The Dialogue between King Cormac and Fíthel
Author: Kuno Meyer
An electronic edition
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p. 83.
Fíthel sang this after Cormac had enjoyed a substantial little feast without
him, and Cormac answered him. Once Cormac was enjoying a substantial
feast in Tara. Fíthel of the sharp words was in the place, and was not
invited to the drinking of the feast. On the morrow Cormac came into his
king’s house, and Fíthel said to him: ‘Thou wast drinking without me last night,
Cormac.’ ‘It is so,’ saith Cormac. ‘Thy father never drank without my foster
father,’ saith Fíthel. So then Fíthel sang and Cormac answered.
[Fíthel] ‘My generous foster father Finngaine,
The judge that was with Art Oinfer,
Without him he would not go to drink
For the gold of Galls and Gaels.’
[Cormac] ‘I am wiser than Art,
This is my authority ever:
My justice and sense are better,
I give better judgment justly.’
So then they made the quatrains, &c.
© 2007 Thesaurus Linguae Hibernicae