There are many others of the various heroes and noble women who belonged to the courts of Conor and of his enemy Queen Maev of Connaght.

The _Carving of mac Datho's Boar_, the story of _Etain and Midir_, and the _Vengeance of Mesgedra_, contained in this book belong to these miscellaneous tales unconnected with the main saga of Cuchulain.
The second cycle is linked to the first, not by history or race, but by the fact that the great personages in the first have now become the gods who intervene in the affairs of the wars and heroes of the second.

They take part in them as the gods do in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Lugh, the Long-Handed, the great Counsellor of the Tuatha De Danaan, is now a god, and is the real father of Cuchulain, heals him of his wounds in the Battle of the Ford, warns him of his coming death, and receives him into the immortal land.

The Morrigan, who descends from the first cycle, is now the goddess of war, and is at first the enemy and afterwards the lover of Cuchulain.