The earliest form of transmission must have been oral. Storytelling was a favourite entertainment among the Celts, and one version of ‘The Voyage of Bran’ states that Mongan (an Ulaid king who died about A.D. 625) was told a story by his fili (a kind of poet) every winter night from Samuin to Beltene. Presumably, the storytellers did not memorize entire tales – rather, they memorized the outlines and filled in the details extemporaneously. Eventually, perhaps as early as the seventh century, the tales began to be transcribed; and thereby two processes, rather opposite in effect, were initiated. In many cases, tales are reworked and acquire a literary veneer; this is certainly true of the Book of Leinster opening to ‘The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge’, and it would seem to apply to ‘The Cattle Raid of Fróech’ and to the concluding section of ‘The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulaind’. But these same tales have also deteriorated considerably by the time they reach our earliest (twelfth-century) surviving manuscripts. This deterioration is not likely to have originated with the storytellers themselves, for a long tale would naturally be prolonged over several evenings (which would be in the storyteller’s interest, since during that time he would be enjoying his host’s hospitality); and in any case, as James Delargy has pointed out, no audience would ‘have listened very long to the story-teller if he were to recite tales in the form in which they have come down to us’.12 The people who wrote these stories down, however, were – for the most part – not literary artists; and of course, they lacked the incentive of an appreciative (and remunerative) audience. Banquet-hall transcription cannot have been easy, and the scribe doubtless grew weary before the storyteller did; consequently, it is not surprising that spelling is erratic, that inconsistencies abound (this could also result from a story-teller’s attempting to conflate multiple traditions) and that many tales deteriorate after a promising beginning. Some formulaic passages, such as in ‘The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel’, are represented simply by ‘et reliqua’. As manuscripts were recopied, moreover, additional errors inevitably appeared. Some areas are manifestly corrupt, and in the case of the archaic poetic sections it seems doubtful whether the scribes understood what they were writing. All this is hardly surprising – just consider the problems attendant upon the texts of Shakespeare’s plays, only four hundred years old – but it should be remembered that what survives in the manuscripts, however beautiful, is far from representative of these stories at their best.
The Irish Manuscripts
The language of these tales varies considerably as to date; but at its oldest, and allowing for some degree of deliberate archaism, it appears to go back to the eighth century; one may assume the tales were being written down at least then, if not earlier. Unfortunately, Scandinavian raiders were legion in Ireland at this time, and they tended to destroy whatever was not worth taking away; consequently, very few manuscripts predating A.D. 1000 have survived. Among the missing is the Book of Druimm Snechtai, which belonged to the first part of the eighth century and included ‘The Wooing of Étaín’, ‘The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel’ and ‘The Birth of Cú Chulaind’.
Of the manuscripts that have survived, the two earliest and most important for these tales belong to the twelfth century. Lebor na huidre (The Book of the Dun Cow) is so called after a famous cow belonging to St Cíaran of Clonmacnois; the chief scribe, a monk named Máel Muire, was slain by raiders in the Clonmacnois cathedral in 1106. Unfortunately, the manuscript is only a fragment: though sixty-seven leaves of eight-by-eleven vellum remain, at least as much has been lost. Lebor na huidre comprises thirty-seven stories, most of them myths/sagas, and includes substantially complete versions of ‘The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel’, ‘The Birth of Cú Chulaind’, ‘The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulaind’ and ‘Bricriu’s Feast’ as well as an incomplete ‘Wooing of Étaín’ and acephalous accounts of ‘The Intoxication of the Ulaid’ and ‘The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge’.
The second manuscript, which is generally known as the Book of Leinster, is much larger, having 187 nine-by-thirteen leaves; it dates to about 1160 and includes in its varied contents complete versions of ‘The Cattle Raid of Fróech’, ‘The Labour Pains of the Ulaid’, ‘The Tale of Macc Da Thó’s Pig’ and ‘The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu’ as well as an unfinished and rather different ‘Intoxication of the Ulaid’ and a complete, more polished ‘Cattle Raid of Cúailnge’. Two later manuscripts also contribute to this volume: the Yellow Book of Lecan, which offers complete accounts of ‘The Wooing of Étaín’ and ‘The Death of Aífe’s Only Son’ and dates to the fourteenth century; and Egerton 1782, which includes ‘The Dream of Óengus’ and has the date 1419 written on it.
These manuscripts do not, of course, date the stories they contain. Our earliest complete version of ‘The Wooing of Étaín’ appears in the fourteenth-century Yellow Book of Lecan, yet we have a partial account in the twelfth-century Lebor na huidre, and we know from the contents list of the Book of Druimm Snechtai that the tale was in written form by the early eighth century. What we do not know – and probably never will – is whether the Druimm Snechtai version was very different from the one in the Yellow Book of Lecan, whether the tale assumed written form earlier than in the eighth century, and what the tale was like before it was first written down. Even the surviving manuscripts, which we are fortunate to have, are far from ideal: obscure words abound, some passages seem obviously corrupt, and there are lacunae and entire missing leaves.
The Irish Material
Convention and tradition have classified the early Irish tales into four groups, called cycles: (1) the Mythological Cycle, whose protagonists are the Síde and whose tales are set primarily among the burial mounds of the Boyne Valley; (2) the Ulster Cycle, which details the (purportedly historical) exploits of the Ulaid, a few centuries before or after the birth of Christ; (3) the Kings Cycle, which focuses on the activities of the ‘historical’ kings; (4) the Find Cycle, which describes the adventures of Find mac Cumaill and his fíana and which did not achieve widespread popularity until the twelfth century. Although these categories are useful, it should be remembered that they are also modern (no particular arrangement is apparent in the manuscripts, while it seems that the storytellers grouped tales by type – births, deaths, cattle raids, destructions, visions, wooings, etc. – for ease in remembering) and artificial. Characters from one cycle often turn up in another: the Síde-woman Bóand is introduced as Fróech’s aunt in the Ulster Cycle’s ‘Cattle Raid of Fróech’; the otherworld-figure Manandán appears in the Ulster Cycle’s ‘Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulaind’ and in the Kings Cycle’s ‘Adventures of Cormac’; Ulaid warriors join the invaders in the Mythological Cycle’s ‘Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel’; Ailill and Medb, king and queen of Connachta, take part in the Mythological Cycle’s ‘Dream of Óengus’. Also, one should not suppose that the Mythological Cycle is populated exclusively by deities or that the other cycles are inhabited exclusively by mortals: many of the ‘humans’ are barely euhemerized gods, many of the ‘gods’ behave much like humans, and the two groups are often difficult to distinguish.
The material of these tales encompasses both impacted myth and corrupted history. Although Irish mythology does evince the tripartism detected by Georges Dumézil in other Indo-European cultures (‘The Second Battle of Mag Tured’ is on one level an explanation of how the priests and warriors – Dumézil’s first two functions – wrested the secrets of agriculture from the third function, the farmers), its fundamental orientation seems more seasonal than societal, for the mythic subtexts of the tales focus on themes of dying kings and alternating lovers. (This strong pre-Indo-European element in Irish mythology probably derives both from the Celts’ innate conservatism and from the fringe position of Ireland in the geography of the Indo-European world.) These themes are stated most clearly in ‘The Wooing of Étaín’ and ‘The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu’. In the former story, Bóand passes from her husband, Elcmar, to the Dagdae (also called Echu) and then returns to Elcmar; Étaín
goes from Mider to Óengus and back to Mider, from Echu Airem to Ailill Angubae and back to Echu, and from Echu Airem to Mider and back (in some versions) to Echu. In the latter tale, Derdriu passes from an old king, Conchubur, to a young hero, Noísiu, and back to Conchubur after Noísiu’s death; when Conchubur threatens to send her to Noísiu’s murderer, she kills herself. Sometimes, the woman’s father substitutes for the dying king (this variant appears in the Greek tales of Jason and Medea and Theseus and Ariadne): Óengus has to win Étaín away from her father in ‘The Wooing of Étaín’ and Cáer Ibormeith away from hers in ‘The Dream of Óengus’; Fróech has to win Findabair from Ailill and Medb – but primarily, and significantly, from Ailill – in ‘The Cattle Raid of Fróech’, while Cú Chulaind has to win Emer from Forgall in ‘The Wooing of Emer’. Sometimes, the dying king is absent, and the regeneration theme is embodied in the wooing of a mortal hero by a beautiful otherworld woman (whom he often loses or leaves): Cáer Ibormeith seeks out Óengus in ‘The Dream of Óengus’, Macha comes to Crunniuc in ‘The Labour Pains of the Ulaid’, Fand appears to Cú Chulaind in ‘The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulaind’. (This variant persists even into the Find Cycle, where Níam’s wooing of Oisín becomes the basis of Yeats’s ‘The Wanderings of Oisín’.) And sometimes the theme treats only of the dying king: in ‘The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel’, Conare Már is slain, at Samuin, in the hostel of a chthonic red god; in ‘The Intoxication of the Ulaid’, Cú Chulaind is nearly burnt, also at Samuin, in an iron house in the southwest of Ireland (where the House of Dond, an Irish underworld deity, was located). Centuries of historical appropriation and Christian censorship notwithstanding, these regeneration themes are never far from the narrative surface; and in their ubiquitousness is apparent their power.
As history, the early Irish tales verge upon wishful thinking, if not outright propaganda. The Ulster Cycle, however, does appear to preserve genuine traditions of a continuing conflict between the Ulaid (who appear to have concentrated in the area round present-day Armagh) and the Uí Néill (who were probably centred at Temuir, though for reasons suggested earlier – see page 7 – they have been moved to present-day Connaught by the storytellers); in any case, it is a valuable repository of information about the Ireland of prehistory – what Kenneth Jackson has called ‘a window on the Iron Age’13 – with its extensive descriptions of fighting (chariots are still the norm) and feasting (an abundance of strong words and strong drink) and dress (opulent, at least for the aristocracy) and its detailing of such institutions as fosterhood, clientship and the taking of sureties. The important but not very surprising conclusion generated by this information is that the Irish society represented by the Ulster Cycle is still very similar to the Gaulish civilization described by Caesar; and there are good reasons to think it not very different from the Celtic world of an even earlier period.
What is surprising, though, is that these tales – which betray a natural and unmistakable bias towards the Ulaid and against the Connachta – do not more consistently depict Ulster society at its zenith. Cú Chulaind is the only true hero in the Ulster Cycle, and his deeds are more often superhuman than heroic; Conchubur, as early as ‘The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulaind’, serves notice that he will be largely a roi fainéant; and among the Ulaid warriors there is, ‘The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge’ excepted, more talk than action. Odder still, in many of the best-known and most important tales, there are clear instances of parody. In ‘The Death of Aífe’s Only Son’, the Ulaid are awestruck by the feats of a seven-year-old boy; in ‘The Tale of Macc Da Thó’s Pig’, Ulaid and Connachta are reduced to fighting over a dog (at least, in ‘The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge’, the bone of contention is a bull), and the Ulaid are ridiculed and put to shame by the Connachta champion; in ‘The Intoxication of the Ulaid’, Cú Chulaind loses his way and leads the Ulaid on a drunken spree across Ireland, while the two druids guarding Cú Ruí’s stronghold bicker and quarrel; and in ‘Bricriu’s Feast’, the wives of the Ulaid warriors squabble over precedence in entering the drinking hall, while Bricriu is accidentally flung out of his house and on to a garbage dump. Conchubur’s treachery (equivalent to Arthur’s murdering Lancelot) in ‘The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu’ eliminates any doubt: the society of the Ulster Cycle, for all the splendour that attaches to it, is a society in decline.
This Translation
The purpose of this translation is to offer accurate, idiomatic renderings of a representative sample of early Irish stories. For reasons of space I have had, unfortunately, to limit my selection to tales from the Mythological and Ulster cycles, which often seem earlier in feeling and more characteristically Celtic. Two prominent stories from the represented cycles have also had to be omitted. ‘The Second Battle of Mag Tured’ is a valuable enumeration of the Túatha Dé Danand, but as a tale it is of less interest, and it stands somewhat apart from the mythological tales presented here. The centrepiece of the Ulster Cycle, ‘The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge’, could fill a small volume by itself; and though the Book of Leinster version opens very promisingly, the narrative quickly deteriorates. Moreover, modem translations are available elsewhere.
As in my translation of the Welsh Mabinogion, I have not attempted to be absolutely literal. Where a scribe has written ‘et reliqua’, I have expanded; where repetitions and duplications and irrelevant interpolations appear, I have removed them. Where the manuscripts are obscure or corrupt, I have had to guess. Most tales are translated entire; but where an archaic rhetorical section is hopelessly obscure, or where a long poetic passage seemed expendable, I have omitted it. Some flaws, unfortunately, are irreparable: there is a puzzling non sequitur near the beginning of ‘The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel’, and the Book of Leinster and Lebor na huidre fragments of ‘The Intoxication of the Ulaid’ do not quite meet. The stories are arranged chronologically (so far as one can tell).
All Celtic proper names are spelt in their Old Irish forms, which seemed preferable to anglicizations and modernizations; this should not cause undue concern, but the reader may want to glance at the note on geographic names. The pronunciation guide is an approximation; Old Irish is more phonetic (and thus easier) than English, but a few inconsistencies persist. The map indicates the location of the major strongholds and natural features (to show every place name would have been impractical); the bibliography, while not exhaustive, will afford a useful starting point.
I would like to thank Will Sulkin and Betty Radice for their help and encouragement, and my brother Timothy for his numerous valuable suggestions.
Bibliography
DIPLOMATIC EDITIONS
Lebor na huidre: Book of the Dun Cow, edited by R. I. Best and Osborn Bergin (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy), 1929.
The Book of Leinster, five volumes, edited by R. I. Best, Osborn Bergin and M. A. O’Brien (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1954–67.
TEXTS
‘Tochmarc Étaíne’ (The Wooing of Étaín), Y B L 985–98; edited by Osborn Bergin and R. I. Best in Ériu 12 (1937): 137–96.
‘Togail bruidne Da Derga’ (The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel), L U 83a1–99a47 and Y B L 91a1–104.10; edited by Eleanor Knott in Togail bruidne Da Derga (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1936.
‘Aislinge Óengusso’ (The Dream of Óengus), Egerton 1782; edited by Eduard Müller in Revue Celtique 3 (1882): 344–7.
‘Táin bó Froích’ (The Cattle Raid of Fróech), L L 248a12–252b6; edited by Wolfgang Meid in Taín bó Fraích (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1967.
‘Noínden Ulad & Emuin Machae’ (The Labour Pains of the Ulaid & The Twins of Macha), LL 125b42–126a30.
‘Compert Con Culaind’ (The Birth of Cú Chulaind), LU 128a–128b47; edited by A. G. van Hamel in Compert Con Culainn (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1933.
‘Maccgnimrada Con Culaind’ (The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulaind), L U 4855–901, 4924–54. 4973–5033, 5035–210; edited by John Strachan in Stories
from the Táin (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy), 1944.
‘Aided óenfir Aífe’ (The Death of Aífe’s Only Son), Y B L 214a–215a; edited by A. G. van Hamel in Compert Con Culainn (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1933.
‘Serglige Con Culaind & Óenét Emire’ (The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulaind & The Only Jealousy of Emer) LU 43a1–50b14; edited by Myles Dillon in Serglige Con Culainn (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1953.
‘Scéla mucce Make Da Thó’ (The Tale of Macc Da Thó’s Pig), LL 112a1–114a54; edited by Rudolf Thurneysen in Scéla mucce Meic Dathó (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1935.
‘Mesca Ulad’ (The Intoxication of the Ulaid), LL 261b25–268b49 and LU 19a1–20b31; edited by J. C. Watson in Mesca Ulad (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1941.
‘Fled Bricrend’ (Bricriu’s Feast), LU 99b1–112b48; edited by George Henderson in Fled Bricrend (Dublin: Irish Texts Society), 1899.
‘Longes macc nUislend’ (The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu), LL 192b11–193b24 and Y B L 749–53; edited by Vernam Hull in Longes mac n-Uislenn (New York: Modern Language Association), 1949.
TRANSLATIONS
Ancient Irish Tales, edited by T. P. Cross and C. H. Slover, various translators (New York: Henry Holt), 1936; reprinted, with a revised bibliography by C. W. Dunn (New York: Barnes and Noble), 1969.
Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Invasions of Ireland), five volumes, edited and translated by R. A. S. Macalister (Dublin: Irish Texts Society), 1938–54.
Early Irish Myths and Sagas Page 3