A visit that neither side trusts
Flidais, married to Ailill Finn, admires Fergus from reports of his exploits and sends him messages. After Fergus reaches Connacht, Ailill and Medb help arrange a visit to her husband. The stated need is assistance for the exiles in Fergus's company, but the attraction between guest and hostess makes the request immediately contentious.
Ailill Finn refuses to let Fergus remain. He fears that a large gift of cattle will look like payment to keep his own wife. Fergus rejects the smaller food offering and challenges the household. The episode shows how the public interpretation of generosity can make even an offer of hospitality difficult: each man measures the transaction against his standing before others.
Source: The Driving of the Cattle of Flidais — Leahy translation · Táin Bó Flidais, literal translation: Flidais’s messages, council, visit and refusal of an honor-gift
The visitor becomes a wounded captive
Ailill Finn defeats the challengers. Dubthach and the two men named Fergus are wounded, and many of their companions are killed or driven away. Flidais covers the fallen men and tends their injuries inside the stronghold. Survivors carry the news to Cruachan, bringing Ailill, Medb, and the Ulster exiles with a relieving force.
The version printed by Leahy contains an explicit statement that Ailill initially sought a peaceful meeting. His notes identify this as absent from other witnesses. Once the injured men are returned, however, siege and heavy losses follow. Taunts about their defeat finally drive the wounded heroes into a renewed attack, and the defenders are overwhelmed.
Source: The Driving of the Cattle of Flidais — Leahy translation · Táin Bó Flidais, literal translation: ford combats, Flidais’s care, arrival of relief, textual note on peaceful intention, siege and taunts
What the victory takes away
The conquest kills Ailill Finn and many defenders. The victors remove wealth, clothing, livestock, and captive women. Flidais goes with Fergus under the settlement made by Ailill and Medb, and her cattle become a recurring source of food for the army on the Táin. Her exceptional provision is presented through a household and herd; the passage does not require turning her into a universal goddess of every wild animal.
The final notice follows her and Fergus beyond the raid. Her death diminishes his household, and his later return to Connacht ends in his own death through Ailill's jealousy. Desire begins the movement of people and cattle, but the narrative closes by measuring the durable material support that has been lost. Its victorious party remains responsible for a devastating seizure.
Source: The Driving of the Cattle of Flidais — Leahy translation · Táin Bó Flidais, literal translation: sack, captives and herd; feeding the Táin army; deaths of Flidais and Fergus
- Period / witness
- Medieval Irish prose and verse preserved in medieval and early modern manuscript witnesses; Leahy translation 1905–1906.
- Recording context
- This entry concerns the literary version named in its passages, transmitted by Christian-era Irish manuscript culture and translated by A. H. Leahy. Legendary settings are not dates of composition or evidence for a single pre-Christian canon.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
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These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
The Driving of the Cattle of Flidais — Leahy translation ↗
Anonymous Irish literary narratives; translated and arranged by Arthur Herbert Leahy (1857–1928) · Volume II, 1906; Project Gutenberg eBook released May 2004 and updated 29 June 2026
Edition & rights note