Táin Bó Cúailnge
Also known as: The Cattle Raid of Cooley, Tain Bo Cuailnge, Táın Bó Cúailnge
Queen Medb of Connacht leads an invasion of Ulster to seize the brown bull of Cooley, but the teenage hero Cúchulainn alone holds the fords through single combats until the bulls themselves decide the war’s end.
Description
The central tale of the Ulster Cycle, Táin Bó Cúailnge blends prose narrative with roscada (alliterative verse) to recount a provincial war sparked by royal rivalry. After a boastful reckoning of wealth, Queen Medb resolves to capture Donn Cúailnge to match Ailill’s white-horned Finnbennach. Ulster’s warriors are stricken by Macha’s curse, leaving the border defended by Cúchulainn, whose ríastrad (warp-spasm) and honor-bound challenges force the invading army into ritual single combat. Duels escalate—culminating in his tragic fight with the foster-brother Ferdiad—while the war-goddess Morrígan tests and thwarts the hero. Lugh appears to heal his son, and political pressures sway champions like Fergus. The campaign closes when Donn Cúailnge battles Finnbennach, ending the raid in blood and loss. Surviving in multiple medieval redactions, the Táin preserves archaic legal customs, oaths (geasa), and the ethics of honor and sovereignty in early Irish heroic culture.
Historiography
The tale survives chiefly in two medieval recensions. Recension I is preserved fragmentarily in Lebor na hUidre (c. 1100) with supplements from later manuscripts; Recension II, a more polished synthesis, appears in the Book of Leinster (12th century). Additional copies (e.g., the Yellow Book of Lecan) transmit variant episodes and language strata (Old/Middle Irish). Modern editions reconcile prose with embedded rosc passages and correlate remscéla (foretales) that frame the action. Scholarly debate concerns the layering of antiquarian material, legal formulae, and heroic ideology within a composite narrative tradition.
Date Notes
Composite of earlier oral lays preserved in medieval manuscripts; principal recensions in Lebor na hUidre (c. 1100) and Book of Leinster (12th c.), with later copies (e.g., Yellow Book of Lecan).
Archetypes
Major Characters
- Cú Chulainn
- Queen Medb
- Ailill
- Fergus mac Róich
- Conchobar mac Nessa
- Ferdiad
- Morrígan
- Láeg
Myths
- The Cattle Raid of Cooley
- The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulainn
- Single Combats at the Ford
- The Slaying of Ferdiad
- The Return of the Brown Bull
Facts
- Core narrative of the Ulster Cycle and Ireland’s premier heroic tale.
- Medb’s raid seeks Donn Cúailnge to rival Ailill’s bull Finnbennach.
- Ulster’s warriors are incapacitated by Macha’s childbed curse.
- Cúchulainn enforces single combat at the fords, delaying the army.
- Ferdiad’s death at Áth Fhir Diad is the epic’s tragic climax.
- Text combines prose narrative with archaic roscada verse passages.
- Principal medieval witnesses are Lebor na hUidre and the Book of Leinster.
- Fergus mac Róich, an exiled Ulster prince, serves as Medb’s champion and mediator.
- The war-goddess Morrígan opposes and tests Cúchulainn in multiple guises.
- The bulls’ duel—Donn Cúailnge versus Finnbennach—symbolically resolves the conflict.
- Language strata indicate Old/Middle Irish layers and later redaction.
- Legal customs, geasa (oaths/taboos), and honor codes frame action and motives.