Trans. Kuno Meyer
ing Eocha Feidlech had three sons and three daughters. His sons tried to wrest the kingship from him, but were met by
their sister Clothru, who attempted to dissuade them. " Do ye come to injure your father ? It is a great wrong, though it should be carried out." " It cannot be helped," said the youths. " Do ye leave children behind you ?" asked the woman. " They are no longer alive," said the youths. " It is likely that ye will perish through your crime.
"Venite1 ad me," inquit ilia, "namque tempus mihi est concipiendi. Videamus num progeniem mecum relicturi sitis." Factum est. Alius super alium cum ea coierunt. Bene evenit. Peperit "Lugaid of the Red Stripes," filium trium Findemna. "Nolite contra patrem procedere !" inquit ilia, "satis sceleris admisistis qui cum sorore vestra dormiveritis, ita ut contra patrem pugnare non debeatis." Hoc quominus pugnarent prohibuit.
"Come to me," she said, "because it is time for me to conceive. Let's see if you are destined to procreate with me." This was done. One after another, they slept with her. It went well. She gave birth to "Lugaid Red Stripes, the son of the three Findemna. "Do not act against your father!" she says, "you have committed enough crime, you who slept with your sister, not to fight your father." This speech forbids them to fight.
Clothru administered the laws of Connaught in the isle of Clothru (Inis Clothrand) on Loch Ree. They say that Medb killed her sister Clothru, and out of her sides her child, In Furbaide mac Conchobuir, was taken with the swords. Then Medb seized the kingship of Connaught, and took Ailill to rule by her side. And in Inis Clothrand she administered the laws of Connaught.
She was under a spell to bathe every morning in a spring at the end of the island. One day Furbaide went to Inis Clothrand and fixed a pole on the flagstone on which Medb was wont to make her ablutions. He tied a rope to the top of the pole, and the pole was as high as Medb, and he stretched the rope across Loch Ree, from east to west. Then he took the rope home with him, and, when the youths of Ulster were at play, this was Furbaide's game : he would stretch his rope between two poles, and practised slinging between them, nor did he leave off until he hit the apple that was on the head of the pole.
One day there was a great gathering of the men of Connaught and Ulster around Loch Ree, west and east. And Medb went to bathe early in the morning in the spring above the Loch.
" What a beautiful figure yonder !" said everybody. " Who is it ?" asked Furbaide. " Thy mother's sister," said all.
He was then eating a piece of cheese. He did not wait to pick up a stone. He put the cheese in his sling, and, when Medb's forehead was turned towards them, he sent the piece and lodged it in her head.
And so he killed her by one throw, and avenged his mother.
[Bai2 Furbaidi in tan sin ac ithi mire do tanaigh ocus ni ro han-som fri cuinchi clochthi, acht dobeir mir do tanaigh ina tabaill ocus teilcis di, ocus is amlaid ro bai Medb in tan sin, a hetan friu go tarla ina mullach, gurus marb de do digail a mathar furri. Adaid Meidbi ocus Clothrainni.]
Notes :
1. Kuno Meyer renderered this paragraph in latin. A translation is given next paragraph.
2. This ยง is not translate in Celtic Magazine.
Sources : Kuno Meyer, Celtic magazine 12
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