Part 22 (1/2)

[5-5] LU. 887, a gloss.

[a] H. 2. 17 has 'fifty charioteers.'

[6-6] LU. and YBL. 889.

[7-7] LU. and YBL. 889.

[8-8] H. 2. 17.

[9-9] H. 2. 17.

[10-10] H. 2. 17.

[1-1] H. 2. 17.

[2-2] Stowe.

[3-3] H. 2. 17.

[4-4] H. 2. 17.

[5-5] H. 2. 17.

[6-6] LU. and YBL. 891.

Cuchulain clung close to the hosts that day provoking them to encounter and combat. [7]Four and seven score kings fell at his hands at that same stream,[7] and he slew a hundred of their [8]armed,[8] [9]kinglike[9]

warriors around Roen and Roi, the two chroniclers of the Tain. [10]This is the reason the account of the Tain was lost and had to be sought afterwards for so long a time.[10]

[7-7] LU. and YBL. 900.

[8-8] Stowe and H. 2. 17.

[9-9] H. 2. 17.

[10-10] H. 2. 17; the story of the finding of the Tain is told in the _Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe_ (”The Proceedings of the Great Bardic Inst.i.tution”), edited by Owen Connellan, in the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. v, 1857, pp. 103 fl.

Medb called upon her people to go meet Cuchulain in encounter and combat [11]for the sake of the hosts.[11] ”It will not be I,” and ”It will not be I,” spake each and every one from his place. ”No caitiff is due from my people. Even though one should be due, it is not I would go to oppose Cuchulain, for no easy thing is it to do battle with him.”

[12]When they had failed to find the Donn Cualnge,[12] the hosts kept their way along the river [13]around the river Cronn to its source,[13] being unable to cross it, till they reached the place where the river rises out of the mountains, and, had they wished it, they would have gone between the river and the mountain, but Medb would not allow it, so they had to dig and hollow out the mountain [W.1585.] before her in order [1]that their trace might remain there forever and[1] that it might be for a shame and reproach to Ulster.

[11-11] Stowe.

[12-12] H. 2. 17.

[13-13] LU. and YBL. 893.