Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/261

 Reviews. 237

needs her strength and vigour, this Amazon-Queen, who boasts herself better than a man, is overtaken by the physical weakness of a woman. She is stricken down, and forced to abandon her post of trust and seek rest and shelter behmd the host. Here Cuchulain, returning alone from the glorious pursuit, finds her prostrate, ready to crave protection at the hands even of himself, her deadliest enemy. She does not appeal to his chivalry in vain. He not only protects her, and convoys her in safety across the river to rejoin her troops, but he himself takes her post and shields his flying foes from his own army until they have all recrossed the Shannon at Athlone. It is not Cuchulain, her enemy, but Fergus, her lover, who exclaims : " Verily and indeed, the upshot of this day is a fitting outcome of a woman's lead ; for as a brood mare followed by her foals wanders, without choice of path or any fixed design, in a land unknown, such is the plight of this host to- day." This passage, although it could not be literally rendered in English on account of the grotesque and exaggerated language of the original, is in its conception a finely dramatic ending to the story. It reverses the positions that Cuchulain and Medb have held throughout the entire Tain. The weakness and youthful- ness of the hero are everywhere insisted on ; compared with his natural simplicity and boyishness his feats are regarded as a constant marvel, while the pride and vigour of the Queen-General are equally marked. The sudden break-down of Medb and the fear which makes her appeal to Cuchulain are therefore the more striking. The incident is not without a touch of that grim delight which the mediaeval writer always displays when he can drag in a disparaging remark upon a woman, and for which the Tain furnishes its compiler with abundant opportunities.

The story has gathered into itself all sorts of material, and it has doubtless grown to its present length by the gradual accumulation of disconnected episodes ; while outside its actual limits it is ushered in by a number of preparatory tales, and by a long account of its discovery after the supposed loss of the main story. The scribe of the L. U. version tells us that several details are omitted which are found in other books. In his mind the story probably presented itself as a series of isolated deeds rather than as a naturally developing whole. It is curious that the oldest form of the tale linguistically should be contained in the latest of the three manuscripts, the Yellow Book of Lecan.