Coire Sois, The Cauldron of Knowledge: A Companion to Early Irish Saga

13. Táin Bó Cúailnge

13 Táin Bó Cúailnge ( 2 0 0 2 ) “Every man has kindly feelings for his own people.” —The Táin Táin Bó Cúailnge ‘The Cattle-Raid of Cooley,’ often referred to simply as the Táin, tells of an invasion of Ulster by a great army led by Medb and her husband, Ailill, who is king of Connacht (in the north-west of Ireland); its purpose is to carry off the Brown Bull from the Cooley peninsula in what is now County Louth (in the north-east). Medb is the instigator of the raid, and hers is one of the strongest and most insistent voices in the tale. I shall be attending to some of her utterances in what follows, and the words of hers which I have used as epigraph point to the theme of love of one’s kindred which will be the primary focus of what I wish to say here about the Táin. When the mighty army assembled by Medb and Ailill is about to set out from their court at Rathcroghan, Medb displays an acute awareness of 187 188 THE ULSTER CYCLE what she has taken upon herself when she says to her charioteer:“All those who part here today from comrade and friend will curse me for it is I who has mustered this hosting” (126; K 60).1 It is typical of Medb that she does not allow this insight to influence her actions in any way.As her ill-fated enterprise proceeds, her words as well as her deeds expose her as the arrogant, heartless,dishonest,cynical—and endlessly fascinating—manipulator that she is.Her character is of course revealed cumulatively,but here perhaps one example will suffice to show the kind of person we are dealing with. In the course of the invasion, Medb and Ailill are obliged to seek one warrior after another who will be brave (or foolhardy) enough to face the apparently invincible Cú Chulainn in single combat, since for a long time he is the only one who stands between the invaders and the achievement of their goal. When it has been decided that a certain Cúr mac Da Lath should be asked to take on this task, Medb remarks:“If he kills Cú Chulainn it means victory. If he is himself killed, it will be a relief to the host. It is not pleasant to consort with Cúr eating and sleeping” (172; K 127). She seems to feel that the death of the individual who continues to thwart them is of no greater moment than ridding themselves of the hapless Cúr, one of their own warriors, whose table manners and sleeping habits are not to her liking. Medb remains her wayward and irrepressible self through all the vicissitudes of the raid until, at last, her allies desert her, and her army is vanquished . She then finds herself at Cú Chulainn’s mercy, and all she can do is utter the simple and humble words “Spare me!” (236; K 250). Cú Chulainn lets her know that she deserves to die, but he does spare her. Her last, brief, words are to Fergus: they are evidently an admission of defeat—the tentative translation is “Men and lesser men (?) meet here today, Fergus” (236; K 251). In any case, Fergus issues a stunning rebuke: “That is what usually happens to a herd of horses led by a mare. Their substance is taken and carried off and guarded as they follow a woman who has misled them” (237; K 251). She is reduced to silence, and even the subsequent contest of the bulls, which is watched by all the survivors of the battle, draws no comment from her. The Táin begins with the mustering of an army, which is so great that it is often referred to as “the men of Ireland.” As they are about to set out on the raid, and just after Medb has predicted that she will be cursed by the troops, she meets the prophetess Fedelm, who warns her that her expedition will be a bloody one. Medb comforts herself in the knowledge that the Ulster king Conchobor, as she declares, “lies in his debility in Emain together with the Ulstermen and all the mightiest of their warriors” (126; K 61). This“debility”is one to which adult Ulstermen are peculiarly prone; it...