 In these two poems, the real hero is not the dog Ailbe but the pig – the latter being "practically a panegyric on the pig" – although the story's title implies this may have been an original feature. In the unusual choice of a pig as the main protagonist, the story becomes associated with a broader Celtic tradition, including the wild boar motif of Arthurian legend. The wild boar Twrch Trwyth, for example, causes considerable difficulty for the men of Arthur's court in the 11th-century Welsh story of Culhwch and Olwen; while the exposition of the geographical details of Ailbe's route in the rout of the Connachta in the Irish tale has parallels with the route taken by Twrch Trwyth in the Welsh hunt. Indeed, Thurneysen notes that in relation to Mac Da Thó's pig, the poets use the words torc (boar) and muc (pig) interchangeably.
