Historical Moment

The Tain Bo Cuailnge

Irish mythology was originally recorded in oral form and passed down through the centuries by the Druids, an intellectual religious group, not unlike the Christian monks. The oral traditions recorded history, mythology, and sometimes a combination of both. The majority of the main characters in the Tain are demi-gods; they either started out as real people who were later attributed with god-like powers or they were originally gods and goddesses who were given frailties that made them more human. In The Tain Bo Cuailgne the women are represented as emotionally strong, manipulative, intelligent and deceptive, while the men are physically stronger, honorable, brave and easily subjected to the will of the women.

There are an equal number of male and female main characters; four primary players of both sexes that appear all through the book, and two lesser characters of each sex that play key roles, but appear only for a short amount of time, or are only mentioned. The four main female characters are Medb, Finnabair, Morrigan, and Macha, the other two being Nemain and Scathach. The main male characters are Cuchulainn, Fergus, Aillil and Laeg, the two lesser roles being Ferdia and Conchobhar. While the numbers are the same, the roles are vastly different and have very few parallels.

The Tain Bo Cuailgne or "war of the brown cow of Cuailgne" is started at a woman's insistence. Medb and her husband Aillil, king and queen of the four provinces of Ireland, are arguing over who has the most impressive belongings, and it is realized that they are equal in all things, except Medb's best cow has joined the ranks of Aillil's herd. She hears about the cow of Cuailgne, and asks to borrow it for a year. He refuses, as she expected he would, and declares war. Because of an old curse placed by Macha, all the men of Ulster are going through birth-pangs and cannot fight. Only one warrior, a boy of 17, named Cuchulainn is young enough to be free of the curse. He is the best warrior in all of Ireland and manages to hold off the entire armies of all four provinces of Ireland until the Ulstermen rise from their pangs. Here we see the only parallel between the two leaders of the opposing sides and it is slight at that.

Cuchulainn is the hero of this tale, both in physical prowess and in honor and love. He is handsome and so well dressed when he goes into battle that he struts before the "matrons and virgins and young girls and poets and bards" to show off (Kinsella, 156). He is honor bound to yield to Fergus, his foster-father when he is without his sword because he was caught with Medb. In exchange for which Fergus also promises to yield to Cuchulainn one day when he needs it most. Cuchulainn also shows mercy to his main enemy, Medb when she is "relieving herself" at the end of the war, because he doesn't kill women. When he is forced to fight his best friend and foster-brother Ferdia he says to Fergus "I swear I do not want this" and tries to dissuade Ferdia from attacking for the entire three days that they do battle, simply because he loves his friend so much (Kinsella, 173). At the end of every day of battle they throw down their weapons, hug and kiss, and send each other food and medicine and Druids to heal the wounds the other has inflicted over the course of the day. Even after the friendship is broken off, Cuchulainn attempts to save Ferdia to no avail. When he's forced to kill his brother in self defense, he weeps and laments for three days, and puts the body where spoilers won't be able to get it.

There is a great deal of tenderness and affection between Cuchulainn and his close associates, especially between he and his charioteer, Laeg, who calls him Cucuc, a diminutive nickname (Kinsella, 197). He is well respected, as well as feared, by everyone who meets with him, even his enemies. There are pleasantries exchanged in almost all the battle scenes, and many of the champions of Ireland refuse to take advantage of his youth and in one case will only fight after Laeg glues a false beard on his face.

Except for the three main male characters, Cuchulainn, Fergus and Laeg, most of the men in the tale are thick skulled, easily won by liquor, and smooth talk of women and weath. All of this trickery is done by the women, who use the men's stereotypical short tempers and shallow desires to do their bidding. All of the men are very strong physically, and are eager to do battle at the slightest provocation, which can also be seen as bravery. They provide very little personality or character development, but are very homogeneously simple-minded yet compassionate warriors. The men do most of the physical labor and fighting, although women, especially Medb, do both as well. Even Aillil who is Medb's husband and King of all of Ireland, still has a very small role in both the story and the ruling of the country. This is illustrated by the phrase "from the day they took the kingship;" it is clear who wears the kilt in that relationship and says a lot about the role of women in leadership positions at the time (Kinsella, 165).

Medb is the prime instigator in this story. it is at her bidding the armies of Ireland rise up against Ulster for her own personal agenda, and she continues to use and manipulate the men. For example, in order to get the champions of Ireland to fight, Medb gets them drunk and then makes them all sorts of promises, among them land, gold, gifts, lifting of taxes and even her "own friendly thighs" (Kinsella, 169). In addition to all this, she promises every man she coerces to fight the hand and bed of her daughter Finnabair, the most beautiful woman in the land. In their drunken, excited state they promise to fight Cuchulainn, and one by one they are defeated. The most notorious victim of this sort is Cuchulainn's foster-brother Ferdia, whom Medb gives the usual treatment of intoxicating him, promising him Finnabair, and all sorts of gifts and promises. Still Ferdia is reluctant to fight his best friend, so Medb tells him that Cuchulainn has insulted him, which is of course not true. The drastic results of that battle have been discussed above.

In connection with this, the character of Finnabair deserves some attention. In her we see that women can be beautiful and manipulative, and still retain their virtue. Every man Medb brings to her, she sits beside, sweet-talks and promises herself to him. However, she remains a virgin throughout, for the only man she'll have is the one she's in love with, Roachad, an Ulsterman. Medb arranges a meeting of the two lovers, then uses the tryst to ambush Roachad. He is captured, but is still allowed to spend the night with Finnabair. The next day he returns to Ulster and when it is announced he'd slept with Finnabair, seven hundred men die in a huge battle against Medb and Aillil's sons seeking revenge for being deceived. When Finnabair finds out so many men died because of her, she dies of shame on the spot. This is a very interesting, albeit confused, message about women's roles in Celtic society. They are a customary part of warfare and battle in that it is normal to have them alongside in the camps of the armies, and although they are expected to cause trouble and strife, it is almost unintentional and they are very contrite when something bad happens.

Still, not all of the women were required to be ashamed of the havoc they wreak, especially not the Morrigan. The Morrigan is the triune goddess of war and battle who appears several times throughout The Tain in various forms. One of hr most important roles is that of messenger, or prophetess. She comes to Cuchulainn and tells him she loves him and wants to help. He tells her he has no use for a woman, and she warns him that she is going to come after him and cause his downfall in three ways: as an eel to trip him as he fought in water, as a wolf to stampede the cattle and trample him, and as a red heifer, again to stampede the cattle. He says he will crush her in various ways if she tries, and will only be able to be healed by his word. These things all come to pass; the Morrigan almost succedes in getting him killed him in the ford by changing into an eel and tripping him as he fought in the water. He manages to stop the stampedes fairly easily, and one day when he's worn out from fighting he finds an old crooked woman milking a cow. With each sip of milk she gives him he blesses her and the three injuries he had caused the Morrigan in her other forms were cured, and he says if he'd known it was her he'd never have blessed her. The Morrigan also appears several other times throughout the book, often as a crow telling of what is to come in the battles and watching bloody battle scenes.

In her other forms of Macha, Nemain and Badb, the Morrigan appears several other times. As Macha, the Personification of Battle she is a beautiful woman who subtly infiltrates and does her mischevous deeds (Ellis, 168). It is Macha who is responsible for the birth-pangs of the Ulsermen. Badb is the Fury of battle and is most often seen as a crow screaming over the battlefields or shrieking in the night and frightening men to death (Ellis, 168; Kinsella, 239). Again, these are more minor characters that have a great importance in the course of the story, either as part of a cause-effect relationship or as contribution to background and mood setting for invoking the names of great goddesses was indeed a powerful act.

One of Macha's most important roles is that of messenger, or prophetess. She comes to Cuchulainn and tells him she loves him and wants to help. He tells her he has no use for a woman, and she warns him that she is going to come after him and cause his downfall in three ways: as an eel to trip him as he fought in water, as a wolf to stampede the cattle and trample him, and as a red heifer, again to stampede the cattle. He says he will crush her in various ways if she tries, and will only be able to be healed by his word. These things all come to pass; the Morrigan almost succedes in getting him killed him in the ford by changing into an eel and tripping him as he fought in the water. He manages to stop the stampedes fairly easily, and one day when he's worn out from fighting he finds an old crooked woman milking a cow. With each sip of milk she gives him he blesses her and the three injuries he had caused the Morrigan in her other forms were cured, and he says if he'd known it was her he'd never have blessed her. The Morrigan also appears several other times throughout the book, often as a crow telling of what is to come in the battles and watching bloody battle scenes. In her other forms of Macha, Nemain and Badb, the Morrigan appears several other times. As Macha, the Personification of Battle she is a beautiful woman who subtly infiltrates and does her mischievous deeds (Ellis, 168). It is Macha who is responsible for the birth-pangs of the Ulsermen. Badb is the Fury of battle and is most often seen as a crow screaming over the battlefields or shrieking in the night and frightening men to death (Ellis, 168; Kinsella, 239). Again, these are more minor characters that have a great importance in the course of the story, either as part of a cause-effect relationship or as contribution to background and mood setting for invoking the names of great goddesses was indeed a powerful act.

Cuchulainn as well as his foster-brother Ferdia have been trained by a warrior woman named Scathach who also gave Cuchulainn his gae-bolga, "terrible spear" with which he kills hundreds of men. Although she never appears in this particular tale, still it is another interesting way in which a woman plays a great role in the outcome of this story.

The roles and perceptions of men and women as presented in the Tain are not traditionally what is expected of medieveal Christian scribes. The women are very strong, emotionally and physically, they have many responsibilities and play a major role in the society. However, at the same time, the women are perceived by their male counterparts as domineering, evil, manipulative, deceitful creatures who wreak havoc with the natural world and way of doing things. As Fergus puts it "It is the usual thing for a herd led by a mare to be strayed and destroyed" (Kinsella, 251). Still the men allow the women to have such great influence over their lives, or else are powerless to change things. It is also indeed interesting that among the chief deities of the Celtic peoples were goddesses of war and death, while the Lugh the sun god is a male. In comparison, in the Celtic world presented here men are strong, loyal, brave, honorable and uncomplicated. They stand by their words and show all compassion and respect to each other, where women are viewed suspiciously and as burdens to the men. It is clear how an incoming Christian religion with a compassionate male deity could easily have taken over the war-like female-dominated theology of the past, but the old ways must not be forgotten.