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PAGE 67
Thurneysen's translation (p. 91) of Emer's lament may be referred to, but he misses some strong points. Among these are:
Line 5. "Woe to Ulster where hospitality abounds."
Line 12. "Till he found a Druid to lift the weight."
Line 25. "Were it Furbaide of the heroes."
Line 27. "The hound would search through the solid earth."
Line 29. "The hosts of the Sid of Train are dead."
Line 30. "For the hound of the Smith of Conor."
Line 34. "Sick for the horseman of the plains."
Note the familiarity with the land of the fairies which Laeg is asserted to have in the first verse of the poem: this familiarity appears more than once in the Literary form of the story. Laeg speaks of the land of Labraid as "known to him" in his- first description of that land, again in the same description Laeg is recognised by Labraid by his five-folded purple mantle, which seems to have been a characteristic fairy gift. Also, Laeg seems at the end of the tale to be the only one to recognise Manannan. There is no indication of any familiarity of Laeg with the fairy country in the Antiquarian form.
The different Ulster heroes alluded to are mostly well-known; all except Furbaide are in "Mae Datho's Boar." Furbaide was a son of Conor; be is one of the eighteen leaders who assemble on the Hill of Slane in the "Tain bo Cuailgne."
The Smith of Conor is of course Culann, from whom Cuchulain got his name.
