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The 'Ulster Cycle', formerly known as the 'Red Branch Cycle', one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly counties Armagh, Down and Louth. The stories are set in and around the reign of king Conchobar mac Nessa, who rules the Ulaid from Emain Macha (now Navan Fort near Armagh). The most prominent hero of the cycle is Conchobar's nephew Cúchulainn. The Ulaid are most often in conflict with the people of Connacht, led by their queen, Medb, her husband Ailill, and their ally Fergus mac Róich, a former king of the Ulaid in exile. The longest and most important story of the cycle is the ''Táin Bó Cúailnge'' or "Cattle Raid of Cooley", in which Medb raises an enormous army to invade the Cooley peninsula and steal the Ulaid's prize bull, Donn Cúailnge, opposed only by the seventeen year old Cúchulainn. Perhaps the best known story is the tragedy of Deirdre, source of plays by W. B. Yeats and J. M. Synge. Other stories tell of the births, courtships and deaths of the characters and of the conflicts between them.
The stories are written in Old and Middle Irish, mostly in prose, interspersed with occasional verse passages. They are preserved in manuscripts of the 12th to 15th centuries, but in many cases are much older: the language of the earliest stories is dateable to the 8th century. The tone is terse, violent, sometimes comic, and mostly realistic, although supernatural elements intrude from time to time. Cúchulainn in particular has superhuman fighting skills, the result of his semi-divine ancestry, and when particularly aroused his battle frenzy or "warp spasm" transforms him into an unrecognisable monster who knows neither friend nor foe. Evident deities like Lugh, the Morrígan, Aengus and Midir also make occasional appearances.
Unlike majority of early Irish historical tradition, which presents ancient Ireland as largely united under a succession of High Kings, the stories of the Ulster Cycle depict a country with no effective central authority, divided into local and provincial kingdoms often at war with each other. The civilisation depicted is a pagan, pastoral one ruled by a warrior aristocracy. Bonds between aristocratic families are cemented by fosterage of each other's children. Wealth is reckoned in cattle. Warfare mainly takes the form of cattle raids, or single combats between champions at fords. The characters' actions are sometimes restricted by religious taboos known as ''geasa''.
The events of the cycle are traditionally supposed to take place around the time of Christ. The stories of Conchobar's birth and death are synchronised with the birth and death of Christ,[1] and the ''Lebor Gabála Érenn'' dates the ''Táin Bó Cúailnge'' and the birth and death of Cúchulainn to the reign of the High King Conaire Mor, who it says was a contemporary of the Roman emperor Augustus (27 BC - AD 14).[2] However, some stories, including the ''Táin'', refer to Cairbre Nia Fer as the king of Tara, implying that no High King is in place at the time.
Some scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Eugene O'Curry and Kuno Meyer, believed that the stories and characters of the Ulster Cycle were essentially historical; T. F. O'Rahilly was inclined to believe the stories were entirely mythical and the characters euhemerised gods; and Ernst Windisch thought that the cycle, while largely imaginary, contains little genuine myth.[3] Elements of the tales are reminiscent of classical descriptions of Celtic societies in Gaul, Galatia and Britain. Warriors fight with swords, spears and shields, and ride in two-horse chariots, driven by skilled charioteers drawn from the lower classes.[4] They take and preserve the heads of slain enemies,[5] and boast of their valour at feasts, with the bravest awarded the ''curadmír'' or "champion's portion", the choicest cut of meat.[6] Kings are advised by druids (Old Irish ''druí'', plural ''druíd''), and poets have great power and privilege. These elements led scholars such as Kenneth H. Jackson to conclude that the stories of the Ulster Cycle preserved authentic Celtic traditions from the pre-Christian Iron Age.[7] Other scholars have challenged that conclusion, stressing similarities with early medieval Irish society and the influence of classical literature,[8] but it is likely that the stories do contain genuinely ancient material.
| Contents |
| Texts in translation |
| Online translations |
| References |
Texts in translation
Most of the important Ulster Cycle tales can be found in the following publications:
★ Thomas Kinsella, ''The Táin'', Oxford University Press, 1969
★ Jeffrey Gantz, ''Early Irish Myths and Sagas'', Penguin, 1981
★ Tom Peete Cross & Clark Harris Slover, ''Ancient Irish Tales'', Henry Holt & Company, 1936 (reprinted by Barnes & Noble, 1996)
★ John T Koch & John Carey, ''The Celtic Heroic Age'', Celtic Studies Publications, 2000
★ Kuno Meyer, ''The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes'', Todd Lecture Series, 1906
★ A H Leahy, ''Heroic Romances of Ireland'', 2 vols, 1905-1906 (Online at Sacred Texts)
Online translations
★ The Birth of Conchobar
★ Tidings of Conchobar son of Ness
★ Medb's Men, or the Battle of the Boyne
★ The Birth of Cú Chulainn
★ The Wooing of Emer
★ The Death of Aífe's Only Son
★ The Story of Mac Dathó's Pig
★ Bricriu's Feast
★ The Exile of the Sons of Usnech
★ The Dream of Óengus
★ The Cattle Raid of Fráech
★ The Raid for the Cattle of Regamon
★ The Raid for Dartaid's Cattle
★ The Driving of Flidais's Cattle
★ The Courtship of Ferb Book of Leinster version; Egerton version
★ The Adventures of Nera
★ The Cattle Raid of Regamna
★ The Debility of the Ulstermen
★ The Cattle Raid of Cooley Recension 1; Recension 2
★
★ The Death of Cú Roí
★ The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain
★ The Pursuit of Gruaidh Ghriansholus
★ The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel
★ The Death of Celtchar mac Uthechair
★ The Affliction of the Ulstermen
★ The Colloquy of the Two Sages
★ The Death of Cú Chulainn
★ The Death of Cet mac Mágach
★ The Death of Lóegaire Búadach
★ The Death of Conchobar
★ The Battle of Airtech
★ The Death of Fergus mac Róich
★ The Violent Death of Medb
★ The Phantom Chariot of Cú Chulainn
References
1. Kuno Meyer, "Anecdota from the Stowe MS. No 992", ''Revue Celtique'' 6, 1884, pp. 173-183; Kuno Meyer, ''The Death Tales of the Ulster Heroes'', Todd Lecture Series, 1906, pp. 2-21
2. R. A. Stewart Macalister, (ed & trans), ''Lebor Gabála Erenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland Part V'', Irish Texts Society, 1956, p. 301
3. T. F. O'Rahilly, ''Early Irish History and Mythology'', Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946, pp. 269-271; Cecile O'Rahilly, ''Táin Bó Cualnge from the Book of Leinster'', Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1967, Introduction, p. ix
4. Compare ''Táin Bó Cúailnge from the Book of Leinster'' pp. 164-166 with Diodorus Siculus, ''Historical Library'' 5.29, Julius Caesar, ''Commentarii de bello Gallico'' 4.33
5. Compare ''The Tidings of Conchobar son of Ness'' §15 with Diodorus Siculus, ''Historical Library'' 5.29
6. Compare ''The Story of Mac Dá Thó's Pig'' and ''Bricriu's Feast'' with Athenaeus, ''Deipnosophists'' 4.40, Diodorus Siculus, ''Historical Library'' 5.28
7. Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson, ''The Oldest Irish Tradition: a Window on the Iron Age'', Cambridge University Press, 1964
8. John T. Koch, "Windows on the Iron Age", ''Ulidia'', December Publications, 1994, pp. 229-237; J. P. Mallory, "The World of Cú Chulainn: The Archaeology of ''Táin Bó Cúailnge''", ''Aspects of the Táin'', December Publications, 1992, pp. 103-153
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