Editing Connla (section)

== Versions and date ==
There are two versions of ''Aided Óenfhir Aífe''. The earliest is a late Old Irish text, found in the [[Yellow Book of Lecan]], which is the most well-known version and the source of the narrative above. It has been dated to the 9th or 10th century. There is also a later version in TCD 1336, appended with legal commentary about accountability and compensation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vanhamel.nl/codecs/Aided_%C3%B3enfir_A%C3%ADfe|title=Aided óenfir Aífe|website=CODECS: Collaborative Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies|access-date=17 February 2020}}</ref>

Versions of the story also appear in the ''dinnsenchas of Lechtán Óenfhir Aífe'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500D/text028.html|title=LECHT ÓEN-FHIR AÍFE (The Metrical Dindsenchas)|website=Corpus of Electronic Texts|access-date=17 February 2020}}</ref> [[Geoffrey Keating]]'s ''History of Ireland'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100054.html|title=The History of Ireland|last=Keating|first=Geoffrey|website=Corpus of Electronic Texts|access-date=17 February 2020}}</ref> and in an Early Modern Irish version, entitled ''Oidheadh Chonlaoich''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vanhamel.nl/codecs/Oidheadh_Chonlaoich|title=Oidheadh Chonlaoich (mic Con gCulainn)|website=CODECS: Collaborative Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies|access-date=17 February 2020}}</ref>

The tale of Connla shares many key aspects with stories from other traditions. In the Greek story of [[Theseus]] the hero is also born of an irregular union and raised by his mother in a far-off place. When of a similar stature to his unknown father he must take certain tokens left and set out to claim his birthright. He then combats with a series of opponents before meeting his father, Aegeus, and being recognised. A later unknowing father-son element in the story occurs when he returns from Crete, having killed the Minotaur, and the failure to reveal himself leads to the father's death. There are also strong similarities with the lost Greek epic poem the [[Telegony]] were father and son fight. In its surviving summary, found in the "[[Chrestomathy]] of Proclus", it is the unrecognised father rather than the son that is killed in combat. [[Telegonus (son of Odysseus)|Telegonus]], the son seeking his father, born of a woman in foreign lands (to the enchantress [[Circe]]), after travelling as a stranger to his paternal land, inadvertently fights and kills his father [[Odysseus]]. This he does with a lance tipped with the venomous spine of a stingray which could stand, as argued by Edward Petit,<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/pdf/10.3828/studia.41.9|doi = 10.3828/studia.41.9|title = Cú Chulainn's gae bolga — from harpoon to stingray-spear?|year = 2015|last1 = Pettit|first1 = Edward|journal = Studia Hibernica|issue = 41|pages = 9–48}}</ref> as the inspiration for the deadly Gáe Bulg of Cú Chulainn made from the bone of a sea monster, the Curruid. Again there is a scene as Odysseus lies dying, when he and Telegonus recognize one another, and in this case the son Telegonus laments his mistake.

The story also closely resembles the tenth-century tale of [[Rostam and Sohrab]] from the Iranian epic the [[Shahnameh]]; with an unknowing father-son in a closely matched wrestling duel in which the son is killed, a jewel token-memento and in some versions the use of a poisoned weapon as option of last resort. This in turn probably derives from the story of [[Babruvahana]], son of [[Arjuna]], in the [[Mahabharata]] part of the Indic epic tradition, with an unknowing father-son duel, a jewel-memento, the use of a divine weapon, the [[Pashupatastra]], which cannot be resisted and is not to be used against lesser enemies, and particular to these two stories a following-a-horse element.