The Driving of the Cattle of Flidais
Leabhar
na h-Uidhri
Book of Leinster
FLIDAIS was the wife of Ailill Finn (the Fair-haired) in
the district of Kerry.[1]
She
loved Fergus the son of Róg on account of the glorious
tales about him; and always there went messengers from her
to him at the end of each week.
So, when he came to Connaught, he brought this matter
before[2]
Ailill:
"What[3]
shall I
do next in this matter?" said Fergus: "it is hard for me to
lay bare your land, without there being loss to thee of
honour and renown therewith." "Yes, what shall we do next
in the matter?" said Ailill; "we will consider this in
counsel with Maev." "Let one of us go to Ailill Finn,"
(said Maev), "that he may help us, and as this involves a
meeting of some one with him, there is no reason why it
should not be thyself who goest to him: the gift will be
all the better for that!"
Then Fergus set out thereon, in number thirty men; the two
Ferguses (i.e. Fergus mac Róg, and Fergus mac Oen-lama) and
Dubhtach; till they were at the Ford of Fenna in the north
of the land of Kerry. They go to the burg, and welcome is
brought to them.[4]
"What
brings you here?" said Ailill Finn. "We had the intention
of staying with you on a visit, for we have a quarrel with
Ailill the son of Magach."
"If it were one of thy people who had the quarrel, he
should stay with me until he had made his peace. But thou
shalt not stay," said Ailill Finn, "it has been told me
that my wife loves thee!" "We must have a gift of cows
then," said Fergus, "for a great need lies on us, even the
sustenance of the troop who have gone with me into exile."
"Thou shalt carry off no such present from me," he said,
"because thou art not remaining with me on a visit. Men
will say that it is to keep my wife that I gave thee what
thou hast required. I[5]
will
give to your company one ox and some bacon to help them, if
such is your pleasure." "I will eat not thy bread although
offered (lit. however)," said Fergus, "because I can get no
present of honour from thee!"
"Out of my house with you all, then!" said Ailill.
"That shall be," said Fergus; "we shall not begin to lay
siege to thee and they betake themselves outside.
"Let a man come at once to fight me beside a ford at the
gate of this castle!" said Fergus.
"That[6]
will not
for the sake of my honour be refused," said Ailill; "I will
not hand it (the strife) over to another: I will go
myself," said he. He went to a ford against him. "Which of
us," said Fergus, "O Dubhtach, shall encounter this man?"
"I will go," said Dubhtach; "I am younger and keener than
thou art!" Dubhtach went against Ailill. Dubhtach thrust a
spear through Ailill so that it went through his two
thighs. He (Ailill) hurled a javelin at Dubhtach, so that
he drove the spear right through him, (so that it came out)
on the other side.
Fergus threw his shield over Dubhtach. The former (Ailill)
thrust his spear at the shield of Fergus so that he even
drove the shaft right through it. Fergus mac Oen-laimi
comes by. Fergus mac Oen-laimi holds a shield in front of
him (the other Fergus). Ailill struck his spear upon this
so that it was forced right through it. He leaped so that
he lay there on the top of his companions. Flidais comes by
from the castle, and throws her cloak over the three.
Fergus' people took to flight; Ailill pursues them. There
remain (slain) by him twenty men of them. Seven of them
escape to Cruachan Ai, and tell there the whole story to
Ailill and Medb.
Then Ailill and Medb arise, and the nobles of Connaught and
the exiles from Ulster: they march into the district of
Kerry Ai with their troops as far as: the Ford of Fenna.
Meanwhile the wounded men were being cared for by Flidais
in the castle, and their healing was undertaken by her.
Then the troops come to the castle. Ailill Finn is summoned
to Ailill mac Mata to come to a conference with him outside
the castle. "I will not go," he said; "the pride and
arrogance of that man there is great."
It was,[7]
however,
for a peaceful meeting that Ailill mac Mata had come to
Ailill the Fair-haired, both that he might save Fergus, as
it was right he should, and that he might afterwards make
peace with him (Ailill Fair haired), according to the will
of the lords of Connaught.
Then the wounded men were brought out of the castle, on
hand-barrows, that they might be cared for by their own
people.
Then the men attack him (Ailill Finn): while they are
storming the castle, and they could get no hold on him, a
full week long went it thus with them. Seven times twenty
heroes from among the nobles of Connaught fell during the
time that they (endeavoured) to storm the castle of Ailill
the Fair-haired.
"It was with no good omen that with which you went to this
castle," said Bricriu. "True indeed is the word that is
spoken," said Ailill mac Mata. "The expedition is bad for
the honour of the Ulstermen, in that their three heroes
fall, and they take not vengeance for them. Each one (of
the three) was a pillar of war, yet not a single man has
fallen at the hands of one of the three! Truly these heroes
are great to be under such wisps of straw as axe the men of
this castle! Most worthy is it of scorn that one man has
wounded you three!"
"O woe is me," said Bricriu, "long is the length upon the
ground of my Papa Fergus, since one man in single combat
laid him low!"
Then the champions of Ulster arise, naked as they were, and
make a strong and obstinate attack in their rage and in the
might of their violence, so that they forced in the outer
gateway till it was in the midst of the castle, and the men
of Connaught go beside them. They storm the castle with
great might against the valiant warriors who were there. A
wild pitiless battle is fought between them, and each man
begins to strike out against the other, and to destroy him.
Then, after they had wearied of wounding and overcoming one
another, the people of the castle were overthrown, and the
Ulstermen slay seven hundred warriors there in the castle
with Ailill the Fair-Haired and thirty of his sons; and
Amalgaid the Good;[8]
and
Núado; and Fiacho Muinmethan (Fiacho the Broad-backed); and
Corpre Cromm (the Bent or Crooked); and Ailill from Brefne;
and the three Oengus Bodbgnai (the Faces of Danger); and
the three Eochaid of Irross (i.e. Irross Donnan); and the
seven Breslene from Ai; and the fifty Domnall.
For the assembly of the Gamanrad were with Ailill, and each
of the men of Domnan who had bidden himself to come to him
to aid him: they were in the same place assembled in his
castle; for he knew that the exiles from Ulster and Ailill
and Medb with their army would come to him to demand the
surrender of Fergus, for Fergus was under their protection.
This was the third race of heroes in Ireland, namely the
Clan Gamanrad of Irross Donnan (the peninsula of Donnan),
and (the other two were) the Clan Dédad in Temair Lochra,
and the Clan Rudraige in Emain Macha. But both the other
clans were destroyed by the Clan Rudraige.
But the men of Ulster arise, and with them the people of
Medb and of Ailill; and they laid waste the castle, and
take Flidais out of the castle with them, and carry off the
women of the castle into captivity; and they take with them
all the costly things and the treasures that were there,
gold and silver, and horns, and drinking cups, and keys,
and vats; and they take what there was of garments of every
colour, and they take what there was of kine, even a
hundred milch-cows, and a hundred and forty oxen, and
thirty hundred of little cattle.
And after these things had been done, Flidais went to
Fergus mac Róg according to the decree of Ailill and Medb,
that they might thence have sustenance (lit. that their
sustenance might be) on the occasion of the Raid of the
Cows of Cualgne. As[9]
a result
of this, Flidais was accustomed each seventh day from the
produce of her cows to support the men of Ireland, in order
that during the Raid she might provide them with the means
of life. This then was the Herd of Flidais.
In consequence[10]
of all
this Flidais went with Fergus to his home, and he received
the lordship of a part of Ulster, even Mag Murthemni (the
plain of Murthemne), together with that which had been in
the hands of Cuchulain, the son of Sualtam. So Flidais died
after some time at Trag Bàli (the shore of Bali), and the
state of Fergus' household was none the better for that.
For she used to supply all Fergus' needs whatsoever they
might be (lit. she used to provide for Fergus every outfit
that he desired for himself). Fergus died after some time
in the land of Connaught, after the death of his wife,
after he had gone there to obtain knowledge of a story.
For, in order to cheer himself, and to fetch home a grant
of cows from Ailill and Medb, he had gone westwards to
Cruachan, so that it was in consequence of this journey
that he found his death in the west, through the jealousy
of Ailill.
This, then, is the story of the Tain bo Flidais;
it[11]
is among
the preludes of the Tain bo Cualnge.
LEAHY'S
NOTES
1.
Kerry is
the district now called Castlereagh, in the west of the
present county of Roscommon.
2.
i.e.
Ailill of Connaught.
3.
This
sentence to the end is taken from the Egerton version,
which seems the clearer; the Book of Leinster gives: "What
shall I do next, that there be no loss of honour or renown
to thee in the matter?"
4.
The Book
of the Dun Cow (Leabhar na h-Uidhri) version begins at this
point.
5.
L.L. and
Egerton make the end of this speech part of the story:
"There was given to them one ox with bacon, with as much as
they wished of beer, as a feast for them."
6.
The end
of the speech is from L.L.: the L.U. text gives the whole
speech thus: "For my honour's sake, I could not draw back
in this matter."
7.
This
passage is sometimes considered to be an interpolation by a
scribe or narrator whose sympathies were with Connaught.
The passage does not occur in the Book of Leinster, nor in
the Egerton MS.
8.
"The
Good" is in the Book of Leinster and the Egerton text, not
in the Leabhar na h-Uidhri: the two later texts omit Núado
9.
L.L. and
Egerton give "For him used every seventh day," &c.
10.
L.L. and
Egerton give "thereafter," adopted in verse translation.
11.
This
sentence does not occur in the Leabhar na h-Uidhri. It is
given as in the Egerton version: the Book of Leinster gives
"it is among the preludes of the Tain."
SOURCES
Heroic
Romances of Ireland, Volume II ed. and
trans. A.H. Leahy. London: David Nutt, 1906.