This is the story of the Death of Cuchulainn, of the red branch of the mythology Irish.
The Death of Cuchulainn
“Never until this day, says Cuchulainn, have I been able to hear women and children complaining without going to their aid. The fifty queens came to block his way and they uncovered their breasts in front of him. He is the first of whom it has been said that before him women uncovered their breasts; their object was to prevent him from undertaking new exploits and to keep him at Emain Macha: they brought three vats of water so that by bathing in them he would quench his ardor, and they prevented him from going to fight. That day.
I see, O son of Calatin, said Lugaid, son of Cûroï, that today Cûchulainn does not move away from YOU, and what prevents him from leaving is the art with which you began the war; he has a long way to go to reach Dûn Chermnai, Bel Conglais, Temair Luachra and Tombar Tri n-Ucht, which is before Menbolg [in Munster]; however, your ruse will not succeed, it will still be a long time before Cuchulainn comes to meet us, he will go far from us tomorrow morning. "
The enemies of Cuchulainn remained there until the following morning, the children of Calatin disposed their troops all around Emain Macha; the smoke from the fires lit by them formed an enormous cloud which covered the whole of Emain Macha; the army of the children of Calatin made so much noise that the palace of Emain Macha was shaken and the arms fell there from their rack; from outside, bad news reached Cuchulainn. Leborcham sang:
Arise, O Cûchulainn! Arise to rescue the inhabitants of the plain of Murthemné
Against the warriors of Leinster, O son of Lug!
O brilliantly bred heroes, turn your marvelous games of war against the enemy.
[…]
Cûchulainn answered by singing:
Leave me alone, O woman!
I am not the only warrior nourished by the Kingdom of Conchobar.
Whatever my obligations and the concerns they cause me,
I am not alone, o woman!
You're giving me bad advice.
After so much fatigue, after such great fatigue,
I'm not a man to go willingly for mortal wounds today.
Niab, daughter of Celtchar and wife of Conall the Triumphant, answered him by singing:
You must go to the fight, O Cûchulainn!
Thereupon, Cuchulainn jumped on his equipment, he put on his war costume, but, when he began to put it on, the brooch which was to attach his coat fell from his hand [on his foot and injured him]; he sang:
It's not my coat's fault; it's not her rubbing that hurts me
It's my brooch's fault
That pierces my skin
By falling on my foot.
[…]
He finished equipping himself, seized his shield with its sharp edge and adorned with fringes, then addressing Lôeg, son of Riangabar: “My dear Lôeg, he said, hitch up the chariot for us.
“I swear by the god by which my nation swears,” answered Loeg, “even if all the inhabitants of the kingdom of Conchobar should surround your horse, the Gray of Macha, they should not manage to lead him to the chariot. His predictions have never deceived you, I have always seen them come true; please come and speak to him yourself. "
Cuchulainn approached the Gray of Macha, and three times with a sinister movement the horse turned to the left. Already, the night before, the goddess Morrigu had smashed Cú Chulainn's chariot: she wanted to prevent the hero from going into battle, because she knew he would not return to Emain Macha. Meanwhile Cuchulainn spoke to his horse; he sang verses:
Your habit, O Gris de Macha, was not to reply to me with this sinister movement, etc.
Then the Grey, obedient, approached him, but he let fall on his two front feet two large tears of blood. Cuchulainn [not stopping at this prophetic sign] leaps into his chariot and gallops his horses in a southerly direction, on the road to Mid-Luachair [county Kerry, in Munster]; then he saw a woman before him, it was Leborcham, daughter of Aué and Ardac, two slaves of King Conchobar, whose palace they lived in; she sang verses:
Don't leave us, don't leave us, oh Cûchulainn
Your scarred face is our shelter,
He is our charming happiness.
Your death would make us inconsolable.
Woe to women
Woe to the sons!
Woe to the eyes
How long would be the complaint that your loss would cause
[…]
The three times fifty women who were at Emain Macha repeated the same poem aloud. "It would be better not to go away," said Loeg, "until today you have preserved intact the strength which you derive from your maternal race. " - " No Alas ! replied Cúchulainn, “go, Loeg; it is up to the coachman to drive the horses, to the warrior to protect the weak, to the intelligent man to give advice, to the women to weep (?). Lead me into battle, moans are useless, they won't protect you against the enemy. "
[To deflect bad omens], Lôeg makes the tank turn to the right as it moves away; then the women utter a cry of pain, a cry of complaint, and [as a sign of farewell] they clap their hands. They knew that Cuchulainn, their protector, would not return alive to Emain Macha, and that that very day he would find death; they sang:
The troop of women is sad,
She sheds copious tears.
[…]
When they had finished singing, they uttered a cry of mourning, a cry of pain: they knew that the hero Cûchulainn would not return.
Ahead of him, on the road, was the house of the nurse who had brought him up; he always went there to pay a visit when on his errands he was heading for the south of Ireland or when he was returning from it; his nurse offered him a pot of beer each time. As usual, he drank this pot of beer, then he left after saying goodbye to his nurse.
He was following the road to Mid-Luachair, he had passed the field of Mogna, when he saw something: it was three old women of the one-eyed tribe who were ahead of him on the road; on rowan spits they cooked a dog seasoned with poison.
A magical defense forbade Cuchulainn to pass close to a hearth without paying a visit and without accepting food; by another magic defense, the flesh of its namesake was for him prohibited food; [and his namesake was the dog, since his name means Culann's dog.] He doesn't stop and he passes the three old women; one of them speaks to him: “Come and visit us, O Cuchulainn.
"I won't go to see you," he replied.
“There is food here,” replied the old woman, “we have a dog to offer you; if our home was big, she added, you would come, but because it is small, you don't come; a great man who despises the little ones does not deserve his dignity. "
Cu Chulainn went to visit the old woman, and [by a sinister gesture] the latter, with her left hand, offered him half the dog. Cuchulainn ate, it was with his left hand that he took the piece and he put part of it under his left thigh. [He had violated the magic defense]; his left hand and his left thigh were cursed; the curse reached his entire left side, which, from head to toe, lost much of its strength.
Then Cuchulainn and Loeg left. Continuing to follow the Mid-Luachair road, they skirted the mountain of Fuat [in County Armagh, Ulster]. When they arrived at the south of this mountain, Cú Chulainn asked: “What do we see, my dear Lôeg?
"Pitiful enemies, though numerous," answered Loeg; therefore, great victory.
"Woe to me," resumed Cúchulainn, and he sang:
I hear a loud noise; we meet deep red horses.
The heavy planks attached to the left arm touch each other.
First will fall the coachman,
Soon the horses will fall in front of the seats where the warriors are seated.
Alas! a long time I stood up before the armed troops of the Irish !
Cuchulainn and Loeg continued to follow the road of Mid-Luachair in a southerly direction, and they came in sight of the fortress which is in the plain of Murthemne [in County Louth, in Leinster]; it was there that they met the enemy. Erc, whose father Coirpré had been killed by Cúchulainn, began to sing:
I see a beautiful, well-decorated chariot arriving.
It is surmounted by a large green pavilion.
On this beautiful chariot, the warrior plays war games.
[…]
“This warrior comes to attack us, O warriors of Ireland, prepare yourselves to fight…” A rampart of shields was placed around Erc; the warriors ranged themselves in three powerful and numerous battle corps. Get ready, said Erc, get ready to receive the enemy. And he sang:
Arise, warriors of Ireland; stand up.
Here is Cuchulainn the quarrelsome, the conqueror with the red sword.
[…]
Arise, warriors of Ireland.
How shall we arrange our order of battle, asked the warriors?
'Here is my advice,' replied Erc, 'you belong to four of the five provinces of Ireland; form but one body of battle, tighten your shields, so as to make, so to speak, only one plank all around, both on the sides and from above at each end you will put outside a group of three of the three men, two will be the strongest in the army and will fight against each other; the third will be a wizard moving near them (?). The sorcerer will ask Cúchulainn for his javelin whose name is Renown of Renowns; the request made by the sorcerer will be so imperative that Cuchulainn will not be able to refuse the javelin that will be thrown at him afterwards; a prophecy announces that this javelin must kill a king; if we ask Cuchulainn for this javelin, it is not against us that the prophecy will come true. Let out a cry of complaint and a cry of appeal, his ardor and the ardor of his horses will prevent him from singing and from beginning to challenge us to a duel as in the Tain bô Cuailngil expedition. We do as Erc said.
Cúchulainn approaches, and on his chariot makes his three games of thunder: the thunder of a hundred, the thunder of three hundred, the thunder of three times nine men. It was like a sweep of the broom that pushed the enemy back in front of him on the plain of Murthemné, he approached the enemy army, and began to brandish his weapons against them: he also played the spear, the shield and the of the sword; he exercised all the arts of the warrior. As many as there are grains of sand in the sea, stars in the sky, dewdrops in May, snowflakes in winter, hailstones in a storm, leaves in a forest, ears of yellow wheat in the plain of Breg, grass under the feet of Irish horses on a summer day, so many half-heads, half-skulls, half-hands, half-feet, so many red bones, were scattered in the plain of Murthemne; she became gray with the brains of her enemies, so cruel and violent was the combat waged against them by Cu Chulainn!
Then Cuchulainn saw at the end of the army two warriors fighting against each other; they seemed inseparable. Shame on you, Cuchulainn, said the sorcerer, if you do not separate these two men. Cuchulainn rushed towards them, gave them each a blow on the head, the brains came out of their ears and nose. You separated them, said the wizard, they won't hurt each other anymore.
“They wouldn't be silenced if you hadn't asked me to intervene between them,” answered Cú Chulainn.
"Give me your javelin, O Cuchulainn," said the wizard.
“I swear it by the oath that my nation pronounces,” resumed Cuchulainn, “you have no greater need of my javelin than I do; all the warriors of Ireland are here united against me, and I have to defend myself against them.
“If you refuse me,” replied the sorcerer, “I will solemnly place a magic curse on you.
“Up to now,” replied Cú Chulainn, “no curse has been pronounced against me on the pretext of a refusal of a gift or an act of stinginess. "
Thereupon he threw his javelin the hilt forward; the javelin went through the wizard's head, and beyond him went to kill nine men.
Cuchulainn, pushing his chariot, crossed the entire enemy army to the end.
So Lugaid, son of Cûroï, picked up the murderous javelin which, ready to serve, had fallen among the sons of Calatin. O son of Calatin, asked Lugaid, who is the warrior this javelin must defeat?
"It is a king that this javelin must bring down," replied the sons of Calatin.
Lugaid threw the javelin in the direction of Cûchulainn's chariot, the javelin reached the coachman Lôeg, son of Riangabar, Lôeg's entrails came out of his body and spread on the cushion of the chariot, then Lôeg sang:
Severely I was hurt.
[…]
Cuchulainn drew the javelin from the wound and bade farewell to Loeg. Today, he added, I will be both warrior and coachman. "
[Cúchulainn, launching his chariot, crossed the entire enemy army.] When he reached the end of it, he saw before him two warriors fighting against each other, and a sorcerer moving near them.
“Shame on you, O Cuchulainn, if you do not separate us. said one of the two warriors. In response, Cuchulainn rushes towards them and arranges them, one on the right, the other on the left, with such violence that they fall dead at the foot of a nearby rock.
"Give me your javelin, Cuchulainn," said the wizard.
"I swear it by the oath that my nation pronounces," answered Cuchulainn, "you have no greater need of this javelin than I do; at this moment the warriors of four of the five great provinces of Ireland are attacking me, it takes my courage and my arms to sweep the plain of Murthemné today.
“I will solemnly cast a magic curse on you,” replied the wizard.
“One has no right,” said Cuchulainn, “to address a second request to me; in giving satisfaction to the first, I have sufficiently responded to the demands of honour.
“It will be,” replied the wizard, “it will be against the warriors of Ulster that I will pronounce the curse, and it will strike them through your fault.
“Until now,” replied Cú Chulainn, “I have not made them curse, neither by refusing a gift, nor out of avarice; I don't have long to live, but they won't be cursed today. "
And he threw his javelin forward with the handle; the javelin went through the wizard's head, and behind the wizard it killed nine men.
Cuchulainn, putting his horses to a gallop, again crossed the entire enemy army.
Then Erc, son of Coirpré the Hero of the Warriors, picked up the murderous javelin which, ready to serve, had fallen among the sons of Calatin.
O son of Calatin, asked Erc, son of Coirpré, what feat will this javelin accomplish?
"This javelin will strike down a king," replied the sons of Calatin.
“You said,” replied Erc, son of Coirpré, “that this javelin would knock down a king when, long ago, Lugaid threw it.
- We were not mistaken, answered the sons of Calatin, then this javelin made fall the king of the coachmen of Ireland, the son of Riangabar, Lôeg, coachman of Cúchulainn.
“I swear it,” replied Erc, “I swear it by the oath that my people take, the king you speak of is not yet the one whom Lugaid must kill with this javelin. "
Thereupon Erc throws the javelin at Cûchulainn, the javelin hits one of the two horses, the Gray of Macha.
Cuchulainn draws the javelin from the wound, he and the horse bid each other farewell, then the Gray of Macha leaves his master, carrying half the yoke on his neck, and he goes to Lake Gray, on the mountain of Fuat; it was there that Cuchulainn had gone to fetch the Gray of Masha, it was there that the Gray of Masha returned wounded. "Today," said Cúchulainn, "I shall live in a horse-drawn chariot, with half a yoke. "
He puts the tip of his foot on the end of the broken yoke, and once again he drives his chariot through the entire enemy army. Then he sees two warriors fighting against each other before him, and a wizard moving near them; he separates the two warriors by treating them as he had done for the two couples he had previously encountered.
"Give me your javelin, O Cuchulainn," said the wizard.
"Your need is no greater than mine," answered Cuchulainn.
– I will solemnly pronounce against you, said the sorcerer, a magic curse.
“Today,” replied Cú Chulainn, “I have honored my honor, no one has the right to ask me again.
- It will be against Ulates that I will launch the curse, continued the wizard, and you will be responsible for it.
"I also satisfied the honor for them," replied Cuchulainn.
- It will be against your race that the curse will be cast, said the wizard.
"I don't want," replied Cú Chulainn, "that in the countries where I have not been up to now they come to tell one day that I have lost my honor, and that when I cannot go to these countries to defend it, because it I have little time left to live. "
Then Cuchulainn threw his javelin, the handle forward; the javelin went through the wizard's head and killed, behind the wizard, three times nine men.
"It is a gift of wrath, O Cuchulainn," cried the dying wizard.
Cuchulainn, for the last time, crossed the entire enemy army to the end. Then Lugaid, son of Cûroï, picked up the murderous javelin which, ready to serve, had fallen among the sons of Calatin.
What exploits will this javelin accomplish, O son of Calatin? Lugaid asked.
“He will strike down a king,” replied the sons of Calatin.
"You said as much when Erc threw it this morning," Lugaid replied.
“Yes,” resumed the sons of Calatin, “and our word has come true; this javelin, thrown by Erc, mortally struck the king of the horses of Ireland, that is to say the Gray of Macha.
“I swear, replied Lugaid, I swear by the oath my nation swears, the blow given by Erc did not strike the king whom this javelin is to kill. "
Then Lugaid threw the javelin at Cú Chulainn, he hit him, and the entrails of the hero, emerging, spilled over the cushion of the chariot. Immediately the Noir de Merveilleuse Vallée [second of Cúchulainn's horses] set off, carrying off what remained of the broken yoke; he regained the black lake of Muscraigé Tiré, that is to say the country where Cuchulainn had captured him; the horse, on his return, rushing into the lake, made it boil.
Cuchulainn was left alone in his chariot on the battlefield.
I want, he said, to go over there to the lake to drink there.
- We allow you, answered his enemies, but on the condition that you return to find us.
“If I don't have the strength to come back,” resumed Cúchulainn, “I will invite you to come and meet me. He picked up his entrails, put them back in place, and [on foot] reached the lake. With his hand, as he walked, he held his entrails. He drank and bathed in the lake clutching his belly with his hand, and that is why the lake of the plain of Murthemne is called Lake of Lâmrath, that is to say of the blessing of the hand. It is also called Thin Water Lake.
After drinking and bathing, Cu Chulainn walked away a few steps. He invited his enemies to approach him. A numerous party, detaching themselves from the army, advanced. Cúchulainn fixed his gaze on this hostile group. He went to lean against the high stone which is in the plain, and, using his belt, he attached his body to this high stone. He didn't want to die, neither sitting nor lying; it was standing that he wanted to die. Then his enemies came and lined up around it. They remained around him without daring to approach him, he still seemed alive to them. Shame on you, said Erc, son of Coirpré the Hero of Warriors. Shame on you if you do not take this man's head, if you do not avenge my father whose head he took away, my father whose head, then buried [in Tethbal with the corpse of Echaid the Hero of Warriors, was only later reunited with her body, in Sid-Nenntal, behind the water. "
Then the Gray of Masha arrived, he wanted to protect Cúchulainn as long as the soul of the hero was present, and the light of life shone on his forehead. He made three terrible charges around his master; with his teeth he killed fifty men, and each of his hoofs killed thirty others. The number of enemies who succumbed is the cause of this proverbial expression: “Nothing is more ardent than the charges of the Gray of Macha after the death of Cuchulainn. [Then that horse went away].
Birds came to perch on Cuchulainn's shoulder. That pillar wasn't used to carrying birds. said Erc, son of Coirpré. Then Lugaid, son of Cûroï, taking from behind the hair of Cûchulainn, cut off his head. Immediately, from the hand of Cuchulainn the sword fell; it hit Lugaid's right hand which fell cut on the ground; to avenge the hand of Lugaid, the right hand of Cuchulainn was cut off.
The army marched, bearing the head and right hand of the vanquished hero; she thus arrived at Tara. It also shows the place where the head and the right hand of Cúchulainn were buried with his shield.
