The sons of Ailill had for the moment made hurdles of white-thorn and black-thorn in the gut[FN#78] of the ford, as defence against Regamon and his people, so that they were unable to pass through the ford ere Ailill and his army came; so thence cometh the name Ath Cliath Medraidi[FN#79] (the Hurdle Ford of Medraide), in the country of Little Bethra in the northern part of the O’Fiachrach Aidne between Connaught and Corcomroe.  There they met together with all their hosts.

[FN#78] Literally “mouth.”

[FN#79] Ath Cliath oc Medraige, now Maaree, in Ballycourty parish, Co.  Galway (Stokes, Bodleian Dinnshenchus, 26).  It may be mentioned that in the Dinnshenchus, the cattle are said to have been taken “from Dartaid, the daughter of Regamon in Munster,” thus confusing the Raids of Regamon and Dartaid, which may account for O’Curry’s incorrect statement in the preface to Leabhar na h-Uidhri, p. xv.

A treaty was then made between them on account of the fair young men who had carried off the cattle, and on account of the fair maidens who had gone with them, by whose means the herd escaped.  Restitution of the herd was awarded to Regamon, and the maidens abode with the sons of Ailill and Medb; and seven times twenty milch-cows were given up, as a dowry for the maidens, and for the maintenance of the men of Ireland on the occasion of the assembly for the Tain bo Cualnge; so that this tale is called the Tain bo Regamon, and it is a prelude to the tale of the Tain bo Cualnge.  Finit, amen.

THE DRIVING OF THE CATTLE OF FLIDAIS

INTRODUCTION

The Tain bo Flidais, the Driving of the Cows of Flidais, does not, like the other three Preludes to the Tain bo Cualnge, occur in the Yellow Book of Lecan; but its manuscript age is far the oldest of the four, as it occurs in both the two oldest collections of Old Irish romance, the Leabbar na h-Uidhri (abbreviated to L.U.), and the Book of Leinster (abbreviated to L.L.), besides the fifteenth century Egerton Ms., that contains the other three preludes.  The text of all three, together with a translation of the L.U. text, is given by Windisch in Irische Texte, II. pp. 206-223; the first part of the story is missing in L.U. and is supplied from the Book of Leinster (L.L.) version.  The prose translation given here follows Windisch’s translation pretty closely, with insertions occasionally from L.L.  The Egerton version agrees closely with L.L., and adds little to it beyond variations in spelling, which have occasionally been taken in the case of proper names.  The Leabhar na h-Uidhri version is not only the oldest, but has the most details of the three; a few passages have, however, been supplied from the other manuscripts which agree with L.U. in the main.