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Unknown - The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Tain Bo Cualnge

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THE ANCIENT IRISH EPIC TALE

TAIN BO CUALNGE

"THE CUALNGE CATTLE-RAID"


Now for the first time done entire into English
out of the Irish of the Book of Leinster
and Allied Manuscripts

By

JOSEPH DUNN
Professor at the Catholic University
Washington

WITH TWO PAGES IN FACSIMILE OF THE MANUSCRIPTS

[Illustration: "Daig concechlabat fin hErend & Alban inn ainm sin, & bat
lana beoil fer n-hErend & Alban din anmun sin."]
Book of Leinster, fo. 64a.

"For the men of Erin and Alba shall hear that
name (Cuchulain) and the mouths of the men of Erin
and Alba shall be full of that name."


LONDON
DAVID NUTT
17 GRAPE STREET, NEW OXFORD STREET, W.C
1914


To the Memory of

MY MOTHER

* * * * *

[Illustration: FACSIMILE, PAGE 55--_from the Book of Leinster_.]

* * * * *




CONTENTS

Preface, xi.
I The Pillow-talk, 1.
II The Occasion of the Tain, 5.
III The Rising-out of the Men of Connacht at Cruachan Ai, 10.
IV The Foretelling, 13.
V The Route of the Tain, 19.
VI The March of the Host, 21.
VII The Youthful Exploits of Cuchulain, 46.
VIIa The Slaying of the Smith's Hound by Cuchulain, 54.
VIIb The Taking of Arms by Cuchulain and
The Slaying of the Three Sons of Necht Scene, 60.
VIIc A Separate Version as far as the Slaying Of Orlam, 80.
VIII The Slaying of Orlam, 82.
VIIIa The Slaying of the Three MacArach, 85.
VIIIb The Combat of Lethan and Cuchulain, 86.
VIIIc The Killing of the Squirrel and of the Tame Bird, 88.
VIIId The Slaying of Loche, 93.
VIIIe The Killing of Uala, 95.
VIIIf The Harrying of Cualnge, 99.
IX The Proposals, 104.
X The Violent Death of Etarcumul, 115.
XI The Slaying of Nathcrantail, 126.
XII The Finding of the Bull, 132.
XIIa The Death of Forgemen, 136.
XIIb The Slaying of Redg the Lampoonist, 137.
XIIc The Meeting of Cuchulain and Finnabair, 139.
XIId The Combat of Munremar and Curoi, 141.
XIIe The Slaughter of the Boy-troop, 143.
XIIf The Slaughter of the King's Bodyguard, 145.
XIII The Combat of Cur with Cuchulain, 146.
XIV The Slaying of Ferbaeth, 150.
XIVa The Combat of Larine MacNois, 155.
XIVb The Colloquy of the Morrigan and Cuchulain, 161.
XV The Combat of Loch and Cuchulain, and
The Slaying of Loch son of Mofemis, 163.
XVI The Violation of the Agreement, 175.
XVIa The Healing of the Morrigan, 177.
XVII The Great Rout on the Plain of Murthemne, 180.
XVIIa The Slaughter of the Youths of Ulster, 184.
XVIIb The Scythed Chariot, 187.
XVIIc The Appearance of Cuchulain, 195.
XVIId Dubthach's Jealousy, 198.
XVIII The Slaying of Oengus son of Oenlam, 201.
XVIIIa The Misthrow at Belach Eoin, 202.
XVIIIb The Disguising of Tamon, 204.
XIX The Battle of Fergus and Cuchulain, 205.
XIXa The Head-place of Ferchu, 209.
XIXb Mann's Fight, 211.
XIXc The Combat of Calatin's Children, 213.
XX The Combat of Ferdiad and Cuchulain, 217.
XXI Cuchulain and the Rivers, 268.
XXII Cethern's Strait-fight, 269.
XXIIa Cethern's Bloody Wounds, 273.
XXIII The Tooth-fight of Fintan, 283.
XXIIIa The Red-Shame of Menn, 285.
XXIIIb The Accoutrement of the Charioteers, 287.
XXIIIc The White-fight of Rochad, 288.
XXIIId Iliach's Clump-fight, 292.
XXIIIe The Deer-stalking of Amargin in Taltiu, 295.
XXIIIf The Adventures of Curoi son of Dare, 296.
XXIV The Repeated Warning of Sualtaim, 298.
XXIVa The Agitation of Celtchar, 306.
XXV The Array of the Host, 309.
XXVI The Decision of the Battle, 345.
XXVII The Battle of Garech, 348.
XXVIIa The Muster of the Men of Erin, 351.
XXVIII The Battle of the Bulls, 363.
XXIX The Account of the Brown Bull of Cualnge, 366.
Index of Place and Personal Names, 371.

* * * * *

[Illustration: FACSIMILE PAGE 55--_from Leabhar na h-Uidhri_.]

* * * * *




PREFACE


The Gaelic Literature of Ireland is vast in extent and rich in quality. The
inedited manuscript materials, if published, would occupy several hundred
large volumes. Of this mass only a small portion has as yet been explored
by scholars. Nevertheless three saga-cycles stand out from the rest,
distinguished for their compass, age and literary worth, those, namely, of
the gods, of the demigod Cuchulain, and of Finn son of Cumhall. The
Cuchulain cycle, also called the Ulster cycle--from the home of its hero in
the North of Ireland--forms the core of this great mass of epic material.
It is also known as the cycle of Conchobar, the king round whom the Ulster
warriors mustered, and, finally, it has been called the Red Branch Cycle
from the name of the banqueting hall at Emain Macha in Ulster.

Only a few of the hundred or more tales which once belonged to this cycle
have survived. There are some dozen in particular, technically known as
_Remscela_ or "Foretales," because they lead up to and explain the great
Tain, the Tain Bo Cualnge, "The Cualnge Cattle-raid," the Iliad of Ireland,
as it has been called, the queen of Irish epic tales, and the wildest and
most fascinating saga-tale, not only of the entire Celtic world, but even
of all western Europe.

The mediaeval Irish scholars catalogued their native literature under
several heads, probably as an aid to the memory of the professional poets
or story-tellers whose stock-in-trade it was, and to one of these divisions
they gave the name _Tainte_, plural of _Tain_. By this term, which is most
often followed by the genitive plural _bo_, "cows," they meant "a driving,"
or "a reaving," or even "a drove" or "herd" of cattle. It is only by
extension of meaning that this title is applied to the Tain Bo Cualnge, the
most famous representative of the class, for it is not, strictly speaking,
with the driving of cattle that it deals but with that of the Brown Bull of
Cualnge. But, since to carry off the bull implies the carrying off of the
herd of which he was the head, and as the "Brown" is always represented as
accompanied by his fifty heifers, there were sufficient grounds for putting
the Brown Bull Quest in the class of Cow-spoils.

The prominence accorded to this class of stories in the early literature of
Ireland is not to be wondered at when the economic situation of the country
and the stage of civilization of which they are the faithful mirror is
borne in mind.[1] Since all wars are waged for gain, and since among the
Irish, who are still very much a nation of cattle raisers, cattle was the
chief article of wealth and measure of value,[2] so marauding expeditions
from one district into another for cattle must have been of frequent
occurrence, just as among the North American Indians tribal wars used to be
waged for the acquisition of horses. That this had been a common practice
among their kinsmen on the Continent also we learn from Caesar's account of
the Germans (and Celts?) who, he says, practised warfare not only for a
means of subsistence but also for exercising their warriors. How long-lived
the custom has been amongst the Gaelic Celts, as an occupation or as a
pastime, is evident not only from the plundering incursions or "creaghs"[3]
as they are called in the Highlands and described by Scott in _Waverley_
and _The Fair Maid of Perth_, but also from the "cattle-drives" which have
been resorted to in our own day in Ireland, though these latter had a
different motive than plunder. As has been observed by Sir Henry Sumner
Maine, Lord Macaulay was mistaken in ascribing this custom to "some native
vice of Irish character," for, as every student of ancient Ireland may
perceive, it is rather to be regarded as "a survival, an ancient and
inveterate habit" of the race.

One of these many Cattle-preys was the Tain Bo Cualnge,[4] which, there can
be little doubt, had behind it no mere myth but some kernel of actual
fact. Its historical basis is that a Connacht chieftain and his lady went
to war with Ulster about a drove of cattle. The importance of a racial
struggle between the north-east province and the remaining four grand
provinces of Ireland cannot be ascribed to it. There is, it is true, strong
evidence to show that two chief centres, political, if not cultural and
national, existed at the time of the Tain in Ireland, Cruachan Ai, near the
present Rathcroghan in Connacht, and Emain Macha, the Navan Fort, two miles
west of Armagh in Ulster, and it is with the friendly or hostile relations
of these two that the Ultonian cycle of tales deals. Ulster, or, more
precisely, the eastern portion of the Province, was the scene of all the
Cattle-raids, and there is a degree of truth in the couplet,--

"Leinster for breeding, And Ulster for reaving;
Munster for reading, And Connacht for thieving."

But there are no indications of a racial clash or war of tribes. With the
exception of the Oghamic writings inscribed on the pillar-stones by
Cuchulain, which seem to require interpretation to the men of Connacht by
Ulstermen, the description of the warriors mustered by the Connacht warrior
queen and those gathered round King Conchobar of Ulster accord quite
closely.

The Tain Bo Cualnge is the work not of any one man but of a corporation of
artists known as _filid_. The author of the Tain in its present state,
whoever he may have been, was a strong partisan of Ulster and never misses
an opportunity of flattering the pride of her chieftains. Later a kind of
reaction against the pre-eminence given to Ulster and the glorification of
its hero sets in, and a group of stories arises in which the war takes a
different end and Cuchulain is shown to disadvantage, finally to fall at
the hands of a Munster champion. It is to this southern province that the
saga-cycle which followed the Cuchulain at an interval of two hundred years
belongs, namely, the Fenian saga,--the saga of Finn son of Cumhall, which
still flourishes among the Gaelic speakers of Ireland and Scotland, while
the Cuchulain stories have almost died out among them. The mingling of the
two sagas is the work of the eighteenth-century Scots Lowlander, James
Macpherson.

The Tain Bo Cualnge is one of the most precious monuments of the world's
literature, both because of the poetic worth it evidences at an early stage
of civilization, and for the light it throws on the life of the people
among whom it originated and that of their ancestors centuries earlier. It
is not less valuable and curious because it shows us the earlier stages of
an epic--an epic in the making--which it does better perhaps than any other
work in literature. Ireland had at hand all the materials for a great
national epic, a wealth of saga-material replete with interesting episodes,
picturesque and dramatic incidents and strongly defined personages, yet she
never found her Homer, a gifted poet to embrace her entire literary wealth,
to piece the disjointed fragments together, smooth the asperities and hand
down to posterity the finished epic of the Celtic world, superior, perhaps,
to the Iliad or the Odyssey. What has come down to us is "a sort of
patchwork epic," as Prescott called the Ballads of the Cid, a popular
epopee in all its native roughness, wild phantasy and extravagance of deed
and description as it developed during successive generations. It resembles
the frame of some huge ship left unfinished by the builders on the beach
and covered with shells and drift from the sea of Celtic tradition. From
the historical standpoint, however, and as a picture of the old barbaric
Celtic culture, and as a pure expression of elemental passion, it is of
more importance to have the genuine tradition as it developed amongst the
people, unvarnished by poetic art and uninfluenced by the example of older
and alien societies.

According to the Chronicles of Ireland, as formulated in the Annals of
Tigernach,[5] who died in 1088, King Conchobar of Ulster began to reign in
the year 30 B.C., and he is said to have died of grief at the news that
Christ had been crucified. His reign therefore lasted about sixty
years. Cuchulain died in the year 39 A.D. in the twenty-seventh year of
his age, as we learn from the following entry: "The death of Cuchulain, the
bravest hero of the Irish, by Lugaid son of Three Hounds, king of Munster,
and by Erc, king of Tara, son of Carbre Niafer, and by the three sons of
Calatin of Connacht. Seven years was his age when he assumed arms,
seventeen was his age when he followed the Driving of the Kine of Cualnge,
but twenty-seven years was his age when he died."[6]

A very different account is given in the manuscript known as H. 3. 17,
Trinity College, Dublin, quoted by O'Curry in his _Manuscript Materials_,
page 508. The passage concludes with the statement: "So that the year of
the Tain was the fifty-ninth year of Cuchulain's age, from the night of his
birth to the night of his death." The record first quoted, however, is
partly corroborated by the following passage which I translate from the
Book of Ballymote, facsimile edition, page 13, col. a, lines 9-21: "In the
fourteenth year of the reign of Conaire (killed in 40 B.C.) and of
Conchobar, the Blessed Virgin was born. At that time Cuchulain had
completed thirteen years; and in the fourth year after the birth of Mary,
the expedition of the Kine of Cualnge took place ... that is, in the
eighteenth year of the reign of Conaire. Cuchulain had completed his
seventeenth year at that time. That is, it was in the thirty-second year of
the reign of Octavius Augustus that the same expedition took place. Eight
years after the Tain Bo Cualnge, Christ was born, and Mary had completed
twelve years then, and that was in the fortieth year of the reign of
Octavius Augustus; and in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Conaire and
Conchobar, and in the second year after the birth of Christ, Cuchulain
died. And twenty-seven years was Cuchulain's age at that time."

These apparent synchronisms, of course, may only rest upon the imagination
of the Christian annalists of Ireland, who hoped to exalt their ancient
rulers and heroes by bringing them into relation with and even making them
participate in the events of the life of the Saviour. But in placing the
date of the expedition of the Tain at about the beginning of the Christian
era, Irish tradition is undoubtedly correct, as appears from the character
of the civilization depicted in the Ulster tales, which corresponds in a
remarkable degree with what authors of antiquity have recorded of the Celts
and with the character of the age which archaeologists call "la Tene," or
"Late Celtic," which terminates at the beginning of the first century of
our era. Oral tradition was perhaps occupied for five hundred years working
over and developing the story of the Tain, and by the close of the fifth
century the saga to which it belonged was substantially the one we have
now. The text of the tale must have been completed by the first half of the
seventh century, and, as we shall see, its oldest extant version, the Book
of the Dun, dates from about the year 1100.

But, whatever may be the precise dates of these events, which we are not in
a position to determine more accurately, the composition of the Tain
Bo Cualnge antedates by a considerable margin the epic tales of the
Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians, the Franks and the Germans. It is the
oldest epic tale of western Europe, and it and the cycle of tales to which
it belongs form "the oldest existing literature of any of the peoples to
the north of the Alps."[7] The deeds it recounts belong to the heroic age
of Ireland three hundred years before the introduction of Christianity into
the island, and its spirit never ceased to remain markedly pagan. The
mythology that permeates it is one of the most primitive manifestations of
the personification of the natural forces which the Celts worshipped. Its
historical background, social organization, chivalry, mood and thought and
its heroic ideal are to a large extent, and with perhaps some pre-Aryan
survivals, not only those of the insular Celts of two thousand years ago,
but also of the important and wide-spread Celtic race with whom Caesar
fought and who in an earlier period had sacked Rome and made themselves
feared even in Greece and Asia Minor.

The following is the Argument of the Tain Bo Cualnge, which, for the sake
of convenience, is here divided into sections:


I. The Prologue

One night at the palace of Cruachan in Connacht, a dispute arose between
Queen Medb, the sometime wife of Conchobar, king of Ulster, and her consort
Ailill, as to the amount of their respective possessions. It may be
remarked in passing that in those days in Ireland, married women retained
their private fortune independent of their husbands, as well as the dowry
secured to them in marriage. To procure the evidence of their wealth, the
royal pair sent messengers to assemble all their chattels which, on
comparison, were found to be equal, excepting only that among Ailill's kine
was a lordly bull called Finnbennach, "the Whitehorned," whose match was
not to be found in the herds of the queen.


II. The Embassage to Dare and the Occasion of the Tain

As we might expect, Medb was chagrined at the discovery. Now her herald
macRoth had told her that Dare macFiachna, a landowner of Cualnge, a
district in the territory of her former husband, possessed an even more
wonderful bull than Ailill's, called Donn Cualnge, "the Brown Bull of
Cualnge." So she despatched macRoth to Dare to pray for the loan of the
bull.

Dare received the queen's messengers hospitably and readily granted her
request, but in the course of the entertainment, one of the messengers,
deep in his cups, spoke against Dare, and he, hearing this, withdrew his
promise and swore that he would never hand over the Brown Bull of Cualnge.


III. The Gathering of Medb's Forces

The impetuous queen, enraged at the failure of her mission, immediately
mustered a formidable army, composed not only of her Connachtmen but also
of allies from all parts of Ireland, wherewith to undertake the invasion of
Ulster. On her side were the Ulster chieftains who had gone into exile into
Connacht after the treacherous slaughter of the sons of Usnech by King
Conchobar of Ulster. Chief among them was Fergus, who, moreover, had a
personal grievance against Conchobar. For, while Fergus was king of Ulster,
he had courted the widow Ness and, in order to win her, promised to
abdicate for the term of one year in favour of her son Conchobar. But when
the term had elapsed, the youth refused to relinquish the throne, and
Fergus in anger entered the service of Medb of Connacht. There he was
loaded with favours, became the counsellor of the realm and, as appears
from more than one allusion in the tale, the more than friend of the wife
of King Ailill.

The four leagued provinces of Ireland being gathered at Cruachan, the
guidance of the host was entrusted to Fergus, because he was acquainted
with the province of Ulster through which they were to march, and at
the beginning of winter--a point emphasized by the exponents of the
sun-theory--the mighty host, including in its ranks the king and queen and
some of the greatest warriors of Ireland, with the princess Finnabair as a
lure, set forth on the raid into Ulster.

They crossed the Shannon near Athlone and, marching through the province of
Meath, arrived at the borders of Cualnge. Fortunately for the invaders, the
expedition took place while the Ulstermen lay prostrate in their _cess_, or
"Pains," a mysterious state of debility or torpor which was inflicted on
them periodically in consequence of an ancient curse laid upon Conchobar
and the warriors of Ulster as a punishment for a wrong done to the goddess
Macha. This strange malady, resembling the _couvade_ among certain savage
nations, ordinarily lasted five days and four nights, but on this occasion
the Ulstermen were prostrate from the beginning of November till the
beginning of February. During all that time the burden of defending the
province fell on the shoulders of the youthful champion Cuchulain, who had
in his particular charge the plain of Murthemne, the nearest district to
Cualnge, the goal of the expedition. For Cuchulain and his father Sualtaim
were alone exempt from the curse and the "Pains" which had befallen the
remainder of the champions of Ulster.


IV. The Youthful Exploits of Cuchulain

The Connacht host had not proceeded far when they came upon evidence of
some mighty force that opposed them. In answer to the inquiries of Ailill
and Medb, Fergus explains that it is Cuchulain who disputes their further
advance, and, as evidence of the superhuman strength and prowess of the
Ulster youth, then in the seventeenth year of his age, the Ulster exiles
recount the mighty deeds he had performed in his boyhood, chief among which
is the tale according to which, as eric for the killing of the hound of
Culann the Smith, the boy-hero Setanta assumed the station and the name
which ever after clung to him of Cuchulain, "the Hound of Culann."


V. The Single Combats of Cuchulain

Cuchulain agrees to allow the Connacht host to continue their march on
condition that every day they send one of their champions to meet him in
single combat. When he shall have killed his opponent, the host shall halt
and pitch camp until the following morning. Medb agrees to abide by these
terms. In each of the contests which ensue, the heroic youth is victorious
and slays many of the most celebrated warriors on the side of Connacht.
The severest of all these single combats was the one in which he had as
opponent his former friend and foster-brother Ferdiad. At the end of a
four days' battle, in which both adversaries exhibited astounding deeds of
valour, Ferdiad fell by the hands of Cuchulain.

Impatient at these delays, Medb broke the sacred laws of ancient Irish
chivalry and led her army into Ulster, overrunning the province, pillaging
and burning as she went, even up to the walls of Emain Macha, the residence
of Conchobar, and finally took possession of the Brown Bull of Cualnge.


VI. The Gathering of the Ulstermen and the Final Battle of the Tain

By this time King Conchobar and his warriors have come out of their
debility and summoned their forces to an eminence in Slane of Meath. The
great gathering of the Ulstermen is reported to Medb by her trusty herald
macRoth, and from his description of the leaders and their troops, their
exiled countryman Fergus designates them to the nobles of Connacht. In the
final battle Medb's army is repulsed and retreats in flight into Connacht.
Thus each host has had its share of the fortunes of war: Medb has laid
waste the lands of her divorced husband and carried off the Brown Bull of
Cualnge, the prize of war, while on the other hand, Conchobar has won the
victory in the great battle of Garech and Ilgarech.


VII. The End of the two Bulls

On the way back to Connacht, the Brown Bull of Cualnge emitted such
terrible bellowings that they reached the ears of the Whitehorned remaining
at home in his stall in Cruachan, whence he rushed at full speed to attack
the other. A furious battle took place between the bulls, but the Brown was
the stronger, and raising his rival on his horns he shook the Whitehorned
into fragments over all Ireland. He then returned in fury to Ulster, and in
his wild rage dashed his head against a rock and was killed.


The Tain Bo Cualnge has been preserved, more or less complete, in a score
of manuscripts ranging in date from the beginning of the twelfth to the
middle of the nineteenth century. There probably existed other manuscripts
containing not only the Tain as we have it but even episodes now wanting in
it. All of the extant manuscripts go back to versions which date from the
seventh century or earlier. No manuscript of the Tain is wholly in the
language of the time when it was copied, but, under the cloak of the
contemporaneous orthography, contains forms and words so obsolete that they
were not understood by the copyist, so that glossaries had to be compiled
to explain them.

It is by a singular good fortune that this, the greatest of all the epic
tales of the Irish, has been handed down to our day in the two most ancient
and, for that reason, most precious of the great Middle Irish collections
of miscellaneous contents known as the _Leabhar na hUidhre_, "the Book of
The Dun (Cow)," and the Book of Leinster. The former and older of these
vellum manuscripts (abbreviated LU.) is kept in the Library of the Royal
Irish Academy at Dublin. It must have been written about the beginning of
the twelfth century, for its compiler and writer, Moelmuire macCeilechair
(Kelleher), is known to have been slain at Clonmacnois in the year 1106;
some of its linguistic forms, however, are as old as the eighth century
glosses. Unfortunately, LU.'s account of the Tain is incomplete at the
beginning and the end, but the latter portion is made good by the closely
related, though independent, version contained in the manuscript known as
the Yellow Book of Lecan (abbreviated YBL.). This manuscript was written
about the year 1391 and it is also kept in Dublin in the Library of Trinity
College. To the same group as LU. and YBL., which for the sake of
convenience we may call version A, belong also the British Museum MSS.,
Egerton 1782, a large fragment, and Egerton 114, both dating from the
fifteenth or sixteenth century.

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