The Death of Cú Roí
Also known as: Aided Chon Roí, Aided Con Roí, The Death of Curoi, Aided Con Roi mac Dairi
Bláthnat betrays the sorcerer-king Cú Roí to her lover Cú Chulainn, who raids Cú Roí’s stronghold and beheads him. Cú Roí’s poet Ferchertne later kills Bláthnat and himself, and the feud sows enmity that will culminate in Cú Chulainn’s own death.
Description
This Middle Irish ‘aided’ recounts the slaying of Cú Roí mac Dairi, the Munster king and shape-shifting judge of many Ulster Cycle tales. After the sea-raid on Inis Fer Fálga, Bláthnat is awarded to Cú Chulainn but seized by Cú Roí; in captivity she conspires with Cú Chulainn. On an appointed night she signals by pouring milk into a stream, and Cú Chulainn assaults Cú Roí’s stone fort—often localized at Caherconree in the Slieve Mish of Kerry. Cú Roí is killed and beheaded despite his magical wards. In grim aftermath Cú Roí’s poet Ferchertne seizes Bláthnat and leaps from a cliff, memorialized as the ‘Leap of Bláthnat’. The tale explains the bitter feud with Cú Roí’s lineage—especially his son Lugaid mac Con Roí—that shadows later Ulster narratives.
Historiography
Preserved in Middle Irish prose as part of the Ulster Cycle’s ‘aided’ (death-tale) subgenre, the story survives in later manuscripts and compilations that transmit variant details of names, locales, and the betrayal motif. Localization at Caherconree reflects medieval euhemerizing tendencies that tie saga events to Munster sites. The tradition cross-references other Ulster texts (Fled Bricrenn; Táin Bó Cúailnge), with scholia and later summaries connecting the revenge motif to Lugaid’s role in Cú Chulainn’s death.
Date Notes
Survives as a Middle Irish ‘aided’ (death-tale); narrative elements likely older oral Ulster Cycle material.
Major Characters
- Cú Roí
- Cú Chulainn
- Blathnat
- Ferchertne
Myths
- Cú Roí’s Betrayal by Bláthnat
- Cú Chulainn’s Slaying of Cú Roí
- Bláthnat’s Leap and Vengeance
Facts
- The tale is classified as an ‘aided’—a death-tale genre in Early Irish literature.
- Cú Roí is portrayed as a Munster king with druidic or magical abilities and a formidable stone fort.
- Bláthnat’s betrayal motif centers on pouring milk into a stream to guide Cú Chulainn’s night attack.
- Cú Roí is beheaded; his severed head remains a potent sign of sovereignty lost.
- Ferchertne, Cú Roí’s poet, kills Bláthnat and himself by leaping from a cliff remembered as Leim Bláthnaid.
- Localization often identifies Cú Roí’s stronghold with Caherconree in the Slieve Mish Mountains, County Kerry.
- The narrative interlocks with episodes from Fled Bricrenn and Táin Bó Cúailnge.
- Lugaid mac Con Roí’s later vengeance against Ulster heroes is thematically rooted in this death.
- Name forms vary across manuscripts (Cú Roí/Curoi; Bláthnat/Blathnat).
- The story exemplifies Ulster Cycle tensions between Munster and Ulster, sovereignty and personal honor.