The Tain

The Connacht army moves on while Cúchulainn lays sick after the battle with Ferdia. His allies arrive and take him to Conaille to heal, bathing him in multiple rivers. When the army pitches camp, Cethern arrives and attacks, killing many before getting wounded and returning to Cúchulainn. He asks for a healer but kills between 15 and 50 for saying he cannot heal from his abdominal wound. The healer Fingin arrives and diagnoses each wound—one given by Medb, one by Illann (Fergus’s son), one given by Oll and Oichne, and so on, as members of the army are described. Fingin’s diagnosis is the same: “one way or another your life is done” (211). He receives a blow for it but survives, giving Cethern a choice: heal for a year and survive, or quickly get enough strength to fight his enemies for three days and nights. He chooses the latter, bathing in a bath of marrow to heal, and when his wife comes with his weapons, he binds the frame of the chariot around his ribs for support and attacks the Connacht camp. They divert him by placing Ailill’s crown atop a pillar stone, but after that Cethern continues to fight them for days until he falls.