departed champion, Ardee being the softened form of 'Ath Ferdiah,' or
Ferdiah's Ford.

The circumstances under which this famous combat took place are thus
succinctly mentioned by O'Curry, in his description of the Tain Bo
Cuailgne:--

"Cuchulainn confronts the invaders of his province, demands single
combat, and conjures his opponents by the laws of Irish chivalry (the
'Fir comhlainn') not to advance farther until they had conquered him.
This demand, in accordance with the Irish laws of warfare, is granted;
and then the whole contest is resolved into a succession of single
combats, in each of which Cuchulainn was victorious."--"Lectures," p.
37.

The original Irish text of this episode, with a literal translation, on
which the present metrical version is founded, may be consulted in the
appendix to the second series of the Lectures by O'Curry, vol. ii., p.
413.

The date assigned to the famous expedition of the Tain Bo Cuailgne, and
consequently to the episode which forms the subject of the present poem,
is the close of the century immediately preceding the commencement of
the Christian era. This will account for the complete absence of all
Christian allusions, so remarkable throughout the poem: an additional
proof, if that were required, of its extreme antiquity.]

Cuchullin the great chief had pitched his tent,
From Samhain[29] time, till now 'twas budding spring,
Fast by the Ford, and held the land at bay.