Research source

So off they go, and Iubdan’s fairy steed bears them over the sea till they reach Ulster, and by midnight they…

Date of account: Published 1911
Source: Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race
Reference: Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race · selected passage 80
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

So off they go, and Iubdan’s fairy steed bears them over the sea till they reach Ulster, and by midnight they stand before the king’s palace

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

So off they go, and Iubdan’s fairy steed bears them over the sea till they reach Ulster, and by midnight they stand before the king’s palace. “Let us taste the porridge as we were bound,” says Bebo, “and make off before daybreak.” They steal in and find the porridge-pot, to the rim of which Iubdan can only reach by standing on his horse’s back. In straining downwards to get at the porridge he overbalances himself and falls in. There in the thick porridge he sticks fast, and there Fergus’s scullions find him at the break of day, with the faithful Bebo lamenting. They bear him off to Fergus, who is amazed at finding another wee man, with a woman too, in his palace. He treats them hospitably, but refuses all appeals to let them go. The story now recounts in a spirit of broad humour several Rabelaisian adventures in which Bebo is concerned, and gives a charming poem supposed to have been uttered by Iubdan in the form of advice to Fergus’s fire-gillie as to the merits for burning of different kinds of timber.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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