Book: The Cattle Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cualnge)

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_The Death of Orlam_

They go forth then over Iraird Culend in the morning. Cuchulainn
went forward; he overtook the charioteer of Orlam, son of Ailill
and Medb, in Tamlacht Orlaim, a little to the north of Disert
Lochait, cutting wood there. (According to another version, it is
The shaft of Cuchulainn's chariot that had broken, and it is to cut
a shaft that he had gone when he met Orlam's charioteer. It is the
charioteer who cut the shafts according to this version.)

'It is over-bold what the Ulstermen are doing, if it is they who
are yonder,' said Cuchulainn, 'while the host is behind them.' He
goes to the charioteer to reprove him; he thought that he was of
Ulster, and he saw the man cutting wood, that is the chariot shaft.

'What are you doing here?' said Cuchulainn.

'Cutting chariot-shafts,' said the charioteer. 'We have broken our
chariots hunting the wild deer Cuchulainn yonder. Help me,' said
the charioteer. 'Look only whether you are to select the shafts, or
to strip them.'

'It will be to strip them indeed,' said Cuchulainn.

Then Cuchulainn stripped the shafts through his fingers in the
presence of the other, so that he cleared them both of bark and
knots.

'This cannot be your proper work that I put on you,' said the
charioteer; he was greatly afraid.

'Whence are you?' said Cuchulainn.

'The charioteer of Orlam, son of Ailill and Medb,' said he. 'And
you?' said the charioteer.

'My name is Cuchulainn,' said he.

'Alas!' said the charioteer.

'Fear nothing,' said Cuchulainn. 'Where is your master?' said he.

'He is in the trench yonder,' said the charioteer.

'Go forth then with me,' said Cuchulainn, 'for I do not kill
charioteers at all.'

Cuchulainn goes to Orlam, kills him, cuts his head off, and shakes
his head before the host. Then he puts the head on the charioteer's
back, and said to him:

'Take that with you,' said Cuchulainn, 'and go to the camp thus. If
you do not go thus, a stone will come to you from my sling.'

When he got near the camp, he took the head from his back, and told
his adventures to Ailill and Medb.

'This is not like taking birds,' said she.

And he said, 'Unless I brought it on my back to the camp, he would
break my head with a stone.'


_The Death of the Meic Garach_

Then the Meic Garach waited on their ford. These are their names:
Lon and Ualu and Diliu; and Mes-Ler, and Mes-Laech, and Mes-Lethan
were their three charioteers. They thought it too much what
Cuchulainn had done: to slay two foster-sons of the king, and his
son, and to shake the head before the host. They would slay
Cuchulainn in return for him, and would themselves remove this
annoyance from the host. They cut three aspen wands for their
charioteers, that the six of them should pursue combat against him.
He killed them all then, because they had broken fair-play towards
him.

Orlam's charioteer was then between Ailill and Medb. Cuchulainn
hurled a stone at him, [Note: Apparently because the charioteer had
not carried Orlam's head into the camp on his back. Or an
alternative version.] so that his head broke, and his brains came
over his ears; Fertedil was his name. (Thus it is not true that
Cuchulainn did not kill charioteers; howbeit, he did not kill them
without fault.)


_The Death of the Squirrel_

Cuchulainn threatened in Methe, that wherever he should see Ailill
or Medb afterwards he would throw a stone from his sling at them.
He did this then: he threw a stone from his sling, so that he
killed the squirrel that was on Medb's shoulder south of the ford:
hence is Methe Togmaill. And he killed the bird that was on
Ailill's shoulder north of the ford: hence is Methe n-Eoin. (Or it
is on Medb's shoulder that both squirrel and bird were together,
and it is their heads that were struck from them by the casts.)


Reoin was drowned in his lake. Hence is Loch Reoin.


'That other is not far from you,' said Ailill to the Manes.

They arose and looked round. When they sat down again, Cuchulainn
struck one of them, so that his head broke.

'It was well that you went for that: your boasting was not
fitting,' said Maenen the fool. 'I would have taken his head off.'

Cuchulainn threw a stone at him, so that his head broke. It is thus
then that these were killed: Orlam in the first place on his hill;
the Meic Garach on their ford; Fertedil in his ---; Maenan in his
hill.

'I swear by the god by whom my people swear,' said Ailill, 'that
man who shall make a mock of Cuchulainn here, I will make two
halves of him.'

'Go forth for us both day and night,' said Ailill, 'till we reach
Cualnge. That man will kill two-thirds of the host in this way.' It
is there that the harpers of the _Cainbili_ [Note: Reference
obscure. They were wizards of some sort.] from Ossory came to them
to amuse them. They thought it was from the Ulstermen to spy on
them. They set to hunting them, till they went before them in the
forms of deer into the stones at Liac Mor on the north. For they
were wizards with great cunning.


_The Death of Lethan_


Lethan came on to his ford on the Nith (?) in Conaille. He waited
himself to meet Cuchulainn. It vexed him what Cuchulainn had done.
Cuchulainn cuts off his head and left it, hence it is Ath Lethan on
the Nith. And their chariots broke in the battle on the ford by
him; hence it is Ath Carpat. Mulcha, Lethan's charioteer, fell on
the shoulder of the hill that is between them; hence is Gulo
Mulchai. While the hosts were going over Mag Breg, he struck(?)
their ---- still. [Note: 2 Something apparently missing here. The
passage in LL is as follows: 'It is the same day that the Morrigan,
daughter of Ernmas, came from the Sid, so that she was on the
pillar in Temair Cuailnge, taking a warning to the Dun of Cualnge
before the men of Ireland, and she began to speak to him, and
"Good, O wretched one, O Dun of Cualnge," said the Morrigan, "keep
watch, for the men of Ireland have reached thee, and they will take
thee to their camp unless thou keepest watch"; and she began to
take a warning to him thus, and uttered her words on high.' (The
Rhetoric follows as in LU.)]

Yet that was the Morrigan in the form of a bird on the pillar in
Temair Cuailnge; and she spoke to the Bull:

'Does the Black know,' etc. [Note: A Rhetoric.]

Then the Bull went, and fifty heifers with him, to Sliab Culind;
and his keeper, Forgemen by name, went after him. He threw off the
three fifties of boys who used always to play on him, and he killed
two-thirds of his boys, and dug a trench in Tir Marcceni in Cualnge
before he went.


_The Death of Lochu_

Cuchulainn killed no one from the Saile ind Orthi (?) in the
Conaille territory, until they reached Cualnge. Cuchulainn was then
in Cuince; he threatened then that when he saw Medb he would throw
a stone at her head. This was not easy to him, for it is thus that
Medb went and half the host about her, with their shelter of
shields over her head.

Then a waiting-woman of Medb's, Lochu by name, went to get water,
and a great troop of women with her. Cuchulainn thought it was
Medb. He threw two stones from Cuince, so that he slew her in her
plain(?). Hence is Ath Rede Locha in Cualnge.

From Findabair Cuailnge the hosts divided, and they set the country
on fire. They collect all there were of women, and boys, and
maidens; and cattle, in Cualnge together, so that they were all in
Findabair.

'You have not gone well,' said Medb; 'I do not see the Bull with
you.'

'He is not in the province at all,' said every one.

Lothar the cowherd is summoned to Medb.

'Where is the Bull?' said she. 'Have you an idea?'

'I have great fear to tell it,' said the herd. 'The night,' said
he, 'when the Ulstermen went into their weakness, he went with
three twenties of heifers with him, so that he is at the Black
Corrie of Glenn Gatt.'

'Go,' said Medb, 'and carry a withe [Note: Ir. _gatt_, a withe.]
between each two of you.'

They do this: hence this glen is called Glenn Gatt. Then they bring
the Bull to Findabair. The place where he saw the herd, Lothar, he
attacked him, so that he brought his entrails out on his horns; and
he attacked the camp with his three fifties of heifers, so that
fifty warriors were killed. And that is the death of Lothar on the
Foray.

Then the Bull went from them out of the camp, and they knew not
where he had gone from them; and they were ashamed. Medb asked the
herd if he had an idea where the Bull was.

'I think he would be in the secret places of Sliab Culind.'

When they returned thus after ravaging Cualnge, and did not find
the Bull there. The river Cronn rose against them to the tops of
the trees; and they spent the night by it. And Medb told part of
her following to go across.

A wonderful warrior went next day, Ualu his name. He took a great
stone on his back to go across the water; the stream drove him
backwards with the stone on his back. His grave and his stone are
on the road at the stream: Lia Ualand is its name.

They went round the river Cronn to the source, and they would have
gone between the source and the mountain, only that they could not
get leave from Medb; she preferred to go across the mountain, that
their track might remain there for ever, for an insult to the
Ulstermen. They waited there three days and three nights, till they
dug the earth in front of them, the Bernas Bo Cuailnge.

It is there that Cuchulainn killed Crond and Coemdele and ----
[Note: Obscure.]. A hundred warriors ---- [Note: Obscure.] died with
Roan and Roae, the two historians of the Foray. A hundred and
forty-four, kings died by him at the same stream. They came then
over the Bernas Bo Cuailnge with the cattle and stock of Cualnge,
and spent the night in Glenn Dail Imda in Cualnge. Botha is the
name of this place, because they made huts over them there. They
come next day to Colptha. They try to cross it through heedlessness.
It rose against them then, and it carries a hundred charioteers
of them to the sea; this is the name of the land in which they
were drowned, Cluain Carptech.

They go round Colptha then to its source, to Belat Alioin, and
spent the night at Liasa Liac; that is the name of this place,
because they made sheds over their calves there between Cualnge and
Conaille. They came over Glenn Gatlaig, and Glass Gatlaig rose
against them. Sechaire was its name before; Glass Gatlaig
thenceforth, because it was in withes they brought their calves;
and they slept at Druim Fene in Conaille. (Those then are the
wanderings from Cualnge to Machaire according to this version.)


_This is the Harrying of Cualnge_

(Other authors and books make it that another way was taken on
their journeyings from Findabair to Conaille, as follows:

Medb said after every one had come with their booty, so that they
were all in Findabair Cuailnge: 'Let the host be divided,' said
Medb; 'it will be impossible to bring this expedition by one way.
Let Ailill go with half the expedition by Midluachair; Fergus and I
will go by Bernas Ulad.' [Note: YBL. Bernas Bo n-Ulad.]

'It is not fine,' said Fergus, 'the half of the expedition that has
fallen to us. It will be impossible to bring the cattle over the
mountain without dividing it.'

That was done then, so that it is from that there is Bernas Bo n-Ulad.)

It is there then that Ailill said to his charioteer Cuillius: 'Find
out for me to-day Medb and Fergus. I know not what has brought them
to this union. I shall be pleased that a token should come to me by
you.'

Cuillius came when they were in Cluichre. The pair remained behind,
and the warriors went on. Cuillius came to them, and they heard not
the spy. Fergus' sword happened to be beside him. Cuillius drew it
out of its sheath, and left the sheath empty. Cuillius came to
Ailill.

'So?' said Ailill.

'So indeed,' said Cuillius; 'there is a token for you.'

'It is well,' said Ailill.

Each of them smiles at the other.

'As you thought,' said Cuillius, 'it is thus that I found them, in
one another's arms.'

'It is right for her,' said Ailill; 'it is for help on the Foray
that she has done it. See that the sword is kept in good condition,'
said Ailill. 'Put it under your seat in the chariot, and a cloth of
linen around it.'

Fergus got up for his sword after that.

'Alas!' said he.

'What is the matter with you?' said Medb.


'An ill deed have I done to Ailill,' said he. 'Wait here, while I
go into the wood,' said Fergus; 'and do not wonder though it be
long till I come.'

It happened that Medb knew not the loss of the sword. He goes
thence, and takes the sword of his charioteer with him in his hand.
He makes a wooden sword in the wood. Hence there is Fid Mor Drualle
in Ulster.

'Let us go on after our comrades,' said Fergus. All their hosts
meet in the plain. They pitch their tents. Fergus is summoned to
Ailill to play chess. When Fergus went to the tent, Ailill began to
laugh at him. [Note: Here follows about two columns of rhetoric,
consisting of a taunting dialogue between Ailill, Fergus and Medb.]

***

Cuchulainn came so that he was at Ath Cruinn before them.

'O friend Loeg,' said he to his charioteer, 'the hosts are at hand
to us.'

'I swear by the gods,' said the charioteer, 'I will do a mighty
feat before warriors ... on slender steeds with yokes of silver,
with golden wheels ...'

'Take heed, O Loeg,' said Cuchulainn; 'hold the reins for great
victory of Macha ... I beseech,' said Cuchulainn, 'the waters to
help me. I beseech heaven and earth, and the Cronn in particular.'

The (river) Cronn takes to fighting against them; it will not let
them into Murthemne until the work of heroes be finished in Sliab
Tuath Ochaine.

Therewith the water rose up till it was in the tops of the trees.

Mane, son of Ailill and Medb, went before the rest. Cuchulainn
smites them on the ford, and thirty horsemen of Mane's retinue were
drowned in the water. Cuchulainn overthrew two sixteens of warriors
of them again by the water.

They pitch their tents at that ford. Lugaid Mac Nois, descendant of
Lomarc Allchomach, came to speak to Cuchulainn, with thirty
horsemen.

'Welcome, O Lugaid,' said Cuchulainn. 'If a flock of birds graze
upon Mag Murthemne, you shall have a duck with half of another; if
fish come to the estuaries, you shall have a salmon with half of
another. You shall have the three sprigs, the sprig of watercress,
and the sprig of marshwort, and the sprig of seaweed. You shall
have a man in the ford in your place.' [Note: This and the
following speech are apparently forms of greeting. Cuchulainn
offers Lugaid such hospitality as lies in his power. See a similar
speech later to Fergus.]

'I believe it,' said Lugaid. 'Excellence of people to the boy whom
I desire.'

'Your hosts are fine,' said Cuchulainn.

It would not be sad for you alone before them,' said Lugaid.

'Fair-play and valour will support me,' said Cuchulainn. 'O friend
Lugaid, do the hosts fear me?'

'I swear by God,' said Lugaid, 'one man nor two dare not go out of
the camp, unless it be in twenties or thirties.'

'It will be something extra for them,' said Cuchulainn, 'if I take
to throwing from the sling. Fitting for you will be this fellow-vassal,
O Lugaid, that you have among the Ulstermen, if there come to me
the force of every man. Say what you would have,' said Cuchulainn.

'That I may have a truce with you towards my host.'

'You shall have it, provided there be a token on it. And tell my
friend Fergus that there be a token on his host. Tell the
physicians, let there be a token on their host. And let them swear
preservation of life to me, and let there come to me provision
every night from them.'

Then Lugaid goes from him. Fergus happened to be in the tent with
Ailill. Lugaid called him out, and told him this. Something was
heard, namely Ailill. ... [Note: Rhetoric, six lines, the substance
of which is, apparently, that Ailill asks protection also.]

'I swear by God I cannot do it,' said Lugaid, 'unless I ask the boy
Again.'

'Help me, [Note: Spoken by Fergus?] O Lugaid, go to him to see
whether Ailill may come with a cantred into my troop. Take an ox
with bacon to him and a jar of wine.'

He goes to Cuchulainn then and tells him this.

'I do not mind though he go,' said Cuchulainn.

Then their two troops join. They are there till night. Cuchulainn
kills thirty men of them with the sling. (Or they would be twenty
nights there, as some books say.)

'Your journeyings are bad,' said Fergus. 'The Ulstermen will come
to you out of their weakness, and they will grind you to earth and
gravel. "The corner of battle" in which we are is bad.'

He goes thence to Cul Airthir. It happened that Cuchulainn had gone
that night to speak to the Ulstermen [Note: In LL and Y BL this
incident occurs later, and the messenger is Sualtaim, not
Cuchulainn. LU is clearly wrong here.]

'Have you news?' said Conchobar.

'Women are captured,' said Cuchulainn, 'cattle are driven away, men
are slain.'

'Who carries them off? who drives them away? who kills them?'

'... Ailill Mac Matae carries them off, and Fergus Mac Roich
very bold ...' [Note: Rhetoric.]

'It is not great profit to you,' said Conchobar, 'to-day, our
smiting has come to us all the same.'

Cuchulainn goes thence from them; he saw the hosts going forth.

'Alas,' said Ailill, 'I see chariots' ..., etc [Note: Rhetoric,
five lines.]

Cuchulainn kills thirty men of them on Ath Duirn. They could not
reach Cul Airthir then till night. He slays thirty of them there,
and they pitch their tents there. Ailill's charioteer, Cuillius,
was washing the chariot tyres [Note: See previous note on the word
_fonnod_; the word used here is _fonnod_.] in the ford in the
morning; Cuchulainn struck him with a stone and killed him. Hence
is Ath Cuillne in Cul Airthir. They reach Druim Feine in Conaille
and spent the night there, as we have said before.

Cuchulainn attacked them there; he slays a hundred men of them
every night of the three nights that they were there; he took a
sling to them from Ochaine near them.

'Our host will be short-lived through Cuchulainn in this way,' said
Ailill. 'Let an agreement be carried from us to him: that he shall
have the equal of Mag Murthemne from Mag Ai, and the best chariot
that is in Ai, and the equipment of twelve men. Offer, if it
pleases him better, the plain in which he was brought up, and three
sevens of cumals [Note: The _cumal_ (bondmaid) was a standard of
value.]; and everything that has been destroyed of his household (?)
and cattle shall be made good, and he shall have full compensation (?),
and let him go into my service; it is better for him than the
service of a sub king.'


'Who shall go for that?'

'Mac Roth yonder.'

Mac Roth, the messenger of Ailill and Medb, went on that errand to
Delga: it is he who encircles Ireland in one day. It is there that
Fergus thought that Cuchulainn was, in Delga.

'I see a man coming towards us,' said Loeg to Cuchulainn. 'He has
a yellow head of hair, and a linen emblem round it; a club of
fury(?) in his hand, an ivory-hilted sword at his waist; a hooded
tunic with red ornamentation on him.'

'Which of the warriors of the king is that?' said Cuchulainn.

Mac Roth asked Loeg whose man he was.

'Vassal to the man down yonder,' said Loeg.

Cuchulainn was there in the snow up to his two thighs, without
anything at all on him, examining his shirt.

Then Mac Roth asked Cuchulainn whose man he was.

'Vassal of Conchobar Mac Nessa,' said Cuchulainn.

'Is there no clearer description?'

'That is enough,' said Cuchulainn.

'Where then is Cuchulainn?' said Mac Roth.

'What would you say to him?' said Cuchulainn.

Mac Roth tells him then all the message, as we have told it.

'Though Cuchulainn were near, he would not do this; he will not
barter the brother of his mother for another king.'

He came to him again, and it was said to Cuchulainn that there
should be given over to him the noblest of the women and the cows
that were without milk, on condition that he should not ply his
sling on them at night, even if he should kill them by day.

'I will not do it,' said Cuchulainn; 'if our slavewomen are taken
from us, our noble women will be at the querns; and we shall be
without milk if our milch-cows are taken from us.'

He came to him again, and he was told that he should have the
slave-women and the milch-cows.

'I will not do it,' said Cuchulainn; 'the Ulstermen will take their
slave-women to their beds, and there will be born to them a servile
offspring, and they will use their milch-cows for meat in the
winter.'

'Is there anything else then?' said the messenger.

'There is,' said Cuchulainn; 'and I will not tell it you. It shall
be agreed to, if any one tell it you.'

'I know it,' said Fergus; 'I know what the man tried to suggest;
and it is no advantage to you. And this is the agreement,' said
Fergus: 'that the ford on which takes place (?) his battle and
combat with one man, the cattle shall not be taken thence a day and
a night; if perchance there come to him the help of the Ulstermen.
And it is a marvel to me,' said Fergus, 'that it is so long till
they come out of their sufferings.'

'It is indeed easier for us,' said Ailill, 'a man every day than a
hundred every night.'


_The Death of Etarcomol_

Then Fergus went on this errand; Etarcomol, son of Edan [Note: Name
uncertain. YBL has Eda, LL Feda.] and Lethrinne, foster-son of
Ailill and Medb, followed.

'I do not want you to go,' said Fergus, 'and it is not for hatred
of you; but I do not like combat between you and Cuchulainn. Your
pride and insolence, and the fierceness and hatred, pride and
madness of the other, Cuchulainn: there will be no good from your
meeting.'

'Are you not able to protect me from him?' said Etarcomol.

'I can,' said Fergus, 'provided only that you do not treat his,
sayings with disrespect.'

They go thence in two chariots to Delga. Cuchulainn was then
playing chess [Note: _Buanfach_, like _fidchell_, is apparently a
game something like chess or draughts.] with Loeg; the back of his
head was towards them, and Loeg's face.

'I see two chariots coming towards us,' said Loeg; 'a great dark
man in the first chariot, with dark and bushy hair; a purple cloak
round him, and a golden pin therein; a hooded tunic with gold
embroidery on him; and a round shield with an engraved edge of
white metal, and a broad spear-head, with rings from point to
haft(?), in his hand. A sword as long as the rudder of a boat on
his two thighs.'

'It is empty, this great rudder that is brought by my friend
Fergus,' said Cuchulainn; 'for there is no sword in its sheath
except a sword of wood. It has been told to me,' said Cuchulainn;
'Ailill got a chance of them as they slept, he and Medb; and he
took away his sword from Fergus, and gave it to his charioteer to
take care of, and the sword of wood was put into its sheath.'

Then Fergus comes up.

'Welcome, O friend Fergus,' said Cuchulainn; 'if a fish comes
into the estuary, you shall have it with half of another; if a
flock comes into the plain, you shall have a duck with half of
another; a spray of cress or seaweed, a spray of marshwort; a drink
from the sand; you shall have a going to the ford to meet a man, if
it should happen to be your watch, till you have slept.'

'I believe it,' said Fergus; 'it is not your provision that we have
come for; we know your housekeeping here.'

Then Cuchulainn receives the message from Fergus; anti Fergus goes
away. Etarcomol remains looking at Cuchulainn.

'What are you looking at?' said Cuchulainn.

'You,' said Etarcomol.

'The eye soon compasses it indeed,' said Cuchulainn.

'That is what I see,' said Etarcomol. 'I do not know at all why you
should be feared by any one. I do not see terror or fearfulness, or
overwhelming of a host, in you; you are merely a fair youth with
arms of wood, and with fine feats.'

'Though you speak ill of me,' said Cuchulainn, 'I will not kill you
for the sake of Fergus. But for your protection, it would have been
your entrails drawn (?) and your quarters scattered, that would
have gone from me to the camp behind your chariot.'

'Threaten me not thus,' said Etarcomol. 'The wonderful agreement
that he has bound, that is, the single combat, it is I who will
first meet you of the men of Ireland to-morrow.'

Then he goes away. He turned back from Methe and Cethe and said to
his charioteer:

'I have boasted,' said he, 'before Fergus combat with Cuchulainn
to-morrow. It is not possible for us [Note: YBL reading.] to wait
for it; turn the horses back again from the hill.'

Loeg sees this and says to Cuchulainn: 'There is the chariot back
again, and it has put its left board [Note: An insult.] towards us.'

'It is not a "debt of refusal,"' said Cuchulainn. 'I do not wish,'
said Cuchulainn, 'what you demand of me.'

'This is obligatory to you,' said Etarcomol.

Cuchulainn strikes the sod under his feet, so that he fell
prostrate, and the sod behind him.

'Go from me,' said Cuchulainn. 'I am loath to cleanse my hands in
you. I would have divided you into many parts long since but for
Fergus.'


'We will not part thus,' said Etarcomol, 'till I have taken your
head, or left my head with you.'

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