Page 54 - Demo

54 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh CUCHULAIN
‘Oh Ferdiad is it thou Wretched man thou art I trow, By a guileful woman won
To hurt thine old companion.’
FERDIAD.
‘Oh, Cuchulain, fierce of fight, Man of wounds and man of might, Fate constrains each one to stir Moving towards his sepulchre.’
Cúchulainn and Ferdia’s epic duel was the greatest incident in the long and bitter war that was fought before Meadhbh and her army triumphed and carried off the coveted brown bull of Cuailgne and fifty heifers to Connacht. But it is told, that just a short time later, at Rathnadarve, The Fort of the Bulls, at Rathcroghan, in the present day village of Tulsk, county Roscommon, the two great bulls did battle and in the ensuing bloody contest, the brown bull killed the white-horned bull, before escaping back to Ulster; thus ended the greatest tale of the Red Branch or Ulidian Cycle of Irish stories.
“Light of manhood’s generous ardour, under brows relaxing shone, When, mid-ford, on Uladh’s border, young Cuchullin stood alone, Maev and all her hosts withstanding :- ‘ Now, for love of knightly play, Yield the youth his soul’s demanding; let the hosts their marchings stay, “ ‘Till the death he craves be given ; and, upon his burial stone Champion-praises duly graven, make his name and glory known;
For, in speech-containing token, age to ages never gave
Salutation better spoken, than, “ Behold a hero’s grave.’ ” “What, another and another, and he still or combat calls?
Ah, the lot on thee, his brother sworn in arms, Ferdia, falls;
And the hall with wild applauses sobb’d like woman ere they wist,
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