The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Tain Bo Cualnge Part 76

[2-2] YBL. 49a, 42-44.

[3-3] YBL. 49a, 50.

[4-4] YBL. 49a, 50.

[5-5] YBL. 49a, 46-47.

[6-6] YBL. 49a, 52.

[7-7] YBL. 49b, 4-5.

[8-8] Stowe, H. 1. 13 and YBL. 49b, 6.

[a] That is, Conchobar.

[1-1] YBL. 49b, 17.

[2-2] YBL. 49b, 18.

[3-3] YBL. 49b, 19-20.

[4-4] Stowe; that is, Erc son of Fedlimid, Conchobar's daughter.]

[5-5] 'Of their heart,' YBL. 49b, 13.

[6]"Then came there three huge (?), strong, well-braced, cunningly-built castles; three mighty, wheeled-towers like unto mountains, in this wise placed in position: Three royal castles with their thirty fully armed battalions, swarming with evil-tongued warriors and with thirty round-s.h.i.+elded heroes. A bright, beautiful, glistening s.h.i.+eld-guard was on each of the three strong, stout battle-castles, with black, deadly armament of huge, high, blue, sharp pine-lances, such that one's bent knee would fit in the socket of each smooth, polished, even and hard spear-head that is on each huge, terrible, strange shaft of the terrible, awful, heavy, monstrous, indescribable armament [W.5598.] that I saw. A third part of each shaft was contained in the socket of the riveted, very long, securely placed spears; as high as [1]two[1] cubits was each citadel from the ground; as long as a warrior's spear was the height of each battle-hurdle; as sharp as charmed sword was the blade of each sickle on the sides and the flanks of each of [2]Badb's hurdles;[2] on each of the three stout and hard battle-hurdles they are to be found. Four dark, yet gleaming, well-adorned doors were on each battle-wheeled tower of the three royal wheeled-towers which were displayed and spread over the plain, with ivory door-posts, with lintels of cypress, with stately thresholds set of speckled, beautiful, strong pine, with their blue, gla.s.s door-leaves, with the glitter of crystal gems around each door-frame, so that its appearance from afar was like that of bright s.h.i.+ning stars. As loud as the crash of a mighty wave at the great spring-tide, or of a huge heavy fleet upon the sea when toiling with the oars along the sh.o.r.e, was the similitude of the din and the clamour and the shouts and the tumult of the mult.i.tude and the to-and-fro of the thirty champions with their thirty heavy, iron clubs that they bear in their hands. And when the wheeled-towers advance ma.s.sively and boldly against the line of heroes, these almost leave behind their arms at the fierce charge of the outland battalions. Then spring the three hundred champions with a shout of vengeful anger over the sides and over the front of the huge iron towers on wheels, so that this it was that checked the swift course and the great, hasty onslaught of the well-grounded, swiftly-moving, mighty chariots. The three stout, strong, battle-proof towers on wheels careered over rough places and over obstacles, over rocks and over heights. There coursed the thirty entire chargers, powerful, strong-backed, four abreast, the equal of ninety entire chargers, with [W.5622.] manes more than big, bold[a] and leaping, with sack-like, distended nostrils, high-headed, towering, over-powering, wonderful, so that they shook with their ramping the thick sh.e.l.l of the sad-sodded earth. They flecked the plain behind them with the foam dripping from the [1]swift[1] Danish steeds, from the bits and bridles, from the traces and tracks of the huge, maned, mighty[b] steeds, greater than can be told! They excited strife with their din of arms. They plunged headlong in their swift impatience. They aroused great terror at their accoutrement, at their armour, at their cunning, at their power, at their hugeness, at their destructive, terrible, hostile vengeance on the four grand, proud provinces of Erin. Amazing to me was their appearance because of the unwontedness of their trappings both in form and in garb. Three wonderful flights of birds with variety of appearance hovered over them. The first flock was all red, the second flock was white as swans, the third flock as black as ravens.

Three red-mouthed, crow-shaped demons of battle sped around them as swift as hares, circling the three wheeled towers, and this is what they prophesied:--

"Sheaves[c] of battle, Might of quelling, Ill of war-deeds, Sating of foul ravens!

Sodden ground, blood-red; Men low in dust; Sheaves[c] on sword-blades!"

[6-6] The following pa.s.sage, to page 342, is taken from Stowe and H. 1. 13; it is not found in LL.

[1-1] H. 1. 13 and Add. 18,748.

[2-2] That is, the movable towers.

[a] Following the emendation _bairnech_, suggested by Windisch.

[1-1] H. 1. 13.

[b] Following the emendation _moradbal_, suggested by Windisch.

[c] That is, the layers of the slain.

"They wheeled about and brought them twelve[d] battle-pillars of thick, huge, iron pillars. As thick as the middle of a warrior's thigh, as tall as a champion's spear was each battle-fork of them, and they placed four forks under each [W.5646.] wheeled-tower. And their horses all ran from them and grazed upon the plain. And those forty[a] that had gone in advance descend clad in armour on the plain, and the garrison of the three battle-wheeled towers falls to attacking and hara.s.sing them, and is attacked and hara.s.sed in turn by those forty champions, so that there was heard the breaking of s.h.i.+elds and the loud blows of hard iron poles on bucklers and battle-helmets, on coats of mail and on the iron plates of smooth, hard, blue-black, sharp-beaked, forked spears. And in the whole camp there is none but is on the watch for their fierceness and their wrath and their cunning and their strangeness, for their fury, their achievements and the excellence of their guard. And in the place where the forty champions are and the thousand armed men contending with them, not one of the thousand had a wounding stroke nor a blow on his opponent because of the might of their skill in arms and the excellence of their defence withal!"

[d] That is, a battle-pillar or prop for each of the four wheels of each of the three towers.

[a] This is the first mention of the 'forty.'

"They are hard to contend with for all such as are unfamiliar with them, is the opinion held of them," spake Fergus, "but they are readily to be dealt with for such as do know them. These are three battle-wheeled towers,"

Fergus continued, "as I perceive from their account. Once I saw their like, namely when as prentice I accompanied Dare to Spain, so that we entered the service, of the king of Spain, Esorb to wit, and we afterwards made an expedition to Soda, that is, to the king of Africa, and we gave battle to the Carthaginians. There came their like upon us against the battle-line wherein we were, an hundred battalions and three score hundred in each battalion. One of the wheeled-towers won victory over us all, for we were not on our guard against them. And this is the way to defeat them: To mine a hole broader than the tower in the ground in the front thereof and cover over the pitfall; [W.5669.] and for the battle-line to be drawn up over against it and not to advance to attack, so that it is the towers that advance and fall into the pit. Lebarcham told me, as I pa.s.sed over Taltiu, that the Ulstermen brought these towers from Germany, and the towers held a third of the exiles of Ulster among them as their only dwelling; and Cualgae ('a Heap of Spears') is their name, namely battle-penfolds. And herein have ye the sorest of all hards.h.i.+ps, for although all the men of Erin are drawn up against them, it is the men of Erin that will be defeated. When they take it upon them to engage in battle they cannot hold out without a combat. Thus will they remain now till morning, every forty men of them contending with the others. And this is my advice to you," said Fergus: "permit me with my division to withstand them, and do ye betake yourselves to the woods and wilds of Erin, and the Ulstermen shall not find ye in any place, and I will proceed as an example, depending on my own men-of-war." "There are men here for ye!" cried Medb. "That will be a force for yourselves," Fergus made answer.[6]

[6-6] See note 6, page 338.

"Yet another company came there to the same height in Slane of Meath,"

said macRoth. "Not fewer than a division was in it; wild, dark-red, warrior-bands; [1]bright, clear, blue-purple men;[1] long, fair-yellow heads of hair they wore; handsome, s.h.i.+ning countenances they had; clear, kingly eyes; magnificent vesture with beautiful mantles; conspicuous, golden brooches along their bright-coloured sleeves; silken, glossy tunics; blue, gla.s.sy spears; yellow s.h.i.+elds for striking withal; gold-hilted, inlaid swords set on their thighs; loud-tongued care has beset them; sorrowful are they all, and mournful; sad are the royal leaders; orphaned the brilliant company without [W.5689.] their protecting lord who was wont to guard their lands." "But, who may they be?" asked Ailill of Fergus.

"Indeed, we know them well," Fergus made answer. "Furious lions are they; deeds of battle; the division from the field of Murthemne are they.

[LL.fo.100b.] It is this that makes them cast-down, sorrowful, joyless [1]as they are,[1] because that their own divisional king himself is not amongst them, even Cuchulain, the restraining, victorious, red-sworded one that triumpheth in battle!" "Good reason, in truth, there is for them to be so," quoth Medb, "if they are dejected, mournful and joyless. There is no evil we have not worked on them. We have hara.s.sed and we have a.s.sailed them, [2]their territory and their land,[2] from Monday at the beginning of Samaintide till the beginning of Spring.[a] We have taken their women and their sons and their youths, their steeds and their troops of horses, their herds and their flocks and their droves. We have razed their hills after them till they are become lowlands, so that they are level with the plain. [3]We have brought their lords to b.l.o.o.d.y stabs and sores, to cuts and many wounds."[3] "Not so, O Medb!" cried Fergus. "There is naught thou canst boast over them. For thou didst them no hurt nor harm that yon fine company's leader avenged not on thee. For, every mound and every grave, every stone and every tomb that is from hence to the east of Erin is the mound and the grave, the stone and the tomb of some goodly warrior and goodly youth [4]of thy people,[4] fallen at the hands of the n.o.ble chieftain of yonder company. Happy he to whom they hold! Woe to him whom they oppose! It will be enough, e'en as much as half a battle, for the men of Erin, when these defend their lord in the battle on the morning of the morrow."

[1-1] This seems out of place here; it is not found in Stowe nor in H. 1. 13.

[1-1] Stowe.

[2-2] Stowe.

[3-3] Stowe and H. 1. 13.

[4-4] Stowe.

[a] See notes a and b, page 182.

"I heard a great uproar there, west of the battle or to [W.5711.] its east," said macRoth. "Say, what noise was it?" asked Ailill of Fergus.

"Ah, but we know it well," Fergus made answer: "Cuchulain it was, straining to go, sick as he is, to battle, wearied at the length of his lying sick on Fert Sciach ('Thorn-mound') under hoops and clasps and ropes, and the men of Ulster do not permit him to go because of his sores and his wounds, inasmuch as he is not fit for battle and is powerless for combat after his encounter with Ferdiad."

True indeed spake Fergus. Cuchulain it was, wearied at the length of his lying supine on Fert Sciach under hoops and clasps and ropes. [1]"But, there is one thing more to tell," said Fergus: "unless he be held back now, he will surely come to the battle!"

Thus far the Companies of the Tain Bo Cualnge[1] [2]mustered by Conchobar and the men of Ulster.[2]

[1-1] Stowe and H. 1. 13.

[2-2] H. 1. 13.

Then came two women lampoonists from the camp and quarters of the men of Erin; [3]their names,[3] Fethan and Collach, to wit; and they stood with a feint of weeping and wailing over Cuchulain, telling him of the defeat of Ulster and the death of Conchobar and the fall of Fergus in combat.

[3-3] Stowe.

[4]Now Conchobar proceeded with his troops till he pitched camp nearby his companions. Conchobar asked a truce of Ailill till sunrise on the morrow, and Ailill granted it for the men of Erin and the exiles, and Conchobar granted it for the men of Ulster, and thereupon Conchobar's tents were pitched. In this way the ground was bare between them, and the Ulstermen came thither at sunset.[4]

[4-4] YBL. 50a, 11.

[Page 345]