Cuchulainn
The Mavellous Birth
His mother, Dechtiré, was on the
point of being married to an Ulster chieftain called
Sualtam, and was sitting at the wedding-feast, when
a may-fly flew into her cup of wine and was unwittingly swallowed by her. That same afternoon
she fell into a deep sleep, and in her dream the
sun-god Lugh appeared to her, and told her that
it was he whom she had swallowed, and bore within
her. He ordered her and her fifty attendant maidens
to come with him at once, and he put upon them
the shapes of birds, so that they were not seen to
go. Nothing was heard of them again. But one
day, months later, a flock of beautiful birds appeared
before Emain Macha, and drew out its warriors in
their chariots to hunt them.
They followed the birds till nightfall, when they
found themselves at the Brugh on the Boyne, where
the great gods had their homes. As they looked
everywhere for shelter, they suddenly saw a splendid palace. A tall and handsome man, richly
dressed, came out and welcomed them and led
them in. Within the hall were a beautiful and
noble-faced woman and fifty maidens, and on the
tables were the richest meats and wines, and everything fit for the needs of warriors. So they rested
there the night, and, during the night, they heard
the cry of a new-born child. The next morning,
the man told them who he was, and that the woman
was Conchobar's half-sister Dechtiré, and he ordered
them to take the child, and bring it up among the
warriors of Ulster. So they brought him back,
together with his mother and the maidens, and
Dechtiré married Sualtam, and all the chiefs, champions, druids, poets, and lawgivers of Ulster vied
with one another in bringing up the mysterious infant.
Childhood
At first they called him Setanta; and this is how
he came to change his name. While still a child,
he was the strongest of the boys of Emain Macha,
and the champion in their sports. One day he was
playing hurley single-handed against all the others,
and beating them, when Conchobar the King rode
by with his nobles on the way to a banquet given
by Culann, the chief smith of the Ultonians. Conchobar called to the boy, inviting him to go with
them, and he replied that, when the game was
finished, he would follow. As soon as the Ulster
champions were in Culann's hall, the smith asked
the king's leave to unloose his terrible watch-dog,
which was as strong and fierce as a hundred hounds;
and Conchobar, forgetting that the boy was to
follow them, gave his permission. Immediately
the hound saw Setanta coming, it rushed at him,
open-mouthed. But the boy flung his playing-ball
into its mouth, and then, seizing it by the hind-legs,
dashed it against a rock till he had killed it.
The smith Culann was very angry at the death
of his dog; for there was no other hound in the
world like him for guarding a house and flocks.
So Setanta promised to find and train up another
one, not less good, for Culann, and, until it was
trained, to guard the smith's house as though he
were a dog himself. This is why he was called
Cuchulainn, that is, "Culann's Hound"; and Cathbad the Druid prophesied that the time would
come when the name would be in every man's
mouth.
Not long after this, Cuchulainn overheard Cathbad giving druidical instruction, and one of his
pupils asking him what that day would be propitious for. Cathbad replied that, if any young
man first took arms on that day, his name would
be greater than that of any other hero's, but his
life would be short. At once, the boy went to King
Conchobar, and demanded arms and a chariot. Conchobar asked him who had put such a thought into
his head; and he answered that it was Cathbad the
Druid. So Conchobar gave him arms and armour,
and sent him out with a charioteer. That evening,
Cuchulainn brought back the heads of three cham-
pions who had killed many of the warriors of Ulster.
He was then only seven years old.
The Wooing of Emer
The women of Ulster so loved Cuchulainn after
this that the warriors grew jealous, and insisted that
a wife should be found for him. But Cuchulainn
was very hard to please. He would have only one,
Emer, the daughter of Forgall the Wily, the best
maiden in Ireland for the six gifts — the gift of
beauty, the gift of voice, the gift of sweet speech,
the gift of needlework, the gift of wisdom, and the
gift of chastity. So he went to woo her, but she
laughed at him for a boy. Then Cuchulainn swore
by the gods of his people that he would make his
name known wherever the deeds of heroes were
spoken of, and Emer promised to marry him if he
could take her from her warlike kindred.
When Forgall, her father, came to know of this
betrothal, he devised a plan to put an end to it.
He went to visit King Conchobar at Emain Macha,
There he pretended to have heard of Cuchulainn
for the first time, and he saw him do all his feats.
He said, loud enough to be overheard by all, that if
so promising a youth dared to go to the Island of
Scathach the Amazon, in the east of Alba, and
learn all her warrior-craft, no living man would be
able to stand before him. It was hard to reach
Scathachs Isle, and still harder to return from it,
and Forgall felt certain that, if Cuchulainn went,
he would get his death there.
Of course, nothing would now satisfy Cuchulainn but
going. His two friends, Laegaire the Battle-winner
and Conall the Victorious, said that they would go
with him. But, before they had gone far, they lost
heart and turned back. Cuchulainn went on alone,
crossing the Plain of Ill-Luck, where men's feet
stuck fast, while sharp grasses sprang up and cut
them, and through the Perilous Glens, full of devouring wild beasts, until he came to the Bridge of the
Cliff, which rose on end, till it stood straight up like
a ship's mast, as soon as anyone put foot on it.
Three times Cuchulainn tried to cross it, and thrice
he failed. Then anger came into his heart, and a
magic halo shone round his head, and he did his
famous feat of the "hero's salmon leap", and landed,
in one jump, on the middle of the bridge, and then
slid down it as it rose up on end.
Scathach was in the dún, with her two sons.
Cuchulainn went to her, and put his sword to her
breast, and threatened to kill her if she would not
teach him all her own skill in arms. So he became
her pupil, and she taught him all her war-craft. In
return, Cuchulainn helped her against a rival queen
of the Amazons, called Aoife. He conquered Aoife,
and compelled her to make peace with Scathach.
Then he returned to Ireland, and went in a
scythed chariot to Forgall's palace. He leaped
over its triple walls, and slew everyone who came
near him. Forgall met his death in trying to
escape Cuchulainn's rage. He found Emer, and
placed her in his chariot, and drove away; and,
every time that Forgalls warriors came up to them,
he turned, and slew a hundred, and put the rest
to flight. He reached Emain Macha in safety, and
he and Emer were married there.
And so great, after this, were the fame of Cuchulainn's prowess and Emer s beauty that the men
and women of Ulster yielded them precedence —
him among the warriors and her among the women
— in evexy feast and banquet at Emain Macha.
The Cattle Raid of Cooley
But all that Cuchulainn had done up to this time
was as nothing to the deeds he did in the great war
which all the rest of Ireland, headed by Ailill and
Medb, King and Queen of Connaught, made upon
Ulster, to get the Brown Bull of Cualgne. This
Bull was one of two, of fairy descent. They had
originally been the swineherds of two of the gods,
Bodb, King of the Sidhe of Munster, and Ochall
Ochne, King of the Sidhe of Connaught. As
swineherds they were in perpetual rivalry; then,
the better to carry on their quarrel, they changed
themselves into two ravens, and fought for a year;
next they turned into water - monsters, which tore
one another for a year in the Suir and a year in
the Shannon; then they became human again and
fought as champions; and ended by changing into
eels. One of these eels went into the River Cruind,
in Cualgne, in Ulster, where it was swallowed by
a cow belonging to Daire of Cualgne, and the other
into the spring of Uaran Garad, in Connaught,
where it passed into the belly of a cow of Queen
Medb's. Thus were born those two famous beasts,
the Brown Bull of Ulster and the White-horned
Bull of Connaught.
Now the White-horned was of such proud mind
that he scorned to belong to a woman, and he went
out of Medb's herds into those of her husband
Ailill. So that when Ailill and Medb one day, in
their idleness, counted up their possessions, to set
them off one against the other, although they were
equal in every other thing, in jewels and clothes
and household vessels, in sheep and horses and
swine and cattle, Medb had no one bull that was
worthy to be set beside Ailills White-horned. Refusing to be less in anything than her husband,
the proud queen sent heralds, with gifts and compliments, to Daire, asking him to lend her the Brown
Bull for a year. Daire would have done so gladly
had not one of Medb's messengers been heard boasting in his cups that, if Daire had not lent the Brown
Bull of his own free-will, Medb would have taken
it. This was reported to Daire, who at once swore
that she should never have it. Medb's messenger
returned; and the Queen of Connaught, furious at
his refusal, vowed that she would take it by force.
She assembled the armies of all the rest of Ireland
to go against Ulster, and made Fergus son of Roy,
an Ulster champion who had quarrelled with King
Conchobar, its leader. They expected to have an
easy victory, for the warriors of Ulster were at that
time lying under a magic weakness which fell upon
them for many days in each year, as the result of a
curse laid upon them, long before, by a goddess who
had been insulted by one of Conchobar's ancestors.
Medb called up a prophetess of her people to fore-
tell victory. "How do you see our hosts?" asked
the queen of the seeress. "I see crimson on them;
I see red," she replied. "But the warriors of Ulster
are lying in their sickness. Nay, how do you see
our men?" "I see them all crimson; I see them
all red," she repeated. And then she added to the
astonished queen, who had expected a quite different
foretelling: "For I see a small man doing deeds of
arms, though there are many wounds on his smooth
skin; the hero-light shines round his head, and there
is victory on his forehead; he is richly clothed, and
young and beautiful and modest, but he is a dragon
in battle. His appearance and his valour are those
of Cuchulainn of Muirthemne; who that 'Culann's
hound' from Muirthemne may be, I do not know;
but I know this, that all our army will be reddened
by him. He is setting out for battle; he will hew
down your hosts; the slaughter he shall make will
be long remembered; there will be many women
crying over the bodies mangled by the Hound of
the Forge whom I see before me now." For Cuchulainn was, for some reason unknown to us, the
only man in Ulster who was not subject to the
magic weakness, and therefore it fell upon him to
defend Ulster single-handed against the whole of
Medb's army.
In spite of the injury done him by King Conchobar, Fergus still kept a love for his own country.
He had not the heart to march upon the Ultonians
without first secretly sending a messenger to warn
them. So that, though all the other champions of
the Red Branch were helpless, Cuchulainn was
watching the marches when the army came.
Now begins the story of the aristeia of the Gaelic
hero. It is, after the manner of epics, the record of
a series of single combats, in each of which Cuchu-
lainn slays his adversary. Man after man comes
against him, and not one goes back. In the intervals between these duels, Cuchulainn harasses
the army with his sling, slaying a hundred men a
day. He kills Medb's pet dog, bird, and squirrel,
and creates such terror that no one dares to stir out
of the camp. Medb herself has a narrow escape;
for one of her serving - women, who puts on her
mistress's golden head-dress, is killed by a stone
flung from Cuchulainn's sling.
The great queen determines to see with her own
eyes this marvellous hero who is holding all her
warriors at bay. She sends an envoy, asking him
to come and parley with her. Cuchulainn agrees,
and, at the meeting, Medb is amazed at his boyish
look. She finds it hard to believe that it is this
beardless stripling of seventeen who is killing her
champions, until the whole army seems as though
it were melting away. She offers him her own
friendship and great honours and possessions in
Connaught if he will forsake Conchobar. He refuses; but she offers it again and again. At last
Cuchulainn indignantly declares that the next man
who comes with such a message will do so at his
peril. One bargain, however, he will make. He is
willing to fight one of the men of Ireland every day,
and, while the duel lasts, the main army may march
on; but, as soon as Cuchulainn has killed his man,
it must halt until the next day. Medb agrees to
this, thinking it better to lose one man a day than a
hundred.
Medb makes the same offer to every famous warrior, to induce him to go against Cuchulainn. The
reward for the head of the champion will be the
hand of her daughter, Findabair. In spite of this,
not one of the aspirants to the princess can stand
before Cuchulainn. All perish; and Findabair,
when she finds out how she is being promised to a
fresh suitor every day, dies of shame. But, while
Cuchulainn is engaged in these combats, Medb sends
men who scour Ulster for the brown bull, and find
him, and drive him, with fifty heifers, into her camp.
Meanwhile the Ǽs Sidhe, the fairy god-clan, are
watching the half-divine, half-mortal hero, amazed
at his achievements. His exploits kindle love in the
fierce heart of the Morrigú, the great war-goddess.
Cuchulainn is awakened from sleep by a terrible
shout from the north. He orders his driver, Laeg,
to yoke the horses to his chariot, so that he may find
out who raised it. They go in the direction from
which the sound had come, and meet with a woman
in a chariot drawn by a red horse. She has red
eyebrows, and a red dress, and a long, red cloak,
and she carries a great, gray spear. He asks her
who she is, and she tells him that she is a king's
daughter, and that she has fallen in love with him
through hearing of his exploits. Cuchulainn says
that he has other things to think of than love. She
replies that she has been giving him her help in his
battles, and will still do so; and Cuchulainn answers
that he does not need any woman's help. "Then,"
says she, "if you will not have my love and help,
you shall have my hatred and enmity. When you
are fighting with a warrior as good as yourself,
I will come against you in various shapes and hinder
you, so that he shall have the advantage." Cuchulainn draws his sword, but all he sees is a hoodie
crow sitting on a branch. He knows from this that
the red woman in the chariot was the great queen
of the gods.
The next day, a warrior named Loch went to
meet Cuchulainn. At first he refused to fight one
who was beardless; so Cuchulainn smeared his chin
with blackberry juice, until it looked as though he
had a beard. While Cuchulainn was fighting Loch,
the Morrigd came against him three times — first as
a heifer which tried to overthrow him, and next as
an eel which got beneath his feet as he stood in
running water, and then as a wolf which seized hold
of his right arm. But Cuchulainn broke the heifer's
leg, and trampled upon the eel, and put out one of
the wolfs eyes, though, every one of these three
times, Loch wounded him. In the end, Cuchulainn
slew Loch with his invincible spear, the gae bolg,
made of a sea-monster's bones. The Morrigú came
back to Cuchulainn, disguised as an old woman, to
have her wounds healed by him, for no one could
cure them but he who had made them. She became
his friend after this, and helped him.
But the fighting was so continuous that Cuchulainn got no sleep, except just for a while, from
time to time, when he might rest a little, with his
head on his hand and his hand on his spear and his
spear on his knee. So that his father, Lugh the Longhanded, took pity on him and came to him in the
semblance of a tall, handsome man in a green cloak
and a gold-embroidered silk shirt, and carrying a
black shield and a five-pronged spear. He put him
into a sleep of three days and three nights, and,
while he rested, he laid druidical herbs on to all his
wounds, so that, in the end, he rose up again com-
pletely healed and as strong as at the very beginning
of the war. While he was asleep, the boy-troop of
Emain Macha, Cuchulainns old companions, came
and fought instead of him, and slew three times their
own number, but were all killed.
It was at this time that Medb asked Fergus to
go and fight with Cuchulainn. Fergus answered
that he would never fight against his own foster-
son. Medb asked him again and again, and at last
he went, but without his famous sword. "Fergus,
my guardian," said Cuchulainn, "it is not safe for
you to come out against me without your sword."
"If I had the sword," replied Fergus, "I would not
use it on you." Then Fergus asked Cuchulainn,
for the sake of all he had done for him in his boyhood, to pretend to fight with him, and then give
way before him and run away. Cuchulainn answered
that he was very loth to be seen running from any
man. But Fergus promised Cuchulainn that, if
Cuchulainn would run away from Fergus then,
Fergus would run away from Cuchulainn at some
future time, whenever Cuchulainn wished. Cuchulainn agreed to this, for he knew that it would be
for the profit of Ulster. So they fought a little,
and then Cuchulainn turned and fled in the sight
of all Medb's army. Fergus went back; and Medb
could not reproach him any more.
But she cast about to find some other way of
vanquishing Cuchulainn. The agreement made had
been that only one man a day should be sent against
him. But now Medb sent the wizard Calatin with
his twenty-seven sons and his grandson all at once,
for she said "they are really only one, for they are
all from Calatin's body". They never missed a
throw with their poisoned spears, and every man
they hit died, either on the spot or within the week.
When Fergus heard of this, he was in great grief,
and he sent a man called Fiacha, an exile, like himself, from Ulster, to watch the fight and report how
it went. Now Fiacha did not mean to join in it.
but when he saw Cuchulainn assailed by twenty-nine
at a time, and overpowered, he could not restrain
himself. So he drew his sword and helped Cuchulainn, and, between them, they killed Calatin and his
whole family.
As a last resource, now, Medb sent for Ferdiad,
who was the great champion of the Iberian "Men
of Domnu", who had thrown in their lot with Medb
in the war for the Brown Bull. Ferdiad had been
a companion and fellow-pupil of Cuchulainn with
Scathach, and he did not wish to fight with him.
But Medb told him that, if he refused, her satirists
should make such lampoons on him that he would
die of shame, and his name would be a reproach
for ever. She also offered him great rewards and
honours, and bound herself in six sureties to keep
her promises. At last, reluctantly, he went.
Cuchulainn saw him coming, and went out to
welcome him; but Ferdiad said that he had not
come as a friend, but to fight. Now Cuchulainn
had been Ferdiad's junior and serving-boy in Scathach's Island, and he begged him by the memory
of those old times to go back; but Ferdiad said he
could not. They fought all day, and neither had
gained any advantage by sunset. So they kissed
one another, and each went back to his camp. Ferdiad sent half his food and drink to Cuchulainn,
and Cuchulainn sent half his healing herbs and
medicines to Ferdiad, and their horses were put
in the same stable, and their charioteers slept by
the same fire. And so it happened on the second
day. But at the end of the third day they parted
gloomily, knowing that on the morrow one of them
must fall ; and their horses were not put in the same
stall that night, neither did their charioteers sleep at
the same fire. On the fourth day, Cuchulainn succeeded in killing Ferdiad, by casting the gae bolg
at him from underneath. But when he saw that
he was dying, the battle-fury passed away, and he
took his old companion up in his arms, and carried
him across the river on whose banks they had
fought, so that he might be with the men of Ulster
in his death, and not with the men of Ireland. And
he wept over him, and said: "It was all a game and
a sport until Ferdiad came ; Oh, Ferdiad ! your death
will hang over me like a cloud for ever. Yesterday
he was greater than a mountain; to-day he is less
than a shadow."
By this time, Cuchulainn was so covered with
wounds that he could not bear his clothes to touch
his skin, but had to hold them off with hazel-sticks,
and fill the spaces in between with grass. There
was not a place on him the size of a needle-point
that had not a wound on it, except his left hand,
which held the shield.
But Sualtam, Cuchulainn's reputed father, had
learned what a sore plight his son was in. "Do I
hear the heaven bursting, or the sea running away,
or the earth breaking open," he cried, "or is it my
son's groaning that I hear?" He came to look for
him, and found him covered with wounds and blood.
But Cuchulainn would not let his father either weep
for him or try to avenge him. "Go, rather," he
said to him, "to Emain Macha, and tell Conchobar
that I can no longer defend Ulster against all the
four provinces of Erin without help. Tell him that
there is no part of my body on which there is not
a wound, and that, if he wishes to save his kingdom,
he must make no delay."
Sualtam mounted Cuchulainn's war-horse, the
"Gray of Battle", and galloped to Emain Macha.
Three times he shouted: "Men are being killed,
women carried off, and cattle lifted in Ulster".
Twice he met with no response. The third time,
Cathbad the Druid roused himself from his lethargy
to denounce the man who was disturbing the king's
sleep. In his indignation Sualtam turned away so
sharply that the gray steed reared, and struck its
rider's shield against his neck with such force that
he was decapitated. The startled horse then turned
back into Conchobar's stronghold, and dashed
through it, Sualtam's severed head continuing to
cry out: "Men are being killed, women carried off,
and cattle lifted in Ulster."Such a portent was
enough to rouse the most drowsy. Conchobar,
himself again, swore a great oath. "The heavens
are over us, the earth is beneath us, and the sea
circles us round, and, unless the heavens fall, with
all their stars, or the earth gives way beneath us,
or the sea bursts over the land, I will restore every
cow to her stable, and every woman to her home."
He sent messengers to rally Ulster, and they
gathered, and marched on the men of Erin. And
then was fought such a battle as had never been
before in Ireland. First one side, then the other,
gave way and rallied again, until Cuchulainn heard
the noise of the fight, and rose up, in spite of all his
wounds, and came to it.
He called out to Fergus, reminding him how he
had bound himself with an oath to run from him
when called upon to do so. So Fergus ran before
Cuchulainn, and when Medb's army saw their leader
running they broke and fled like one man.
But the Brown Bull of Cualgne went with the
army into Connaught, and there he met Ailills
bull, the White-horned. And he fought the White-
horned, and tore him limb from limb, and carried
off pieces of him on his horns, dropping the loins
at Athlone and the liver at Trim. Then he went
back to Cualgne, and turned mad, killing all who
crossed his path, until his heart burst with bellowing,
and he fell dead.
This was the end of the great war called Táin Bó
Chuailgné, the "Driving of the Cattle of Cooley".
The Shadowy Town
Yet, wondrous as it was, it was not the most marvellous of Cuchulainn's exploits. Like all the solar
gods and heroes of Celtic myth, he carried his conquests into the dark region of Hades. On this
occasion the mysterious realm is an island called
Dún Scaith, that is, the "Shadowy Town", and
though its king is not mentioned by name, it seems
likely that he was Mider, and that Dún Scaith is
another name for the Isle of Falga, or Man. The
story, as a poem relates it, is curiously suggestive
of a raid which the powers of light, and especially
the sun-gods, are represented as having made upon
Hades in kindred British myth. The same loathsome combatants issue out of the underworld to
repel its assailants. There was a pit in the centre
of Dun Scaith, out of which swarmed a vast throng
of serpents. No sooner had Cuchulainn and the
heroes of Ulster disposed of these than "a house full
of toads" was loosed upon them — "sharp, beaked
monsters" (says the poem), which caught them by
the noses, and these were in turn replaced by fierce
dragons. Yet the heroes prevailed and carried off
the spoil — three cows of magic qualities and a
marvellous cauldron in which was always found an
inexhaustible supply of meat, with treasure of silver
and gold to boot. They started back for Ireland in
a coracle, the three cows being towed behind, with
the treasure in bags around their necks. But the
gods of Hades raised a storm which wrecked their
ship, and they had to swim home. Here Cuchulainn's
more than mortal prowess came in useful. We are
told that he floated nine men to shore on each of his
hands, and thirty on his head, while eight more,
clinging to his sides, used him as a kind of life-belt.
Cuchulainn kills his son
After this, came the tragedy of Cuchulainn's
career, the unhappy duel in which he killed his only
son, not knowing who he was. The story is one
common, apparently, to the Aryan nations, for it is
found not only in the Gaelic, but in the Teutonic
and Persian mythic traditions. It will be remembered that Cuchulainn defeated a rival of Scathach
the Amazon, named Aoife, and compelled her to
render submission. The hero had also a son by
Aoife, and he asked that the boy should be called
Conlaoch, and that, when he was of age to travel,
he should be sent to Ireland to find his father.
Aoife promised this, but, a little later, news came to
her that Cuchulainn had married Emer. Mad with
jealousy, she determined to make the son avenge
her slight upon the father. She taught him the
craft of arms until there was no more that he could
learn, and sent him to Ireland. Before he started,
she laid three geasa upon him. The first was that
he was not to turn back, the second that he was
never to refuse a challenge, and the third that he
was never to tell his name.
He arrived at Dundealgan, Cuchulainn's home,
and the warrior Conall came down to meet him,
and asked him his name and lineage. He refused
to tell them, and this led to a duel, in which Conall
was disarmed and humiliated. Cuchulainn next
approached him, asked the same question, and received the same answer. "Yet if I was not under
a command," said Conlaoch, who did not know he
was speaking to his father, "there is no man in the
world to whom I would sooner tell it than to yourself, for I love your face." Even this compliment
could not stave off the fight, for Cuchulainn felt it
his duty to punish the insolence of this stripling who
refused to declare who he was. The fight was a
fierce one, and the invincible Cuchulainn found himself so pressed that the "hero-light" shone round
him and transfigured his face. When Conlaoch saw
this, he knew who his antagonist must be, and purposely flung his spear slantways that it might not
hit his father. But before Cuchulainn understood,
he had thrown the terrible gae bolg, Conlaoch,
dying, declared his name; and so passionate was Cuchulainn's grief that the men of Ulster were afraid
that in his madness he might wreak his wrath upon
them. They, therefore, called upon Cathbad the
Druid to put him under a glamour. Cathbad turned
the waves of the sea into the appearance of armed
men, and Cuchulainn smote them with his sword
until he fell prone from weariness.
The Death of Cuchulainn
It would take too long to relate all the other
adventures and exploits of Cuchulainn. Enough
has been done if any reader of this chapter should
be persuaded by it to study the wonderful saga of
ancient Ireland for himself We must pass on
quickly to its tragical close — the hero's death.
Medb, Queen of Connaught, had never forgiven
him for keeping back her army from raiding Ulster,
and for slaying so many of her friends and allies.
So she went secretly to all those whose relations
Cuchulainn had killed (and they were many), and
stirred them up to revenge.
Besides this, she had sent the three daughters of
Calatin the Wizard, born after their father's death
at the hands of Cuchulainn, to Alba and to Babylon
to learn witchcraft. When they came back they
were mistresses of every kind of sorcery, and could
make the illusion of battle with an incantation.
And, lest she might fail even then, she waited
with patience until the Ultonians were again in their
magic weakness, and there was no one to help
Cuchulainn but himself.
Lugaid, son of the Curoi, King of Munster
whom Cuchulainn had killed for the sake of Blathnat, Mider's daughter, gathered the Munster men;
Ere, whose father had also fallen at Cuchulainn's
hands, called the men of Meath; the King of
Leinster brought out his army; and, with Ailill
and Medb and all Connaught, they marched into
Ulster again, and began to ravage it.
Conchobar called his warriors and druids into
council, to see if they could find some means of
putting off war until they were ready to meet it.
He did not wish Cuchulainn to go out single-
handed a second time against all the rest of Ireland,
for he knew that, if the champion perished, the
prosperity of Ulster would fall with him for ever.
So, when Cuchulainn came to Emain Macha, the
king set all the ladies, singers, and poets of the
court to keep his thoughts from war until the men
of Ulster had recovered from their weakness.
But while they sat feasting and talking in the
"sunny house", the three daughters of Calatin came
fluttering down on to the lawn before it, and began
gathering grass and thistles and puff-balls and
withered leaves, and turning them into the semblance
of armies. And, by the same magic, they caused
shouts and shrieks and trumpet-blasts and the
clattering of arms to be heard all round the house,
as though a battle were being fought.
Cuchulainn leaped up, red with shame to think
that fighting should be going on without his help,
and seized his sword. But Cathbad's son caught
him by the arms. All the druids explained to him
that what he saw was only an enchantment raised
by the children of Calatin to draw him out to his
death. But it was as much as all of them could do
to keep him quiet while he saw the phantom armies
and heard the magic sounds.
So they decided that it would be well to remove
Cuchulainn from Emain Macha to Glean-na-Bodhar,
the "Deaf Valley", until all the enchantments of
the daughters of Calatin were spent. It was the
quality of this valley that, if all the men of Ireland
were to shout round it at once, no one within it
would hear a sound.
But the daughters of Calatin went there too, and
again they took thistles and puff-balls and withered
leaves, and put on them the appearance of armed
men; so that there seemed to be no place outside
the whole valley that was not filled with shouting
battalions. And they made the illusion of fires all
around and the sound of women shrieking. Everyone who heard that outcry was frightened at it, not
only the men and women, but even the dogs.
Though the women and the druids shouted back
with all the strength of their voices, to drown it
they could not keep Cuchulainn from hearing.
"Alas!" he cried, "I hear the men of Ireland shouting as they ravage the province. My triumph is at
an end; my fame is gone; Ulster lies low for ever."
"Let it pass," said Cathbad; **it is only the idle
magic noises made by the children of Calatin, who
want to draw you out, to put an end to you. Stay
here with us, and take no heed of them."
Cuchulainn obeyed; and the daughters of Calatin
went on for a long time filling the air with noises of
battle. But they grew tired of it at last; for they
saw that the druids and women had outwitted them.
They did not succeed until one of them took
the form of a leman of Cuchulainn s, and came to
him, crying out that Dundealgan was burnt, and
Muirthemne ruined, and the whole province of
Ulster ravaged. Then, at last, he was deceived,
and took his arms and armour, and, in spite of all
that was said to him, he ordered Laeg to yoke his
chariot.
Signs and portents now began to gather as
thickly round the doomed hero as they did round
the wooers in the hall of Odysseus. His famous
war-horse, the Gray of Macha, refused to be bridled,
and shed large tears of blood. His mother, Dechtiré, brought him a goblet full of wine, and thrice
the wine turned into blood as he put it to his lips.
At the first ford he crossed, he saw a maiden of the
sidhe washing clothes and armour, and she told him
that it was the clothes and arms of Cuchulainn, who
was soon to be dead. He met three ancient hags
cooking a hound on spits of rowan, and they invited
him to partake of it. He refused, for it was taboo
to him to eat the flesh of his namesake; but they
shamed him into doing so by telling him that he ate
at rich men's tables and refused the hospitality of
the poor. The forbidden meat paralysed half his
body. Then he saw his enemies coming up against
him in their chariots.
Cuchulainn had three spears, of which it was
prophesied that each should kill a king. Three
druids were charged in turn to ask for these spears;
for it was not thought lucky to refuse anything to
a druid. The first one came up to where Cuchulainn was making the plain red with slaughter.
"Give me one of those spears," he said, "or I will
lampoon you." "Take it," replied Cuchulainn, "I
have never yet been lampooned for refusing anyone
a gift." And he threw the spear at the druid, and
killed him. But Lugaid, son of Curoi, got the
spear, and killed Laeg with it Laeg was the king
of all chariot-drivers.
"Give me one of your spears, Cuchulainn," said
the second druid. " I need it myself," he replied.
"I will lampoon the province of Ulster because of
you, if you refuse." " I am not obliged to give
more than one gift in a day," said Cuchulainn, "but
Ulster shall never be lampooned because of me."
He threw the spear at the druid, and it went
through his head. But Ere, King of Leinster, got
it, and mortally wounded the Gray of Macha, the
king of all horses.
"Give me your spear," said the third druid. "I
have paid all that is due from myself and Ulster,"
replied Cuchulainn. "I will satirize your kindred
if you do not," said the druid." I shall never go
home, but I will be the cause of no lampoons there,"
answered Cuchulainn, and he threw the spear at the
asker, and killed him. But Lugaid threw it back,
and it went through Cuchulainn s body, and wounded
him to the death.
Then, in his agony, he greatly desired to drink.
He asked his enemies to let him go to a lake that
lay close by, and quench his thirst, and then come
back again. "If I cannot come back to you, come
to fetch me," he said; and they let him go.
Cuchulainn drank, and bathed, and came out of
the water. But he found that he could not walk;
so he called to his enemies to come to him. There
was a pillar-stone near; and he bound himself to it
with his belt, so that he might die standing up, and
not lying down. His dying horse, the Gray of
Macha, came back to fight for him, and killed fifty
men with his teeth and thirty with each of his hoofs.
But the "hero-light" had died out of Cuchulainn's
face, leaving it as pale as "a one-night's snow", and
a crow came and perched upon his shoulder.
"Truly it was not upon that pillar that birds used
to sit," said Ere.
Now that they were certain that Cuchulainn was
dead, they all gathered round him, and Lugaid cut
off his head to take it to Medb. But vengeance
came quickly, for Conall the Victorious was in
pursuit, and he made a terrible slaughter of Cuchulainn's enemies.
Thus perished the great hero of the Gaels in the
twenty-seventh year of his age. And with him fell
the prosperity of Emain Macha and of the Red
Branch of Ulster.
