Delga

Overview

Delga is a fort in Murtheimne, and it is where Fergus expects to find Cúchulainn when the army needs someone to talk to him. Kinsella's note says that at that time it was called Dún Cinn Coros, and that one obscure line is deciphered by Thurneysen. The route list puts it west of Dundalk.

Mac Roth, who can circle all Ireland in a day, goes there with Ailill and Medb's first offer. A heavy snow falls that night and turns the provinces into a snow-white plain. The offers fail, and Fergus explains what Cúchulainn really wants: to fight them one by one in the ford, with no cattle taken from it for a day and a night after each combat, so he can gain time until the Ulstermen recover from their pangs.

Fergus then goes to Delga with the proposal. Etarcomol, the foster-son of Ailill and Medb, follows him, and Fergus does not want him there. He gives him protection on one condition, that he not insult Cúchulainn while he is talking. They arrive in two chariots to find Cúchulainn playing buanbach with Laeg. Laeg, who is facing them, describes the man in the first chariot down to the sword as big as a boat's rudder. Cúchulainn, who is not, says that is a stick, and tells the story of how Ailill stole the real sword while Fergus slept with Medb and had a wooden one put in the scabbard. He welcomes Fergus warmly and offers him what he would give if there were any food: a salmon, a wild bird, cress, a drink out of the sand, and himself in Fergus's place in the ford, watching while he slept.

Etarcomol stays staring. Cúchulainn tells him he could take that in at a glance, and Etarcomol calls him a fine lad for graceful tricks with wooden weapons. Cúchulainn says only Fergus's protection has saved his bowels. Etarcomol goes off swearing to be the first to come against him tomorrow.

Delga comes up again after the pact of single combat is broken. Fergus tells the camp to stop fighting Cúchulainn foul, and Cúchulainn takes his single combats until the army reaches Delga. From there he pelts them so that no living thing dares show its face past him southward, between Delga and the sea.