Wooing the Worlds

(((When CuChulainn woos Emer he must work his way through her hostile father Forgall Monach, nephew of Tethra, the king of the primordial Formaire))

Though Fergall’s fortress was in Ireland, the journey there was a metaphorical adventure into a mysterious world. Conversing in riddles with Emer, CuChulainn says that he passed the night in “the house of a man who calls the cattle of the plain of Tethra” ((from the sea)), and he has come “between the Two Props of the Woodland, from the Darkness of the Sea, over the Great secret of the Men of the Gods, over the Foam of the Two Steeds of Emain, over the valley of the Great Ox, between the God and his Prophet, over the marrow of the Woman Fedelm, between the Bear and his Dam, over the washing-place of the Horses of the Gods, between the King of Ana and his serpent, to the food storehouse of the Four Corners of the World, over the Great Ruin and the Remnants of the Great Feast, between the Vat and the Little Vat, to the Daughters of the Champion of Tethra, king of the Fomoire, to the Gardens of Lug.”

When the hero goes a-wooing, the drive from Ulster to Brega becomes a ceremonial progress into the world beyond.

-- Rees and Rees, Celtic Heritage