Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER V: TALES OF THE ULTONIAN CYCLE 161chariot and went to the Strand. Here he found the boy tossing uphis weapons and doing marvellous feats with them. “Delightfulis thy play, boy,” said Cuchulain; “who art thou and whence dostthou come?” “I may not reveal that,” said the lad. “Then thoushalt die,” said Cuchulain. “So be it,” said the lad, and then theyfought with swords for a while, till the lad delicately shore off alock of Cuchulain's hair. “Enough of trifling,” said Cuchulain,and they closed with each other, but the lad planted himself on arock and stood so firm that Cuchulain could not move him, andin the stubborn wrestling they had the lad's two feet sank deepinto the stone and made the footprints whence the Strand of theFootprints has its name. At last they both fell into the sea, and [192]Cuchulain was near being drowned, till he bethought himself ofthe Gae Bolg, and he drove that weapon against the lad and itripped up his belly. “That is what Skatha never taught me,” criedthe lad. “Woe is me, for I am hurt.” Cuchulain looked at him andsaw the ring on his finger. “It is true,” he said; and he took upthe boy and bore him on shore and laid him down before Conorand the lords of Ulster. “Here is my son for you, men of Ulster,”he said. And the boy said: “It is true. And if I had five years togrow among you, you would conquer the world on every side ofyou and rule as far as Rome. But since it is as it is, point outto me the famous warriors that are here, that I may know themand take leave of them before I die.” Then one after another theywere brought to him, and he kissed them and took leave of hisfather, and he died; and the men of Ulster made his grave and setup his pillar-stone with great mourning. This was the only sonCuchulain ever had, and this son he slew.This tale, as I have given it here, dates from the ninth century,and is found in the “Yellow Book of Lecan.” There are manyother Gaelic versions of it in poetry and prose. It is one of theearliest extant appearances in literature of the since well-knowntheme of the slaying of a heroic son by his father. The Persianrendering of it in the tale of Sohrab and Rustum has been made