The Coming of Cuculain

The Red Branch feasted one night in their great hall at Emain Macha. So vast was the hall that a man, such as men are now, standing in the centre and shouting his loudest, would...

In the morning Fergus Mac Roy said to the young king, “What shall we do this day, O Concobar? Shall we lead forth our sweet-voiced hounds into the woods and rouse the wild boar...

“I love all that thou lovest, Spirit of delight; The fresh earth in new leaves drest, And the blessed night; Starry evening and the morn, When the golden mists are born.”

And now the daily life of that remote dun no longer pleased the boy, for the war-spirit within drave him on. Moreover he longed for comrades and playfellows, for his fearful mot...

“I to surrender, to fling away this! So owned by God and Man! so witnessed to! I had rather be rolled into my grave and buried with infamy.”--Battle-chaunt of a hero of the Saxons.

One day, in the forenoon, a man came to Emain Macha. He was grim and swarthy, with great hands and arms. He made no reverence to Concobar or to any of the Ultonians, but standin...

“How he fell From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o’er the crystal battlements; from morn To noon, from noon to dewy eve, A Summer’s day, he fell; and with the s...

“The swine-herd [Footnote: One of the minor gods. He resembles Mars Sylvanus of the Romans to whom swine were sacrificed.] of Bove Derg, son of the Dagda, The feasts to which he...

Concobar Mac Nessa sat one day in his high chair, judging the Ultonians. His great Council sat before him. In the Champion’s throne sat Fergus Mac Roy. Before the high King his...

The birth of the child Deirdre, daughter of the chief poet of Ulla, was attended with a great portent, for the child shrieked from the mother’s womb. Cathvah and the Druids were...

It was on account of this that there arose at first that dissidence and divergence of opinion in the great Council at Emain Macha between Concobar Mac Nessa and Fergus Mac Roy,...

“At Tailteen I raced my steeds against a woman, Though great with child she came first to the goal, Alas, I knew not the auburn-haired Macha, Thence came affliction upon the Ult...

“On the brink of the night and the morning My coursers are wont to respire, But the earth has just whispered a warning, That their flight must be swifter than fire, They shall b...

The prophecies concerning the coming of some extraordinary warrior amongst the Red Branch had been many and ancient, and by certain signs Concobar believed that his time was now...

As for the boys, they proceeded joyfully after that pleasant skirmish and friendly encounter, both on account of the discomfiture of him who was reckoned the prime champion of t...

Then Laeg harnessed the horses and yoked the chariot. To the brazen peaks of the chariot he fastened the heads of Foil and of Tuatha, with Foil’s on the left hand and Tuatha’s o...