Chapter II: The Táin Bó Cuailnge Begins
The Táin
The four provinces muster at Cruachan, the poet Fedelm sees the host crimson, and the route to Cuailnge is set down.
Summary
The muster
Ailill and Medb assemble a great army in Connacht and send word to the other three provinces. Ailill sends messengers to his brothers, “the rest of Mágach’s seven sons”. Besides Ailill there are Anluan, Mugcorb, Cet, En, Bascall and Dóchae, and each has a troop of three thousand. He sends also to Conchobor’s son Cormac Connlongas, leader of the Ulster exiles, who has a troop of three thousand living in Connacht. They all come to Cruachan Ai.
Cormac marches in with three companies, and Medb watches for him. The first wear speckled cloaks, clipped hair, tunics to the knee, full-length shields and broad grey stabbing-spears. The second wear dark-grey cloaks, red-embroidered tunics to the calf, hair drawn back, bright shields and five-pronged spears. Medb says she does not see Cormac yet. The third troop comes up in purple cloaks and hooded tunics to their feet, with hair trimmed to the shoulder, curved scallop-edged shields and a spear like a palace pillar in each man’s hand. Now she sees him.
Chapter I had Ailill’s mother as Mágach’s daughter. Here Ailill is one of Mágach’s seven sons, and six brothers bring troops. Kinsella’s note says the source text reads “Mágach’s seven sons, i.e. Ailill, Anluan” and so on.
Fedelm
The sages and druids delay the army for a fortnight, waiting for a sign. On the day they set out Medb tells her charioteer that everyone leaving a lover or friend will curse her, since the army is gathered for her. He asks for a moment to turn the chariot to the right, with the sun, to draw down the power of the sign for their safe return.
As he turns, they see a young girl in front of them. She has yellow hair in three tresses, a speckled cloak pinned with gold, a red-embroidered hooded tunic and sandals with gold clasps. Her eyebrows are pitch black, her lips look inset with Parthian scarlet, and her eyes have triple irises. She holds a gold weaving-rod, she is armed, and two black horses draw her chariot.
She says she is Fedelm, a woman poet of Connacht, home from learning verse and vision in Alba. She has the imbas forasnai, the Light of Foresight. Medb asks her to look and say what will become of the army.
Fedelm looks and says she sees it crimson, she sees it red. Medb says that cannot be true, since Conchobor is suffering his pangs in Emain with all the Ulster warriors; her own messengers have said so. Fedelm gives the same answer. Medb says it is false, since Celtchar mac Uthidir is still in Dún Lethglaise with a third of Ulster’s forces, and Fergus is here in exile with three thousand. Fedelm gives the same answer a third time. Medb says wrath and red wounds are common when armies gather, and tells her to look once more and tell the truth. The fourth time Fedelm answers in verse.
She sees a battle, and a blond man with much blood about his belt and a hero-halo round his head. Seven jewels are set in the iris of his eye, and he wears a looped red tunic. She says his valour brings to mind Cúchulainn of Murtheimne, the hound of Culann, though she cannot tell who he is. She sees the whole host coloured crimson by his hand. She sees a giant on the plain with four short quick swords in each hand, hurling two gae bolga, a spear and an ivory-hilted sword against the host. Across the sinister chariot-wheel the Warped Man deals death, and the fair form she first saw has melted into a mis-shape. She tells them to take warning of Cúchulainn, Sualdam’s son. Whole hosts he will destroy, and in thousands they will yield their heads. Blood starts from warriors’ wounds at his touch, and there will be torn corpses and women wailing because of him, the Forge-Hound. She gives her name again and says she hides nothing.
The route
The army sets out the Monday after Samain, southeast from Cruachan Ai. The text then gives the full itinerary, name by name: through Muicc Cruinb and the marshy bed of Terloch Teóra Crích, by Tuaim Móna the peat ridge, through Cúil Silinne, and across the Sinann river. It goes over Trego Plain of the spears and through Tethba, North and South. It runs through Ord, “the hammer”, by the river Indiuind, “the anvil”, and through Ochtrach, “the dung heap”. It reaches Midi, then Slechta, where they hewed their way, Cúil Sibrille, Ochaine hill, Ath Gabla, the ford of the forked branch, and the Midluachair road. It ends at the river Colptha and the river Cronn in Cuailnge.
Cúil Silinne is where Carrcin Lake is now, and the lake is named after Silenn, daughter of Madchar.
The text says these are the places the army was to pass on its way to Finnabair Chuailnge, and that it was from Finnabair that the armies of Ireland later split up across the province to look for the bull. Kinsella’s note says the march as the story describes it differs considerably from this itinerary.
I see it crimson, I see it red.
Events at named places
- Kinsella's list of the army's route names Ath Gabla, 'the ford of the forked branch,' after Druim Licce and before Ard Achad and the rath in Cuailnge. At Ath Gabla.
- Ailill and Medb assemble a great army in Connacht and send word to the other three provinces, and the troops of Ailill's brothers and of Cormac Connlongas come to Cruachan. At Connacht.
- Fedelm, a woman poet of Connacht, looks at the army as it leaves and says she sees it crimson, she sees it red. At Connacht.
- Ailill and Medb muster the army here, and Cormac Connlongas marches in with his three companies, so that four provinces of Ireland gather at Cruachan Ai. At Cruachan.
- The army sets out southeast from Cruachan on the Monday after Samain. At Cruachan.
- Kinsella's route list names the places the army must pass on the way to the rath in Cuailnge, from where the armies later split up to look for the bull. At Cuailnge.
- Medb said that Celtchar mac Uthidir was still in Dún Lethglaise with a third of Ulster's forces. At Dún Lethglaise.
- Medb says Conchobor is suffering his pangs in Emain with the rest of the Ulster warriors, as her messengers have told her. At Emain Macha.
- Kinsella's route list ends with the places the army must pass on its way to this rath in Cuailnge, and says the armies of Ireland later split up from there across the province to look for the bull. At Finnabair Chuailnge.
- The list of places the armies were to pass on their way to Finnabair includes Druim Cain on the Midluachair road. At Midluachair road.
- The list of places the armies were to pass on their way to Finnabair includes Lochmach, or Muid Loga. At Muid Loga.
- Fedelm the prophetess sees a blond man in a looped red tunic, and the vision recalls Cúchulainn of Murtheimne. At Murtheimne Plain.
- Kinsella's route list for the army names Ochaine hill, passed to the south. At Ochaine.
- The river Colptha is named among the places the armies were to pass on their way to Finnabair. At River Colptha.
- Kinsella's route list ends at the river Cronn in Cuailnge, the last place named before the army reaches the rath. At River Cronn.
- On the march south-east from Cruachan, the army crossed the Sinann river. At Sinann.
- The army marched through Tethba, North and South, on its way from Cruachan. At Tethba.