The poet who started a war — and the woman who regretted winning it
The Táin Bó Flidais — the Cattle Raid of Flidais — begins not with a battle but with a poet on the road, looking for treasure. It ends with a woman weeping over the severed head of the husband she betrayed. In between: a sword swapped for a piece of wood, a secret duel at a ford, a rescue campaign across half of Ireland, and a magical cow whose milk fed an army. It is one of the build-up stories to the great war against Ulster — and one of the saddest.
The Background: Fergus in Exile
To understand this story you need to know why Fergus mac Róich — former King of Ulster, one of the greatest warriors Ireland had ever seen — was living at the court of Medb of Connacht instead of his own province. Fergus had given his personal guarantee to bring the sons of Uisnech safely back to Ulster from their exile in Scotland with Deirdre. King Conchobar broke that guarantee and had them killed the night they arrived. Fergus, his honour destroyed, took his followers — known as the Dubloinges — and defected to Connacht. He was now Medb’s man, and her lover besides. Medb’s husband Ailill knew it and said nothing. For a while.
The Poet
Bricne was an ollamh — a court poet of the highest rank — and he had a gift for causing trouble wherever he went. He was staying at Cruachan, the great royal seat of Medb and Ailill, when he decided to travel west into Mayo to visit the territory of the Gamhanraidh, a powerful tribe whose king was a man called Ailill Finn, son of Domhnall of the Yellow Locks.
Bricne’s method was always the same: arrive at a great house, flatter the lord with an elaborate poem, collect his reward in gold and horses, and leave the household in ruins — every friendship soured, every alliance poisoned. He never left two people on speaking terms. It was, in its way, a talent.
He visited Ailill Finn at his fort of Ath Fen near Lough Conn and praised him enormously. Then he asked to visit the queen, Flidais of the beautiful hair, who was staying at her own fort of Rath Morgan to the west, tending her cattle — including the Maol, a legendary cow whose milk could feed three hundred men, their women and their children in a single evening’s milking.
Flidais
Flidais received Bricne with full hospitality. She had heard of Fergus mac Róich — who in Ireland had not? — and she asked Bricne what kind of man he was. Bricne’s answer fills pages. He compared Fergus to Lugh, to Hector of Troy, to Hercules. He described his battles, his generosity, his strength, his fame. He said that in all his travels he had never met Fergus’s equal.
When he was finished, Flidais said simply: ‘I love Fergus greatly. When you leave, put him under a geis — a sacred obligation — to come and take me away from the Gamhanraidh, willingly or by force. And I will bring my herds with me, and the Maol. And when the great war comes, I will feed the men of Ireland every seventh night for as long as the campaign lasts.’
Bricne left Rath Morgan considerably richer. He had told Ailill Finn on the way out that Fergus was coming to visit — without mentioning why.
The Wooden Sword
Back at Cruachan, Bricne told Fergus about Flidais. Medb’s husband Ailill had already noticed what was between Medb and Fergus. One day he came upon them together in a hazel grove outside the fort. He said nothing. But he waited until Fergus was asleep, removed the great sword — the Hard-blade — from its sheath, and replaced it with a piece of wood. He gave the real sword to a man called Nera for safekeeping, and made a vow: he would not return it to Fergus until the day of the great battle of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Fergus did not notice.
The March West
Fergus set out for Mayo with the Dubloinges behind him. Bricne came too, reluctantly — Fergus gave him a choice between coming willingly or being dragged. On the road, Dubthach killed Medb’s chief steward in a quarrel over lodgings, which meant the whole party was now fleeing west as well as marching. They arrived at Ailill Finn’s fort at Ath Fen.
That night at the feast, Bricne got drunk. Leaning across to Ailill Finn, he told him why Fergus had really come — not for weapons or alliance, but for his wife. Ailill Finn asked whether Flidais was part of the plan. Bricne said she was. It was she who had put Fergus under the geis.
Ailill Finn kept his composure. He suggested to Fergus privately that the two of them settle the matter at dawn, alone, at the Ford of the Game — one fight, the survivor takes the lady. Fergus agreed.
The Ford
They were both at the ford before dawn, and they fought well and evenly until the light came up. Then Dubthach arrived. Then Angus. Then Cormac Conloinges. One by one the champions of the Dubloinges joined in. The Gamhanraidh responded in kind. What had been a private duel became a full battle, with over a thousand men killed.
At the turning point, when Fergus needed to end it, he reached for the Hard-blade — and pulled out a piece of wood. He ordered Cormac to withdraw with as many men as he could save. Then the Gamhanraidh surrounded Fergus, Dubthach and Angus, bound them in chains, and put them in Ailill Finn’s prison. Flidais was told they were there.
Bricne ran all the way back to Cruachan and collapsed on the floor of Medb’s hall, half-dead with exhaustion, and told her that Fergus was a prisoner and the Dubloinges were destroyed.
Medb’s War
Medb raised the four great provinces of Ireland and marched on Mayo. This was a serious campaign — weeks of fighting across difficult country, with the Gamhanraidh harassing the column every step of the way. Medb sent a female messenger called Grey Carra ahead to secretly offer the kingship of the Gamhanraidh to each of Ailill Finn’s commanders individually, without telling the others. One by one they accepted and slipped away. Ailill Finn’s army melted from around him.
Medb’s daughter Cainner was killed by a spear thrown in the fighting. Medb dug her grave herself. The three royal satirists of the court fell. Still the Gamhanraidh fought. Ailill Finn, outnumbered and deserted, held his fortress for seven days against the four provinces of Ireland.
Flidais Opens the Gates
Inside the fort, Flidais was alone with Fergus and the other prisoners. She prepared the feast. She pressed drink on Ailill Finn until he was insensible. Then she sent word to Medb’s army to attack.
Fergus was freed. Ailill Finn, dazed and with barely a hundred men left, opened the gates himself the next morning and charged out to fight. He fought his way through seven hundred enemies before Fergus caught him at the beach where his ship was waiting — only to find his own captain had backed the vessel away from shore rather than save him. Fergus killed him there. He cut off his head and brought it back to Flidais as a love-token.
The Lament
Flidais looked at the head. Then she wept. She had loved Fergus, and had planned all of this — the messages through Bricne, the geis, the drugged feast, the unlocked gates. But seeing the head of Ailill Finn on the ground in front of her, she changed. She praised her dead husband’s generosity, his courage, his hospitality. She said there had never been a worthier man in Ireland. She ordered her women to dress the head with honour. She blamed Bricne. She grieved.
She left with Fergus. She brought the Maol and all her herds. When the great Connacht army marched on Ulster for the Táin Bó Cúailnge, Flidais came with them, and the Maol fed the entire force every seventh night throughout the campaign. The war was made possible in part by what Flidais had done. She never undid it.
Key facts about the Táin Bó Flidais
- Irish title: Táin Bó Flidais (“The Cattle Raid of Flidais”)
- Type: Remscél — a fore-tale to the Táin Bó Cúailnge
- Source: The Glenmasan Manuscript — a 15th-century Scottish vellum, held in the National Library of Scotland
- The catalyst: Bricne — court poet and deliberate troublemaker, who carried messages between Flidais and Fergus for his own reward
- The wooden sword: Ailill (Medb’s husband) swapped Fergus’s enchanted blade for a piece of wood after catching him with Medb — Fergus did not discover this until the battle at the ford
- Ailill Finn: King of the Gamhanraidh in Mayo; captured Fergus at the ford; fought to the last; killed by Fergus at the beach when his own ship abandoned him
- Flidais: Planned the entire sequence of events; drugged her husband from inside the fort; wept over his severed head and regretted what she had done
- The Maol: A legendary cow whose milk fed three hundred men, their women and children in one milking; she fed the entire Connacht army every seventh night during the Táin Bó Cúailnge
- Cycle: Ulster Cycle
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