The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge. Anonymous

1908; Standish O'Grady, "The Coming of Cuculain," London, 1894, "In the Gates of the North," Kilkenny, 1901, "Cuculain, A Prose Epic," London, 1882 and the same author's "History of Ireland: the Heroic Period," London, 1878–80; "The High Deeds of Finn, and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland," by T.W. Rolleston, London, 1910; Stephen Gwynn, "Celtic Sagas Re-told," in his "To-day and To-morrow in Ireland," pages 38–58, Dublin, 1903; Edward Thomas, "Celtic Stories," Oxford, 1911; "Children of Kings," by W. Lorcan O'Byrne, London, 1904, and "The Boy Hero of Erin," by Charles Squire, London, 1907.

      Among the many poems which have taken their theme from the Táin and the deeds of Cuchulain may be mentioned: "The Foray of Queen Meave," by Aubrey de Vere, Poetic Works, London, 1882, vol. ii, pages 255–343; "The Old Age of Queen Maeve," by William Butler Yeats, Collected Works, vol. I, page 41, London, 1908; "The Defenders of the Ford," by Alice Milligan, in her "Hero Lays," page 50, Dublin, 1908; George Sigerson, "Bards of the Gael and the Gall," London, 1897; "The Tain-Quest," by Sir Samuel Ferguson, in his "Lays of the Western Gael and other Poems," Dublin, 1897; "The Red Branch Crests, A Trilogy," by Charles Leonard Moore, London, 1906; "The Laughter of Scathach," by Fiona Macleod, in "The Washer of the Ford and Barbaric Tales"; Hector Maclean, "Ultonian Hero-Ballads collected in the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland," Glasgow, 1892; ballad versions from Scotland are found in Leabhar na Feinne, pages 1 and fol., in J.G. Campbell's "The Fians," pages 6 and fol., and in the Book of the Dean of Lismore.

      Finally, scenes from the Táin have been dramatized by Canon Peter O'Leary, in the Cork "Weekly Examiner," April 14, 1900 and fol., by Sir Samuel Ferguson, "The Naming of Cuchulain: A Dramatic Scene," first played in Belfast, March 9, 1910; in "The Triumph of Maeve," A Romance in dramatic form, 1906; "Cuchulain," etc., (A Cycle of Plays, by S. and J. Varian, Dublin), and in "The Boy-Deeds of Cuchulain," A Pageant in three Acts, performed in Dublin in 1909.

[1]

      "L'histoire entière de l'Irlande est une énigme si on n'a pas sans cesse à l'esprit ce fait primordial que le climat humide de l'île est tout à fait contraire à la culture des céréales, mais en revanche éminemment favorable à l'élevage du bétail, surtout de la race bovine, car le climat est encore trop humide pour l'espèce ovine." F. Lot, in La Grande Encyclopédie, xx, 956.

[2]

      As it is to this day in some parts of Ireland, and as for example a female slave was sometimes appraised at three head of cattle among the ancient Gaels.

[3]

      In fact the Clan Mackay was known as the Clan of the creaghs, and their perpetuation was enjoined on the rising generation from the cradle; See The Old Highlands, vol. III., p. 338, Glasgow.

[4]

      Pronounced approximately Thawin' bō Hūln'ya (θα: n bo: χu: lpə).

[5]

      Revue Celtique, 1895, tome xvi. pp. 405–406; Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores, ii. 14.

[6]

      Mois Conchulaind fortissimi herois Scottorum la Lugaid mac trí con, i. ri Muman, agus la Ercc, i. ri Temrach, mac Coirpri Niad fir, agus la trí maccu Calattin de Chonnachtaib; vii. mbliadna a aes intan rogab gaisced. xvii. mbliadna dano a aes intan mbói indegaid Tána Bó Cúalnge. xxvii. bliadna immorro a aes intan atbath. Revue Celtique, tome xvi. page 407.

[7]

      Ridgeway.

[8]

      See H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, Essai d'un catalogue de la littérature épique de l'Irlande, Paris, 1883, pages 214–216, and the Supplement to the same by G. Dottin, Revue Celtique, t. xxxiii, pages 34–35; Donald Mackinnon, A Descriptive Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts, Edinburgh, 1912, pp. 174, 220; E. Windisch, Táin Bó Cúalnge, Einleitung und Vorrede, S. lx. ff.

[9]

      Facsimilé, page 288, foot margin.

[10]

      Facsimilé, page 275, top margin.

[11]

      Vd. Robert Atkinson, The Book of Leinster, Introduction, pages 7–8; J.H. Todd, Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, 1867, Introduction, pages ix and ff. Eugene O'Curry, On the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History, page 186; Ernst Windisch, Táin Bó Cúalnge, pages 910–911.

[12]

      Pronounced gesh or gas.

[13]

      "Es gehört keine grosse Kühnheit dazu zu behaupten, dass keiner der lebenden Keltologen beispielsweise von dem wichtigsten altirischen Sagentext 'Der Rinderraub von Cualnge' … mit allen vorhandenen Hilfsmitteln ein solches fortlaufendes Verständnis des Inhalts hat, wie von einem guten Gymnasialabiturienten hinsichtlich der homerischen Gedichte ohne jegliches Hilfsmittel vor gut 30 Jahren in Deutschland verlangt wurde."—Die Kultur der Gegenwart, herausgegeben von Paul Hinneberg, Berlin, 1909. Teil I, Abt. xi, I. S. 75.

[14]

      Part II, chap, lxii (Garnier Hermanos edition, page 711).

      Here beginneth Táin Bó Cúalnge

       The Cualnge Cattle-raid

      I. THE PILLOW-TALK

       Table of Contents

      W. 1. LL. fo. 53. Once of a time, that Ailill and Medb had spread their royal bed in Cruachan, the stronghold of Connacht, such was the pillow-talk that befell betwixt them:

      Quoth Ailill: "True is the saying, lady, 'She is a well-off woman that is a rich man's wife.'" "Aye, that she is," answered the wife; "but wherefore opin'st thou so?" "For this," Ailill replied, "that thou art this day better off than the day that first I took thee." Then answered Medb: "As well-off was I before I ever saw thee." "It was a wealth, forsooth, we never heard nor knew of," Ailill said; "but a woman's wealth was all thou hadst, and foes from lands next thine were used to carry off the spoil and booty that they took from thee." "Not so was I," quoth Medb; "the High King of Erin himself was my sire, Eocho Fedlech ('the Enduring') son of Finn, by name, who was son of Findoman, son of Finden, son of Findguin, son of Rogen Ruad ('the Red'), son of Rigen, son of Blathacht, son of Beothacht, son of Enna Agnech, son of Oengus Turbech. Of daughters, had he six: Derbriu, Ethne and Ele, Clothru, Mugain and Medb, myself, that was the noblest and seemliest of them. 'Twas I was the goodliest of them in bounty W. 17. and gift-giving, ¹in riches and treasures.¹ 'Twas I was best of them in battle and strife and combat. 'Twas I that had fifteen