The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge, page 109 by Unknown
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t, stout, [7]wonderful[7] warrior of the [8]particular[8] people of Medb [9]and Ailill,[9] Uala by name, and he took on his back a massy rock, [10]to the end that Glaiss Cruinn might not carry him back.[10] And he went to essay the stream, and the stream threw him back dead, lifeless, with his [W.1571.] stone on his back [1]and so he was drowned.[1] Medb ordered that he be lifted [2]out of the river then[2] [3]by the men of Erin[3] and his grave dug [4]and his keen made[4] and his stone raised [5]over his grave,[5] so that it is thence Lia Ualann ('Uala's Stone') [6]on the road near the stream[6] in the land of Cualnge.
[1-1] LU. fo. 65a, in the margin.
[2-2] H. 2. 17.
[3-3] H. 2. 17.
[4-4] Stowe.
[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 Táin. [10]This is the reason the account of the Táin 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 Táin is told in the Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe ("The Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution"), 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 pl