Gaile Dána

Overview

Medb sends Gaile Dána with his twenty-seven sons and his sister's son Glas mac Delga into the swamp of Fuiliarnn, and argues it should count as a single combat because the sons are limb of his limb. Fergus, who has to agree, says that every one of them has poison on him and on his weapons, and that any man they wound dies in nine days at most. They fling their twenty-nine spears together, and Cúchulainn does the rim-feat with his shield, but they then bear him down with their fists until his face meets the gravel, and Fiacha mac Fir Febe hacks off all twenty-nine hands. Cúchulainn and the two sons of Ficce kill them all, and twenty-nine standing-stones are raised for them. Kinsella's note says the Gaile Dana of this version are the children of Calatín through whom Cúchulainn dies in the later story.