Fráech

Findabair says that she cannot elope, that being below her station, but she is happy Fráech has come to marry her and gives him a gold ring that her mother Medb gave her.

Fráech goes to Ailill and Medb to ask for Findabair's hand in marriage, and they request in compensation an exorbitant bride-price consisting of sixty horses with gold bits, twelve white cattle with red ears with twelve calves, and Fráech's support in the Cattle raid of Cooley.

Fráech catches the fish and brings it to shore, at which point Medb asks him to stay in the water and retrieve a branch of beautiful rowan berries on the other side of the river.[3]).

To the astonishment of all, the following morning Fráech returns to the court of Medb and Ailill without a single blemish, and the two companies make peace.

In secret, Fráech immediately tells his servant to retrieve the salmon that he left on the shore the previous day, to cook it for Findabair and to remove the ring from its belly.

Fráech joins up with Conall Cernach and the two track the cattle and his family to the Alps; they are warned that the thieves' hideout is guarded by two dangerous serpents, but when they arrive, the serpents jump into Conall's girdle and the two heroes raid and destroy the dun, regaining Fráech's cattle and family.

[2][3] Fráech then returns to Medb and Ailill and agrees to fight for them against the Ulstermen in the Táin Bó Cuailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley).

Although orally transmitted since antiquity, the earliest manuscript that contains the tale is the 12th-century Book of Leinster which has a complete version of the story.

Leahy concludes there were two writers, one of whom ``embellished the love-story part of the original legend’’, while the other added ``geographical and historical knowledge of the time.

[7] The mound of Carnfree (Irish Carn Fraoich, Fráech's Cairn) near Tulsk in County Roscommon, which was used for the inauguration of the O'Conor Kings of Connacht, preserves his name.