Chapter V: ‘Death death!’

Summary

The oak at Mag Muceda

The army goes to Mag Muceda, the Pigkeeper's Plain. There Cúchulainn cuts down an oak in their path and cuts an ogam message into its side: no one is to pass until a warrior has leaped the oak in his chariot at the first attempt. The army pitches tents and sets itself to leaping the tree. Thirty horses fall and thirty chariots are smashed, and the place has been called Belach nAne ever since, the Pass where they Drove.

Fraech in the river

In the morning Medb sends Fraech mac Fidaig to find Cúchulainn and challenge him. He takes nine men to Ath Fuait, where the boy is washing in the river. Fraech tells his followers to wait. He will attack in the water, because Cúchulainn is not good in water. He strips and goes in.

Cúchulainn warns him that coming nearer means being killed, which would be a pity. They grapple, each with an arm round the other, until Fraech goes under. Cúchulainn pulls him up and asks if he will be spared. Fraech says he would not have that said. Cúchulainn thrusts him down again and Fraech perishes. Ath Froich is the name of that ford still.

His followers carry the body to the camp and the whole company laments. Then a troop of women in green tunics gather about it and bear it away into the síd, which has been called Síd Froich since. Fergus then leaps the oak in his chariot.

The hound and the six

Some say the army went from here to Ath Meislir, where Cúchulainn killed six of the host, Meslir and the others. Others say it went to Ath Taiten and the six were six Dúngals of Irros. At Fornocht, the Naked Place, Medb has a young hound named Baiscne. Cúchulainn slings a stone and takes its head off, and the place is Druim Baiscne, the Ridge of Baiscne. Medb tells the army it is a shame not to be out after the pestering demon. They chase him until their chariot shafts break.

Orlám's head

At Támlachtai Orláim, a little north of the sanctuary Dísert Lochait, Cúchulainn comes on a charioteer cutting wood-shafts. He is Orlám's charioteer, and Orlám is a son of Ailill and Medb. He takes the man for an Ulster warrior and calls it madness, with an army coming up behind.

The charioteer asks him to help and Cúchulainn takes the trimming. He strips the holly shafts through his clutched fist, paring them clean, knot and bark. The charioteer says in fright that this is not his usual work. When Cúchulainn gives his name the charioteer cries out in dismay. Cúchulainn says he has no quarrel with charioteers. He goes up to Orlám, kills him, beheads him and shakes the head at the host.

He sets the head on the charioteer's back and orders him to carry it that way into the camp, or get a shot from the sling. Near the camp the charioteer takes the head off and tells Medb and Ailill his story. Medb says this is not like catching birds. As he stands between them outside the camp, Cúchulainn hurls a stone and shatters his head so that the brains spatter the ears. His name was Fertedil. The text says it is not true that Cúchulainn did not kill charioteers; he killed them if they did wrong.

The sons of Gárach

Lon, Ualu and Diliu, the three sons of Gárach, wait at the ford now called Ath meic Gárach, with the three charioteers Meslir, Meslaech and Meslethan, foster-sons of the king. They plan to kill Cúchulainn and lift the scourge from the army. Three aspen shafts are cut for the charioteers so that all six can go against him together, breaking the rule of fair fight. He kills them all.

The squirrel and the bird

At Methe Cúchulainn swears that whenever he lays eyes on Ailill and Medb he will hurl a sling-stone at them. He shoots south across the ford and kills Medb's squirrel as it sits close to her neck, which gives Méthe Tog, Squirrel Neck. He kills a pet bird perching close to Ailill's neck, which gives Ath Méthe nEuin, Bird Neck Ford. Reuin is drowned in a lake now called after him, though Kinsella's note says Reuin seems to owe his existence to a misreading of "nEuin".

Ailill says to his sons, the Maine, that Cúchulainn cannot be far off. They rise and look about, and as they settle down again he shatters one of their heads. Maenén the jester says it was a fine way to rise against him after all their boasting, and that he would have knocked the head off himself. A stone shatters his head too. Ailill swears to cut in two any man who scoffs at Cúchulainn from now on, and says they will travel day and night to Cuailnge, since the man will kill two thirds of the army if he goes on like this.

Harpers and fords

The magical sweet-mouth harpers of Caín Bile come out from the cataract at Es Ruaid to charm the host. The people take them for spies from Ulster and chase them, and they run off in the shape of deer to Liac Mór. They are druids.

Lethan waits at the ford on the river Níth in Conaille, in a rage at what Cúchulainn has done. Cúchulainn cuts off his head and leaves it with the body, and the ford is Ath Lethan. In the ford before it so many chariots were shattered that it is Ath Carpat, Ford of Chariots. Kinsella's note says Lethan seems to be an invention, since Ath Lethan simply means the broad ford.

The Morrígan and the Bull

The Morrígan settles in bird shape on a standing stone in Temair Chuailnge and chants to the Brown Bull. Enemies are gathering, she tells him, and war will grind the hosts to dust over Cuailnge. The Bull moves to Sliab Cuilinn with his fifty heifers and his herdsman Forgaimen driving him. He throws off the three times fifty boys who always play on his back, killing two thirds of them, and tears a trench through the land of Marcéni in Cuailnge.

Lochu

From Saili Imdorchi in Conaille to Cuailnge, Cúchulainn kills no one, being at Sliab Cuinciu. There he swears again to hurl a sling-stone at Medb's head. This is no easy thing, since Medb never goes about unless half her army holds a barrel-shaped shelter of shields over her. One of her bondmaids, Lochu, goes to fetch water with a troop of women round her, and Cúchulainn mistakes her for Medb. He shoots two stones and kills her on the plain called Réid Locha, Lochu's level ground.