Some of the episodes given in LU are not told in the Leinster
version. Of the boyish deeds of Cuchulainn, LL tells only three:
his first appearance at Emain (told by Fergus), Culann's feast (by
Cormac), and the feats following Cuchulainn's taking of arms (by
Fiacha). In the main narrative, the chief episodes omitted in LL
are the fight with Fraech, the Fergus and Medb episode, and the
meeting of Findabair and Cuchulainn. The meeting with the Morrigan
is missing, owing to the loss of a leaf. Other episodes are
differently placed in LL: e.g. the Rochad story (an entirely
different account), the fight of Amairgen and Curoi with stones,
and the warning to Conchobar, all follow the fight with Fer Diad.

A peculiarity of the LU-YBL version is the number of passages which
it has in common with the _Dinnsenchas_, an eleventh-century
compilation of place-legends. The existing collections of
_Dinnsenchas_ contain over fifty entries derived from the _Tain_
cycle, some corresponding with, others differing from those in LU.

This version has also embodied a considerable number of glosses in
the text. As many of these are common to LU and YBL, they must go
back to the common original, which must therefore have been a
harmony of previously existing versions, since many of these
passages give variants of incidents.


AGE OF THE VERSIONS

There is no doubt that the version here translated is a very old
one. The language in LU is almost uniformly Middle Irish, not more