The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Tain Bo Cualnge Part 8

[b] That is, Cuchulain.

[c] A kenning for 'blood.'

[d] Referring to the two bulls, the Brown and the Whitehorned, which were the re-incarnations through seven intermediate stages of two divine swineherds of the G.o.ds of the under-world. The story is told in _Irische Texte_, iii, i, pp. 230-275.

[5-5] LU. 198-205.

[a] Literally, 'the Contorted one'; that is, Cuchulain.

Then Nemain, [1]the Badb to wit,[1] attacked them, and that was not the quietest of nights they had, with the noise of the churl, namely Dubthach, in their[b] sleep. Such fears he scattered amongst the host straightway, and he hurled a great stone at the throng till Medb came to check him. They continued their march then till they slept a night in Granard Tethba in the north,[9] [2]after the host had made a circuitous way across sloughs and streams.[2]

[1-1] Gloss in YBL. 211.

[b] 'his' Eg. 1782.

[9-9] YBL. and LU. 206-215. With this pa.s.sage YBL. begins, fo. 17a.

[2-2] LU. 215.

[W.547.] It was on that same day, [3]after the coming of the warning from Fergus[3] [4]to the Ulstermen,[4] that Cuchulain son of Sualtaim, [5]and Sualtaim[5] Sidech ('of the Fairy Mound'), his father, [6]when they had received the warning from Fergus,[6] came so near [7]on their watch for the host[7] that their horses grazed in pasture round the pillar-stone on Ard Cuillenn ('the Height of Cuillenn'). Sualtaim's horses cropped the gra.s.s north of the pillar-stone close to the ground; Cuchulain's cropped the gra.s.s south of the pillar-stone even to the ground and the bare stones.

"Well, O master Sualtaim," said Cuchulain; "the thought of the host is fixed sharp upon me [8]to-night,[8] so do thou depart for us with warnings to the men of Ulster, that they remain not in the smooth plains but that they betake themselves to the woods and wastes and steep glens of the province, if so they may keep out of the way of the men of Erin." "And thou, lad, what wilt thou do?" "I must go southwards to Temair to keep tryst with the [W.556.] maid[a] of Fedlimid Nocruthach ('of the Nine Forms') [1]Conchobar's daughter,[1] according to my own agreement, till morning." "Alas, that one should go [2]on such a journey,"[2] said Sualtaim, "and leave the Ulstermen under the feet of their foes and their enemies for the sake of a tryst with a woman!" "For all that, I needs must go. For, an I go not, the troth of men will be held for false and the promises of women held for true."

[3-3] LU. 218

[4-4] Eg. 1782.

[5-5] _Sualtach_, in LL.

[6-6] Eg. 1782.

[7-7] Eg. 1782.

[8-8] LU. and YBL. 220.

[a] "Who was secretly as a concubine with Cuchulain"; gloss in LU. and YBL. 222 and Eg. 1782.

[1-1] Eg. 1782.

[2-2] Stowe and Add.

Sualtaim departed with warnings to the men of Ulster. Cuchulain strode into the wood, and there, with a single blow, he lopped the prime sapling of an oak, root and top, and with only one foot and one hand and one eye he exerted himself; and he made a twig-ring thereof and set an ogam[b] script on the plug of the ring, and set the ring round the narrow part of the pillar-stone on Ard ('the Height') of Cuillenn. He forced the ring till it reached the thick of the pillar-stone. Thereafter Cuchulain went his way to his tryst with the woman.

[b] The old kind of writing of the Irish.

Touching the men of Erin, the account follows here: They came up to the pillar-stone at Ard Cuillenn, [3]which is called Crossa Coil to-day,[3] and they began looking out upon the province that was unknown to them, the province of Ulster. And two of Medb's people went always before them in the van of the host, at every camp and on every march, at every ford and every river [LL.fo.58b.] and every gap. They were wont to do so [4]that they might save the brooches and cushions and cloaks of the host, so that the dust of the mult.i.tude might not soil them[4] and that no stain might come on the princes' raiment in the crowd or the crush of the hosts or the throng;--these were the two sons of Nera, who was the son of Nuathar, [W.575.] son of Tacan, two sons of the house-stewards of Cruachan, Err and Innell, to wit. Fraech and Fochnam were the names of their charioteers.

[3-3] Eg. 1782.

[4-4] LU. and YBL. 245-246.

The n.o.bles of Erin arrived at the pillar-stone and they there beheld the signs of the browsing of the horses, cropping around the pillar, and they looked close at the rude hoop which the royal hero had left behind about the pillar-stone. [1]Then sat they down to wait till the army should come, the while their musicians played to them.[1] And Ailill took the withy in his hand and placed it in Fergus' hand, and Fergus read the ogam script graven on the plug of the withy, and made known to the men of Erin what was the meaning of the ogam writing that was on it. [2]When Medb came, she asked, "Why wait ye here?" "Because of yonder withy we wait," Fergus made answer; "there is an ogam writing on its binding and this is what it saith: 'Let no one go past here till a man be found to throw a withy like unto this, using only one hand and made of a single branch, and I except my master Fergus.' Truly," Fergus added, "it was Cuchulain threw it, and it was his steeds that grazed this plain." And he placed the hoop in the hands of the druids,[2] and it is thus he began to recite and he p.r.o.nounced a lay:--

"What bespeaks this withe to us, What purports its secret rede?

And what number cast it here, Was it one man or a host?

"If ye go past here this night, And bide not [3]one night[3] in camp.

On ye'll come the tear-flesh Hound; Yours the blame, if ye it scorn!

"[4]Evil on the host he'll bring,[4]

If ye go your way past this.

[W.596.] Find, ye druids, find out here, For what cause this withe was made!"

[1]A druid speaks[1]:

"Cut by hero, cast by chief, As a perfect trap for foes.

Stayer of lords--with hosts of men-- One man cast it with one hand!

"With fierce rage the battle 'gins Of the Smith's Hound of Red Branch.[a]

Bound to meet this madman's rage; This the name that's on the withe!

[2]"Would the king's host have its will-- Else they break the law of war-- Let some one man of ye cast, As one man this withe did cast![2]

"Woes to bring with hundred fights On four realms of Erin's land; Naught I know 'less it be this For what cause the withe was made!"

[1-1] LU. and YBL. 250.

[2-2] LU. and YBL. 252-258.

[3-3] Reading with Stowe, Add. and H. 1. 13.

[4-4] Reading with LU. and YBL. 261.

[1-1] LU., marginal note.

[a] The name of the festal hall of the kings of Ulster.

[2-2] Eg. 1782.

After that lay: "I pledge you my word," said Fergus, "if so ye set at naught yon withy and the royal hero that made it, [3]and if ye go beyond[3]

without pa.s.sing a night's camp and quarterage here, or until a man of you make a withy of like kind, using but one foot and one eye and one hand, even as he made it, [4]certain it is, whether ye be[4] under the ground or in a tight-shut house, [5]the man that wrote the ogam hereon[5] will bring slaughter and bloodshed upon ye before the hour of rising on the morrow, if ye make light of him!" "That, surely, would not be pleasing to us," quoth Medb, "that any one should [6]straightway[6] spill our blood or besmirch us red, now that we are come to this unknown province, even to the province of Ulster. More pleasing would it be to us, to spill another's blood and redden him." "Far be it from us to set this [W.618.] withy at naught," said Ailill, "nor shall we make little of the royal hero that wrought it, rather will we resort to the shelter of this great wood, [1]that is, Fidduin, ('the Wood of the Dun')[1] southwards till morning. There will we pitch our camp and quarters."

[3-3] LU. 270.

[4-4] Reading with Stowe.

[5-5] LU. 271.

[6-6] LU. and YBL. 273.