The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge. Anonymous

have kept here in reserve

      Heroes fit for fight and spoil;

      Thirty hundred hostage-chiefs,

      Leinster's bravest champions they.

      Fighting men from Cruachan fair,

      Braves from clear-streamed Luachair,

      Four full realms of goodly Gaels

      Will defend me from this man!"

      Fergus:

      "Rich in troops from Mourne and Bann,

      Blood he'll draw o'er shafts of spears;

      He will cast to mire and sand

      These three thousand Leinstermen.

      With the swallow's swiftest speed,

      With the rush of biting wind,

      So bounds on my dear brave Hound,

      Breathing slaughter on his foes!"

      Medb:

      "Fergus, should he come 'tween us,

      To Cuchulain bear this word:

      He were prudent to stay still;

      Cruachan holds a check in store."

      Fergus:

      "Valiant will the slaughter be

      Badb's wild daughter^c gloats upon.

      For the Blacksmith's Hound will spill

      Showers of blood on hosts of men!"

      W. 540. After this lay the men of the four grand provinces of Erin marched ¹on the morrow¹ over Moin Coltna ('the Marsh of Coltain') eastwards that day; and there met them eight score deer ²in a single herd.² The troops spread out and surrounded and killed them so that none of them escaped.

      But there is one event to add: Although the division of the Galian had been dispersed ³among the men of Erin,^{3 4}wherever there was a man of the Galian, it was he that got them, except⁴ five deer only which was the men of Erin's share thereof, so that one division took all the eight score deer.

      ⁵Then they proceed to Mag Trega and they unyoke there and prepare their food. It is said that it is there that Dubthach recited this stave:—

      "Grant ye have not heard till now,

      Giving ear to Dubthach's fray:

      Dire-black war upon ye waits,

      'Gainst the Whitehorned of Queen Medb!^a

      "There will come the chief of hosts,^b

      War for Murthemne to wage.

      Ravens shall drink garden's milk,^c

      This the fruit of swineherds' strife (?)^d

      "Turfy Cron will hold them back,

      Keep them back from Murthemne,⁵

      ⁹Till the warriors' work is done

      On Ochainè's northern mount!

      "'Quick,' to Cormac, Ailill cries;

      'Go and seek ye out your son,

      Loose no cattle from the fields,

      Lest the din of the host reach them!'

      "Battle they'll have here eftsoon,

      Medb and one third of the host.

      Corpses will be scattered wide

      If the Wildman^a come to you!"

      Then Nemain, ¹the 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

      W. 547. It was on that same day, ³after the coming of the warning from Fergus^{3 4}to the Ulstermen,⁴ that Cuchulain son of Sualtaim, ⁵and Sualtaim⁵ Sidech ('of the Fairy Mound'), his father, ⁶when they had received the warning from Fergus,⁶ came so near ⁷on their watch for the host⁷ that their horses grazed in pasture round the pillar-stone on Ard Cuillenn ('the Height of Cuillenn'). Sualtaim's horses cropped the grass north of the pillar-stone close to the ground; Cuchulain's cropped the grass 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 ⁸to-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') ¹Conchobar's daughter,¹ according to my own agreement, till morning." "Alas, that one should go ²on 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."

      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.

      Touching the men of Erin, the account follows here: They came up to the pillar-stone at Ard Cuillenn, ³which 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 ⁴that they might save the brooches and cushions and cloaks of the host, so that the dust of the multitude might not soil them⁴ 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.

      The nobles 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.