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

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'I must,' said Ferbaeth. 'I have promised it'

'Take back (?) your bond of friendship then,' said Cuchulainn.

Cuchulainn went from him in anger. A spear of holly was driven into
Cuchulainn's foot in the glen, and appeared up by his knee. He
draws it out.

'Go not, O Ferbaeth, till you have seen the find that I have
found.'

'Throw it,' said Ferbaeth.

Cuchulainn threw the spear then after Ferbaeth so that it hit the
hollow of his poll, and came out at his mouth in front, so that he
fell back into the glen.

'That is a throw indeed,' said Ferbaeth. Hence is Focherd
Murthemne. (Or it is Fiacha who had said, 'Your throw is vigorous
to-day, O Cuchulainn,' said he; so that Focherd Murthemne is from
that.)

Ferbaeth died at once in the glen. Hence is Glenn Firbaith.
Something was heard: Fergus, who said:

'O Ferbaeth, foolish is thy expedition
In the place in which thy grave is.
Ruin reached thee ...
In Croen Corand.

'The hill is named Fithi (?) for ever;
Croenech in Murthemne,
From to-day Focherd will be the name
Of the place in which thou didst fall, O Ferbaeth.
O Ferbaeth,' etc.

'Your comrade has fallen,' said Fergus. 'Say will you pay for this
man on the morrow?'

'I will pay indeed,' said Cuchulainn.

Cuchulainn sends Loeg again for news, to know how they are in the
camp, and whether Ferbaeth lived. Lugaid said: 'Ferbaeth is dead,'
and Cuchulainn comes in turn to talk with them.


_The Combat of Larine Mac Nois_

'One of you to-morrow to go readily against the other,' said
Lugaid.

'He will not be found at all,' said Ailill, 'unless you practise
trickery therein. Any man who comes to you, give him wine, so that
his mind may be glad, and it shall be said to him that that is all
the wine that has been brought from Cruachan. It grieves us that
you should be on water in the camp. And Findabair shall be put at
his right hand, and it shall be said: "She shall come to you, if
you bring us the head of the Riastartha."'

A messenger used to be sent to every hero on his night, and that
used to be told to him; he continued to kill every man of them in.
turn. No one could be got by them to meet him at last. Larine Mac
Nois, brother to Lugaid, King of Munster, was summoned to them the
next day. Great was his pride. Wine is given to him, and Findabair
is put at his right hand.

Medb looked at the two. 'It pleases me, yonder pair,' said she; 'a
match between them would be fitting.'

'I will not stand in your way,' said Ailill; 'he shall have her if
he brings me the head of the Riastartha.'

'I will bring it,' said Larine.

Then Lugaid comes. 'What man have you for the ford to-morrow?' said
he.

'Larine goes,' said Ailill.

Then Lugaid comes to speak with Cuchulainn. They meet in Glenn
Firbaith. Each gives the other welcome.

'It is for this I have come to speak to you,' said Lugaid: 'there
is a churl here, a fool and proud,' said he, 'a brother of mine named
Larine; he is befooled about the same maiden. On your friendship
then, do not kill him, lest you should leave me without a brother.
For it is for this that he is being sent to you, so that we two
might quarrel. I should be content, however, that you should give
him a sound drubbing, for it is in my despite that he comes.'

Larine goes next day to meet Cuchulainn, and the maiden near him to
encourage him. Cuchulainn attacks him without arms. [Note: This is
apparently the sense, but the passage seems corrupt.] He takes
Larine's arms from him perforce. He takes him then between his two
hands, and grinds and shakes him, ... and threw him till he was
between Lugaid's two hands ...; nevertheless, he is the only man
who escaped [even] a bad escape from him, of all who met him on the
Tain.


_The Conversation of the Morrigan with Cuchulainn_

Cuchulainn saw a young woman coming towards him, with a dress of
every colour on, and her form very excellent.

'Who are you?' said Cuchulainn.

'Daughter of Buan the king,' said she. 'I have come to you; I have
loved you for your reputation, and I have brought my treasures and
my cattle with me.'

'The time at which you have come to us is not good. For our
condition is evil, through hunger. It is not easy to me to meet a
woman, while I am in this strife.'

'I will be a help to you. ... I shall be more troublesome to you,'
said she, 'when I come against you when you are in combat against
the men. I will come in the form of an eel about your feet in the
ford, so that you shall fall.'

'I think that likelier than the daughter of a king. I will take
you,' said he, 'between my toes, till your ribs are broken, and you
will be in this condition till a doom of blessing comes (?) on
you.'

'I will drive the cattle on the ford to you, in the form of a grey
she-wolf.'

'I will throw a stone at you from my sling, so that it shall break
your eye in your head; and you will be in that state till a doom of
blessing comes on you.'

'I will come to you in the form of a hornless red heifer before the
cattle. They will rush on you on the plains(?), and on the fords,
and on the pools, and you will not see me before you.'

'I will throw a stone at you,' said he, 'so that your leg shall
break under you, and you will be in this state till a doom of
blessing comes on you.'

Therewith she goes from him.

So he was a week on Ath Grencha, and a man used to fall every day
by him in Ath Grencha, i.e. in Ath Darteisc.


_The Death of Loch Mac Emonis_

Then Loch Mac Emonis was asked like the others, and there was
promised to him a piece of the arable land of Mag Ai equal in size
to Mag Murthemne, and the equipment of twelve warriors and a
chariot worth seven cumals [Note: A measure of value.]; and he did
not think combat with a youth worthy. He had a brother, Long Mac
Emonis himself. The same price was given to him, both maiden and
raiment and chariots and land. He goes to meet Cuchulainn.
Cuchulainn slays him, and he was brought dead before his brother,
Loch.

This latter said that if he only knew that it was a bearded man who
slew him, he would kill him for it.

'Take a battle-force to him,' said Medb to her household, 'across
the ford from the west, that you may go-across; and let fair-play
be broken on him.'

Then the seven Manes, warriors, go first, so that they saw him on
the edge of the ford westward. He puts his feast-dress on that day.
It is then that the women kept climbing on the men to look at him.

'I am sorry,' said Medb; 'I cannot see the boy about whom they go
there.'

'Your mind will not be the gladder for it,' said Lethrend, Ailill's
squire, 'if you could see him.'

He comes to the ford then as he was.

'What man is it yonder, O Fergus?' said Medb.

'A boy who wards off,' etc. ... 'if it is Culann's Hound.' [Note:
Rhetoric, four lines.]

Medb climbed on the men then to look at him.

It is then that the women said to Cuchulainn 'that he was laughed
at in the camp because he had no beard, and no good warriors would
go against him, only wild men; it were easier to make a false
beard.' So this is what he did, in order to seek combat with a man;
i.e. with Loch. Cuchulainn took a handful of grass, and said a
spell over it, so that every one thought he had a beard.

'True,' said the troop of women, 'Cuchulainn has a beard. It is
fitting for a warrior to fight with him.'

They had done this on urging Loch.

'I will not make combat against him till the end of seven days
from to-day,' said Loch.

'It is not fitting for us to have no attack on the man for this
space,' said Medb. 'Let us put a hero to hunt(?) him every night,
if perchance we may get a chance at him.'

This is done then. A hero used to come every night to hunt him, and
he used to kill them all. These are the names of the men who fell
there: seven Conalls, seven Oenguses, seven Uarguses, seven
Celtris, eight Fiacs, ten Ailills, ten Delbaths, ten Tasachs. These
are his deeds of this week in Ath Grencha.



Medb asked advice, to know what she should do to Cuchulainn, for
what had been killed of their hosts by him distressed her greatly.
This is the plan she arrived at, to put brave, high-spirited men to
attack him all at once when he should come to an appointed meeting
to speak with Medb. For she had an appointment the next day with
Cuchulainn to make a peace in fraud with him, to get hold of him.
She sent messengers forth to seek him that he should come to meet
her; and it was thus he should come, and he unarmed: 'for she would
come only with her troop of women to meet him.'

The messenger, Traigtren, went to the place where Cuchulainn was,
and tells him Medb's message. Cuchulainn promised that he would do
so.

'In what manner does it please you to go to meet Medb to-morrow, O
Cuchulainn?' said Loeg.

'As Medb has asked me,' said Cuchulainn.

'Great are Medb's deeds,' said the charioteer; 'I fear a hand
behind the back with her.'

'How is it to be done then?' said he.

'Your sword at your waist,' said the charioteer, 'that you may not
be taken at an unfair advantage. For the warrior is not entitled to
his honour-price if he is without arms; and it is the coward's law
that he deserves in that way.'

'Let it be done so then,' said Cuchulainn.

The meeting-place was in Ard Aignech, which is called Fochaird
to-day. Now Medb came to the meeting-place and set in ambush
fourteen men of her own special following, of those who were of
most prowess, ready for him. These are they: two Glassines, the two
sons of Bucchridi; two Ardans, the two sons of Licce; two
Glasogmas, the two sons of Crund; Drucht and Delt and Dathen; Tea
and Tascra and Tualang; Taur and Glese.

Then Cuchulainn comes to meet her. The men rise to attack him.
Fourteen spears are thrown at him at once. Cuchulainn guards
himself so that his skin or his ---- (?) is not touched. Then he
turns on them and kills them, the fourteen of them. So that they
are the fourteen men of Focherd, and they are the men of Cronech,
for it is in Cronech at Focherd that they were killed. Hence
Cuchulainn said: 'Good is my feat of heroism,' [Note: _Fo_, 'good';
_cherd_, 'feat.' Twelve lines of rhetoric.] etc.

So it is from this that the name Focherd stuck to the place; that
is, _focherd_, i.e. 'good is the feat of arms' that happened to
Cuchulainn there.

So Cuchulainn came, and overtook them taking camp, and there were
slain two Daigris and two Anlis and four Dungais of Imlech. Then
Medb began to urge Loch there.

'Great is the mockery of you,' said she, 'for the man who has
killed your brother to be destroying our host, and you do not go to
battle with him! For we deem it certain that the wild man, great
and fierce [Note: Literally, 'sharpened.'], the like of him yonder,
will not be able to withstand the rage and fury of a hero like you.
For it is by one foster-mother and instructress that an art was
built up for you both.'

Then Loch came against Cuchulainn, to avenge his brother on him,
for it was shown to him that Cuchulainn had a beard.

'Come to the upper ford,' said Loch; 'it would not be in the
polluted ford that we shall meet, where Long fell.'

When he came then to seek the ford, the men drove the cattle
across.

'It will be across your water [Note: Irish, _tarteisc_.] here
to-day,' said Gabran the poet. Hence is Ath Darteisc, and Tir Mor
Darteisc from that time on this place.

When the men met then on the ford, and when they began to fight and
to strike each other there, and when each of them began to strike
the other, the eel threw three folds round Cuchulainn's feet, till
he lay on his back athwart the ford. Loch attacked him with the
sword, till the ford was blood-red with his blood.

'Ill indeed,' said Fergus, 'is this deed before the enemy. Let each
of you taunt the man, O men,' said he to his following, 'that he
may not fall for nothing.'

Bricriu Poison-tongue Mac Carbatha rose and began inciting
Cuchulainn.

'Your strength is gone,' said he, 'when it is a little salmon that
overthrows you when the Ulstermen are at hand [coming] to you out
of their sickness yonder. Grievous for you to undertake a hero's
deed in the presence of the men of Ireland and to ward off a
formidable warrior in arms thus!'

Therewith Cuchulainn arises and strikes the eel so that its ribs
broke in it, and the cattle were driven over the hosts eastwards
by force, so that they took the tents on their horns, with the
thunder-feat that the two heroes had made in the ford.

The she-wolf attacked him, and drove the cattle on him westwards.
He throws a stone from his sling, so that her eye broke in her
head. She goes in the form of a hornless red heifer; she rushes
before the cows upon the pools and fords. It is then he said: 'I
cannot see the fords for water.' He throws a stone at the hornless
red heifer, so that her leg breaks under her. Then he sang a song:

'I am all alone before flocks;
I get them not, I let them not go;
I am alone at cold hours (?)
Before many peoples.

'Let some one say to Conchobar
Though he should come to me it were not too soon;
Magu's sons have carried off their kine
And divided them among them.

'There may be strife about one head
Only that one tree blazes not;
If there were two or three
Their brands would blaze. [Note: Meaning not clear.]

'The men have almost worn me out
By reason of the number of single combats;
I cannot work the slaughter (?) of glorious warriors
As I am all alone.
I am all alone.'

***

It is there then that Cuchulainn did to the Morrigan the three
things that he had promised her in the _Tain Bo Regamna_ [Note:
One of the introductory stories to the _Tain Bo Cuailnge_, printed
with translation in _Irische Texte_, 2nd series.]; and he fights
Loch in the ford with the gae-bolga, which the charioteer threw him
along the stream. He attacked him with it, so that it went into his
body's armour, for Loch had a horn-skin in fighting with a man.

'Give way to me,' said Loch. Cuchulainn gave way, so that it was on
the other side that Loch fell. Hence is Ath Traiged in Tir Mor.
Cuchulainn cut off his head then.

Then fair-play was broken with him that day when five men came
against him at one time; i.e. two Cruaids, two Calads, Derothor;
Cuchulainn killed them by himself. Hence is Coicsius Focherda, and
Coicer Oengoirt; or it is fifteen days that Cuchulainn was in
Focherd, and hence is Coicsius Focherda in the Foray.

Cuchulainn hurled at them from Delga, so that not a living thing,
man or beast, could put its head past him southwards between Delga
and the sea.


_The Healing of the Morrigan_

When Cuchulainn was in this great weariness, the Morrigan met him
in the form of an old hag, and she blind and lame, milking a cow
with three teats, and he asked her for a drink. She gave him milk
from a teat.

'He will be whole who has brought it(?),' said Cuchulainn; 'the
blessings of gods and non-gods on you,' said he. (Gods with them
were the Mighty Folk [Note: i.e. the dwellers in the Sid. The words
in brackets are a gloss incorporated in the text.]; non-gods the
people of husbandry.)

Then her head was healed so that it was whole.

She gave the milk of the second teat, and her eye was whole; and
gave the milk of the third teat, and her leg was whole. So that
this was what he said about each thing of them, 'A doom of blessing
on you,' said he.

'You told me,' said the Morrigan, 'I should not have healing from
you for ever.'

'If I had known it was you,' said Cuchulainn, 'I would not have
healed you ever.'

So that formerly Cuchulainn's throng (?) on Tarthesc was the name
of this story in the Foray.

It is there that Fergus claimed of his securities that faith should
not be broken with Cuchulainn; and it is there that Cuchulainn ...
[Note: Corrupt; one and a half lines.] i.e. Delga Murthemne at that
time.

Then Cuchulainn killed Fota in his field; Bomailce on his ford;
Salach in his village (?); Muine in his hill; Luair in Leth-bera;
Fer-Toithle in Toithle; these are the names of these lands for
ever, every place in which each man of them fell. Cuchulainn killed
also Traig and Dornu and Dernu, Col and Mebul and Eraise on this
side of Ath Tire Moir, at Methe and Cethe: these were three [Note:
MS. 'two.'] druids and their three wives.

Then Medb sent a hundred men of her special retinue to kill
Cuchulainn. . He killed them all on Ath Ceit-Chule. Then Medb said:
'It is _cuillend_ [Note: Interlinear gloss: 'We deem it a crime.']
to us, the slaying of our people.' Hence is Glass Chrau and
Cuillend Cind Duin and Ath Ceit-Chule.

Then the four provinces of Ireland took camp and fortified post in
the Breslech Mor in Mag Murthemne, and send part of their cattle
and booty beyond them to the south into Clithar Bo Ulad. Cuchulainn
took his post at the mound in Lerga near them, and his charioteer
Loeg Mac Riangabra kindled a fire for him on the evening of that
night. He saw the fiery sheen of the bright golden arms over the
heads of the four provinces of Ireland at the setting of the clouds
of evening. Fury and great rage came over him at sight of the host,
at the multitude of his enemies, the abundance of his foes. He took
his two spears and his shield and his sword; he shook his shield
and brandished his spears and waved his sword; and he uttered his
hero's shout from his throat, so that goblins and sprites and
spectres of the glen and demons of the air answered, for the terror
of the shout which they uttered on high. So that the Nemain
produced confusion on the host. The four provinces of Ireland came
into a tumult of weapons about the points of their own spears and
weapons, so that a hundred warriors of them died of terror and of
heart-burst in the middle of the camp and of the position that
night.

When Loeg was there, he saw something: a single man who came
straight across the camp of the men of Ireland from the north-east
straight towards him.

'A single man is coming to us now, O Little Hound!' said Loeg.

'What kind of man is there?' said Cuchulainn.

'An easy question: a man fair and tall is he, with hair cut broad,
waving yellow hair; a green mantle folded round him; a brooch of
white silver in the mantle on his breast; a tunic of royal silk,
with red ornamentation of red gold against the white skin, to his
knees. A black shield with a hard boss of white metal; a five
pointed spear in his hand; a forked (?) javelin beside it.
Wonderful is the play and sport and exercise that he makes; but no
one attacks him, and he attacks no one, as if no one saw him.'

'It is true, O fosterling,' said he; 'which of my friends from the
_sid_ is that who comes to have pity on me, because they know the
sore distress in which I am, alone against the four great provinces
of Ireland, on the Cattle-Foray of Cualnge at this time?'

That was true for Cuchulainn. When the warrior had reached the
place where Cuchulainn was, he spoke to him, and had pity on him
for it.

'This is manly, O Cuchulainn,' said he.

'It is not much at all,' said Cuchulainn.

'I will help you,' said the man.


'Who are you at all?' said Cuchulainn.

'It is I, your father from the _sid_, Lug Mac Ethlend.'

'My wounds are heavy, it were high time that I should be healed.'

'Sleep a little, O Cuchulainn,' said the warrior; 'your heavy
swoon (?) [Note: Conjectural--MS. _tromthortim_.] of sleep at the
mound of Lerga till the end of three days and three nights, and I
will fight against the hosts for that space.'

Then he sings the _ferdord_ to him, and he sleeps from it. Lug
looked at each wound that it was clean. Then Lug said:

'Arise, O great son of the Ulstermen, whole of thy wounds. ... Go
into thy chariot secure. Arise, arise!' [Note: Rhetoric.]

For three days and three nights Cuchulainn was asleep. It were
right indeed though his sleep equalled his weariness. From the
Monday after the end of summer exactly to the Wednesday after
Candlemas, for this space Cuchulainn had not slept, except when he
slept a little while against his spear after midday, with his head
on his clenched fist, and his clenched fist on his spear, and his
spear on his knee; but he was striking and cutting and attacking
and slaying the four great provinces of Ireland for that space.

It is then that the warrior of the sid cast herbs and grasses of
curing and charms of healing into the hurts and wounds and into
the injuries and into the many wounds of Cuchulainn, so that
Cuchulainn recovered in his sleep without his perceiving it at all.


Now it was at this time that the boys came south from Emain Macha:
Folloman Mac Conchobair with three fifties of kings' sons of
Ulster, and they gave battle thrice to the hosts, so that three
times their own number fell, and all the boys fell except Folloman
Mac Conchobair. Folloman boasted that he would not go back to Emain
for ever and ever, until he should take the head of Ailill with
him, with the golden crown that was above it. This was not easy to
him; for the two sons of Bethe Mac Bain, the two sons of Ailill's
foster-mother and foster-father, came on him, and wounded him so
that he fell by them. So that that is the death of the boys of
Ulster and of Folloman Mac Conchobair.

Cuchulainn for his part was in his deep sleep till the end of three
days and three nights at the mound in Lerga. Cuchulainn arose then
from his sleep, and put his hand over his face, and made a purple
wheelbeam from head to foot, and his mind was strong in him, and he
would have gone to an assembly, or a march, or a tryst, or a
beer-house, or to one of the chief assemblies of Ireland.

'How long have I been in this sleep now, O warrior?' said
Cuchulainn.

'Three days and three nights,' said the warrior.

'Alas for that!' said Cuchulainn.

'What is the matter?' said the warrior.

'The hosts without attack for this space,' said Cuchulainn.

'They are not that at all indeed,' said the warrior.

'Who has come upon them?' said Cuchulainn.

'The boys came from the north from Emain Macha; Folloman Mac
Conchobair with three fifties of boys of the kings' sons of Ulster;
and they gave three battles to the hosts for the space of the three
days and the three nights in which you have been in your sleep now.
And three times their own number fell, and the boys fell, except
Folloman Mac Conchobair. Folloman boasted that he would take
Ailill's head, and that was not easy to him, for he was killed.'

'Pity for that, that I was not in my strength! For if I had been in
my strength, the boys would not have fallen as they have fallen,
and Folloman Mac Conchobair would not have fallen.'

'Strive further, O Little Hound, it is no reproach to thy honour
and no disgrace to thy valour.'

'Stay here for us to-night, O warrior,' said Cuchulainn, 'that we
may together avenge the boys on the hosts.'

'I will not stay indeed,' said the warrior, 'for however great the
contests of valour and deeds of arms any one does near thee, it is
not on him there will be the renown of it or the fame or the
reputation, but it is on thee; therefore I will not stay. But ply
thy deed of arms thyself alone on the hosts, for not with them is
there power over thy life this time.'

'The scythe-chariot, O my friend Loeg!' said Cuchulainn; 'can you
yoke it? and is its equipment here? If you can yoke it, and if you
have its equipment, yoke it; and if you have not its equipment, do
not yoke it at all.'

It is then that the charioteer arose, and he put on his hero's
dress of charioteering. This was his hero's dress of charioteering
that he put on: his soft tunic of skin, light and airy,
well-turned [Note: Lit. 'kneaded.'], made of skin, sewn, of
deer-skin, so that it did not restrain the movement of his hands
outside. He put on his black (?) upper-cloak over it outside: Simon
Magus had made it for Darius, King of the Romans, so that Darius
gave it to Conchobar, and Conchobar gave it to Cuchulainn, and
Cuchulainn gave it to his charioteer. The charioteer took first
then his helm, ridged, like a board (?), four-cornered, with much
of every colour and every form, over the middle of his shoulders.
This was well-measured (?) to him, and it was not an overweight.
His hand brought the circlet of red-yellow, as though it were a
plate of red-gold, of refined gold smelted over the edge of an
anvil, to his brow, as a sign of his charioteering, in distinction
to his master.

He took the goads (?) of his horses, and his whip (?) inlaid in his
right hand. He took the reins to hold back his horses in his left
hand. [Note: Gloss incorporated in text: 'i. e. to direct his
horses, in his left hand, for the great power of his charioteering.']
Then he put the iron inlaid breastplates on the horses, so that
they were covered from forehead to forefoot with spears and points
and lances and hard points, so that every motion in this chariot
was spear-near, so that every corner and every point and every
end and every front of this chariot was a way of tearing. It is
then that he cast a spell of covering over his horses and over
his companion, so that he was not visible to any one in the
camp, and so that every one in the camp was visible to them.
It was proper that he should cast this, because there were the
three gifts of charioteering on the charioteer that day, the
leap over ----, and the straight ----, and the ----.

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