The feats which Cúchulainn learned from Scáthach are no longer intelligible and are probably exaggerated or imaginary warrior exploits. Scáthach and Aife may be reminiscences of actual Celtic female warriors, though the hero's visit to Scáthach's isle is akin to his journey to Fand—it is a visit to a divine land, whose people are sometimes at war (as in the stories of Fand and Loegaire), but where wisdom, valour, and other things may be gained by mortals.
When Conlaoch came to Ireland, his father's injunctions were the cause of his slaying his own son in ignorance with his marvellous spear, the gaí bolga; and when he recognized the ring which his son wore, great was his sorrow.19 This is a Celtic version of the story of Suhrāb and Rustam.20
Cuchulainn did not at once become hero of Ulster. In the story of Mac Dáthó's Boar, to which reference has already been made, the hero is Conall, who never passed a day without killing a Connaughtman or slept without a Connaughtman's head under his knee. Bricriu, the provoker of strife, advised that each man should get a share of the boar according to his warlike deeds. Cet of Connaught was chief until Conall arrived and put him to shame; and then, though the boar's tail required sixty men to carry it, he sucked it into his mouth, allotting scanty portions to the men of Connaught. In the fight which ensued the latter were routed, Mac Dáthó's hound siding with the Ulstermen.21
The Fled Bricend, or Feast of Bricriu, tells of a feast made for Conchobar and his men by Bricriu in a vast house built for this purpose. Bricriu prepared for himself a balcony with a window looking down on the hall, for he knew that the Ulstermen would not allow him to enter it; yet they feared to accept the Invitation lest he should provoke quarrels among them, and the dead should outnumber the living. Thereupon he asserted that if they refused, he would do still worse; and after discussion it was agreed that they should go, but that Bricriu should be guarded from entering the feast. In the
