Brug

Overview

Brug is where the story of Cúchulainn's begetting turns. The text gives only the name Brug, on the river Boann. Kinsella's note says this is the famous Brug na Bóinne, the dwelling by the river Boyne associated with the river goddess Boann and with the megalithic tomb at Newgrange.

The Ulstermen come there by accident. A flock of birds has stripped the plain around Emain of every plant and root, and Conchobor, his sister Deichtine, Conall, Laegaire, Bricriu and the rest go after them in nine chariots. The birds fly before them across Sliab Fuait, Edmonn and Breg Plain, nine scores of birds in silver chains, and toward nightfall three of them separate from the rest. The chariots follow them as far as Brug, and night comes down on the Ulstermen there.

It snows. Conchobor has the chariots unyoked and sends men to find shelter. Conall and Bricriu find a solitary house, newly built, with a couple in it who make them welcome. Bricriu comes back and says it is useless to go there unless they bring their own food and set the table themselves, and even so it would be meagre. They go anyway, all the chariots, and crowd into the house with difficulty. By their usual mealtime they are drunk with their welcome and in good humour.

Then the man of the house says that his wife is in her birth-pangs in the store-room. Deichtine goes in and helps her bear a son. At the same time a mare at the door gives birth to two foals, and the Ulstermen are given the baby and the foals as presents. In the morning there is nothing to be seen east of Brug, no house and no birds, only their own horses, the baby and the foals.

The place comes up again after the baby has died and Deichtine has swallowed something small in her drink. She dreams of a man who tells her he brought her to Brug to sleep with her there, that the boy she had reared was his, and that he is Lug mac Ethnenn. The Ulstermen, not knowing the father, say it might have been Conchobor himself, in his drunkenness, on the night she stayed with him at Brug.