Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance

Summary

The first scouting

The Connacht army takes counsel with Ailill, Medb and Fergus. They decide to send scouts to see whether the men of Ulster have reached the plain. Ailill sends Mac Roth to look. If the Ulstermen are not there yet, Ailill says, he has got clear away with their goods and herds, and they can look for a fight as much as they like. He is not waiting for them any longer.

Mac Roth scans the plain and hurries back. When he first looked out from the Sliab Fuait road he saw every wild animal leaving the forest and coming out over the plain. Looking again, he saw a dense fog filling the valleys, so that the high places between looked like islands in a lake. There were sparks of fire in the fog and a world of colours. Then lightning, uproar and thunder. The day was nearly windless, yet a great wind flung him on his back and all but swept the hair from his head.

Fergus knows what it is. The men of Ulster have risen from their pangs. They shook the forest and sent the animals fleeing. The fog is the breath of fierce men filling the valley. The sparks and colours are the warriors' eyes. The thunder is the humming of their blades and the clatter of chariots. Ailill says they have warriors to meet them. Fergus tells him he will need them: no one from Greece and Scythia westward to the Orkney Islands and the Pillars of Hercules can withstand the men of Ulster when their fury is roused.

The companies on the hill

Mac Roth goes out once more, up to the Ulster camp on the smooth plain of Slemain Midi, and comes back with a description of each company as it arrives. Ailill asks the same question each time, and Fergus gives the name.

The first company, three thousand strong, tears off its clothes and digs a mound of sods for its leader to sit on. He is tall and fair, with a forked gold beard and a gold-hilted sword reaching to his shoulders. This is Conchobor. The one who sits facing him is Sencha mac Ailella, the most eloquent man in Ulster. At his father's hand sits Cúscraid Menn Macha, the stammerer, whose spear plays with its silver rings just before a victory. Medb says they will find what they want here.

After that the companies come one after another. Fergus names Eogan mac Durthacht, king of Fernmag, who falls on his enemies like a doom. He names Laegaire Buadach, Munremur mac Gerrcinn, Fedilmid Cilair Chetaig and Connad mac Morna. He names Rochad mac Faithemain, and tells Ailill this is his own son-in-law, who took his daughter Finnabair. He names his own foster-brother, Fergus mac Léte, king of Líne, whose legs and arms are each as thick as a man. Others follow: Amargin, son of the smith Ecet Salach; Celtchar mac Uthidir, whose approach throws troop after troop of the Connacht army into disorder; Feradach Finn Fechtnach; and Errge Echbél, the horse-lipped, with his big belly and thick lips.

Two fair heroes come at the head of one company, stepping in time. They are Fiachna and Fiacha, two sons of Conchobor. Three more, alike in age and dress, are Fiachna's three sons, Rus, Dáire and Imchath, who have come to recover the bull. A man whose company is red with blood is Menn mac Sálchada, who has come to avenge his wounds. Then come Fergna mac Finnchaime and Furbaide Fer Benn, the horned man.

The boy

The last company is not like the others. A flushed, freckled boy leads it, in strange clothes. Fergus is silent. He then says he knows no such boy in Ulster, unless these are the men of Temair around Erc, son of Coirpre Niafer and Conchobor's daughter. Coirpre and Conchobor are not friendly, and the boy may have come to help his grandfather without asking his father's leave.

Fergus tells Ailill the boy will cost him the battle. He knows no fear. When he presses into the middle of the Connacht forces, the fighting men of Ulster will raise a shout and hack through to save the little calf of their hearts. Conchobor will throw up three mounds of men around the battlefield looking for his grandson, and the inflamed Ulstermen will fall on the countless army.

Who has not come

Mac Roth says he is tired of describing, but there is more. Conall Cernach and his great company have not come. Conchobor's three sons and their three troops of three thousand have not come. Cúchulainn, wounded in the unequal struggle, has not come. More companies were still on their way when he left, and his eye travelled from Ferdia's Ford to Slemain Midi and fell on men and horses instead of hills and slopes. Fergus tells him he has certainly seen a man of some following.