Chapter X: Combat with Fergus and Others

Summary

Cúchulainn by day

The morning after the Carnage Cúchulainn comes out to display himself to the matrons, virgins, young girls, poets and bards. He feels that the unearthly shape he showed the night before did not do him justice. His hair looks like three kinds, brown at the base, blood-red in the middle and gold on top. He has seven pupils in each eye, seven toes on each foot and seven fingers on each hand. He wears a purple mantle held by a brooch too bright to look at. In one hand he holds nine human heads and in the other ten, and he shakes them at the armies. They are the crop of one night's warfare.

The Connacht women climb on the soldiers and the Munster women on their own men to see him. Medb does not dare show her face from under the barrel-shaped shelter of shields. She says it is a nuisance that she cannot see the boy they are making so much of. She asks Fergus what kind of man he is and he answers in verse. Then Medb climbs up on the men's backs to look.

Dubthach and Fergus

Dubthach the Dark, of Ulster, chants at the sight: "Is this the Warped One?" He says the women climb up to show their faces while the great queen shuns the battle. Fergus tells him to get back behind the army with his black tongue. Since the maiden-massacre, he says, Dubthach has done only harm, and he slew Conchobor's son Fiacha and Coirpre mac Feidlimid. He flings Dubthach from him and Dubthach falls motionless near a group of soldiers.

Ailill, Medb and Fergus then trade verses. Ailill asks why Fergus is so fierce over Ulster cows and women. Medb tells Ailill to guard his cattle. Fergus says to pay no heed to stupid women and to fight fair. The poet Gabrán says one man must be pinned down or he will earn their hatred, and Fergus tells him to go and meet Cúchulainn in the ford. Ailill complains that Fergus will not lead the cattle round but hacks and plunders round them.

The Miscast at Bird Pass

Fiacha Fialdána goes to speak with his cousin Maine Andoe. Dóchae mac Mágach comes with Maine, and Dubthach the Black from Ulster with Fiacha. Dóchae throws a javelin at Fiacha and hits his own friend Dubthach. Fiacha throws one at Dóchae and hits his kinsman Maine. The place is Imroll Belaig Eóin, the Miscast at Bird Pass. Kinsella's note calls this the first sign of the men of Ulster beginning to rise from their pangs.

Some say the name came later, when Diarmait, Conchobor's son, comes south out of Ulster to the armies at Belach Euin and meets Maine. Diarmait says Conchobor wants the cattle set free and the damage made good, and Medb's bull brought to the bull in the east to fight, as she promised. Medb won't have it. Diarmait and Maine then throw their javelins at each other and kill each other. The armies rush together and three score fall from each force. That gives the name Ard in Dirma, the Armies' Height.

Aengus at Muid Loga

A brave Ulster warrior, Aengus son of Aenlám Gaibe, turns the whole army aside at Muid Loga, called Lugmod today, as far as Ath Da Ferta, the Ford of the Two Grave Mounds. He pelts them with flagstones and refuses to let them pass. There was no rule of fair play for him and he died overwhelmed.

Fergus at Ath Da Ferta

At Ath Da Ferta Cúchulainn calls for someone to be sent out. They all call back that their family owes no sacrifice and why should they be the one. Fergus is asked to fight but will not fight his foster-son. Wine is brought and he grows very drunk. He is asked again and this time he goes, because they implore him.

Cúchulainn remarks that Fergus must be under strong protection to come against him with no sword in his scabbard. Fergus says it would make no difference, and asks him to yield. Cúchulainn agrees to yield on condition that Fergus will yield to him another time, on the day of the great Battle. He retreats as far as the swamp of Grellach Dollaid and runs off into it. The army cries out for Fergus to chase him. Fergus says he won't, that the boy is too lively and he will not go after him until his turn comes round again. They all go past and camp in Crích Rois.

Ferchu Loingsech

Ferchu Loingsech is a Connachtman who has harassed Ailill and Medb since the day they took the kingship. East of Ai Plain with a dozen men, he hears that one man has held the four provinces since the Monday at summer's end, killing a man on the ford each day and a hundred at night. He decides to bring the man's head to Ailill and Medb, who will forgive his crimes if he does. His men fall on Cúchulainn together, fighting foul, and Cúchulainn strikes off their twelve heads. He plants twelve stones and sets a head on each, and Ferchu's on its stone as well. The place is Cinnit Ferchon Loingsig, which reads "Cenn áit Ferchon", the Place of Ferchu's Head.

Gaile Dána and his sons

Next day Medb sends twenty-nine men at once to the swamp of Fuiliarnn, Bloodiron, on the near side of Ferdia's Ford: Gaile Dána, his twenty-seven sons and his sister's son Glas mac Delga. They argue that it counts as single combat, because the sons are limb of Gaile's limb. Fergus has to agree to the arrangement. In his tent he sighs, and says every one of them has poison on him and on his weapons, and any man they wound dies in nine days at most. Fiacha mac Fir Febe goes to see the fight.

The twenty-nine throw their spears together and Cúchulainn does the rim-feat with his shield, so that none of them draws blood. When he draws his sword to cut the spears away they attack with their fists and bear him down until his face meets the gravel. He lets out his cry of unfair fight, which every man in Ulster hears except those who are asleep. Fiacha leaps from his chariot and hacks off all twenty-nine hands. Cúchulainn says that was help in time's nick. Fiacha says it wasn't much, and that the compact is broken now for the Ulster exiles. With the two sons of Ficce, who have come to try their strength on the armies, Cúchulainn kills all twenty-nine. The mark of the thrown shield, and of their fists and knees, is still on a stone in the middle of the ford, and twenty-nine standing-stones were erected there.