nd the
Supplement to the same by G. Dottin, _Revue Celtique_, t. xxxiii,
pages 34-35; Donald Mackinnon, _A Descriptive Catalogue of Gaelic
Manuscripts_, Edinburgh, 1912, pp. 174, 220; E. Windisch, Tain Bo
Cualnge, _Einleitung und Vorrede_, S. lx. ff.

[9] Facsimile, page 288, foot margin.

[10] Facsimile, page 275, top margin.

[11] Vd. Robert Atkinson, _The Book of Leinster_, Introduction, pages
7-8; J.H. Todd, _Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, Rerum Britannicarum medii
aevi scriptores_, 1867, Introduction, pages ix and ff. Eugene O'Curry,
_On the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History_, page 186;
Ernst Windisch, _Tain Bo Cualnge_, pages 910-911.

[12] Pronounced _gesh_ or _gas_.

[13] "Es gehoert keine grosse Kuehnheit dazu zu behaupten, dass keiner
der lebenden Keltologen beispielsweise von dem wichtigsten altirischen
Sagentext 'Der Rinderraub von Cualnge' ... mit allen vorhandenen
Hilfsmitteln ein solches fortlaufendes Verstaendnis des Inhalts hat,
wie von einem guten Gymnasialabiturienten hinsichtlich der homerischen
Gedichte ohne jegliches Hilfsmittel vor gut 30 Jahren in Deutschland
verlangt wurde."--_Die Kultur der Gegenwart_, herausgegeben von Paul
Hinneberg, Berlin, 1909. Teil I, Abt. xi, I. S. 75.

[14] Part II, chap, lxii (Garnier Hermanos edition, page 711).

* * * * *

[Page 1]

Here beginneth Tain Bo Cualnge

The Cualnge Cattle-raid

I

THE PILLOW-TALK

[W.1.] [LL.fo.53.] Once of a time, that Ailill and Medb had spread their
royal bed in Cruachan, the stronghold of Connacht, such was the pillow-talk
that befell betwixt them:

Quoth Ailill: "True is the saying, lady, 'She is a well-off woman that is a
rich man's wife.'" "Aye, that she is," answered the wife; "but wherefore
opin'st thou so?" "For this," Ailill replied, "that thou art this day
better off than the day that first I took thee." Then answered Medb: "As
well-off was I before I ever saw thee." "It was a wealth, forsooth, we
never heard nor knew of," Ailill said; "but a woman's wealth was all thou
hadst, and foes from lands next thine were used to carry off the spoil and
booty that they took from thee." "Not so was I," quoth Medb; "the High King
of Erin himself was my sire, Eocho Fedlech ('the Enduring') son of Finn, by
name, who was son of Findoman, son of Finden, son of Findguin, son of Rogen
Ruad ('