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

19. Reflections on Compert Conchobuir and Serglige Con Culainn

19 Reflections on Compert Conchobuir and Serglige Con Culainn ( 1 9 9 4 ) When I began to write this paper, my interest lay in exploring the compositional character of the Ulster tales, and I had decided, quite arbitrarily, to take Serglige Con Culainn (SCC) as my specimen. For reasons which will presently become apparent I have prefaced my discussion of SCC with a consideration of a second Ulster tale, the (very brief) early version of Compert Conchobuir (CConch). SCC is much the better known of these contrasting tales, and it has received a certain amount of scholarly attention. This has mainly been of two kinds: first, thematic analysis, concerned with its description of Cú Chulainn’s Otherworld journey, and with its remarkably rich material on the Otherworld; and, secondly, textual analysis, devoted to the compilatory nature of the tale in its surviving form, and to the 271 272 THE ULSTER CYCLE respective contributions of the two scribes who are responsible for the text of the tale in Lebor na hUidre, on which that of the only other manuscript is dependent. Successive analyses, ranging from the pioneering work of Heinrich Zimmer (1887), through the classic account by Thurneysen (1921, 413–15), to a recent contribution from Trond Kruke Salberg (1992), have revealed a good deal about the compilatory and redactorial aspects of the composition of the tale as we now have it. But compilation and redaction entail the existence of narratives which are themselves the products of a compositional process, and it is probably fair to say that concern with the compilatory and redactionary processes has tended to dominate the textual study of Irish narrative to the exclusion of other aspects of composition. One of the ways in which a compositional study of a text like SCC could be conducted would be by abstracting from the tale the story which it tells and then analyzing the discourse by means of which that story is realized as a tale.1 That would be an ambitious and worthwhile undertaking, but it is not one which could be effected in the space which is at my disposal . What I want to do here is, first, to suggest another way in which we could get started on a compositional study of SCC and, secondly, to discuss two features of the discourse of the extant tale. The suggestion which I wish to make is that the early version of CConch, which shows a relatively straightforward relationship between story and discourse, would make a suitable starting point for an analysis of more complex items of the Ulster Cycle, such as SCC. CConch, which occurs in seven manuscripts, was edited by Vernam Hull (1934), who argues that it was contained in the lost manuscript Cín Dromma Snechta (CDS). The text reconstructed by Hull on the basis of the extant manuscripts “is one of surprising antiquity which may with certainty be put back in the eighth century as early as the prima manus of the Würzburg glosses” (V. Hull 1934, 7). I reproduce the text here,2 together with Hull’s translation: COMPERT CONCHOBUIR Ness ingen Echach Sálbuidi boí inna ríg-suide i maig ar Emain et a ríg-ingena impe. Do-lluid in draí seccae .i. Cathboth druí di Thratraigi Maige Inis. As-bert ind ingen fris: “Cid den maith ind ór-sa indossa ?” olsi. “Is maith do dénum ríg fri rígin,” ol in draí. Iarmi-foacht ind ingen im-bo fír. As-noí in draí dar deu ba fír; mac do-génta ind úair sin for-biad Hérinn. To-cuirestar íarum ind ingen a dochum, inna accæ ferscál cenae i n-ocus dí. Ba torrach íarum ind-í Ness. Boí a ngein fó brú trí mísa for teorib blíadnaib. Uc flid Uthir ba halachta. FINIT ——— THE CONCEPTION OF CONCHOBOR Ness, the daughter of Eochu Yellow-Heel, was on her throne outside of Emain, and her royal maidens (were) about her. A druid came past her, even Cathboth, the seer of Tratraige of Mag-Inis. The maiden said to him: “What is the present hour good for?” she said. “It is good for begetting a king upon a queen,” said the druid. The maiden asked whether it was true. The druid swore by the gods that it was true; the son who should be begotten at that time, would rule over...