there was a spring where she bathed herself every morning: there she was at last killed by the avenging hand of one of Conchobar's sons.[1] To this may be added that Conchobar, when he lost Medb, married a sister of hers named Eithne, who is fabled to have given her name to a river in Westmeath, called after her Eithne, Anglicized into Inny.[2] But there were two other sisters of Medb, severally mentioned as Conchobar's wives, namely, Clothru of Inis Clothrann, or Clothru's Isle, in Loch Ree,[3] and Mugain, who is perhaps most commonly spoken of as Conchobar's queen.[4] In Fergus, usually called Fergus mac Róig after his mother,[5] we have a kind of good-natured Cronus of gigantic proportions, endowed with the strength of 700 ordinary men,[6] wielding a sword of fairy make, which extended itself to the dimensions of a rainbow whenever he chose to use it.[7] Nevertheless, he could not prevail over Conchobar, so he thought it best to leave the kingdom. Fergus' relationship to Conchobar differed from that of Cronus to Zeus, in that he was not Conchobar's father but his uncle.[8]
- ↑ O'Curry's Manners, &c., ij. 290-1; but see also the Bk. of Leinster, 124b, 125a, where the story differs considerably from the version given by O'Curry from another source.
- ↑ O'Curry, ib. p. 290.
- ↑ Bk. of Leinster, 125a.
- ↑ Windisch's Ir. Texte, pp. 255, 258, 259, et passim.
- ↑ O'Curry's MS. Mat. p. 483.
- ↑ Bk. of Leinster, 106b. This Fergus is, mythologically speaking, to be identified probably with the Black-toothed Fergus of the story of Cormac: see p. 134.
- ↑ Ib. 102b.
- ↑ Fergus was son of Ross the Red, who was the father of Fachtna Fathach, said to be the father of Conchobar: see Bk. of Leinster, 97b, 102b; also O'Curry, p. 483.
