Táin Bó Cúailnge
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Táin Bó Cúailnge ("the driving-off of cows of Cooley", more usually rendered The Cattle Raid of Cooley or The Táin) is the central tale in the Ulster Cycle, one of the four great cycles that make up the surviving corpus of Irish mythology. It is recorded in Old and Middle Irish, and is written mainly in prose, with some verse sections, especially at moments of heightened tension or emotion. The tale relates a war against Ulster by the Connacht queen Medb and her husband Ailill, who intend to steal the stud bull Donn Cuailnge, and the efforts of the teenage Ulster hero Cú Chulainn to oppose them.
The text
The Táin Bó Cúailnge has survived in two main s. The first consists of a partial text in the Lebor na hUidre (the Book of the Dun Cow), a late 11th/early 12th century manuscript compiled in the monastery at Clonmacnoise, and another partial text of the same version in the 14th century manuscript called the Yellow Book of Lecan. These two sources overlap, and a complete text can be reconstructed by combining them. The text itself is a compilation of two or more earlier versions, indicated by the number of duplicated episodes and references to other versions. In fact, so fragmented is the actual story of the Táin, with so many different versions current in the oral folklore of the time, that reference is made to this in opening of the Táin itself. The Táin begins with the phrase: "The poets of Ireland one day were gathered around Senchán Torpéis, to see if they could recall the "Táin Bó Cuailnge" in its entirety. But they all said they knew only parts of it." Many of the episodes are superb, written in the characteristic terse prose of the best Old Irish literature, but the whole remains rather disjointed. Parts of this recension, especially the verse, can be dated from linguistic evidence to the 8th century, and there is reason to suspect that the Táin had a considerable oral history before any of it was committed to writing.The second recension is found in the 12th century manuscript known as the Book of Leinster. This appears to have been a syncretic exercise by a scribe who brought together the Lebor na hUidre materials and unknown sources for the Yellow Book of Lecan materials to create a coherent version of the epic. While the result is a satisfactory narrative whole, the language has been modernised into a much more florid style, with all of the spareness of expression of the earlier recension lost in the process.
The Book of Leinster version ends with a colophon in Latin which says:
- But I who have written this story, or rather this fable, give no credence to the various incidents related in it. For some things in it are the deceptions of demons, other poetic figments; some are probable, others improbable; while still others are intended for the delectation of foolish men.
Summary of the story
The Táin is preceded by a number of remscéla, or pre-tales, which provide background on the main characters and explain the presence of some of the leading men of Ulster in the Connacht camp, the curse that causes the temporary inability of the remaining Ulstermen to fight and the magic origins of the bulls Donn Cuailnge and Finnbhennach.The story proper begins with Ailill and Medb, king and queen of Connacht, assembling their army in Cruachan, their capital. In the first recension the purpose of this military build-up is taken for granted. The second recension adds a prologue in which Ailill and Medb compare their respective wealths and find that the only thing that distinguishes them is Ailill's possession of the phenomenally fertile bull Finnbhennach, who had been born into Medb's herd but scorned being owned by a woman so decided to transfer himself to Ailill's. Medb determines to get the equally potent Donn Cuailnge from Cooley to balance the books with her husband. She successfully negotiates with the bull's owner to rent the animal for a year until her messengers, drunk, reveal that they would have taken the bull by force even if they had not been allowed to borrow it. The deal breaks down, and Medb raises an army, including Ulster exiles led by Fergus mac Róich and other allies, and sets out to capture him.
The men of Ulster are disabled by a curse. The only person fit to defend Ulster is seventeen-year-old Cú Chulainn, and he lets the army take Ulster by surprise because he's off on a tryst when he should be watching the border. Medb takes the bull, but Cú Chulainn prevents her from taking him back to Connacht by invoking the right of single combat at fords. He defeats champion after champion in a stand-off lasting months. When Fergus, his foster-father, is set to face him, Cú Chulainn agrees to yield to him on the condition that Fergus yields the next time they meet. Finally there is a physically and emotionally gruelling three-day duel between the hero and his foster-brother and best friend, Ferdiad.
Eventually the Ulstermen start to rouse, one by one at first, then en masse, and the final battle begins. It ends after Fergus makes good on his promise and yields to Cú Chulainn, pulling his forces off the field. Connacht's other allies panic and Medb is forced to retreat. She does, however, manage to bring Donn Cuailnge back to Connacht, where he fights Finnbhennach, kills him, but, mortally wounded himself, wanders around Ireland creating placenames before finally returning home to die of exhaustion. It should be noted that the Táin differs significantly from oral folklore in one regard, in that Cú Chulainn actually survives the Táin, whereas most oral traditions have him dying tragically from wounds sustained from his final duel with Ferdiad. The image of Cú Chulainn dying, tied to a post so that even in death he might face his enemies standing, was a symbol adopted by early twentieth century Irish republicans.
The world of the Táin
The world portrayed in the Táin is an essentially pre-Christian heroic age. War is a matter of single combat between warriors armed with swords and spears and mounted in chariots with drivers. The main source of wealth is cattle. Interestingly, it is also a world in which a queen may possess wealth independently of her husband and, indeed, compete with him and raise an army.The Táin in translation
The most accessible and readily available translation is the poet Thomas Kinsella's version The Tain (1969), based primarily on the first recension with passages added from the second, along with a selection of fore-tales. Cecile O'Rahilly has published academic editions/translations of both recensions, Táin Bó Cúailnge from the Book of Leinster (1967) and Táin Bó Cúailnge Recension 1 (1976), as well as an edition of the later Stowe Version (1984), a variant version of recension 2 in more modern language, with a few extra passages. Winifred Faraday's The Cattle-Raid of Cualnge (1904) translates the first recension, and Joseph Dunn's The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúailnge (1914) translates the second, with passages added from the first recension and the Stowe version.Music inspired by the Táin
The story inspired a concept album called The Tain (1973) by Irish folk/glam rock band Horslips. Additionally, the story inspired an 18 minute 39 second "single" of the same name by the indie rock band The Decemberists (2004). Terry Riley's Chanting the Light of Foresight is a programmatic depiction of the epic commissioned by Rova.References
- J. P. Mallory (ed) (1992), Aspects of the Táin, December Publications, Belfast
- J. P. Mallory & G. Stockman (eds) (1994), Ulidia, December Publications, Belfast
- James MacKillop (1998), Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Oxford University Press
External links
Recension 1
- [Irish text edited by Cecile O'Rahilly]
- [Cecile O'Rahilly's translation]
- [Winifred Faraday's translation]
Recension 2
- [Irish text edited by Cecile O'Rahilly]
- [Cecile O'Rahilly's translation]
- [Ernst Windisch's text and Joseph Dunn's translation]
- [Another source for Joseph Dunn's translation]
Compilations and secondary sources
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