Follamain
Conchobor's son, who leads the Ulster boy-troop against the armies and is the only one of them left alive until Ailill's foster-brothers kill him.
Overview
Follamain mac Conchoboir leads the boy-troop of Emain Macha. When the young Cúchulainn runs onto their field of play without asking their protection, Follamain is the one who says he must be from Ulster and dares them. In the raid he brings three times fifty sons of Ulster kings south to help Cúchulainn, and every one of them dies at Lia Toll except Follamain, who swears never to go home to Emain unless he takes Ailill's head with the gold crown on it. The two sons of Bethc mac Báin, sons of Ailill's foster-mother and foster-father, go out and kill him. A Follamain is also named among the men Conchobor sends Finnchad to summon at the rising of Ulster, and the text does not say whether it is the same man.
“It is plain this young fellow is from Ulster,” said Follamain, Conchobor’s son, “and yet he dares us.”
Connections
Related characters
- Ailill (swears to take his head home, gold crown and all)
- Conchobor (father)
- Cúchulainn (the boy he challenges on the field of play, later the man he comes to help)
- Fiachna Fuilech (proposes the help; Follamain leads it)
Places
- Emain Macha (where the boy-troop comes from)
- Lerga
- Lia Toll (where the boy-troop falls and Follamain is left alone)
Appears in chapters
Appears in
- A third of the boy-troop, led by Follamain, comes down from Emain Macha carrying hurling-sticks to help Cúchulainn, and is destroyed by the army at Lia Toll. At Emain Macha. In Chapter IX: The Pact is Broken: The Great Carnage.
- While Cúchulainn sleeps, Lug cleans each wound and puts healing herbs in it, and the boy-troop of Ulster comes down under Follamain and is wiped out except Follamain. At Lerga. In Chapter IX: The Pact is Broken: The Great Carnage.
- Cúchulainn wakes at the gravemound, learns how long he has slept and what the boy-troop did, and Lug refuses to stay and fight beside him because the glory would all go to Cúchulainn. At Lerga. In Chapter IX: The Pact is Broken: The Great Carnage.