action of the two women who are the heroines of this part of the tale.
The action of Fand in resigning her lover to the weaker mortal woman
who has a better claim upon him is quite modern in its tone.

The nearest parallel to the longer version of the "Sick-bed" is the
Egerton version of "Etain," which is a complete one, and makes a
stately romance. It is full of human interest, love being its keynote;
it keeps the supernatural element which is an essential to the original
legend in the background, and is of quite a different character to the
earlier Leabhar na h-Uidhri version, although there is no reason to
assume that the latter is really the more ancient in date. In the
Leabbar na h-Uidhri version of "Etain," all that relates to the
love-story is told in the baldest manner, the part which deals with the
supernatural being highly descriptive and poetic. I am inclined to
believe that the antiquarian compiler of the manuscript did here what
he certainly did in the case of the "Sick-bed of Cuchulain," and pieced
together two romances founded upon the same legend by different
authors. The opening of the story in Fairyland and the concluding part
where Mider again appears are alike both in style and feeling, while
the part that comes between is a highly condensed version of the
love-story of the Egerton manuscript, and suggests the idea of an
abstract of the Egerton version inserted into the story as originally
composed, the effect being similar to that which would be produced upon
us if we had got Aeschylus' "Choaphorae" handed down to us with a
condensed version of the dialogue between Electra and Chrysothemis out
of Sophocles' "Electra" inserted by a conscientious antiquarian who
thought that some mention of Chrysothemis was necessary. This version
of the legend, however, with its strong supernatural flavour, its
insistence on the idea of re-birth, its observation of nature, and
especially the fine poem in which Mider invites Etain to Fairyland, is