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# 166: Among the most striking of the many narratives dealing with CuChulain is a group of episodes from his childhood. The incidents in the selection brought in Cross and Slover's ANCIENT IRISH TALES not only serve to illustrate his precocity, a trait which is widespread among heroes of the folk, but also to exemplify the conditions of child-fosterage among the ancient Irish. This and other tales of CuChu-lain's youth are incorporated in the great Ulster epic 'The Cattle-Raid of Cooley', where they are represented as told to King Ailill and Queen Medb of Connacht by several of the Ulster exiles enlisted in the Connacht army. They form a body of tradition which was probably old at the time when the epic was composed.
# 236: In Jeffrey Gantz's 'Early Irish Myths and Sagas' is 'The Boyhood Deeds of CuChulain' presented in the earlier, less refined Lebor na huidre version. Fergus and a number of other Ulaid(the Irish name for Ulster) chieftains have transferred their allegiance to Connachta in protest at Conchobar's treacherous slaying of the sons of Uisliu; and now, with the Connachta about to attack Ulaid, the exiles are describing to Ailill and Medb the boyhood feats of the great hero of the north. The first exploit recalls the opening episode of the Welsh tale 'Peredur': a naive, callow youth leaves his unwilling mother (he does not have a father, possibly because his real father is understood to be either royal or divine) and goes forth to find his proper companions (the boy troop of Emuin Machae in the one case, the knights of King Arthur's court in the other). CuChulain's feats with his ball and hurley and toy javelin and his complete dominance over the boy troop are superhuman and at the same time pure play; Peredur, though merely precocious, is yet more mature, for, as well as outrunning deer, he dispatches enemy knights and even kisses women. The second extract explains how CuChulain once saved Conchobar in battle. Even at this early stage of the Ulster Cycle, Conchobar's role has deteriorated; and already CuChulain, as his sister's son, appears as his natural heir. The third extract explains how Setanta came to be known as CuChulain. Such stories are common in Irish saga, but this explanation is unusually convincing - why else would a young hero be called the 'Hound of Culand'? The mystery is rather in why the central character of the Ulster Cycle, a figure whose divine origin is manifest, should have been given a name so much more appropriate to a mortal hero, especially when his original name suits him so well.
In the case of both Pryderi and CuChulain, there are objections to the new name: Rhiannon asks whether her son's own name does not suit him better, while CuChulain himself expresses a preference for his original name; but, in each case, the advice of a wise elder (the Chieftain of Dyved in the Welsh tale, Cathub in the Irish one) prevails. The fourth extract seems modelled on the tradition that Achilles chose a short life in order to win great fame. The episode at the end, where CuChulain is seized by his riastarthae, or battle fury, and has to be cooled off in vats of water, is entirely typical of him, as is his shyness in the presence of bare-brested women. The antiquity of these extracts is open to doubt: the mythic element is slight, and there is considerable humour.
# 166 - 236
Near to Slieve Fuad, south of Armagh, CuChulain found the host of his enemies, and drove furiously against them, plying the champion's 'thunder-feat' upon them until the plain was strewn with their dead. Then a satirist, urged on by Lewy, came near him and demanded his spear (it was a point of honour to refuse nothing to a bard; one king is said to have given his eye when it was demanded of him). 'Have it, then,' said CuChulain, and flung it at him with such force that it went clean through him and killed nine men beyond. 'A king will fall by that spear,' said the Children of Calatin to Lewy, and Lewy seized it and flung it at CuChulain, but it smote Laeg, the king of charioteers, so that his bowels fell out on the cushions of the chariot, and he bade farewell to his master and he died.
Then another satirist demanded the spear, and CuChulain said: 'I am not bound to grant more than one request on one day.' But the satirist said: 'Then I will revile Ulster for thy default,' and CuChulain flung him the spear as before, and Erc now got it, and this time in flying back it struck the Grey of Macha with a mortal wound. CuChulain drew out the spear from the horse's side, and they bade each other farewell, and the Grey galloped away with half the yoke hanging to its neck.
And a third time CuChulain flung the spear to a satirist, and Lewy took it again and flung it back, and it struck CuChulain, and his bowels fell out in the chariot, and the remaining horse, Black Sainglend, broke away and left him. 'I would fain go as far as to that loch-side to drink,' said CuChulain, knowing the end was come, and they suffered him to go when he had promised to return to them again. So he gathered up his bowels into his breast and went to the loch-side, and drank, and bathed himself, and came forth again to die. Now there was close by a tall pillar-stone that stood westwards of the loch, and he went up to it and slung his girdle over it and round his breast, so that he might die in his standing and not in his lying down; and his blood ran down in a little stream into the loch, and an otter came out of the loch and lapped it. And the host gathered round, but feared to approach him while the life was still in him, and the hero-light shone above his brow. Then came the Grey of Macha to protect him, scattering his foes with biting and kicking. And then came a crow and settled on his shoulder. Lewy, when he saw this, drew near and pulled the hair of CuChulain to one side over his shoulder, and with his sword he smote off his head; and the sword fell from CuChulain's hand and smote off the hand of Lewy as it fell. They took the hand of CuChulain in revenge for this, and bore the head and hand south to Tara, and there buried them, and over them raised a mound. But Conall of the Victories, hastening to CuChulain's side on the news of the war, met the Grey of Macha streaming with blood, and together they went to the loch-side and saw him head-less and bound to the pillar-stone, and the horse came and laid its head on his breast. Conall drove southwards to avenge CuChulain, and he came on Lewy by the river Liffey, and because Lewy had but one hand Conall tied one of his behind his back, and for half the day they fought, but neither could prevail. Then came Conall's horse, the Dewy-Red, and tore a piece out of Lewy's side, and Conall slew him, and took his head, and returned to Emain Macha. But they made no show of triumph in entering the city, for CuChulain the Hound of Ulster was no more.
# 562
The Christian writers of early Ireland were more kindly disposed toward their native pagan traditions than were the other newly converted peoples of medieval Europe. Holy men associate freely with fairy beings, St Patrick listens with delight to the exploits of Finn and Oisin, and he even uses his divine power to call back CuChulain from the grave that the stiff-necked Loegaire, pagan high-king of Ireland, may be led to accept the new faith. Whoever conceived the idea of bringing together the most distinguished ancient pagan champion and the most beloved of Christian saints had a truly poetic imagination.
# 166
This, like numerous other early Irish sagas, is a compilation based on several versions of the same story. The tale in its earliest form probably told how a mortal hero, having fallen under a fairy spell, was lured by the fairy people to the Happy Otherworld, where he was healed of his malady or assisted the supernatural folk in their tribal feuds. In Cross' and Slover's ANCIENT IRISH TALES, the present form of the story the double visits of the fairy messengers to the ailing CuChulain, the double account of Loeg's experiences in the fairy realm, as well as other repetitions and inconsistencies are the result of the unskilled work of the compiler and interpolater to whom the oldest extant versions are due. Noteworthy also is the fact that in this tale, as in THE WOOING OF EMER, CuChulain's wife Emer plays a prominent part.
# 236: 'The Wasting Sickness of CuChulain & The Only Jealousy of Emer' is one of the more remarkable Irish tales: part myth, part history, part soap opera. Even the text is unusual, for it is a conflation of two different versions. After the first quarter of the tale, there appears an interpolation (which is omitted in the translation brought in J. Gantz: 'Early Irish Myths and Sagas') detailing CuChulain's advice to Lugaid Reoderg after the latter has been made king of Temuir; when the story proper resumes, CuChulain is married to Emer instead of to Eithne Ingubai, and Loeg is making a second trip to the otherworld with Li Ban. The two versions have not been well integrated, and much evidence of confusion and duplication remains; but it is hard to say which tradition is older. Throughout the rest of the Ulster Cycle CuChulain's wife is named Emer, just as Conchobar's is named Mugain and not Eithne Attenchaithrech. The story opens on a historical note, with a description of how the Ulaid celebrated Samuin (Samhain), the annual end-of-the-year assembly; but the arrival of beautiful, red-gold-chained, otherworld birds on the lake at Mag Muirthemni and the appearance of the women, one in green and one in crimson, who beat CuChulain with horsewhips testify to the story's mythic origin. The central idea is also that of the first section of the Welsh 'Pwyll Lord of Dyved': the shadowy rulers of the otherworld have need of mortal strength; the pursuit of the hero by the otherworld beauty, moreover, is common to the second section of 'Pwyll'. Much of the tale is related in verse, and, while the poetry is neither particularly old nor particularly dense, it is clear and brilliant and affecting:
At the doorway to the east, three trees of brilliant crystal, whence a gentle flock of birds calls to the children of the royal fort.Near the end of the tale, the tone shifts towards the psychological an unusual circumstance in these stories - as Fand and Emer fight over CuChulain; the writing, which seems very literary at this point, is emotional but never sentimental. Even the poetry assumes a gnomic quality: Emer complains that 'what's new is bright ... what's familiar is stale', while Fand merely points out that 'every rule is good until broken'. Although Fand ultimately yields - after CuChulain has been moved by Emer's plea - she admits that she still prefers CuChulain to her own husband; CuChulain, seeing her leave, wanders madly into the mountains of Ulaid (Ulster), and it requires the spell of Conchobar's druids and Manandan's magic cloak to make him forget.
The story is the original source for Yeats's play THE ONLY JEALOUSY OF EMER.
# 166 - 236
(cootah) A cave-dwelling spirit, but, according to Gill in A SECOND MANX SCRAPBOOK, the Cughtagh is seldom mentioned now, though the creature is merged into the class of cave-haunting Bugganes. Gill thinks that the Highland Ciuthach, now a disagreeable cave spirit, but earlier a more noble character, a chivalrous giant, is closely related to it.
# 100 - 249
She was a cailleach who assisted Mongan to retrieve his wife, Dub Lacha from Brandubh. She magically changed into a beautiful woman so that Brandubh was willing to exchange Dubh Lacha for her. After Mongan and his wife has gone, she resumed her normal hag-like appearance. This is one of the only instances when the transformatory hag after having become beautiful resumes her former shape, although this is threatened by Ragnell in the Gawain and Ragnell story.
# 208 - 454
He was a poet who loved Liadin. When she refused to marry him and became a nun, he became a monk. He was exiled from Ireland after which Liadin died of grief.
# 454
# 454: Son of Celyddon Wledig, nephew of Arthur. His mother, Goleuddydd, bore him after having been terrified by the sight of pigs, so that he was called Culhwch or Pig-Sty. His father remarried on the death of Goleuddydd. Culhwch's stepmother laid a gease upon Culhwch that he should marry none other than Olwen, the daughter of Yspaddaden Pencawr, the giant. He went to Arthur's court and there demanded, in the names of all present, that his uncle help him procure Olwen. At the court of Yspaddaden, Culhwch was given thirty-nine 'anoethu' or impossible tasks, which must be fulfilled before he can marry Olwen, all of which are performed with the help of Arthur's court. The chief task was to hunt the Twrch Trwyth, a giant boar, for which are required many particular horses, hounds and men, including Mabon, the wondrous youth, whose finding is narrated in this story. Other tasks include the voyage of Arthur to the Underworld in order to obtain some of the Hallows or Thirteen Treasures of Britain - a feat which is likewise related in a ninth-century Welsh poem, the Preiddu Annwn. Yspaddaden's power is overthrown and Culhwch marries Olwen. See: HALLOWS.
# 156: With the aid of Arthur's men, Culhwch performed some of these tasks and married Olwen. The question arises as to why Culhwch did not perform all the tasks on the list. Commentators are not sure whether this was due to mere carelessness on the part of the composer of the romance or whether a portion of the story became lost in transmission. See: WRNACH.
# 104 - 156 - 272 - 346 - 378 - 399 - 439 - 454
His feast to King Conor in Quelgny; CuChulain slays his hound; CuChulain named the 'Hound of Cullan'; his daughter declared responsible for Finn's enchantment.
# 562
(coo'val) A female slave; also a designation of value equal to three cows.
# 166
(coo'al) Chief of the Clan Morna, son of Trenm"r, husband of Murna of the White Neck, the father of Finn; slain at battle of Knock.
# 562
# 156: The name of two women in Wolfram:
# 156 - 451 - 454 - 461 - 748
A ruler of the Votadini in North Britain who migrated with a number of his subjects to Wales round about AD 430. He rid a large part of Wales of Irish settlers. His pedigree suggests that his was a Roman family in origin, running as follows: Tacitus - Paternus - Aeternus Cunedda. According to BRUT Y BRENHINEDD, a medieval Welsh history, Cunedda's daughter, Gwen, was the mother of Eigyr (Igraine), Arthur's mother, thus making Cunedda Arthur's great-grandfather (# 35). Cunedda may have married Gwawl, daughter of Coel.
# 57 - 156
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