Fiacha mac Fir Febe
Also spelled: Fíacha Fialdána, Fiacha mac Fir Febe, Fiacha Fialdána mac Fir Febe
An Ulster exile in the Connacht camp, Conchobor's daughter's son, who warns Cúchulainn of an attacker, helps him kill Gaile Dána's party and declares the compact broken.
Overview
Fiacha mac Fir Febe, also called Fiacha Fialdána, is the son of Conchobor's daughter and one of the Ulster exiles with the Connacht army, camped next to Conall Cernach in the line of tents. He warns Cúchulainn of Cúr's attack, and says of the boy who did such deeds in his seventh year that it is no wonder he triumphs at seventeen. When Gaile Dána and his twenty-seven sons and his sister's son go to kill Cúchulainn at the ford, Fiacha follows, leaps from his chariot when he sees every hand raised against Cúchulainn, and hacks off all twenty-nine hands. He says the compact is broken now for the Ulster exiles, and Kinsella's note calls what he did an act of war against Connacht warriors. At Bird Pass he goes to speak with his cousin Maine, and later Laeg asks him for a healer for Cethern.
‘What wonder,’ Fiacha mac Fir Febe said, ‘that the one who did this in his seventh year should triumph against odds and beat his match today, when he is fully seventeen years old?’
Connections
Related characters
- Cúchulainn (warns him of Cúr, helps him against Gaile Dána, is asked by him for a healer)
- Dóchae mac Mágach (throws a javelin at him at Bird Pass and hits Dubthach)
- Dubthach (comes with him to Bird Pass and is hit by Dóchae's javelin)
- Fergus mac Roich (fellow exile; volunteers to watch Cúchulainn's fight at his request)
- Fiachna Fuilech (brother)
- Gaile Dána (hacks off the hands of his party)
- Maine Andoe (his cousin, whom he goes to speak with at Bird Pass)
Connected to
- Cúr mac Daláth (Warned Cúchulainn of his attack)
- Ferbaeth (Went with him to renounce his friendship with Cúchulainn)
Places
- Ath Firdia (where he helps Cúchulainn against Gaile Dána and his sons)
- Focherd
- Fuiliarnn
- Ochaine
- Imroll Belaig Eóin (Bird Pass, where the javelins miss)
Appears in chapters
- Chapter III: The Army Encounters Cúchulainn
- Chapter IV: Cúchulainn's Boyhood Deeds
- Chapter VII: Single Combat
- Chapter VIII: The Bull is Found. Further Single Combats. Cúchulainn and the Morrígan
- Chapter IX: The Pact is Broken: The Great Carnage
- Chapter X: Combat with Fergus and Others
- Chapter XII: Ulster Rises from its Pangs
Appears in
- Fiacha mac Fir Febe hacks off all twenty-nine hands when they bear Cúchulainn down till his face meets the ford's gravel, and Cúchulainn and the sons of Ficce kill them all. At Ath Firdia. In Chapter X: Combat with Fergus and Others.
- 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.
- Fiacha mac Fir Febe hacks off their hands, and Cúchulainn and two Ulster warriors kill all twenty-nine of them. At Fuiliarnn. In Chapter X: Combat with Fergus and Others.
- Cúchulainn tells Fiacha mac Fir Febe that Nadcranntail may come to meet him between the hill Ochaine and the sea, and waits there through the night. At Ochaine. In Chapter VII: Single Combat.