as she explained to him that Cúchulainn was to be her husband, whom Lugaid, according to this euhemerized passage, did not wish to anger.[1] On Welsh ground the possession of the bride would in both cases have only been settled as the result of a battle between the rival suitors, and the friendship and mutual regard ascribed to Cúchulainn and Lugaid is peculiarly Irish. It arises from the story of Cúchulainn's sojourn in Scáthach's Isle as Scáthach's pupil, that is to say, as her foster-son; but Scáthach had other foster-sons, who were accordingly Cúchulainn's foster-brothers there. The foster-brother[2] was, according to Celtic ideas, one's friend par excellence, and this is the origin of Cúchulainn and Lugaid's friendship, for Lugaid was Cúchulainn's foster-brother in Scáthach's Isle; and the same remark applies to the others who were their fellow-pupils there, several of whom, including two called Fer Baeth and Fer Diad respectively, were induced by Medb, much against their inclination, to fight with Cúchulainn on the Táin. In their case their former friendship with Cúchulainn serves to deepen the tragic tone of the story. The most formidable of all the old friends of Cúchulainn was Fer Diad, and the duel between them lasted a noinden or four days; the dialogues preceding each conflict turn mostly on the friendly relations between the heroes
- ↑ See the Stowe MS. (R. I. Academy, D. iv. 2), fol. 83b, which maintains the consistency of the story it relates by not naming Lugaid among Cúchulainn's fellow-pupils in Scáthach's Isle: see 83a.
- ↑ The word denoting this relation was in Irish comalta, which is as if one had in Latin a word com-alt-ius, meaning 'reared together with,' and so is the Welsh equivalent cyfaillt or cyfaill, the only term in the language for 'friend.'
