The Cattle-Raid of Fraech
FRAECH, son of Idath of the men of Connaught, a son he to
Befind from the Sidé: a sister she to Boand. He is the hero
who is the most beautiful that was of the men of Eriu and
of Alba, but he was not long-lived. His mother gave him
twelve cows out of the Sid (the fairy mound), they are
white-eared. He had a good housekeeping till the end of
eight years without the taking of a wife. Fifty sons of
kings, this was the number of his household, co-aged,
co-similar to him all between form and instruction.
Findabair, daughter of Ailill and Medb, loves him for the
great stories about him. It is declared to him at his
house. Eriu and Alba were full of his renown and the
stories about him.
After this going to a dialogue with the maiden occurred to
him; he discussed that matter with his people.
"Let there be a message then sent to thy mother's sister,
so that a portion of wondrous robing and of gifts from the
Sidé (fairy folk) be given thee from her." He goes
accordingly to the sister, that is to Boand, till he was in
Mag Breg, and he carried away fifty dark-blue cloaks, and
each of them was like the back of a black chafer, and four
black-grey, rings on each cloak, and a brooch of red gold
on each cloak, and pale white tunics with loop-animals of
gold around them. And fifty silver shields with edges, and
a candle of a king's-house in the hand of them (the men),
and fifty studs of findruine on each of them (the lances),
fifty knobs of thoroughly burned gold on each of them;
points (i.e. butt-ends) of carbuncle under them beneath,
and their point of precious stones. They used to light the
night as if they were the sun's rays.
And there were fifty gold-hilted swords with them, and a
soft-grey mare under the seat of each man, and bits of gold
to them; a plate of silver with a little bell of gold
around the neck of each horse. Fifty caparisons of purple
with threads of silver out of them, with buckles of gold
and silver and with head-animals (i.e. spiral ornaments).
Fifty whips of findruine, with a golden hook on the end of
each of them. And seven chase-hounds in chains of silver,
and an apple of gold between each of them. Greaves of
bronze about them, by no means was there any colour which
was not on the hounds.
Seven trumpeters with them with golden and silver trumpets
with many coloured garments, with golden fairy-yellow heads
of hair, with shining tunics. There were three jesters
before them with silver diadems under gilding. Shields with
engraved emblems (or marks of distinction) with each of
them; with crested staves, with ribs of bronze
(copper-bronze) along their sides, Three harp-players with
a king's appearance about each of them opposite to these.
They depart for Cruachan with that appearance on them.
The watchman sees them from the dun when they had come into
the plain of Cruachan. "A multitude I see," he says,
"(come) towards the dun in their numbers. Since Ailill and
Maev assumed sovereignty there came not to them before, and
there shall not come to them, a multitude, which is more
beautiful, or which is more splendid. It is the same with
me that it were in a vat of wine my head should be, with
the breeze that goes over them.
"The manipulation and play that the young hero who is in it
makes--I have not before seen its likeness. He shoots his
pole a shot's discharge from him; before it reaches to
earth the seven chase-hounds with their seven silver chains
catch it."
At this the hosts come from the dun of Cruachan to view
them. The people in the dun smother one another, so that
sixteen men die while viewing them.
They alight in front of the dun. They tent their steeds,
and they loose the chase-hounds. They (the hounds) chase
the seven deer to Rath-Cruachan, and seven foxes, and seven
hares, and seven wild boars, until the youths kill them in
the lawn of the dun. After that the chase-hounds dart a
leap into Brei; they catch seven otters. They brought them
to the elevation in front of the chief rath. They (Fraech
and his suite) sit down there.
A message comes from the king for a parley with them. It is
asked whence they came, they name themselves according to
their true names, "Fraech, son of Idath this," say they.
The steward tells it to the king and queen. "Welcome to
them," say Ailill and Medb; "It is a noble youth who is
there," says Ailill, "let him come into the Liss (outer
court)." The fourth of the house is allotted to them. This
was the array of the house, a seven fold order in it; seven
apartments from fire to side-wall in the house all round. A
rail (or front) of bronze to each apartment; a partitioning
of red yew under variegated planing all.
Three plates of bronze in the skirting of each apartment.
Seven plates of brass from the ceiling (?) to the roof-tree
in the house.
Of pine the house was made; it is a covering of shingle it
had externally. There were sixteen windows in the house,
and a frame of brass, to each of them; a tie of brass
across the roof-light. Four beams of brass on the apartment
of Ailill and Medb, adorned all with bronze, and it in the
exact centre of the house. Two rails of silver around it
under gilding. In the front a wand of silver that reached
the middle rafters of the house. The house was encircled
all round from the door to the other.
They hang up their arms in that house, and they sit, and
welcome is made to them.
"Welcome to you," say Ailill and Medb. "It is that we have
come for," says Fraech. "It shall not be a journey for
boasting[1] this," says Medb, and Ailill and Medb arrange
the chess-board after that. Fraech then takes to the
playing of chess with a man of their (?) people.
It was a beauty of a chess-board. A board of findruine in
it with four ears and edges of gold. A candle of precious
stones at illuminating for them. Gold and silver the
figures that were upon the table. "Prepare ye food for the
warriors," said Ailill. "Not it is my desire," said Medb,
but to go to the chess yonder against Fraech." "Get to it,
I am pleased," said Ailill, and they play the chess then,
and Fraech.
His people were meanwhile at cooking the wild animals. "Let
thy harpers play for us," says Ailill to Fraech. "Let them
play indeed!" says Fraech. A harp-bag of the skins of
otters about them with their adornment of ruby (or coral),
beneath their adornment of gold and silver.
The skin of a roe about them in the middle, it was as white
as snow; black-grey eyes in their centre. Cloaks of linen
as white as the tunic of a swan around these ties. Harps of
gold and silver and bronze, with figures of serpents and
birds, and hounds of gold and silver: as they moved those
strings those figures used to run about the men all round.
They play for them then so that twelve of the people of
Ailill and Medb die with weeping and sadness.
Gentle and melodious were the triad, and they were the
Chants of Uaithne (Child-birth). The illustrious triad are
three brothers, namely Gol-traiges (Sorrow-strain), and
Gen-traiges (Joy-strain), and Suan-traiges (Sleep-strain).
Boand from the fairies is the mother of the triad: it is
from the music which Uaithne, the Dagda's harp, played that
the three are named. The time the woman was at the bearing
of children it had a cry of sorrow with the soreness of the
pangs at first: it was smile and joy it played in the
middle for the pleasure of bringing forth the two sons: it
was a sleep of soothingness played the last son, on account
of the heaviness of the birth, so that it is from him that
the third of the music has been named.
Boand awoke afterwards out of the sleep. "I accept," she
says, "thy three sons O Uaithne of full ardour, since there
is Suan-traide and Gen-traide, and Gol-traide on cows and
women who shall fall by Medb and Ailill, men who shall
perish by the hearing of art from them."
They cease from playing after that in the palace: "It is
stately it has come," says Fergus. "Divide ye to us," says
Fraech to his people, "the food, bring ye it into the
house." Lothur went on the floor of the house: he divides
to them the food. On his haunches he used to divide each
joint with his sword, and he used not to touch the food
part: since he commenced dividing, he never hacked the meat
beneath his hand.
They were three days and three nights at the playing of the
chess on account of the abundance of the precious stones in
the household of Fraech. After that Fraech addressed Medb.
"It is well I have played against thee (i.e. have beaten
thee)," he says, "I take not away thy stake from the
chess-board that there be not a decay of hospitality for
thee in it."
"Since I have been in this dun this is the day which I deem
longest in it ever," says Medb. "This is reasonable," says
Fraech, "they are three days and three nights in it." At
this Medb starts up. It was a shame with her that the
warriors were without food. She goes to Ailill: she tells
it to him. "A great deed we have done," said she, "the
stranger men who have come to us to be without food."
"Dearer to thee is playing of the chess," says Ailill. "It
hinders not the distribution to his suite throughout the
house. They have been three days and three nights in it but
that we perceived not the night with the white light of the
precious stones in the house." "Tell them," says Ailill,
"to cease from the lamenting until distribution is made to
them." Distribution is then made to them, and things were
pleasing to them, and they stayed three days and three
nights in it after that over the feasting.
It is after that Fraech was called into the house of
conversation, and it is asked of him what brought him. "A
visit with you," said he, "is pleasing to me." "Your
company is indeed not displeasing with the household," said
Ailill, "your addition is better than your diminution."
"We shall stay here then," says Fraech, "another week."
They stay after that till the end of a fortnight in the
dun, and they have a hunt every single day towards the dun.
The men of Connaught used to come to view them.
It was a trouble with Fraech not to have a conversation
with the daughter: for that was the profit that had brought
him. A certain day he starts up at the end of night for
washing to the stream. It is the time she had gone and her
maid for washing. He takes her hand. "Stay for my
conversing," he says; "it is thou I have come for." "I am
delighted truly," says the daughter; "if I were to come, I
could do nothing for thee." "Query, wouldst thou elope with
me?" he says.
"I will not elope," says she, "for I am the daughter of a
king and a queen. There is nothing of thy poverty that you
should not get me (i.e. thy poverty is not so great that
thou art not able to get me) from my family; and it shall
be my choice accordingly to go to thee, it is thou whom I
have loved. And take thou with thee this ring," says the
daughter, "and it shall be between us for a token. My
mother gave it to me to put by, and I shall say that I put
it astray." Each of them accordingly goes apart after that.
"I fear," says Ailill, "the eloping of yon daughter with
Fraech, though she would be given to him on solemn pledge
that he would come towards us with his cattle for aid at
the Spoil." Fraech goes to them to the house of
conversation. "Is it a secret ye have?" says Fraech. "Thou
wouldest fit in it," says Ailill.
"Will ye give me your daughter?" says Fraech. "The hosts
will clearly see she shall be given," says Ailill, "if thou
wouldest give a dowry as shall be named." "Thou shalt have
it," says Fraech. "Sixty black-grey steeds to me, with
their bits of gold to them, and twelve milch cows, so that
there be milked liquor of milk from each of them, and an
ear-red, white calf with each of them; and thou to come
with me with all thy force and with thy musicians for
bringing of the cows from Cualgne; and my daughter to be
given thee provided thou dost come" (or as soon as thou
shalt come). "I swear by my shield, and by my sword, and by
my accoutrement, I would not give that in dowry even of
Medb." He went from them out of the house then. Ailill and
Medb hold a conversation. "It shall drive at us several of
the kings of Erin around us if he should carry off the
daughter. What is good is, let us dash after him, and let
us slay him forthwith, before he may inflict destruction
upon us." "It is a pity this," says Medb, "and it is a
decay of hospitality for us." "It shall not be a decay of
hospitality for us, it shall not be a decay of hospitality
for us, the way I shall prepare it."
Ailill and Medb go into the palace. "Let us go away," says
Ailill,, that we may see the chase-hounds at hunting till
the middle of the day, and until they are tired." They all
go off afterwards to the river to bathe themselves.
"It is declared to me," says Ailill, "that thou art good in
water. Come into this flood, that we may see thy swimming."
"What is the quality of this flood?" he says. "We know not
anything dangerous in it," says Ailill, "and bathing in it
is frequent." He strips his clothes off him then, and he
goes into it, and he leaves his girdle above. Ailill then
opens his purse behind him, and the ring was in it. Ailill
recognises it then. "Come here, O Medb," says Ailill. Medb
goes then. "Dost thou recognise that?" says Ailill. "I do
recognise," she says. Ailill flings it into the river down.
Fraech perceived that matter. He sees something, the salmon
leaped to meet it, and caught it in his mouth. He (Fraech)
gives a bound to it, and he catches its jole, and he goes
to land, and he brings it to a lonely spot on the brink of
the river. He proceeds to come out of the water then. "Do
not come," says Ailill, "until thou shalt bring me a branch
of the rowan-tree yonder, which is on the brink of the
river: beautiful I deem its berries." He then goes away,
and breaks a branch off the trees and brings it on his back
over the water. The remark of Find-abair was: "Is it not
beautiful he looks?" Exceedingly beautiful she thought it
to see Fraech over a black pool: the body of great
whiteness, and the hair of great loveliness, the face of
great beauty, the eye of great greyness; and he a soft
youth without fault, without blemish, with a below-narrow,
above-broad face; and he straight, blemishless; the branch
with the red berries between the throat and the white face.
It is what Find-abair used to say, that by no means had she
seen anything that could come up to him half or third for
beauty.
After that he throws the branches to them out of the water.
"The berries are stately and beautiful, bring us an
addition of them." He goes off again until he was in the
middle of the water. The serpent catches him out of the
water. "Let a sword come to me from you," he says; and
there was not on the land a man who would dare to give it
to him through fear of Ailill and Medb. After that
Find-abair strips off her clothes, and gives a leap into
the water with the sword. Her father lets fly a
five-pronged spear at her from above, a shot's throw, so
that it passes through her two tresses, and that Fraech
caught the spear in his hand. He shoots the spear into the
land up, and the monster in his side. He lets it fly with a
charge of the methods of playing of championship, so that
it goes through the purple robe and through the tunic (?
shirt) that was about Ailill.
At this the youths who were about Ailill rise to him.
Findabair goes out of the water and leaves the sword in
Fraech's hand, and he cuts the head off the monster, so
that it was on its side, and he brought the monster with
him to land. It is from it is Dub-lind Fraech in Brei, in
the lands of the men of Connaught. Ailill and Medb go to
their dun afterwards.
"A great deed is what we have done," says Medb. "We
repent," says Ailill, "of what we have done to the man; the
daughter however," he says, "her lips shall perish [common
metaphor for death] to-morrow at once, and it shall not be
the guilt of bringing of the sword that shall be for her.
Let a bath be made by you for this man, namely, broth of
fresh bacon and the flesh of a heifer to be minced in it
under adze and axe, and he to be brought into the bath."
All that thing was done as he said. His trumpeters then
before him to the dun. They play then until thirty of the
special friends of Ailill die at the long-drawn (or
plaintive) music. He goes then into the dun, and he goes
into the bath. The female company rise around him at the
vat for rubbing, and for washing his head. He was brought
out of it then, and a bed was made. They heard something,
the lament-cry on Cruachan. There were seen the three times
fifty women with crimson tunics, with green head-dresses,
with brooches of silver on their wrists.
A messenger is sent to them to learn what they had
bewailed. "Fraech, son of Idath," says the woman, "boy-pet
of the king of the Sidé of Erin." At this Fraech heard
their lament-cry.
"Lift me out of it," he says to his people; "this is the
cry of my mother and of the women of Boand." He is lifted
out at this, and he is brought to them. The women come
around him, and bring him from them to the Sid of Cruachan
(i.e. the deep caverns, used for burial at Cruachan).
They saw something, at the ninth hour on the morrow he
comes, and fifty women around him, and he quite whole,
without stain and without blemish; of equal age (the
women), of equal form, of equal beauty, of equal fairness,
of equal symmetry, of equal stature, with the dress of
women of the fairies about them so that there was no means
of knowing of one beyond the other of them. Little but men
were suffocated around them. They separate in front of the
Liss. They give forth their lament on going from him, so
that they troubled the men who were in the Liss
excessively. It is from it is the Lament-cry of the Women
of the Fairies with the musicians of Erin.
He then goes into the dun. All the hosts rise before him,
and bid welcome to him, as if it were from another world he
were coming.
Ailill and Medb arise, and do penance to him for the attack
they had made at him, and they make peace. Feasting
commenced with them then at once. Fraech calls a servant of
his suite: "Go off," he says, "to the spot at which I went
into the water. A salmon I left there--bring it to
Find-abair, and let herself take charge over it; and let
the salmon be well broiled by her, and the ring is in the
Centre of the salmon. I expect it will be asked of her
to-night." Inebriety seizes them, and music and amusement
delight them. Ailill then said: "Bring ye all my gems to
me." They were brought to him then, so that the were before
him. "Wonderful, wonderful," says every one. "Call ye
Find-abair to me," he says. Find-abair goes to him, and
fifty maidens around her. "O daughter," says Ailill, "the
ring I gave to thee last year, does it remain with thee?
Bring it to me that the warriors may see it. Thou shalt
have it afterwards." "I do not know," she says, "what has
been done about it." "Ascertain then," says Ailill, "it
must be sought, or thy soul must depart from thy body."
"It is by no means worth," say the warriors, "there is much
of value there, without that." "There is naught of my
jewels that will not go for the maid," says Fraech,
"because she brought me the sword for pledge of my soul."
"There is not with thee anything of gems that should aid
her unless she returns the ring from her," says Ailill.
"I have by no means the power to give it," says the
daughter, "what thou mayest like do it in regard to me." "I
swear to the god to whom my people swear, thy lips shall be
pale (literally, shall perish) unless thou returnest it
from thee," says Ailill. "It is why it is asked of thee,
because it is impossible; for I know that until the people
who have died from the beginning of the world. come, it
comes not out of the spot in which it was flung." "It shall
not come for a treasure which is not appreciated," says the
daughter, "the ring that is asked for here, I go that I may
bring it to thee, since it is keenly it is asked." "Thou
shalt not go," says Ailill; "but let one go from thee to
bring it."
The daughter sends her maid to bring it.
"I swear to the god to whom my territories swear, if it
shall be found, I shall by no means be under thy power any
longer though I should be at great drinking continually."
(?) "I shall by no means prevent you from doing that,
namely even if it were to the groom thou shouldst go if the
ring is found," says Ailill. The maid then brought the dish
into the palace, and the broiled salmon on it, and it
dressed under honey which was well made by the daughter;
and the ring of gold was on the salmon from above.
Ailill and Medb view it. After that Fraech looks at it, and
looks at his purse. "It seems to me it was for proof that I
left my girdle," says Fraech. "On the truth of the
sovereignty," says Fraech, "say what thou did'st about the
ring." "This shall not be concealed from thee," says
Ailill; "mine is the ring which was in thy purse, and I
knew it is Find-abair gave it to thee. It is therefore I
flung it into the Dark Pool. On the truth of thine honour
and of thy soul, O Fraech, declare thou what way the
bringing of it out happened."
"It shall not be concealed on thee," says Fraech. "The
first day I found the ring in front of the outer court, and
I knew it was a lovely gem. It is for that reason I put it
up industriously in my purse. I heard, the day I went to
the water, the maiden who had lost it a-looking for it. I
said to her: 'What reward shall I have at thy hands for the
finding of it?' She said to me that she would give a year's
love to me.
"It happened I did not leave it about me; I had left it in
the house behind me. We met not until we met at the giving
of the sword into my hand in the river. After that I saw
the time thou open'st the purse and flungest the ring into
the water: I saw the salmon which leaped for it, so that it
took it into its mouth. I then caught the salmon, took it
up in the cloak, put it into the hand of the daughter. It
is that salmon accordingly which is on the dish."
The criticising and the wondering at these stories begin in
the house hold. "I shall not throw my mind on another youth
in Erin after thee," says Find-abair. "Bind thyself for
that," say Ailill and Medb, "and come thou to us with thy
cows to the Spoil of the Cows from Cualnge; and when thou
shalt come with thy cows from the East back, ye shall wed
here that night at once and Find-abair." "I shall do that
thing," says Fraech. They are in it then until the morning.
Fraech sets about him self with his suite. He then bids
farewell to Ailill and Medb. They depart to their own
territories then.
IT happened that his cows had been in the meanwhile stolen.
His mother came to him. "Not active (or "lucky") of journey
hast thou gone; it shall cause much of trouble to thee,"
she says. "Thy cows have been stolen, and thy three sons,
and thy wife, so that they are in the mountain of Elpa.
Three cows of them are in Alba of the North with the
Cruthnechi (the Picts)." "Query, what shall I do?" he says
to his mother. "Thou shalt do a non-going for seeking them;
thou wouldest not give thy life for them," she says. "Thou
shalt have cows at my hands besides them." "Not so this,"
he says: "I have pledged my hospitality and my soul to go
to Ailill and to Medb with my cows to the Spoil of the Cows
from Cualnge." "What thou seekest shall not be obtained,"
says his mother. At this she goes off from him then.
He then sets out with three nines, and a wood-cuckoo
(hawk), and a hound of tie with them, until he goes to the
territory of the Ulstermen, so that he meets with Conall
Cernach (Conall the Victorious) at Benna Bairchi (a
mountain on the Ulster border).
He tells his quest to him. "What awaits thee," says the
latter, "shall not be lucky for thee. Much of trouble
awaits thee," he says, "though in it the mind should be."
"It will come to me," says Fraech to Connall, "that thou
wouldest help me any time we should meet." (?) "I shall go
truly," says Conall Cernach. They set of the three (i.e.
the three nines) over sea, over Saxony of the North, over
the Sea of Icht (the sea between England and France), to
the north of the Long-bards (the dwellers of Lombardy),
until they reached the mountains of Elpa. They saw a
herd-girl at tending of the sheep before them. "Let us go
south," says Conall, "O Fraech, that we may address the
woman yonder, and let our youths stay here."
They went then to a conversation. She said, "Whence are
ye?" "Of the men of Erin," says Conall. "It shall not be
lucky for the men of Erin truly, the coming to this
country. From the men of Erin too is my mother. Aid thou me
on account of relationship."
"Tell us something about our movements. What is the quality
of the land we have to come to?" "A grim hateful land with
troublesome warriors, who go on every side for carrying off
cows and women as captives," she says. "What is the latest
thing they have carried off?" says Fraech. "The cows of
Fraech, son of Idath, from the west of Erin, and his wife,
and his three sons. Here is his wife here in the house of
the king, here are his cows in the country in front of
you." "Let thy aid come to us," says Conall. Little is my
power, save guidance only." "This is Fraech," says Conall,
and they are his cows that have been carried off." "Is the
woman constant in your estimation?" she says. "Though
constant in our estimation when she went, perchance she is
not constant after coming." "The woman who frequents the
cows, go ye to her; tell ye of your errand; of the men of
Ireland her race; of the men of Ulster exactly."
They come to her; they receive her, and they name
themselves to her, and she bids welcome to them. "What hath
led you forth?" she says. "Trouble hath led us forth," says
Conall; "ours are the cows and the woman that is in the
Liss."
"It shall not be lucky for you truly," she says, "the going
up to the multitude of the woman; more troublesome to you
than everything," she says, "is the serpent which is at
guarding of the Liss." "She is not my country-name (?),"
says Fraech, "she is not constant in my estimation; thou
art constant in my estimation; we know thou wilt not lead
us astray, since it is from the men of Ulster thou art."
"Whence are ye from the men of Ulster?" she says. "This is
Conall Cernach here, the bravest hero with the men of
Ulster," says Fraech. She flings two hands around the
throat of Conall Cernach. "The destruction has come in this
expedition," she says, "since he has come to us; for it is
to him the destruction of this dun has been prophesied. I
shall go out to my house," she says, "I shall not be at the
milking of the cows. I shall leave the Liss opened; it is I
who close it every night. I shall say it is for drink the
calves were sucking. Come thou into the dun, when they are
sleeping; only trouble. some to you is the serpent which is
at the dun; several tribes are let loose from it."
"We will go truly," says Conall. They attack the Liss; the
serpent darts leap into the girdle of Conall Cernach, and
they plunder the dun at once. They save off then the woman
and the three sons, and they carry away whatever was the
best of the gems of the dun, and Conall lets the serpent
out of his girdle, and neither of them did harm to the
other. And they came to the territory of the people of the
Picts, until they saw three cows of their cows in it. They
drove off to the Fort of Ollach mac Briuin (now Dunolly
near Oban) with them, until they were at Ard Uan Echach
(high-foaming Echach). It is there the gillie of Conall met
his death at the driving of the cows, that is Bicne son of
Loegaire; it is from this is (the name of) Inver Bicne (the
Bicne estuary) at Benchor. They brought their cows over it
thither. It is there they flung their horns from them, so
that it is thence is (the name of) Tracht Benchoir (the
Strand of Horn casting, perhaps the modern Bangor?).
Fraech goes away then to his territory after, and his wife,
and his sons, and his cows with him, until he goes with
Ailill and Medb for the Spoil of the Cows from Cualnge.
SOURCE:
"Tain Bo Fraech" Heroic
Romances of Ireland vol. II.
trans. and ed. by A.H. Leahy. London: David Nutt,
1906.