Fergus mac Roich

Also spelled: Fergus mac Róich, Fergus mac Roig, Fergus son of Roy

The former king of Ulster who leads the Ulster exiles in Medb's army, sleeps with Medb, loses his sword, and spends the war trying to keep his foster-son alive.

Traits

Title	King of Ulster for a time, before Conchobor
Allegiance	Ulster, but in exile with Ailill and Medb
Father	Roech mac Echdach
Sons	Fiacha, son of Fergus, Illann
Foster-son	Cúchulainn
Foster-brother	Fergus mac Léte, king of Líne
Weapons	His hacking sword Leochain; a wooden sword after Ailill takes it
Following	Three thousand Ulster exiles
Bound by	An old oath not to refuse ale feasts; a promise to yield to Cúchulainn in the last battle
Fate	Strikes the three hills of Meath, yields to Cúchulainn, and in the end lets the Brown Bull go home

Overview

The king who sold the kingship

Fergus mac Roich was king in Ulster when Nes, living alone, was asked for as his wife. She would agree only if her son Conchobor were given the kingship for a year, so that her son's son could be called the son of a king. Everyone said she should have it, since Fergus would be king all the same. She slept with Fergus, and Conchobor was called king. At the end of the year Fergus asked for it back and the men of Ulster refused, resenting that he had given them over like a dowry. They decided that what Fergus sold would stay sold. Derdriu later says he sold honour for a drink.

Conchobor's cunning then undid him a second time. The sons of Uisliu would come home only if Fergus stood as their pledge, but he was invited to a number of ale feasts and by an old oath could not refuse. His son Fiacha went on with them and was killed across Noisiu's body on the green at Emain. Fergus killed Traigthrén and his brother, and before morning Dubthach had massacred the girls of Ulster and Fergus had burned Emain. He took three thousand exiles to Ailill and Medb, who he knew would protect them, and for sixteen years they kept weeping and trembling alive in Ulster every night.

Morann's judgment on who is to rear the infant Cúchulainn gives Fergus the boy on his knee. When Emer is to sleep in Conchobor's bed, Fergus and Cathbad are put in it as well to protect Cúchulainn's honour.

In Medb's army

Kinsella's introduction calls Fergus and Medb's relationship central, from the clash over the Galeóin to Fergus's last words. When Medb says to kill the Galeóin, Fergus says the exiles will take that advice over their dead bodies. He proposes spreading them through the army.

He is given the head of the army and makes a great detour south to give Ulster time, out of old friendship. When Medb asks what kind of road this is, he says he is trying to miss the man who guards Murtheimne. He reads the ogam on Cúchulainn's hoop, hauls the forked branch out of the ford at the cost of fourteen chariots, and tells Ailill and Medb who the boy is: he took arms in his eighth year and is now in his seventeenth. He tells the boy's deeds from the boy-troop at Emain onward.

Ailill sets Cuillius to watch Fergus and Medb. They are found sleeping together at Cluithre, and Cuillius draws Fergus's sword out of its sheath and leaves it empty. Fergus goes into the wood and cuts a wooden sword from a tree. Ailill laughs at him over the fidchell board and asks why he is so wild without his weapon. Cúchulainn hears of it and tells Laeg the big sword in Fergus's scabbard is a stick.

Between two sides

Fergus carries the terms of the pact to Cúchulainn and reminds the army of it. He gives Etarcomol protection, and drags him behind his chariot when Etarcomol insults Cúchulainn anyway. At Ath Da Ferta he will not fight his foster-son, until wine is brought and he grows very drunk. When asked again he goes. Cúchulainn yields on condition that Fergus will yield another time, on the day of the great Battle, and Fergus will not chase him into the swamp. The night before Ferdia, he goes to the ford to warn Cúchulainn, who says it is as well no one else came.

The last battle

When Ailill and Medb reproach him with all they did for him in exile, Fergus says that if only he had his sword he would heap jawbones on necks. Ailill has it brought, and Fergus carves a gap of a hundred men in the ranks. Conall Cernach tells him he rages at his own kin for the sake of a whore's backside. Conchobor raises Ochain and Fergus strikes it three blows without moving the rim. As he lifts the sword for Conchobor, Cormac Connlongas catches his wrists, and he levels the three bald-topped hills of Meath instead.

Cúchulainn calls three times before Fergus answers, and the debt falls due. Fergus takes his three thousand off the field. Afterward he tells Medb they followed the rump of a misguiding woman. He takes a stick to the Brown Bull's flank, and stops the armies killing him when he comes home with Finnbennach on his horns.

His grave is at Enloch in Connacht. When the poets of Ireland cannot remember the whole Táin, Muirgen chants to the gravestone as though it were Fergus. A mist forms for three days and three nights, and a figure of Fergus walks up in a green cloak with a gold-hilted sword and recites the whole story from start to finish.

It is the usual thing for a herd led by a mare to be strayed and destroyed.

Fergus to Medb, in “Fergus after the battle” (Chapter XIV: The Last Battle)

Connections

Related characters

Ailill (host and, once his sword is stolen, the man who laughs at him)
Conchobor (the king he gave the kingship to for a year, and the king who drove him out)
Cormac Connlongas (pledge with him for the sons of Uisliu, who catches his wrists in the last battle)
Cúchulainn (foster-son, whom he warns, yields to, and would not fight)
Cuillius (Ailill's charioteer who steals his sword)
Derdriu (in her poem he sold honour for a drink)
Dubthach (fellow pledge and exile, whom he flings aside for his black tongue)
Etarcomol (gives him protection and then drags him behind his chariot)
Ferdia (warns Cúchulainn the night before the fight)
Fiacha, son of Fergus (son, who lies across Noisiu at the killing)
Medb (lover on the march, and the leader of the army he answers back to)
Muirgen (poet to whom a figure of Fergus at his gravestone recites the whole Táin)
Nes (slept with him in return for the kingship for her son)
Noisiu (Fergus stood as his pledge of safety and was kept away from him)
Fergus mac Léte (foster-brother, among the Ulster companies)
Illann (son, one of those who wounded Cethern)

Connected to

Bricriu (asks for someone to put heart in Cúchulainn, and Bricriu does it)
Cathbad (in Conchobor's bed with Emer and him)
Celtchar mac Uthidir (names him among the men who never cross the border without a battle-force)
Cethern son of Fintan (named him from Mac Roth's description)
Conall Cernach (meets him in the last battle and is told he rages at his own kin)
Donn Cuailnge (takes a stick to his flank, then stops the armies killing him)
Emer (in Conchobor's bed with her, to protect Cúchulainn's honour)
Erc (names him at Slemain Midi and says he will lose the army the battle)
Ferbaeth (Chanted over his grave)
Fiacha mac Fir Febe (fellow exile; volunteers to watch Cúchulainn's fight at his request)
Finnabair (names Rochad as the man who took her)
Gabrán (Answered his verse before the next combat)
Gaile Dána (Agreed to the arrangement and foretold the killing of Cúchulainn)
Laeg mac Riangabra (described to Cúchulainn from a distance, with a sword as big as a boat's rudder)
Lóch mac Mofemis (Called for someone to encourage Cúchulainn)
Lugaid mac Nois (asks him to speak to Cúchulainn for Ailill's troop)
Mac Roth (explains to him what he saw on the plain)
Morrígan (tells his followers to urge Cúchulainn on while the eel holds him)
Rochad mac Faithemain (named him to Ailill)
Senchán Torpéist (the dead man who gives him the Táin)

Places

Ath Da Ferta (Where he goes out to Cúchulainn, drunk, with no sword in his scabbard)
Ath Firdia (He goes to the ford to warn Cúchulainn about Ferdia)
Ath Gabla
Bald-topped Hills
Bernas Bó Ulad
Connacht
Cruachan (Where the exiles shelter with Ailill and Medb)
Cuib
Delga
Dún Lethglaise
Dún Sobairche
Emain Macha (He burns it after the killing of the sons of Uisliu)
Finnabair Chuailnge
Focherd
Fuiliarnn
Gáirech and Irgairech
Glenn Domain
Gránaird
Iraird Cuillenn
Mag Clochair
Mag Muceda
Midluachair road
Munster
Murtheimne Plain
River Cronn
Slemain Midi (He names each Ulster company to Ailill)
Sliab Fuait
Tailtiu
Tarbga
Temair
Ulster
Enloch (His gravestone, where he recites the Táin to Muirgen)

Appears in chapters

Appears in

Fergus will not fight his foster-son until he is given wine and begged to go, and then he comes against Cúchulainn with no sword in his scabbard. At Ath Da Ferta. In Chapter X: Combat with Fergus and Others.
Cúchulainn retreats before Fergus as far as the swamp of Grellach Dollaid on condition that Fergus gives way to him on the day of the great Battle. At Ath Da Ferta. In Chapter X: Combat with Fergus and Others.
Mac Roth tells Ailill and Fergus that his eye travelled from Ferdia's Ford to Slemain Midi and found men and horses instead of hills and slopes. At Ath Firdia. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Medb and Ailill hear the ogam read out: one man threw the fork with one hand, and nobody may pass until one of them, not Fergus, does the same. At Ath Gabla. In Chapter III: The Army Encounters Cúchulainn.
Fergus takes a chariot to drag the fork out and breaks fourteen chariots on it before he brings it onto dry land, where they can see the base was cut with a single stroke. At Ath Gabla. In Chapter III: The Army Encounters Cúchulainn.
Cormac Connlongas stops Fergus from striking Conchobor, and Fergus levels the three bald-topped hills of Meath with three strokes. At Bald-topped Hills. In Chapter XIV: The Last Battle.
Medb splits the armies, sending Ailill by the Midluachair road and going with Fergus over the mountain, where they cut a gap for the cattle. At Bernas Bó Ulad. In Chapter VI: From Finnabair Chuailnge to Conaille.
Ailill, Medb and Fergus take counsel and send Mac Roth to see whether the men of Ulster have reached the plain. At Connacht. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Mac Roth sees three princes of Roth at Slemain Midi, and Fergus names them as Fiachna's three sons, three fiery torches from Cuib and Midluachair, who have come to recover the bull. At Cuib. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Mac Roth sets out for Delga with Ailill and Medb's offer, because Fergus thinks Cúchulainn can be found there. At Delga. In Chapter VII: Single Combat.
Fergus goes to Delga with the plan of single combats at the ford, followed by Etarcomol, who has been warned not to insult Cúchulainn while he talks. At Delga. In Chapter VII: Single Combat.
Cúchulainn is playing buanbach with Laeg when the two chariots arrive, and tells Laeg that the great sword at Fergus's thigh is a stick. At Delga. In Chapter VII: Single Combat.
Fergus makes Medb's followers stop fighting Cúchulainn foul, and Cúchulainn fights single combats until they reach Delga, then pelts them from there so that nothing living dares pass southward between Delga and the sea. At Delga. In Chapter IX: The Pact is Broken: The Great Carnage.
Fergus named the warrior coming to the hill at Slemain Midi as Celtchar mac Uthidir from Dún Lethglaise in the north. At Dún Lethglaise. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Sualdam tells the men of Ulster that Ailill and Fergus have harried their people as far as Dún Sobairche. At Dún Sobairche. In Chapter XII: Ulster Rises from its Pangs.
The sons of Uisliu are cut down on the green at Emain by Eogan mac Durthacht, and Fergus afterwards burns Emain. At Emain Macha. In Exile of the Sons of Uisliu.
The Ulstermen quarrel over who should rear the infant Sétanta, and Morann gives judgment at Emain that Conchobor should have him, with Sencha, Blai Briuga, Fergus, Amargin and Conall Cernach to help. At Emain Macha. In How Cúchulainn was Begotten.
The Ulstermen drink from the vat Ol nguala while the chariot-warriors practise on spearcords, and the women's love for Cúchulainn makes them look for him a wife. At Emain Macha. In Cúchulainn's Courtship of Emer, and his Training in Arms.
Fergus tells Medb's court that three times fifty boys are always playing in Emain and that Conchobor spends a third of his day watching them. At Emain Macha. In Chapter IV: Cúchulainn's Boyhood Deeds.
Cúchulainn arrives among the boy-troop, cannot sleep in Emain until Conchobor sets him a bed between two stones, and later hides under Conchobor's bed cushion after beating the boys. At Emain Macha. In Chapter IV: Cúchulainn's Boyhood Deeds.
Fergus, promising not to strike his own people, speaks of the struggle in Emain. At Emain Macha. In Chapter VI: From Finnabair Chuailnge to Conaille.
In the other version, when the spoils are all back at Finnabair, Medb divides the army: Ailill takes half by the Midluachair road, and she goes with Fergus by way of Bernas Bó Ulad. At Finnabair Chuailnge. In Chapter VI: From Finnabair Chuailnge to Conaille.
Some say the throw named Focherd, the Place of the Throw, and others say it was Fiacha mac Fir Febe's remark to Cúchulainn; Fergus chants over Ferbaeth that the place called Fichi shall be called Focherd forever. At Focherd. In Chapter VIII: The Bull is Found. Further Single Combats. Cúchulainn and the Morrígan.
Medb sends Gaile Dána, his twenty-seven sons and Glas mac Delga against Cúchulainn in the swamp, and Fergus has to agree to it. At Fuiliarnn. In Chapter X: Combat with Fergus and Others.
Ailill has Fergus's sword brought and chants to him to lay Ireland low but spare them at Gáirech. At Gáirech and Irgairech. In Chapter XIV: The Last Battle.
Medb, Ailill and Fergus rise up against the Munster kings in Glenn Domain, and seven hundred men die slaughtering each other. At Glenn Domain. In Chapter XII: Ulster Rises from its Pangs.
The army spent the night at Gránaird, and Fergus sent a warning to the men of Ulster from there. At Gránaird. In Chapter III: The Army Encounters Cúchulainn.
Err and Innel find the spancel-hoop Cúchulainn had thrown there, and they give it to Fergus mac Roich, who reads the ogam cut into it. At Iraird Cuillenn. In Chapter III: The Army Encounters Cúchulainn.
Cúroi mac Dáiri and Munremur mac Gerrcinn throw great stones at each other, and the stones fall over the camps of Fergus and Ailill. At Mag Clochair. In Chapter XII: Ulster Rises from its Pangs.
Fergus later leaps the oak in his chariot. At Mag Muceda. In Chapter V: ‘Death death!’.
Medb sends Ailill with half the armies by the Midluachair road, while she goes with Fergus by another way. At Midluachair road. In Chapter VI: From Finnabair Chuailnge to Conaille.
Fergus said that seven Munster kings were on the Connacht side, each with a troop of three thousand. At Munster. In Chapter III: The Army Encounters Cúchulainn.
After Fergus went off with his troop, the men of Munster went away as well and left Medb and Ailill to the battle. At Munster. In Chapter XIV: The Last Battle.
Fergus tells Medb that Cúchulainn was reared by his father and mother in their oaken house on Murtheimne Plain. At Murtheimne Plain. In Chapter IV: Cúchulainn's Boyhood Deeds.
In the second version, Cúchulainn meets the army at a ford on the Cronn and calls on the river above all other waters, and the water rears up to the treetops. At River Cronn. In Chapter VI: From Finnabair Chuailnge to Conaille.
Mac Roth goes up to the Ulster encampment on the smooth plain of Slemain Midi and brings back news to Ailill, Medb and Fergus. At Slemain Midi. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
A troop of three thousand tears off its clothes and digs a mound of sods for its leader to sit on; Fergus names the leader as Conchobor, with Sencha facing him and Cúscraid at his father's hand. At Slemain Midi. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Company after company comes to the hill, and Fergus names Eogan mac Durthacht, king of Fernmag, and his own foster-brother Fergus mac Léte, king of Líne. At Slemain Midi. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Three princes of Roth come, whom Fergus names as Fiachna's three sons, fiery torches from Cuib and Midluachair who have come to recover the bull. At Slemain Midi. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Fergus guesses that a flushed freckled boy at the head of one company is Erc, son of Coirpre Niafer, and warns that the army will lose the battle on account of him. At Slemain Midi. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Fergus names Feradach Finn Fechtnach as the warrior from the wood at Sliab Fuait in the north. At Sliab Fuait. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Munremur mac Gerrcinn and Cúroi mac Dáiri throw great stones at each other over the camps of Fergus and Ailill, and make a pact to stop. At Tailtiu. In Chapter XII: Ulster Rises from its Pangs.
Fergus takes a stick to the Brown Bull's flank to make him pull his hoof off the other bull's horn. At Tarbga. In Chapter XIV: The Last Battle.
Fergus says the men of Temair are gathered about Erc, son of Coirpre Niafer and Conchobor's daughter. At Temair. In Chapter XIII: The Companies Advance.
Fergus parts with the kingship of Ulster, which the men of Ulster agree to let stay sold, and Conchobor becomes high king of the province. At Ulster. In How Conchobor was Begotten, and how he took the Kingship of Ulster.
Before morning Dubthach has massacred the girls of Ulster and Fergus has burned Emain, and they go to Connacht with the exiles. At Ulster. In Exile of the Sons of Uisliu.