fey person or a ghost to think of attempting such a thing.[1] Still more to our purpose is it to notice the parallel between Kulhwch and Cúchulainn, excepting always a difference, already indicated between the former and Lleu, namely, that while Cúchulainn does almost everything for himself, Kulhwch achieves all he does by obliging others to toil for him: the only time he is described acting of his own initiative is when he receives Yspyᵭaden's poisoned javelin and sends it back with the greatest precision through the apple of the giant's eye, which, as it decided Yspyᵭaden to come to terms with Kulhwch, forms the turning-point of the story, and invites comparison with Lleu's one hurl of his spear when he transfixed his foe. The parallel is still further pretty close: Kulhwch was born in a hovel belonging to a swineherd, or in a sty used by his pigs, as Cúchulainn, according to some of the accounts, was born in the bothie of the man in the Brugh of the Boyne. Both were of noble blood, and grew to be greatly admired on account of their personal charms; Kulhwch had, so far as we are allowed to judge, the same unerring hand that characterized Cúchulainn in the use of his spear; Cúchulainn marrying was a matter of great importance to the nobles of Ulster, and so was the marriage of Kulhwch one of great interest—a forced interest, it is true—to the knights of Arthur's court. Their respective brides were similar, and this extends to the difficulty of visiting them. Of the brides' mothers we read nothing; but the general resemblance between their fathers Forgall and Yspyᵭaden is too obvious to need discussion in detail, and both lose their
- ↑ Corpus Poet. Bor. i. 111-7.
