Combat at the\nFord and the Tain bo Fraich show examples of both the first and the\nsecond form, but more often the first; the Tain bo Regamna, though a\nvery short piece, also shows one example of each; for the description\nof the goblins met by Cuchulain is quite clear, and cannot be regarded\nas belonging to the third form.  There is also one case of the second\nform in the Tain bo Dartada, and two other cases of the first in the\nCourt ship of Etain-one in the Egerton, one in the Leabhar na h-Uidhri\nversion.  The best example of the first style is in the Egerton version\nof Etain (vol. i. page 12); the best example of the second is the\ndescription of Cuchulain's horses (vol. i. page 128); a still better\nexample of contrasts in such a description is in the Courtship of Ferb\n(Nutt, page 23).\n\nThe piece of regular verse contained in the extract should give a fair\nidea of the style of this form of composition.  Description is common\nin the verse, and it is in this case a prominent feature.  It may be\nnoted that lines 8, 16, 23, 26 will not scan unless the present\ndiphthongs are divided, also that the poem has fewer internal rhymes\nthan is usual in this regular verse.\n\nThe two passages in rhetoric, for so I take them to be, are good\nexamples of the style.  An attempt has been made to divide them into\nlines, but this division is open to criticism, especially as some lines\nin one of the two passages cannot be translated, and the translation of\nsome other lines is doubtful: the division suggested does, however,\nappear to me to give a rough metre and occasional rhymes.  It is\npossible that, if attention is called to those lines which are at\npresent untranslatable, something may be done for them.  The verse\ntranslations given in vol. i. pages 27 and 29, give the meaning that I\ntake the Irish to bear where I can get any meaning at all.\n\nAs to the text, the usual abbreviation for n has in general not been\nitalicized, nor has that for fri; all other abbreviations, including\nacht, final n in the symbol for con, and that for or in the recognized\nsymbol for for, have been italicized.  In the rhetorics, owing to their\ndifficulty, the abbreviation for n has been italicized throughout; the\nsymbol for ocus is not italicised. A few conjectures have been\ninserted, the text being given as a foot-note; a conjectured letter\nsupposed to be missing has been inserted in brackets, and a restoration\nby Professor Strachan of a few letters where the MS. is torn are\nsimilarly placed in brackets.  The rest of the text is carefully copied\nfrom the facsimile, including the glosses, which are inserted above the\nwords in the same places that they occupy in the manuscript.\n\n\n\n\nTEXT WITH INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION\n\n\n\nFecht n-aile asraracht Eochaid Airem ri Temrach la n-alaind\n\nAnother time arose Eochaid Airem. king of Tara on a beautiful day\n\n\n\n\ni n-amsir samrata frisocaib[FN#131] for sosta na Temrach do imcaisiu\nmaigi Breg,\n\nin time of summer, mounted on heights of Tara for viewing of plain of\nBreg,\n\n\n[FN#131]  A conjecture: MS. fosrocaib= fo-s-ro-od-gaib, an unknown\ncompound.\n\n\nboi fo a li ocus fo bluth cach datha.  Am-imracacha inti\n\nwas good its colour, and good blossom of every hue.  When looked about\nthe aforesaid\n\n\n\nEochaid imbi, co acca inn oclaech n-ingnad for sin sossad[FN#132] inna\n\nEoebaid around him, he saw the young warrior unknown on the height\nbeside\n\n\n[FN#132]  A conjecture: MS. tossad.\n\n\nchomairi.  Fuan corcair imbi, ocus mong or-budi fair co brainni\n\nhim.  Tunic purple about him, and hair gold-yellow on him to edges\n\n\n\na da imdae.  Rosc cainlech glas ina chind.  Sleg coicrind ina laim.\n\nof his two shoulders.  Eye lustrous gray in his head.  Spear\nfive-pointed in his hand.\n\n\n\nSciath taulgel ina laim con gemaib oir forri.  Sochtais Eochaid, ar ni\n\nShield white-bossed in his hand with gems of gold on it.  Was silent\nEochaid, for not\n\n\n\nfitir a bith isin Temraig inn aidehi riam, ocus ni orslaiethe ind lis\n\nhe knew of his being in the Tara the night before, and not was opened\nthe Liss\n\n\n\nin trath sin.  Tolluid ar inchaib Eochoda iarsain asbert Eochaid iarom,\n\nat that hour.  He came under protection of Eochaid thereon; said\nEochaid then,\n\n\n\nfochen dond laech nad athgenmar.  Is ed doroehtmar or in\n\nwelcome to the hero whom we know not.  It is for that we have come,\nsaid the\n\n\n\nt-oclaech.  Ni tathgenmar or Eochaid.  Atotgensa chetus ol in\n\n(young) warrior.  We know thee not, said Eochaid.  I know thee indeed,\nsaid the\n\n\n\nt-oclaech.  Cia th'ainm seo? ol Eochaid.  Ni airdairc son, ol se,\n\nwarrior.  What (is) thy own name? said Eochaid.  Not illustrious that,\nsaid he,\n\n\n\nMider Breg Leith.  Cid dotroacht ol Eochaid.  Do imbert fidcille\n\nMider of Bri Leith.  What brought thee? said Eochaid.  To play at chess\n\n\n\nfrit-su ol se.  Am maith se em, ol Eochaid for fithchill.  A fromad\n\nwith thee, said he.  I am good myself truly, said Eochaid, at\nchess-play.  Its essaying\n\n\n\ndun ol Mider.  Ata ol Eochaid, ind rigan ina cotlud, is le in tech\n\nto us! said Mider.  Is, said Eochaid, the queen in her sleep, it is\nhers the house\n\n\n\nata ind fithchell.  Ata sund chenae, ol Mider, fidchell nad\n\nwhere is the chessboard.  There is here yet, said Mider, a chessboard\nwhich is not\n\n\n\nmesso.  Ba fir on, clar n-argit ocus fir oir, ocus fursunnud cacha\n\nworse.  Was true that, a board of silver and men of gold, and shining\nin every\n\n\n\nhairidi for sin clar di liic logmair, ocus fer-bolg di figi rond\ncredumae.\n\ndirection on that board of costly stones, and a men-bag of woven chains\nof brass.\n\n\n\nEcraid Mider in fidchill iarsin.  Imbir ol Mider.  Ni immer acht\n\nSet out Mider the chessboard thereupon.  Play! said Mider.  Not will I\nplay, except\n\n\n\ndi giull ol Eochaid.  Cid gell bias and? ol Mider.  Cumma lim ol\n\nfor a stake, said Eochaid.  What stake shall be here? said Mider.\nEqual to me, said\n\n\n\nEochaid.  Rot-bia lim-sa ol Mider mad tu beras mo thochell,\n\nEochaid.  Thou shalt have from me, said Mider, if thou carry off my\nstake,\n\n\n\nL. gabur n-dub-glas ite cend-brecca, croderga, biruich,\n\n50 horses of dark-gray, and they with dappled heads, blood-red, with\nears pricked high,\n\n\nbruin-lethain, bolg(s)roin, coss choela, comrassa, faeborda,[FN#133]\nfemendae,[FN#133]\n\nchests broad, nostrils distended, feet thin, strong, keen, ? vehement,\n\n\n\naurarda, aignecha, so-(a)staidi,[FN#133] so\n\nvery high, spirited, easily stopped,\n\n\n\n[FN#133]  See Bruidne da Derga (Stokes), 50, 51, faeborda, lit. with an\nedge on them; femendae? = Lat. vehemens; soaistidi is the form adopted\nby Stokes in his edition of the Bruidne; Egerton MS. gives soastaide.\n\n\n\nThere is a gap here, a complete column being torn from the manuscript.\nThe lost part obviously describes the issue of the chess game or games,\nand the penalties demanded by Bochaid: what these penalties were is\nplain from the succeeding story.  The work of Mider and his folk in\npaying these penalties must also have been described: the next column\n(Leabhar na h- Uidhri, 131 b. of the facsimile) opens thus:\n\n\niarsin doberar uir ocus grian ocus clocha for sin monai.  Fri etna\n\nthereupon is, placed earth and gravel and stones on the bog.  Over\nforeheads\n\n\n\ndam dano-batar fedmand la firu h-Erind cosind n-aidchi sin, co\n\nof oxen then were yokes among men of Ireland till that very night, when\n\n\n\nn-aicces la lucht in t-side for a formnaib.  Dognith\n\nit was seen (tbLat they were) among people of the Mounds on their\nshoulders.  It was done\n\n\n\nsamlaid la Eochaid, conid de ata do som.  Echaid Airem, ar\n\nso by Eochaid, so that hence is to himself (the name of) Echaid Airem,\nfor\n\n\n\nis aice toisech tucad cuing for muinelaib dam do ferand h-Erind.  Is\n\nit is by him first was put yoke on necks of oxen for land of Ireland.\nThis\n\n\n\ned dino and food ro boi im belaib in t-sluaig oc denam in tocuir:\n\nis then there word which was on lips of the host at making of the\ncauseway:\n\n\n\n\nRhetoric--\n\n\nCuire illaim,\n\nPut into hand\n\n\n\ntochra illaim,\n\nplace (it) into hand\n\n\n\naurdairc damrad trathaib iar fuin\n\nnoble (are) oxen for hours after sunset\n\n\n\nfor trom ailges\n\nvery heavy request\n\n\n\nni fes cuich les\n\nit is not known to whom (is) gain\n\n\n\ncuich amles de thochur dar moin Lamraige.\n\nto whom harm from the causeway over moor of Lamrach.\n\n\n\nNi biad isin bith tochur bad ferr mani bethe oca\n\nThere would not be in the world a causeway which is better, if not\n(men) had been at\n\n\n\nn-descin Forracbad de bochtae and iartain.  Iarsin dolluid\n\nthe seeing them.  Was left on that account a breach there thenceforth.\nThereupon came\n\n\n\nin rechtaire co Echaid ocus adfet scela in mor fedma, atconnaire\n\nthe steward to Echaid, and made known tales of the great serving band,\nthat he saw\n\n\n\nfiadai, ocus asbert nad rabi for fertas in betha cumachta\n\nbefore him, and said that there was not on the chariot pole of life a\npower\n\n\n\ndodrosce de.  Am batar for a m-briathraib co n-accatar Mider\n\nthat excelled it.  When they were at their talking they saw Mider (come)\n\n\n\nchucu.  Ard chustal ocus droch gne fair.  Atrigestar Eochaid,\n\nto them.  High ? girt (he was), and evil face (was) on him.? Rose\n?[FN#134] Eochaid,\n\n\n[FN#134]  This is a possible rendering, taking the word as a deponent\nform of atregaim.  It would be more natural to take the word as from\nadagur; being equivalent to ad-d-raigestar, and to mean \"feared him,\"\nbut this does not agree with Eoebaid's general attitude.\n\n\nocus ferais faelti fri.  Is ed dorochtmar ol Mider.  Is toreda ocus is\n\nand gave welcome to him.  It is for that we have come, said Mider.  It\nis cruel and is\n\n\n\ndi-cheill no tai frim, mor decrai ocus mor aingcessa do thabairt form\n\nsenseless thou art to me, great hardship and great suffering thy\nbestowing on me\n\n\n\nadethaind ni bad maith lat chena acht is bairnech mo menma frit.\n\nI used to get what seemed good to thee still but is angry my mind\nagainst thee.\n\n\n\nNi bara fri bure dait-siu on do-gignestar do menma for Eochaid.\n\nNot anger against anger: to thyself the thing that shall choose thy\nmind, said Eochaid.\n\n\n\nGebthar dano, ol Mider.  Inn imberam fidchill? for Mider.  Cid gell\n\nIt shall be done then, said Mider.  Shall we play at chess? said Mider.\n What stake\n\n\n\nbias and? for Eochaid.  Gell adcobra cechtar da lina for\n\nshall be there? said Eochaid.  The stake that wishes each of the two\nparties, said\n\n\n\nMider.  Berar tochell n-Echdach alla sin.  Rucais mo\n\nMider.  Is carried off stake of Echaid in that very place.  Thou hast\ncarried off my\n\n\n\nthocell, for Eebaid.  Mad ail dam no-beraind o chianaib,\n\nstake, said Echaid.  If wish to me (had been) I could have carried it\noff long since,\n\n\n\nfor Mider.  Cacht cid adcobrai form-sa? for Echaid.  Di laim im\n\nsaid Mider.  Question what wishest thou from myself? said Echaid.  Two\narms about\n\n\n\netain, ocus poc di ol Mider.  Sochtais Echaid la, sodain, ocus asbert,\n\nEtain, and a kiss from her, said Mider.  Was silent Echaid thereon, and\nsaid,\n\n\n\ntis dia mis on diu, doberthar dait ani sin.  In\n\nthou shalt come in a month from to-day, (and) shall be given to thee\nthat very thing.  The\n\n\n\nbliadain ria tuidecht do Mider co Echaid do imbert na fidehille boi oc\n\nyear before the coming of Mider to Echaid for playing of the chess was\nhe at\n\n\n\ntochmarc etaine, ocus nis n-etad leis.  Is ed ainm dobered Mider\n\nwooing of Etain, and nothing was found by him.  This is the name used\nto give Mider\n\n\n\ndi: befind conide asbert:\n\nto her: fair-haired lady, so that thence he said:\n\n\n\na be find in raga lim\n\nO fair-haired lady, wilt thou come with me\n\n\n\ni tir n-ingnad hi fil rind\n\ninto a land marvellous, that is music?\n\n\n\nIs barr sobarche folt and\n\n(thus) is the top of the head, of primrose the hair there,\n\n\n\nis dath snechta corp co ind:\n\nis colour of snow the body to the head:\n\n\n\nIs and nad bi mui na tai,\n\nIt is there not will be 'mine' or 'thine,'\n\n\n\ngela det and, dubai brai,\n\nwhite teeth there, black eyebrows,\n\n\n\nIs li sula lin ar sluag,[FN#135]\n\nis colour of eyes number of our hosts,\n\n\n[FN#135]  A conjecture by Windisch.  Text gives sluaig the genitive\nsingular, which does not rhyme.\n\n\n[FN#136]no is brece is dath sion and cech gruad:\n\nor is many-coloured is hue of foxglove there each cheek:\n\n\n[FN#136]  The three glosses are interesting.  It may be noted that the\nlast two certainly follow the word (above the line in which it occurs)\nthat they seem to gloss: it is therefore probable that the first does\nso too; the two lines of a couplet are on the same line in the\nmanuscript.  It {footnote p. 156} seems then possible that the gloss\n\"it is many-coloured\" refers, not to the foxglove, but to the preceding\nline, \"the colour of eyes is number of our hosts,\" and that the writer\nof this gloss gave the same meaning to the rather hard description of\nthe colour of the eyes as is given in the verse translation (vol. i. p.\n26), i.e. that the eyes had changing lights and shapes.  We must hope,\nfor the credit of his taste, that he did not think of the cheeks as\nmany-coloured or freckled, but his gloss of lossa does not seem happy.\nThe meaning \"growth\" is taken from O'Reilly's Dictionary.\n\n\n\nno lossa\nIs corcair maige cach muin,[FN#137]\n\n\nor growth?\nis purple of a plain each neck,\n\n\n[FN#137]  A conjecture (Str.), main, treasure, is in the text: this\ndoes not rhyme, nor give good sense; note, however, that muin has no\naccent-the text gives one.\n\n\nno is dath\nis li sula ugai luin:\n\nor is hue\nis colour of eyes (that of) eggs of a blackbird:\n\n\n\ncid cain deicsiu maigi Fail\n\nthough pleasant (is) seeing plains of Fal (isle of Destiny)\n\n\n\nannam iar gnais maige mair.\n\na wilderness[FN#138] after knowledge of the Great Plain.\n\n\n[FN#138]  This meaning for annam is doubtful; the sense of \"seldom\" is\nestablished for the word; the line possibly means \"it will seldom be so\nafter,\" &c.\n\n\nCid mesc lib coirm inse Fail,\n\nThough intoxicating to you (is) ale of the island Fal,\n\n\n\nis mescu coirm tire mair,\n\nis more intoxicating the ale of the country great,\n\n\n\namra tire tir asbiur,\n\na wonder of a land the land I mention,\n\n\n\nni theit oac and re siun.\n\nnot goes a young man there before an old man.\n\n\n\nSrotha teith millsi tar tir,\n\nStreams warm (and) sweet through the land,\n\n\n\nrogu de mid ocus fin,\n\nchoice of mead and wine,\n\n\n\ndoini delgnaidi, cen on,\n\nmen ? handsome, without blemish,\n\n\n\ncombart cen pecead, cen col.\n\nconception without sin without crime.\n\n\n\nAtchiam cach for each leth,\n\nWe see all on every side,\n\n\n\nocus ni-conn acci nech;\n\nand yet not sees us anyone\n\n\n\ntemel imorbais adaim\n\nthe cloud of the sin of Adam\n\n\n\ndo-don-archeil[FN#139] ar araim\n\nencompasses us from reckoning\n\n\n[FN#139]  From tairchellaim.\n\n\nA ben dia ris mo thuaith tind,\n\nO woman, if thou wilt come to my people strong,\n\n\n\nis barr oir bias fort chind,\n\nit is top of head of gold shall be on thy head,\n\n\n\ninue ur, laith, lemnacht la lind\n\npork unsalted, ale, new milk for drink\n\n\n\nrot bia lim and, a be find, a be find.\n\nshall be to thee with me there, O woman fair-haired.\n\n\n\n[a gap, 9 letters lost] i atumchotaise om aithech tige rag-sa, [a gap,\n\nthou obtainest me from my master of the house I will go,\n\n\n\n[9 letters lost] fetai, ni rag.  Is iarsin dolluid Mider (L.U. 130 a.)\nco\n\ncanst, not will I go.  It is thereon came Mider to\n\n\n\nEchaid, ocus damair a thochell fochetoir co m-beth f\u00f4lo acai\n\nEchaid, and yields his stake immediately that may be (cause) of\nreproach for him\n\n\n\ndo Echaid, is airi roic na comada mora, ocus issairi is\n\nto Echaid, it is therefore he paid the great stakes, and on that\naccount it is (that)\n\n\n\nfo anfis con atig a gell.  Conid iarsin giull adrubrad in tan tra\n\nunder ignorance that he asked his wager.  So that after that wager it\nwas said when now\n\n\n\nro boi Mider cona muinter oc ic comad na aidehi, i. in tochor, ocus\n\nwas Mider and his folk at paying the stake of the night, that is, the\ncauseway, and\n\n\n\ndi-chlochad Midi, ocus luachair Tetbai, ocus fid dar Breg: isse[FN#140]\nseo\n\nclearing stones off Meath, and rushes of Tethba and forest over Breg:\nit is he this\n\n\n[FN#140]  Grammar not clear: perhaps the Irish is corrupt (Str.).\n\n\nan no foclad boi oca muinter amal atbert lebor drom snechta:\n\nwhat used to say was with his folk as says Book of Drom-snechta:\n\n\n\n\nRhetoric--\n\n\n\nCuirthe illand:\n\nPut on the field:\n\n\n\ntochre illand:\n\nPut close on the field\n\n\n\nairderg dararad:\n\nvery red oxen:\n\n\n\ntrom in choibden:\n\nheavy the troop\n\n\n\nclunithar fir ferdi.\n\nWhich hears ?really-manly\n\n\n\nbuidni balc-thruim crand-chuir\n\ntroops for strong heavy setting of trees\n\n\n\nforderg saire fedar\n\nof very red ?oaks[FN#141] are led\n\n\n[FN#141]  Reading daire for saire.\n\n\nsechuib slimprib snithib\n\npast them on twisted wattles:\n\n\n\nscitha lama:\n\nweary are hands,\n\n\n\nind rosc cloina:\n\nthe eye ?slants aside?\n\n\n\nfobith oen mna\n\nbecause of one woman\n\n\n\nDuib in digail:\n\nTo you the revenge,\n\n\n\nduib in trom-daim:[FN#142]\n\nto you the heavy ?oxen\n\n\n[FN#142]  A conjecture. MS. gives trom-daim.\n\n\ntairthim flatho fer ban:\n\nsplendour of sovereignty over white men:\n\n\n\nfomnis, fomnis, in fer m-braine cerpae fomnis diad derg\u00e6\n\n?            ?            ?\n\n\n\nfer arfeid solaig\n\n?\n\n\n\nfri aiss esslind\n\n?\n\n\n\nfer bron for-ti\n\n? sorrow shall, come on the man?\n\n\n\ni. more\nertechta inde\n\n?\n\n\nlamnado luachair\n\nrushes\n\n\n\nfor di Thethbi\n\nover?two Tethbas\n\n\n\ndi-chlochad[FN#143] Midi\n\nclearing stones from Meath\n\n\n[FN#143]  A conjecture.  MS. gives dilecad (Str.)\n\n\n\nindracht\n\n?\n\n\n\ncoich les, coich amles\nto whom the benefit, to whom the harm\n\n\n\nthocur dar clochach? moin.[FN#144]\n\ncauseway over stony moor.\n\n\n[FN#144]  The last line in the Ms. is t d c m.\n\n\n\nDalis Mider dia mis Fochiallastar (i. rotinoil).  Echaid formna\n\nMider appointed a meeting for the end of a month.  Echaid assembled\n(i.e. collected)troops.\n\n\n\nlaech la-erend com batar hi Temrach, ocus an ro po dech do fiannaib\n\nof heroes of Ireland so that they were in Tara, and what was best of\nchampions\n\n\n\nh-Erind, cach cuaird imm araile im Temrach immedon ocus a nechtair,\n\nof Ireland, each ring about another, around Tara im the middle, and\noutside it\n\n\n\nocus is-tig.  Ocus in ri ocus in rigan immedon in taigi, ocus ind lis\n\nand within.  And the king and the queen in the middle of the house, and\nits Liss\n\n\n\niatai fo glassaib, ar ro fetatar do t-icfad fer in mar cumacht.  Etain\n\nshut under locks, for they knew that would comie of insen the great\nmight.  Etain\n\n\n\nboi ocon dail ind aidehi sin forsna flathi, ar ba sain dana disi dal.\n\nwas dispensing that night to the princes, for it was meet then for her\npouring (of the wine)\n\n\n\nAm batar iarom fora.  m-briathraib, co accatar Mider chucu for\n\nWhen they were thereon at their talking they saw Mider (come) to them on\n\n\n\nlar ind rigthige.  Ba cain som dogres ba caini dana inn aidehi sin.\n\nthe floor of the royal palace.  He was fair always, was fairer then on\nthat night.\n\n\n\nTosbert im mod na sl\u00fbag ateonnairc.  Sochsit uli iarom ocus\n\nHe brought to amazement the hosts that he saw.[FN#145]  Were silent all\nthereon, and\n\n\n[FN#145]  Reading atcondairc (Str.).\n\n\nferais in ri faelti fris.  Is ed dorochtmar ol Mider.  An ro gella\n\nthe king gave welcome to him.  It is this we have come for, said Mider.\n What was promised\n\n\n\ndam-sa or se, tucthar dam.  Is fiach ma gelltar, an ro gellad\n\nto myself, said he, let it be given to me.  It is a debt if a promise\nis given,\n\n\n\ntucus dait-siu.  Ni imrordusa for Echaid, ani sin co se.\n\nI have given to thee.  Not have I thought on, said Echaid, that very\nthing up to now.\n\n\n\nAtrugell etain fein dam-sa, ol Mider, ticht uait-siu.\n\nThou hast promised Etain herself to me, said Mider, message (lit. a\ncoming) from you.\n\n\n\nImdergthar im Etain la, sodain.  Na imdergthar imut for Mider, ni\n\nThere was a blush on Etain thereupon.  Let there be no blush on thee,\nsaid Mider, not\n\n\n\ndroch banas duit-siu.  Atu-sa, ol si, bliadain oc do chuingid com\n\nevil marriage-feast to thee.  I am myself, said he, a year at seeking\nthee with\n\n\n\nmainib ocus setaib at aildem in ere, ocus ni tucus-sa\n\ntreasures and jewels that are the most beautiful in Ireland and not I\ntook thee\n\n\n\ncomad chomarlecud do Echaid.  Ni -la-deoas damsa ce\n\ntill there should be permission of Echaid. Not by good-will to me any\n\n\n\ndotchotaind.  Atrubart-sa frit-su ol si, conom rire Echaid,\n\ngetting thee.  I myself said to thyself, said she, until Echaid gives\nme up\n\n\n\nnit rius.  Atometha lat ar mo chuit fein, dia nom rire Echaid.\n\nnot will I come to thee.  Take me with thee for my own part, if me\nEchaid will give up.\n\n\n\nNit ririub immorro, for Echaid, acht tabrad a di laim\n\nNot thee will I give up however, said Echaid, but (I give) a placing of\nhis two hands\n\n\n\nimut for lar in tige, amal ro gabais.  Dogentar for Mider.\n\nabout thee on floor of the house, as thou art.  It shall be done! said\nMider.\n\n\n\ni. mider\nAtetha a gaisced ina laim cli, ocus gabais in mnai fo a leth-oxail dess,\n\nthat is, Mider\nHe took his weapons in his hand left, and took the woman under his\nshoulder right,\n\n\n\nocus focois-le for forles in tige.  Conerget in-t-sluaig imon rig\n\nand carried her off over skylight of the house.  Pose up the hosts,\nabout the king\n\n\n\niar melacht forro, co n-accatar in da ela timchell na Temra.  Is ed\n\nafter a disgrace on them, they saw the two swans around Tara.  It is\nthis,\n\n\n\nro gabsat do sid ar Femun.  Ocus luid Echaid co fomno\n\nthey took (the road) to elfmound about about Femun.  And went Echaid\nwith a troop\n\n\n\nfer n-Erend imbi do sith ar Femun i.  sid ban-find.\n\nof men of Ireland about him to elf mound about Femun i.e. elfmound of\nthe fair-haired women.\n\n\n\nB (a si com)[FN#146] arli fer n-Erend, fochlaid each sid [a gap, 12\nletters lost]\n\nThat was the counsel of the men of Ireland, he dug up each elf-mound.\n\n\n[FN#146]  The letters in parentheses are a conjecture by Strachan, to\nfill up a gap in the manuscript.\n\n\n\ntised a ben.  do uadib, Foce [a gap of 13 letters, rest of the version\nlost.]\n\nshould come his wife to him from them.","title":"Heroic Romances of Ireland, Translated into English Prose and Verse \u2014 Volume 2","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":35794}