Poems MacCarthy, Florence Denis

46
"Cuchulainn confronts the invaders of his province, demands single
combat, and conjures his opponents by the laws of Irish chivalry (the
'Fir comhlainn') not to advance farther until they had conquered him.
This demand, in accordance with the Irish laws of warfare, is granted;
and then the whole contest is resolved into a succession of single
combats, in each of which Cuchulainn was victorious."--"Lectures," p.
37.
The original Irish text of this episode, with a literal translation, on
which the present metrical version is founded, may be consulted in the
appendix to the second series of the Lectures by O'Curry, vol. ii., p.
413.
The date assigned to the famous expedition of the Tain Bo Cuailgne, and
consequently to the episode which forms the subject of the present poem,
is the close of the century immediately preceding the commencement of
the Christian era. This will account for the complete absence of all
Christian allusions, so remarkable throughout the poem: an additional
proof, if that were required, of its extreme antiquity.]
Cuchullin the great chief had pitched his tent,
From Samhain[29] time, till now 'twas budding spring,
Fast by the Ford, and held the land at bay.
All Erin, save the fragment that he led,
His sword held back, nor dared a man to cross
The rippling Ford without Cuchullin's leave:
Chief after chief had fallen in the attempt;
And now the men of Erin through the night
Asked in dismay, "Oh! who shall be the next
To face the northern hound[30] and free the Ford?"
"Let it now be," with one accord they cried,
"Ferdiah, son of Daman Dare's son,
Of Domnann[31] lord, and all its warrior men."
The chiefs thus fated now to meet as foes
In early life were friends--had both been taught
All feats of arms by the same skilful hands
In Scatha's[32] school beneath the peaks of Skye,
Which still preserve Cuchullin's glorious name.
One feat of arms alone Cuchullin knew
Ferdiah knew not of--the fatal cast--