Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Wooing of Emer by Cú Chulainn (Author: [unknown])
paragraph 30
‘Or again, it is from this that Emain Macha is, as it is in the following tale. Three kings were reigning together over Erinn. They were from Ulster, viz. Dithorba, son of Diman, from Uisnech of Meath, Aed the Red, son of Badurn, son of Aircet the Bald, in the land of Aed, Cimbaeth, son of Findairget, from Finnabair of Mag Inis. It is he who brought up Ugaine the Great, son of Eochu the Victorious. Then the men made an agreement, that each of them was to reign seven years. Three times seven sureties were pledged between them, seven druids to revile them forever; or seven poets to lampoon, and satirise, and upbraid them; seven chiefs to wound them and burn them; unless each man gave up his reign at the end of seven years, having preserved true government, viz. the produce of each year, without decay of any kind, and without the death of a woman from concubinage. Each of them reigned three times in his turn, during sixty-six years. Aed the Red was the first of them to die, or rather he was drowned in Ess Ruaid, and his body was taken into the sid there, whence Sid Aeda, and Ess Ruaid. He left no children, except one daughter, whose name was Macha the Red-haired. She demanded the kingship in its due time. Cimbaeth and Dithorba said they would not give kingship to a woman. A battle was fought between them. Macha routed them. She was sovereign for seven years. Meanwhile Dithorba had fallen. He left five noble sons behind, Baeth and Brass and Betach, Uallach and Borbchass. These now demanded
p.152
the kingship Macha said she would not give it to them, ‘for not by favour did I obtain it,’ said she, ‘but by force in the battlefield.’ A battle was fought between them. Macha routed the sons of Dithorba, who left a slaughter of heads before her, and went into exile in the wilds of Connaught. Macha then took Cimbaeth to her as her husband, and leader of her troops. When now Macha and Cimbaeth were united, Macha went to seek the sons of Dithorba in the shape of a leper, viz. she smeared herself with rye-dough and
[...]
. She found them in Buirend Connacht, cooking a wild boar. The men asked tidings of her, and she gave them. And they let her have food by the fire. Said one of them: ‘Lovely is the eye of the girl, let us lie with her.’ He took her with him into the wood. She bound that man by dint of her strength, and left him in the wood. She came back to the fire. ‘Where is the man who went with thee?’ they asked. ‘He is ashamed to come to you,’ she replied, ‘after having lain with a leper.’ ‘There is no shame,’ said they, ‘for we shall all do the same.’ Each man took her into the wood. She bound every one of them, one after the other and brought them all in one chain to Ulster. The men of Ulster wanted to kill them. ‘No,’ said she, ‘for that would be the ruin of my true government. But they shall be thralls, and shall dig a rath round me, and that shall be the eternal seat of Ulster for ever.’ Then she marked out the dun for them with her brooch, viz., a golden pin on her neck, i.e., a brooch on the neck of Macha (eo imma muin Macha). Hence is Emain Macha in truth.’