FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63  
64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   >>   >|  
ured,' 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 an
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63  
64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Cuchulainn

 

Ailill

 

fonnod

 
service
 

thirty

 

chariot

 

yonder

 

Airthir

 

Rhetoric

 
cattle

carries

 

Fergus

 

destroyed

 
household
 

compensation

 

thighs

 

pleases

 

twelve

 

equipment

 

bondmaid


cumals

 

sevens

 
brought
 

standard

 

Vassal

 

hilted

 

thought

 
coming
 

emblem

 
Ireland

encircles
 

warriors

 
yellow
 

ornamentation

 
errand
 

hooded

 

messenger

 

chariots

 

charioteer

 

Cuillius


washing

 

drives

 

driven

 

profit

 

smiting

 

Conchobar

 

Ochaine

 

nights

 
agreement
 

carried