The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge 24 – Dunn · Verses Across
Literature · Historical Fiction
The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge 24Here Followeth the Tooth-Fight of Fintan
18
Literature · Historical Fiction
The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge 24
Here Followeth the Tooth-Fight of Fintan
DunnEnglish
[W.4502.] Fintan, himself the son of Niall Niamglonnach ('of the brilliant Exploits') from Dun da Benn in the north, was father of Cethern son of Fintan. And he came to save the honour of Ulster and to avenge his son upon the hosts. Thrice fifty with many pointed weapons was his number. And thus it was they came, and two spear-heads on each shaft with them, a spear-head on the top and a spear-head at the butt, so that it made no difference whether they wounded the hosts with the points or with the butts. They offered three[a] battles to the hosts. And thrice their own number fell at their hands, and there fell also the people [LL.fo.91b.] of Fintan son of Niall, all excepting Fintan's son Crimthann alone, so that there did not escape any of his people excepting himself and his son. This one was saved under a canopy of shields by Ailill and Medb. And the son was separated from him, his father Fintan, and was saved by Ailill out of fear of Fintan and in order that Fintan might not wreak his fury on them till he should come with Conchobar to the battle. Then said the men of Erin, it would be no disgrace for Fintan son of Niall to withdraw from the camp and quarters, and that they would give up Crimthann son of Fintan to him, and then the hosts would fall back a day's march to the north again; and that he [W.4515.] should cease from his deeds of arms against the hosts till he would come to encounter them on the day of the great battle at the place where the four grand provinces of Erin would clash at Garech and Ilgarech in the battle of the Cattle-reaving of Cualnge, as was foretold by the druids of the men of Erin. Fintan son of Niall consented to that, and they gave over his son to him. He made friendship with them then when his son had been restored to him. He withdrew from the camp and station, and the hosts marched a day's journey back to the north again, to stop and cease their advance. Thereafter Fintan went to his own land. In this manner they found each man of the people of Fintan son of Niall and each man of the men of Erin, with the lips and the nose and the ear of each of them in the teeth and tusks of the other after they had used up their arms. The men of Erin gave thought to that: "This is a tooth-fight for us," said they; "the tooth-fight of Fintan's people and of Fintan himself." So this is the 'Tooth-fight' of Fintan.
[1-1] Stowe.
[2-2] YBL. 42b, 36.
[a] 'Seven,' YBL. 42b, 38.
[3-3] YBL. 42b, 38-39.
[4-4] YBL. 42b, 39-43.
[1-1] YBL. 42b, 43-44.
[2-2] Stowe.
[3-3] Stowe.
[4-4] Stowe.
XXIIIa
THE RED-SHAME OF MENN FOLLOWETH HERE
[W.4529.] It was then came to them great Menn son of Salcholga, he from Renna ('the Waterways') of the Boyne in the north. Twelve[a] men with many-pointed weapons, that was his number. It was thus they came, and two spear-heads on each shaft with them, a spear-head on the top and a spear-head at the butt, so that it made no difference whether they wounded the hosts with the points or with the butts. They offered three attacks upon the hosts. Three times their own number fell at their hands and there fell twelve men of the people of Menn, so that there remained alive of them but Menn alone. But Menn himself was sorely wounded in the strait, so that blood ran crimson on him and his followers too were crimsoned. Then said the men of Erin: "Red is this shame," said they, "for Menn son of Salcholga, that his people, twelve men, should be slain and destroyed and he himself wounded till blood ran crimson red upon him." Hence here is the 'Reddening Shame of Menn,' the name of this tale on the Spoil of the Kine of Cualnge.
[1-1] Stowe.
[2-2] YBL. 42b, 45.
[3-3] Stowe.
[a] 'Thirty,' YBL. 42b, 45.
[4-4] YBL. 42b, 46.
[5-5] Stowe.
[6-6] Stowe.
[7-7] YBL. 42b, 49.
[8-8] Stowe.
[9-9] Stowe.
Then said the men of Erin, it would be no dishonour for Menn son of Salcholga to leave the camp and quarters, and that the hosts would go a day's journey back to the [W.4542.] north again, and that Menn should cease his weapon-feats[a] on the hosts till Conchobar arose out of his 'Pains' and battle would be offered them at Garech and Ilgarech on the day of the great battle when the men of Erin and of Ulster would meet together in combat in the great battle of the Cualnge Cow-spoil, as the druids and soothsayers and the knowers of the men of Erin had foretold it.
[a] Following Windisch's emendation of the text.
[1-1] Stowe.
Menn son of Salcholga agreed to that, to leave the camp and halting-place. And the hosts fell back a day's march for to rest and wait, and Menn went his way to his own land.
[2-2] Stowe.
XXIIIb
HERE FOLLOWETH THE ACCOUTREMENT OF THE CHARIOTEERS
[W.4551.] Then came the charioteers of the Ulstermen to them. Thrice fifty was their number. They offered three battles to the hosts. Thrice their number fell at their hands, and the charioteers themselves fell on the field whereon they stood. Hence this here is the 'Accoutrement of the Charioteers.' It is for this cause it is called the 'Accoutrement of the Charioteers,' because it is with rocks and with boulders and with clumps of earth they accomplished the defeat of the men of Erin.
[1-1] Stowe.
XXIIIc
[LL. fo. 92a.] THE WHITE-FIGHT OF ROCHAD NOW FOLLOWETH
[W.4556.] Cuchulain despatched his charioteer to Rochad Rigderg ('Red-king') son of Fathemon, from Rigdorn in the north, that he should come to his aid. He was of Ulster. The gilla comes up to Rochad and tells him, if he has come out of his weakness, to go to the help of Cuchulain, that they should employ a ruse to reach the host to seize some of them and slay them. Rochad set out from the north. Thrice fifty[a] warriors was his number, and he took possession of a hill fronting the hosts. "Scan the plain for us to-day," said Ailill. "I see a company crossing the plain," the watchman answered, "and a tender youth comes in their midst; the other warriors reach but up to his shoulder." "Who is that warrior, O Fergus?" asked Ailill. "Rochad son of Fathemon," he answered; "and it is to bring help to Cuchulain he comes. I know what ye had best do with him," Fergus continued. "Let a hundred warriors go from ye with the maiden yonder to the middle of the plain and let the maid go before them, and let a horseman go tell Rochad to come alone to hold converse with the maid and let hands be laid on him, and thus shall be removed all fear of his people from us. Finnabair, [W.4558.] daughter of Ailill and Medb, perceived that and she went to speak to her mother thereof, even to Medb. Now it happened that Finnabair loved Rochad. It is he was the fairest young warrior in Ulster at that time. And Finnabair disclosed her secret and her love[a] to her mother. "Truly have I loved yonder warrior for a long time," said she; "and it is he is my sweetheart, my first love and mine own choice one in wooing of the men of Erin." "An thou hast so loved him, daughter," quoth Ailill and Medb, "sleep with him this night and crave for us a truce of him for the hosts, until with Conchobar he encounters us on the day of the great battle when four of the grand provinces of Erin will meet at Garech and Ilgarech in the battle of the Foray of Cualnge."
[1-1] The LU. version of the 'White-fight,' which occurs much earlier (fo. 72a, edition of Strachan and O'Keeffe, lines 1457 and fol.), is incorporated with the LL. version above.
[2-2] LU. 1457.
[3-3] YBL. 43a, 6.
[4-4] Stowe.
[5-5] LU. 1458.
[6-6] LU. 1460-1463.
[a] 'One hundred fighting men,' LU. 1463.
[7-7] LU. 1463-1472.
[1-1] LU. 1458.
[2-2] Stowe.
[a] Literally, 'whisper.'
[3-3] YBL. 43a, 10.
[4-4] Stowe.
[5-5] YBL. 43a, 10.
[6-6] YBL. 43a, 10
[7-7] YBL. 43a, 11.
This then is done. Rochad sets forth to meet the horseman. "I am come," says the horseman, "from Finnabair to meet thee that thou come to speak with the maiden." Thereupon Rochad goes alone to converse with her. The army surrounds him on all sides; he is seized and hands are laid on him; his followers are routed and driven in flight. Afterwards he is set free and bound over not to oppose Ailill's host till the time he will come with all the warriors of Ulster. Also they promise to give Finnabair to him.
[8-8] LU. 1472-1478.
Rochad son of Fathemon accepted the offer and thereupon he left them and that night the damsel slept with him.
[9-9] LU. 1478-1479.
An Under-king of Munster that was in the camp heard the tale. He went to his people to speak of it. "Yonder maiden was plighted to me on fifteen hostages once long ago," said he; "and it is for this I have now come on this [W.4568.] hosting." Now wherever it happened that the seven[a] Under-kings of Munster were, what they all said was that it was for this they were come. "Yonder maiden was pledged to each of us in the bargain as our sole wife, to the end that we should take part in this warfare." They all declared that that was the price and condition on which they had come on the hosting. "Why," said they, "what better counsel could we take? Should we not go to avenge our wife and our honour on the Mane the sons of Ailill who are watching and guarding the rear of the army at Imlech in Glendamrach ('Kettle-glen's navel)?"
[10-10] YBL 43a, 17.
[a] 'Twelve,' Stowe.
[1-1] Stowe.
[2-2] Stowe.
[3-3] YBL. 43a, 20.
[4-4] Stowe.
This was the course they resolved upon. And with their seven divisions of thirty hundreds they arose, each man of them to attack the Mane. When Ailill heard that, he arose with a start with ready shield against them and thirty hundred after them. Medb arose with her thirty hundred. The sons of Maga with theirs and the Leinstermen and the Munstermen and the people of Tara.
[5-5] Stowe.
[6-6] Stowe.
[7-7] Stowe.
Then arose Fergus with his thirty hundred to intervene between them, and that was a hand for that mighty work. And a mediation was made between them so that each of them sat down near the other and hard by his arms. Howbeit before the intervention took place, eight hundred[b] very valiant warriors of them had fallen in the slaughter of Glenn Domain ('Deep Glen').
[8-8] Stowe.
[b] 'Seven hundred,' YBL. 43a, 24 and Stowe.
[9-9] YBL. 43a, 25.
Finnabair, daughter of Ailill and Medb, had tidings that so great a number of the men of Erin had fallen for her sake and on account of her. And her heart broke in her breast even as a nut, through shame and disgrace, so that Finnabair Slebe ('Finnabair of the Mount') is the name of the place where she fell, died and was buried.
[10-10] Stowe.
[W.4585.] Then said the men of Erin, "White is this battle," said they, "for Rochad son of Fathemon, in that eight hundred exceeding brave warriors fell for his sake and on his account, and he himself goes safe and whole to his country and land without blood-shedding or reddening on him." Hence this is the 'White-fight' of Rochad.
Stowe.
XXIIId
HERE FOLLOWETH ILIACH'S CLUMP-FIGHT
[W.4590.] Then came to them Iliach son of Cass son of Bacc son of Ross Ruad son of Rudraige. He was at that time an old man cared for by his son's son, namely by Loegaire Buadach ('the Victorious') in Rath Imbil in the north. It was told him that the four grand provinces of Erin even then laid waste and invaded the lands of Ulster and of the Picts and of Cualnge from Monday at Summer's end till the beginning of Spring, and were carrying off their women and their cows and their children, their flocks, their herds and their cattle, their oxen and their kine and their droves, their steeds and their horses. He then conceived a plan in his mind and he made perfect his plan privily with his people. "What counsel were better for me to make than to go and attack the men of Erin and to use my[a] strength on them and have my boast and victory over them, and thus avenge the honour of Ulster. And I care not though I should fall myself there thereafter."
[1-1] YBL. 43a, 29.
[2-2] Stowe.
[3-3] Stowe.
[4-4] Stowe.
[5-5] Stowe.
[6-6] Stowe.
[a] The MS. has 'his.'
[7-7] Stowe.
[LL.fo.92b.] And this is the counsel he followed. His two withered, mangy, sorrel nags that were upon the strand hard by the fort were led to him. And to them was fastened his ancient, worn-out chariot. Thus he mounted his chariot, without either covers or cushions; [W.4601.] a hurdle of wattles around it. His big, rough, pale-grey shield of iron he carried upon him, with its rim of hard silver around it. He wore his rough, grey-hilted, huge-smiting sword at his left side. He placed his two rickety-headed, nicked, blunt, rusted spears by his side in the chariot. His folk furnished his chariot around him with cobbles and boulders and huge clumps, so that it was full up to its ... (?)
[8-8] YBL. 43a, 36.
[9-9] YBL. 43a, 36.
[10-10] YBL. 43a, 35.
[1-1] YBL. 43a, 35.
[2-2] Stowe.
[3-3] Stowe.
[4-4] YBL. 48a, 38.
In such wise he fared forth to assail the men of Erin. And thus he came, stark-naked, and the spittle from his gaping mouth trickling down through the chariot under him. When the men of Erin saw him thus, they began to mock and deride him. "Truly it would be well for us," said the men of Erin,[a] "if this were the manner in which all the Ulstermen came to us on the plain."
[5-5] YBL. 43a, 40.
[6-6] This is the sense of Zimmer's translation, which is only conjectural, of this difficult passage (see Zeitschrift fuer Deutsches Alterthum und Deutsche Litteratur, Bd. xxxii, 1888, S. 275). The idea is probably more clearly expressed in Stowe, H. 1. 13 and YBL. 43a, 41, and may be rendered, 'membrum virile ejus coram viros Hiberniae et testes pendentes per currum.'
[7-7] Stowe and, similarly, H. 1. 13.
[a] 'Said Medb,' Stowe.
[8-8] Stowe and, similarly, H. 1. 13, Add.
Doche son of Maga met him and bade him welcome. "Welcome is thy coming, O Iliach," spake Doche son of Maga. "Who bids me welcome?" asked Iliach. "A comrade and friend of Loegaire Buadach am I, namely Doche macMagach." "Truly spoken I esteem that welcome," answered Iliach; "but do thou for the sake of that welcome come to me when now, alas, my deeds of arms will be over and my warlike vigour will have vanished, when I will have spent my rage upon the hosts, so that thou be the one to cut off my head and none other of the men of Erin. However, my sword shall remain with [W.4615.] thee for thine own friend, even for Loegaire Buadach!"
[9-9] Stowe.
[10-10] Stowe.
[11-11] Stowe.
[1-1] Stowe.
[2-2] Stowe.
He assailed the men of Erin with his weapons till he had made an end of them. And when weapons failed he assailed the men of Erin with cobbles and boulders and huge clumps of earth till he had used them up. And when these weapons failed him he spent his rage on the man that was nearest him of the men of Erin, and bruised him grievously between his fore-arms and his sides and the palms of his hands, till he made a marrow-mass of him, of flesh and bones and sinews and skin. Hence in memory thereof, these two masses of marrow still live on side by side, the marrow-mass that Cuchulain made of the bones of the Ulstermen's cattle for the healing of Cethern son of Fintan,[a] and the marrow-mass that Iliach made of the bones of the men of Erin. Wherefore this was one of the three innumerable things of the Tain, the number of them that fell at the hands of Iliach. So that this is the 'Clump-fight' of Iliach. It is for this reason it is called the 'Clump-fight' of Iliach, because with cobbles and boulders and massy clumps he made his fight.
[3-3] Stowe.
[4-4] Stowe.
[5-5] Stowe.
[a] See above, page 279.
Thereafter Doche son of Maga met him. "Is not this Iliach?" asked Doche son of Maga. "It is truly I," Iliach gave answer; "and come to me now and cut off my head and let my sword remain with thee for thy friend, for Loegaire Buadach ('the Victorious')."
[6-6] Stowe.
[7-7] Stowe.
Doche came near him and gave him a blow with the sword so that he severed his head, and he took with him the head and the spoils vauntingly to where were Ailill and Medb. Thus to this point, the 'Clump-fight' of Iliach.
[8-8] Stowe.
XXIIIe
HERE NOW THE DEER-STALKING OF AMARGIN IN TALTIU
[W.4638.] This Amargin was the son of Cass who was son of Bacc who was son of Ross Ruad ('the Red') who was son of Rudraige, father of Conall Cernach ('the Triumphant'). He came upon the warriors going over Taltiu westward, and he made them turn before him over Taltiu northwards. And he put his left[a] elbow under him in Taltiu. And his people furnished him with rocks and boulders and great clumps of earth, and he began to pelt the men of Erin till the end of three days and three nights, and he did great slaughter among them so that no man could show his face to him in Taltiu.
[1-1] Stowe.
[2-2] Stowe.
[a] As a challenge or sign of hostility.
[3-3] Stowe.
[4-4] YBL. 43b, 13-14.
XXIIIf
THE ADVENTURES OF CUROI SON OF DARE FOLLOW NOW
[W.4645.] He was told that a single man was checking and stopping four of the five grand provinces of Erin during the three months of winter from Monday at Summer's end till the beginning of Spring. And he felt it unworthy of himself and he deemed it too long that his people were without him. And it was then he set out to the host to fight and contend with Cuchulain. And when he was come to the place where Cuchulain was, he saw Cuchulain there moaning, full of wounds and pierced through with holes, and he felt it would not be honourable nor fair to fight and contend with him after the combat with Ferdiad. Because it would be said it was not that Cuchulain died of the sores [LL.fo.93a.] and wounds which he would give him so much as of the wounds which Ferdiad had inflicted on him in the conflict before. Be that as it might, Cuchulain offered to engage with him in battle and combat.
[1-1] YBL. 43b, 17.
[2-2] YBL. 43b, 14-15.
[3-3] YBL. 43b, 15.
[4-4] Reading with Stowe, which is to be preferred to LL.
Thereupon Curoi set forth for to seek the men of Erin and, when he was near at hand, he espied Amargin there and his left elbow under him to the west of Taltiu. Curoi reached the men of Erin from the north. His people equipped him with rocks and boulders and great clumps, and he began to hurl them right over against Amargin, so that Badb's battle-stones collided in the clouds and in the air high above them, and every rock of them was shivered [W.4662.] into an hundred stones. "By the truth of thy valour, O Curoi," cried Medb, "desist from thy throwing, for no real succour nor help comes to us therefrom, but ill is the succour and help that thence come to us," "I pledge my word," cried Curoi, "I will not cease till the very day of doom and of life, till first Amargin cease!" "I will cease," said Amargin; "and do thou engage that thou wilt no more come to succour or give aid to the men of Erin." Curoi consented to that and went his way to return to his land and people.
[1-1] Stowe.
About this time the hosts went past Taltiu westwards. "It is not this was enjoined upon me," quoth Amargin: "never again to cast at the hosts but rather that I should part from them." And he went to the west of them and he turned them before him north-eastwards past Taltiu. And he began to pelt them for a long while and time so that he slaughtered more of them than can be numbered. This is one of the three incalculable things on the Tain, the number of those he slew. And his son Conall Cernach ('the Victorious') remained with him providing him with stones and spears.
[2-2] Stowe.
[3-3] Stowe.
[4-4] Stowe.
[5-5] YBL. fo. 43b, 34-36.
Then it was also that the men of Erin said it would be no disgrace for Amargin to leave the camp and quarters, and that the hosts would retire a day's march back to the north again, there to stop and stay, and for him to quit his feats of arms upon the hosts until such time as he would meet them on the day of the great battle when the four grand provinces of Erin would encounter at Garech and Ilgarech in the battle of the Raid for the Kine of Cualnge. Amargin accepted that offer, and the hosts proceeded a day's march back to the northwards again. Wherefore the 'Deer-stalking' of Amargin in Taltiu is the name of this tale.
