The Courting of Emer
“I swear by the oath of my people,” said Cuchulain, “I will make my doings be spoken of among the great doings of heroes in their strength.”
“What is your strength, then?” said Emer.
“That is easily told; when my strength in fighting is weakest I defend twenty; a third part of my strength is enough for thirty; in my full strength I fight alone against forty; and a hundred are safe under my protection. For dread of me, fighting men avoid fords and battles; armies and armed men go backward from the fear of my face.”
“That is a good account for a young boy,” said Emer, “but you have not reached yet to the strength of chariot chiefs.”
“But, indeed,” said Cuchulain, “it is well I have been reared by Conchubar, my dear foster-father. It is not as a countryman strives to bring up his children, between the flags and the kneading trough, between the fire and the wall, on the floor of the one room, that Conchubar has brought me up; but it is among chariot chiefs and heroes, among jesters and Druids, among poets and learned men, among landowners and farmers of Ulster I have been reared, so that I have all their manners and their gifts.”
“Who are these men, then, that have brought you up to do the things you are boasting of?” said Emer.
“That is easily told,” he said. “Fair-speaking Sencha taught me wisdom and right judgment; Blai, lord of lands, my kinsman, took me to his house, so that I have entertained the men of Conchubar’s province; Fergus brought me up to fights and to battles, so that I am able to use my strength. I stood by the knee of Amergin the poet, he was my tutor, so that I can stand up to any man, I can make praises for the doings of a king. Finchoem helped to rear me, so that Conall Cearnach is my foster-brother. Cathbad of the Gentle Face taught me, for the sake of Dechtire, so that I understand the arts of the Druids, and I have learned all the goodness of knowledge. All the men of Ulster have had a hand in bringing me up, chariot-drivers and chiefs of chariots, kings and chief poets, so that I am the darling of the whole army, so that I fight for the honour of all alike. And as to yourself, Emer,” he said, “what way have you been reared in the Garden of Lugh?”
“It is easy to tell you that,” said Emer. “I was brought up,” she said, “in ancient virtues, in lawful behaviour, in the keeping of chastity, in stateliness of form, in the rank of a queen, in all noble ways among the women of Ireland.”
“These are good virtues indeed,” said Cuchulain. “And why, then, would it not be right for us two to become one? For up to this time,” he said, “I have never found a young girl able to hold talk with me the way you have done.”
“Have you no wife already?” said Emer.
“I have not, indeed.”
“I may not marry before my sister is married,” she said then, “for she is older than myself.”
“Truly, it is not with your sister, but with yourself, I have fallen in love,” said Cuchulain.
