INTRODUCTION


The romance called the "Sick-bed of Cuchulain," the latter part of
which is also known as the "Jealousy of Emer," is preserved in two
manuscripts, one of which is the eleventh-century Leabhar na h-Uidhri,
the other a fifteenth century manuscript in the Trinity College
Library. These two manuscripts give substantially the same account,
and are obviously taken from the same source, but the later of the two
is not a copy of the older manuscript, and sometimes preserves a better
reading.
The eleventh-century manuscript definitely gives a yet older book, the
Yellow Book of Slane, now lost, as its authority, and this may be the
ultimate authority for the tale as we have it. But, although there is
only one original version of the text, it is quite plain from internal
evidence that the compiler of the Yellow Book of Slane, or of an
earlier book, had two quite different forms of the story to draw from,
and combined them in the version that we have. The first, which may be
called the "Antiquarian" form, relates the cause of Cuchulain's
illness, tells in detail of the journey of his servant Laeg to
Fairyland, in order to test the truth of a message sent to Cuchulain
that he can be healed by fairy help, and then breaks off. In both the
Leabhar na h-Uidhri and in the fifteenth-century manuscript, follows a
long passage which has absolutely nothing to do with the story,
consisting of an account how Lugaid Red-Stripes was elected to be king
over Ireland, and of the Bull Feast at which the coming of Lugaid is
prophesied. Both manuscripts then give the counsel given by Cuchulain
to Lugaid on his election (this passage being the only justification