Early Irish Myths and Sagas - Jeffrey Gantz [59]
‘Then his ríastarthae came upon him.1 You would have thought that every hair was being driven into his head. You would have thought that a spark of fire was on every hair. He closed one eye until it was no wider than the eye of a needle; he opened the other until it was as big as a wooden bowl. He bared his teeth from jaw to ear, and he opened his mouth until the gullet was visible. The warrior’s moon rose from his head.
‘Cú Chulaind struck at the boys and overthrew fifty of them before they could reach the doors of Emuin. Nine of them ran over Conchubur and myself as we were playing fidchell; Cú Chulaind sprang over the board after them, but Conchubur took his arm and said “Not good your treatment of the boy troop.” “Fair play it is,” answered Cú Chulaind. “I came from my mother and my father to play with them, and they were not nice to me.” “What is your name?” asked Conchubur. “Sétantae, the son of Súaltaim and of Deichtine, your sister. I did not expect such a reception here.” “Why did you not secure the boys’ protection?” asked Conchubur. “I did not know that was necessary,” replied Cú Chulaind. “Accept my protection now, then,” said Conchubur. “That I will,” answered Cú Chulaind.
‘That same day Cú Chulaind turned upon the boys in the house. “What is wrong with you now?” asked Conchubur. “I wish that their protection be given over to me,” Cú Chulaind answered. “Undertake to protect them, then,” said Conchubur. “That I will,” replied Cú Chulaind.
‘They returned to the playing field, then, and those boys who had been struck down arose, and their foster-mothers and foster-fathers helped them.’
*
‘Another time, there was a falling out between the Ulaid and Éogan son of Durthacht. The Ulaid went into battle while Cú Chulaind was still asleep; they were defeated, but Conchubur and Cúscraid Mend Machae and a great multitude survived, and their wailing woke him. He stretched so that the two stones on either side of him broke – this in the presence of Bricriu yonder – and then he arose. I met, him at the courtyard entrance, I being wounded. “Alas! God preserve your life, popa Fergus,” he said. “Where is Conchubur?” “I do not know,” I answered.
‘He set off, then, into the dark night. He made for the battlefield, and there he found a man with half a head, and half of another man on his back. “Help me, Cú Chulaind,” the man said, “for I have been wounded, and I have half my brother on my back. Carry him a while with me.” “That I will not,” replied Cú Chulaind. The man put his burden on Cú Chulaind’s back; Cú Chulaind threw it off. They wrestled, and Cú Chulaind was thrown. He heard the Badb from among the corpses: “A bad warrior he who lies at the feet of a spectre.” Cú Chulaind rose to attack the man, then; he struck his head off with his hurley and drove it before him across the plain.
‘ “Is popa Conchubur in this battlefield?” Cú Chulaind asked, and his question was answered. He went on until he found Conchubur in a ditch, with dirt piled up about him on every side. “Why did you come to the battlefield and the mortal terror that is here?” asked Conchubur. Cú Chulaind raised Conchubur up out of the ditch – six Ulaid champions could not have raised him more bravely. “Bear me to that house yonder,” Conchubur said, “and light me a great fire there.” Cú Chulaind lit the fire. “Good that,” said Conchubur. “Now if I were to get a roasted pig to eat, I would live.” Cú Chulaind went out and found a man over a cooking spit in the middle of the forest, one hand holding his weapons, the other cooking a boar. The man was terrifying; even so, Cú Chulaind attacked and took the man’s head and the boar. Conchubur ate the pig, after which he said “Let us go to our own house.” On the way they met Cúscraid son of Conchubur; he was badly wounded, so Cú Chulaind carried him on his back, and the three returned to Emuin Machae.’
*
‘We knew that boy, indeed,’ said Conall Cernach, ‘and we were none the worse for knowing him. He was our fosterling. Not long after the deeds Fergus has just related he performed another feat.
‘When Culand