Anonymous

“ And each of them took to hacking and to cutting down the other, and destroying and to wounding till there was no similitude of the Ulaid at that juncture of time, except it were a huge sturdy oakwood in the middle of a plain, and a great army were to go close to it; and the slender and the small of the wood were cut off, and its huge sturdy oaks were left behind. It is this that their young [and] youthful pages and their young folk were cut off, so that there were none but their champions and their battle-warriors and their good heroes of valour behind them. ”

“ There Ailill, a princely yeoman, [72] met him then. "Good then, Conchobar," said Ailill, "what is the vast number of a great army that is behind thee? and where is it your pleasure to go?" "To Ros na Ríg above the clear-bright Bóand here," said Conchobar. "That [place] is not be be secured for thee," replied Ailill, "but it is insecure. For the Galían and the Lauigne of Temair are there before thee." "It is an obligation (geiss) to me to go my way," relied Conchobar. "And it is an obligation to me to go into the battle of every number. ”

“ Give the rest of the banquet that thou hast to the nobles of Norway, that they may be fully satisfied. [49] And let intelligencers and messengers be sent from thee through the lands of the Ulaid to the warriors of the Ulaid. Let their foreign friends from the foreign-lands of the foreigners be ministered unto by them also, while I go to the mouth of the water of Luachann, and a position and camp is taken by me there. ”

“ It is then too that tidings, intelligencers, and messengers were sent from Eochu son of Luchta to Ailill and Medb with that proposal. That thing was related to Ailill and to Medb. [Medb said] "A false hand was taken by him [63] from whom those counsels were brought. For so long as there shall be among us one to whom it will be possible to take the hilt of a sword and the shield-strap of a shield about his neck, that proposal shall not go to him." [64] "We have not urged on thee that counsel, thou bad woman," [65] said Ailill. ”

“ Every living [thing] for its payment, and every payment for its living [thing] . Reparation of his territory and of his land to Conchobor son of Fachtna; and a wall in the place of every wall, and a grianán in the place of every grianán, a house in the place of every house, a cow in the place of every cow, a bull in the place of every bull, and the Dond Cualnge over and above; the equal breadth of his face of red gold to Conchobar; and no expedition of hostility against the men of Eriu for this time. ”

“ He waved and brandished it, he shook and adjusted it, and he launched a cast of a throw of it from him then towards Cairpre Nia Fer, so that it pitched in his breast and in his bosom, and pierced his heart in his chest, and cleft his back in two. His body had not reached ground, when Cu Chulaind made a spring towards it and cut his head off him. And he shook his [Cairpre's] head [97] towards the armies then.
52 It is then that Sencha son of Ailill rose and shook the branch of peace, and the Ulaid stood still. And the Galían went under Find son of Ros, and put shield across track behind them. ”

“ And what have mythologists to say about this sonant sympathy between shield and shield and shields and waves?↑ A fresh body of them came on the field under Conall Cernach, as the other Ulaid were retreating.↑ Cf. dot' ain-déoin, against thy will, C. M. Rath, 160; but innéoin, support, Hyfiachr. 254. It is clear that the Ulstermen were running away, and that our version is so full of euphemisms that it must be an Ulster one. ”

“ Temair, Sick Bed of Cu, 384.↑ "inber," in §§ 25, 26, is the river at Rosnaree, which is not affected by the tides, and cannot be called a river moth or estuary at ten miles from the sea.↑ i.e. he went around them in a wrong direction, lost his way, or, rather, ran amuck. Cf. "They are disorganised all round like the grindings of a mill turning the wrong way" (ocus bleith muillinn tuaithfil arra) , Cog. ”

“ Inis Seimne = Island Magee.↑ Lit., its.↑ rossail or rosualt, walrus (?) , LL. 118, LU. 11a; corrcind, "crane- (or round-) heads," or sword fish (corr, sharp, B. of Fenagh, 400, 298) . CF. serrcend, serpent (?) , Tigern. 1137; cenandan looks like ceinndán (little white head) of the B. of Armagh; il-riana means the many water-ways; rossail = ross-hwæl, horse-whale (?) .↑ Larne.↑ The strand and river-mouth at Dundalk.↑ síblanga = sith-langa, long boats? Cf. sithlungi, of a long ship, Togail Troi, pp. 43, 109; sib-ín (a bulrush) is a dimin. ”