5. Conchabar: The name, literally, means ‘hound-lover’. In the Táin and other stories Conchobar is usually presented as an attractive figure. However, he is the villain of the piece in ‘The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu’ (see p. 210, note 1 to Cormac Conn Longas). In Compert Conchoboir (‘The Begetting of Conchobar’) we are told that one day Nes the daughter of Eochaid Sálbuide is encountered by the druid Cathbad. She asks him what that hour might be favourable for. ‘For begetting a king on a queen,’ he replies. ‘Really?’ says Nes. Cathbad swears that it is true, and since no other man is about she takes Cathbad. A boy, Conchobar, is born of their union. At this time the king of Ulster is Fergus Mac Róich. When Conchobar reaches the age of seven Fergus takes a fancy to Nes. She agrees to sleep with him if she gets something in return, namely, to give her son the kingship of Ulster for a year. The bargain is struck. While her son is king in name, she gets her household to steal everything from one half of her people and give it to the other half, and she gives all her gold and silver to the Ulster warriors. When the year is up the Ulstermen debate what to do. They feel insulted that Fergus has given them over like a dowry, while they are grateful to Conchobar for all they received from him. So Fergus is deposed, Cathbad’s son Conchobar takes over the kingship, and Cathbad’s prophecy comes true.
6. Mac Roth the Messenger: Appropriately for a messenger, the name means ‘son of wheel’.
7. Cúailnge: Possibly derived from cúalne, a stake or post. Modern Cooley in County Louth.
8. Donn: The designation of the Brown Bull may not be merely one of colour, but might also refer to the mythical figure known as Donn, who is associated with the dark realm of the dead.
9. Fergus Mac Róich: The first name means ‘manly energy’ and could be plausibly rendered as ‘male ejaculation’. The second, unusually a matronymic, means ‘son of super-horse’. Róech (Róich is the genitive) seems to have been a kind of horse-goddess. In other stories Fergus is represented as having enormous genitals and requiring seven women to satisfy him.
II THE TÁIN BEGINS
1. Cormac Conn Longas the Exile: Literally, Cormac ‘head of the exiled ones’ (from loinges, a sea-rover or exile, derived from long, a ship). Frank O’Connor has suggested that there is a confusion here between Cormac and Fergus, since Cormac plays little further part in the story, and Fergus is clearly the leader of the Ulster exiles. The story of how they were exiled is told in the remscél known as Longas mac nUislenn (‘The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu’, or ‘Uisnech’). It may be summarized as follows:
The men of Ulster are drinking at the house of Fedlimid Mac Daill. His wife is pregnant. Everyone is about to retire to bed when the child screams out in her womb. The druid Cathbad prophesies that she will have a girl called Deirdre (Derdriu), who will be the cause of much evil. When the girl is born the Ulstermen call out for her to be killed, but their king, Conchobar, orders her to be taken away and reared in a safe place until she is ready to join him in his bed. No one is allowed to see her except her foster-parents and the satirist Leborcham (literally, ‘crooked book’).
One day in winter Deirdre’s foster-father is skinning a calf on the snow outside, and she sees a raven drinking its blood. She says she would desire a man with those three colours: hair like the raven, cheeks like blood and his body like the snow. Leborcham lets her know that such a man is close at hand – Noisiu, the son of Uisliu. Soon afterwards she sees Noisiu alone outside the enclosure. She goes out and makes as though to pass him by and not acknowledge him. ‘There’s a fine heifer, to be walking past me,’ he says, to which she replies, ‘Heifers are wont to be big when there’s no bull.’ ‘You have the bull of the province, the King of Ulster,’ says Noisiu. ‘Had I to choose between two, I’d pick a young bull like you,’ says Deirdre. ‘That can’t be,’ says Noisiu, ‘on account of Cathbad’s prophecy.’ ‘Are you refusing me?’ says she. ‘I am,’ says he. So she grabs him by the two ears, saying, ‘Two ears of shame and mockery, if you don’t take me with you.’ He lets a cry out of him and the men of Ulster start up ready for the kill. Uisliu’s other brothers come on the scene and they all elope with Deirdre, taking a band of warriors with them.
After travelling for a long time around Ireland, pursued by Conchobar and his men, they go to Scotland, and according to one version Noisiu and Deirdre spend several happy years there. However, Conchobar lures them back to Ulster, sending Fergus Mac Róich to them as a guarantor of their safety. When Noisiu, his brothers and Deirdre arrive in Ulster Conchobar contrives to separate Fergus from them, and sends Eogan Mac Durthacht to attack them. Eogan kills Noisiu, and the rest are all killed, with the exception of Deirdre. When Fergus hears of this he goes to war with Conchobar. Among his allies are Dubthach and Cormac. Dubthach massacres the young women of Ulster and Fergus burns the fort of Emain. They then leave for Connacht and the protection of Ailill and Medb.
Conchobar keeps Deirdre for a year. She is utterly miserable. One day he asks her, ‘What do you see that you hate the most?’ and she replies, ‘You, and Eogan Mac Durthacht.’ ‘Go and live with Eogan, then,’ says Conchobar. The next day they set out for the fair of Macha. She is behind Eogan in the chariot. ‘This is good, Deirdre,’ says Conchobar. ‘Between me and Eogan you are like a sheep eyeing two rams.’ A big block of stone is in front of her. She leans out of the chariot and her head is smashed to bits, and she dies.
2. the Curse: See pp. 261-17, note 3 to Emain.
3. Muirthemne: A plain extending along the coast of County Louth from the Boyne river to the Cooley mountains. According to the Metrical Dindshenchas, the name means ‘darkness of the sea’ or ‘under the sea’s roof’, since ‘it was covered by the sea for thirty years after the Flood’.
4. gae bolga: A special weapon unique to Cú Chulainn, given to him by the female warrior Scáthach, his tutor in the martial arts. It is said to have been made from the bone of a sea-monster. The phrase may be translated as ‘the bagged spear’ – suggesting some kind of umbrella mechanism which opens out when it enters its victim, and it is indeed so described in Cú Chulainn’s combat with Fer Diad (p. 151): ‘This was what the gae bolga was: it was cast downstream for him, and was thrown from the fork of the foot; it made a single wound when it entered a man’s body, whereupon it opened up into thirty barbs, and it could not be taken from a man’s body without the flesh being cut away from around it.’ Fer Diad dies when Cú Chulainn penetrates ‘the rear portal of his body’ with the gae bolga. Philip Bernhardt-House, on his website at www.liminalityland.com, emphasizing the arguably homoerotic relationship between Cú Chulainn and Fer Diad, has this to say: ‘bolga either means “sack” or “swell”; thus the gae bolga is “the spear of swelling” (an erect penis) or “the spear of the sack” (penis and scrotum); somewhat vulgarly put, it is quite literally “the gay bulge”.’ Others suggest that the name derives from the mysterious tribe known as the Fir Bolg, who in turn are associated with the continental Celtic tribe, the Belgae. Some support for this theory can be found in Diodorus Siculus’ description of a somewhat similar weapon used by the Gauls: ‘the heads of their javelins come from the forge straight, others twist in and out in spiral shapes for their entire length, the purpose being that the thrust may not only cut the flesh, but mangle it as well, and that the withdrawal of the spear may lacerate the wound.’
5. the Torqued Man: As yet, we have not been told of Cú Chulainn’s most notable attribute, the riastradh or ‘act of twisting or contorting’, famously translated by Kinsella as ‘warpspasm’; but we may be sure that it was familiar to an Old Irish audience, as it will be to many readers of the present text. My translation of riastradh, ‘the Torque’, implying both a twisting or rotating force and the Celtic ornament of twisted metal, was partly suggested by a passage in Christophe Vielle’s essay, ‘The Oldest Narrative Attestations of a Celtic Mythical and Traditional Heroic Cycle’ (in Mallory and Stockman, Ulidia, Belfast, 1994). Vielle directs us to a Roman chronicle of an episode alleged to have occurred in
the Gaulish war of 361 BC, in which an anonymous Gaulish warrior and the Roman general Titus Manlius meet each other in single combat. Standing in the middle of a stream, the Gaul throws out a challenge, shouting with all his strength and arousing great fear in the opposing army. When the challenge is accepted by Titus, the Gaul begins to contort himself: his appearance becomes monstrous, he dances exultantly, sticks out his tongue and hurls insults at his opponent. The Roman stands quietly, biding his time, and when the Gaul approaches him he dispatches him with one blow. Then he cuts off his head, tears off his torque, covered as it is with blood, and puts it around his own neck. He is subsequently known as Titus Manlius Torquatus, ‘the Torqued One’, or ‘the Torqued Man’.
6. Deda’s followers and clan: The Clann Deda are said to have been one of the three warrior races of Ireland, the others being the Clann Rudraige (i.e. the Ulaid or Ulstermen) and the Gamanrad.
III THEY GET TO KNOW ABOUT CÚ CHULAINN
1. Gailéoin: A tribe based in North Leinster. In the pseudo-historical Lebor Gabála (‘The Book of Invasions’) they are mentioned as a sub-division of the Fir Bolg, and hence one of the original tribes to have invaded Ireland.
2. Dubthach: Also known as Doél Uladh, the Beetle of Ulster, or Doéltheangach, the Beetle-tongued. Though he is one of Fergus’s exile band, his relationship with them is problematic, and he is much given to backbiting and sarcastic speech.
3. Since two swineherds once were friends: The reference is to one of the remscéla or prefatory tales to the Táin, De chophur in dá muccida (‘The Quarrel of the Two Swineherds’), found in the ‘Book of Leinster’. Ochall is the King of the Connacht síd (fairy people), Bodb the King of the Munster síd. Their swineherds are, respectively, Rucht (meaning ‘a grunt’) and Friuch (‘a boar’s bristle’). They both have magical powers, and can transform themselves into any shape. The two are great friends, but trouble is caused between them when people begin to argue as to which has the greater power. They quarrel and turn successively into birds of prey, water creatures, stags, warriors, phantoms and dragons, fighting each other every step of the way. Finally they turn themselves into maggots. One gets into the source of the river Cronn in Cúailnge, where it is drunk by a cow belonging to Dáire Mac Fiachna; the other gets into a well-spring in Connacht, where it is drunk by one of Ailill’s and Medb’s cows. The offspring of the two cows are the two bulls which feature in the Táin, the Donn Cúailnge and Finnbennach. So the quarrel is perpetuated.
4. Nemain – the Battle Goddess: Old Irish texts cite three goddesses of war: the Nemain, the Badb and the Mórrígan, sometimes known collectively as Mórrígna. They may all be aspects of the same deity.
5. ogam: There are many competing theories regarding this ancient form of Irish writing, reputedly invented by Ogma, the god of rhetoric and eloquence. It has been seen as a secret language of druidic freemasonry; as having its basis variously in Basque, Old Norse or Ancient Greek; or as being a musical or mathematical notation rather than a linguistic one. However, it is commonly thought to be an adaptation of the Latin alphabet, transliterated as a series of twenty combinations of straight lines and notches carved on the edge of a piece of stone or wood. Most ogam inscriptions are very short, consisting simply of a name and patronymic; many appear to be memorials to the dead, while others mark the border between territories.
6. Eirr and Innel… Foich and Fochlam: The names mean, respectively, ‘warrior’, ‘battle-gear’, ‘cankerworm’ and ‘burrower’.
7. Partraigi: A tribe said to have been related to the Dumnonii, who occupied the south-west of England during the Iron Age.
8. Cennannas: Present-day Kells in County Meath.
9. Láeg: The name means ‘calf’.
10. Dechtire’s son: i.e. Cú Chulainn. Dechtire is sometimes rendered Dechtine. The story of Cú Chulainn’s conception and birth is told in Compert Con Culaind (‘The Begetting of Cú Chulainn’), an eighth-century tale. It may be summarized as follows:
One day an immense flock of birds descends on the plain of Emain, and eats everything growing on it down to the roots. The men of Ulster take to their chariots to chase the birds away, led by Conchobar and his sister Dechtire. They chase them as far as the Boyne river. As night falls it begins to snow. They find shelter in a solitary dwelling and are made welcome by the man of the house. The men of Ulster spend the night getting drunk. The man of the house then tells them that his wife is in labour in the store-room. Dechtire goes in and helps her to give birth. At the same time a mare at the door of the house gives birth to two foals. When morning comes the house and its owners have vanished. Dechtire and the Ulstermen go back to Emain with the baby and the foals.
They rear the baby till he becomes a young boy, but then he grows sick and dies. Dechtire is overcome with grief. She comes home from lamenting him and asks for a drink. A cup is brought to her and as she puts her lips to it a tiny creature slips into the drink. Later that night she dreams that she is visited by a man who says he is Lug Mac Ethlenn (see p. 221, note 1), that she will bear a child by him, that it was he who brought her to the house near the Boyne, that the boy she had reared was his, and that he is again planted in her womb. The boy would be called Sétanta, and the two foals should be reared with him. Dechtire grows pregnant and is mocked by the people of Ulster because the father of the child is not known. They suggest that Conchobar himself might have fathered it in his drunkenness, that night in the house near the Boyne. Conchobar gives Dechtire in marriage to Sualdam Mac Róich, Fergus’s brother. She is ashamed to go to bed with him while she is pregnant, and is so troubled that the child miscarries. She is miraculously made virgin again, goes to bed with Sualdam, and eventually bears him a son called Sétanta.
IV THE BOYHOOD DEEDS OF CÚ CHULAINN
1. Celtchar Mac Uthidir: A leading figure in other stories in the Ulster Cycle. He is described as tall, grey and ugly. His special lance, the Lúin Cheltchair, has such a lust for blood that if not used it must be dipped in a cauldron of poison, or else it will burst into flames.
2. Eogan Mac Durthacht: King of Fernmag (present-day Farney in County Monaghan). He is the killer of Noisiu in The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu (see pp. 210-12, note 1).
3. Emain: Or Emain Macha, nowadays identified with Navan Fort, an important archaeological site two miles west of the city of Armagh. Two women named Macha (which as an impersonal noun can mean either ‘an enclosure for milking cows’ or ‘a plain’) are associated with the founding of the fortress. The lesser known legend concerns Macha the queen of Cimbáeth, who marks out the perimeter of the fort with her brooch, hence the folk etymology of emain (usually meaning ‘twins’) as eo, pin + muin, neck = brooch. The better known legend concerns Macha the wife of Crunniuc mac Agnomain, a rich Ulster landlord. At a fair he boasts that his wife can run faster than the king’s chariot and horses. He is taken before the king and his wife is sent for. She is pregnant and near her term, and asks to be released from the contest, but is told that unless she complies her child will die. She races the chariot and as it reaches the end of the field she gives birth to twins along-side it. Hence Emain Macha, Macha’s Twins. As she gives birth she screams out that all who hear the scream will suffer the same pangs for five days and four nights in their time of greatest difficulty. The Ulstermen are so cursed for nine generations. Only young boys, women and Cú Chulainn are exempt, though why he should be singled out is not clear, beyond the fact that otherwise the Táin as we know it would not exist, since much of the action involves Cú Chulainn’s defending the province while the Ulstermen lie smitten by the Curse.
4. Scáthach… Emer: Both women feature in the story Tochmarc Entire (‘The Wooing of Emer’). The men of Ulster, jealous of their wives’ and daughters’ passion for Cú Chulainn, decide that a wife must be found for him. Messengers are sent to every part of Ireland but after searching for a year they can find no one to suit him. Cú Chulainn then meets and woos Emer, the daughter of Forgall Monach. She tells him that he cannot have h
er unless he manages to perform a series of seemingly impossible feats. Forgall Monach is not pleased to hear that his daughter has been wooed by Cú Chulainn. He suggests to him that if he goes to Scotland to study the martial arts under the female warrior Scáthach, he would have the beating of any hero in Europe. He does this in the hope that Cú Chulainn will never return. Cú Chulainn spends some time in Scotland. He sleeps with Scáthach’s daughter Uathach and with the woman warrior Aífe, who bears him a son, and learns from Scáthach the feats detailed in the Táin (see p. 87). On his return to Ireland he attempts to contact Emer, but so carefully is she guarded by her father that it takes him a year to reach her. When he reaches Forgall’s fort he uses his ‘salmon-leap’ to jump across its three enclosures. Then he fulfils his promise to perform the seemingly impossible feats required of him by Emer, killing, among many others, her three brothers. He picks up Emer and her foster-sister and their weight in gold and silver, and leaps back over the ramparts. Eventually, after more slaughter of their pursuers, he reaches Emain and marries Emer.
5. chess: Fidchell, literally ‘wood-intelligence’ (i.e. as in a wood of trees). Although often translated as ‘chess’ we have little idea as to how the game might have worked, beyond its being played with pieces on a board.
6. Sliab Fúait: The Fews Mountains in South Armagh.
7. hurley-stick: The modern Gaelic game of hurling is a field game involving two teams of fifteen players using a broad-bladed stick (‘hurley’) and a ball similar to a baseball, but lighter and with a raised seam. Hurling is sometimes compared to field hockey, but as well as being played on the ground the ball may be caught or lifted into the hand and struck into the air, and play often moves from one end of the field to the other in three or four seconds. Hence it is sometimes dubbed ‘the fastest field game in the world’. The goalposts are similar to those in rugby. Three points are awarded if the ball goes under the bar, and one if it goes above the bar. The All-Ireland Hurling Final, played in Croke Park, Dublin, attracts crowds of some 80,000. Hurling is also dubbed ‘the oldest field game in the world’, though what relationship the present-day sport might bear to that played by Cú Chulainn can only be a matter for speculation.
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