Page:The courtship of Ferb (Leahy).djvu/110

 element, was one of the three Irish Valkyr maidens or goddesses of war. Her sisters were Macha and the Morrigu, wife of the Dagda; all three of the sisters appear prominently in the tales. Appearances like that of the Badb to Conor (p. 12) and to Maev (p. 25) in order to excite war are found elsewhere, e.g. in the Tain bo Dartada or "The Cattle Raid of Dairt."

12.—Shall the Raid of the Kine of Cualgne be accomplished.—The Tain bo Cualgne ("The Cattle Raid of Kell-ny") has been called the Irish Iliad. It is by far the longest and most important of the Irish romances, and like many others contains both prose and verse. Its subject is the attack made upon Conor and his kingdom of Ulster by the remaining provinces of Ireland, led by Maev and Ailill. In the course of this epic Maev over-runs all Ulster, but is finally defeated at the battle of Gairech and Ilgairech. Between twenty and thirty tales belonging to the Heroic Age, including the "Courtship of Ferb," are prologues to the Tain bo Cualgne, which may be regarded as central in that cycle of story, for few of the tales are without a reference to it of some kind. The hero of the epic is Cuchulainn.

14.—For the love that she bore to Cuchulainn.—Cuchulainn (Cu-hoolin), mentioned in the last note, is said to have been seventeen only at the time of the Tain. If, as stated in the passage last referred to, this took