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THE ANCIENT IRISH EPIC TALE
TÁIN BÓ CÚALNGE
"THE CUALNGE CATTLE-RAID"
Now for the first time done entire into English
out of the Irish of the Book of Leinster
and Allied Manuscripts
By
JOSEPH DUNN
Professor at the Catholic University
Washington
WITH TWO PAGES IN FACSIMILÉ OF THE MANUSCRIPTS
[Illustration: "Daig concechlabat fin hErend & Alban inn ainm sin, & bat
lana beóil fer n-hErend & Alban din anmun sin."]
Book of Leinster, fo. 64a.
"For the men of Erin and Alba shall hear that
name (Cuchulain) and the mouths of the men of Erin
and Alba shall be full of that name."
LONDON
DAVID NUTT
17 GRAPE STREET, NEW OXFORD STREET, W.C
1914
To the Memory of
MY MOTHER
* * * * *
[Illustration: FACSIMILE, PAGE 55--_from the Book of Leinster_.]
* * * * *
CONTENTS
Preface, xi.
I The Pillow-talk, 1.
II The Occasion of the Táin, 5.
III The Rising-out of the Men of Connacht at Cruachan Ai, 10.
IV The Foretelling, 13.
V The Route of the Táin, 19.
VI The March of the Host, 21.
VII The Youthful Exploits of Cuchulain, 46.
VIIa The Slaying of the Smith's Hound by Cuchulain, 54.
VIIb The Taking of Arms by Cuchulain and
The Slaying of the Three Sons of Necht Scenè, 60.
VIIc A Separate Version as far as the Slaying Of Orlam, 80.
VIII The Slaying of Orlam, 82.
VIIIa The Slaying of the Three MacArach, 85.
VIIIb The Combat of Lethan and Cuchulain, 86.
VIIIc The Killing of the Squirrel and of the Tame Bird, 88.
VIIId The Slaying of Lochè, 93.
VIIIe The Killing of Uala, 95.
VIIIf The Harrying of Cualnge, 99.
IX The Proposals, 104.
X The Violent Death of Etarcumul, 115.
XI The Slaying of Nathcrantail, 126.
XII The Finding of the Bull, 132.
XIIa The Death of Forgemen, 136.
XIIb The Slaying of Redg the Lampoonist, 137.
XIIc The Meeting of Cuchulain and Finnabair, 139.
XIId The Combat of Munremar and Curoi, 141.
XIIe The Slaughter of the Boy-troop, 143.
XIIf The Slaughter of the King's Bodyguard, 145.
XIII The Combat of Cûr with Cuchulain, 146.
XIV The Slaying of Ferbaeth, 150.
XIVa The Combat of Larinè MacNois, 155.
XIVb The Colloquy of the Morrigan and Cuchulain, 161.
XV The Combat of Loch and Cuchulain, and
The Slaying of Loch son of Mofemis, 163.
XVI The Violation of the Agreement, 175.
XVIa The Healing of the Morrigan, 177.
XVII The Great Rout on the Plain of Murthemne, 180.
XVIIa The Slaughter of the Youths of Ulster, 184.
XVIIb The Scythed Chariot, 187.
XVIIc The Appearance of Cuchulain, 195.
XVIId Dubthach's Jealousy, 198.
XVIII The Slaying of Oengus son of Oenlam, 201.
XVIIIa The Misthrow at Belach Eoin, 202.
XVIIIb The Disguising of Tamon, 204.
XIX The Battle of Fergus and Cuchulain, 205.
XIXa The Head-place of Ferchu, 209.
XIXb Mann's Fight, 211.
XIXc The Combat of Calatin's Children, 213.
XX The Combat of Ferdiad and Cuchulain, 217.
XXI Cuchulain and the Rivers, 268.
XXII Cethern's Strait-fight, 269.
XXIIa Cethern's Bloody Wounds, 273.
XXIII The Tooth-fight of Fintan, 283.
XXIIIa The Red-Shame of Menn, 285.
XXIIIb The Accoutrement of the Charioteers, 287.
XXIIIc The White-fight of Rochad, 288.
XXIIId Iliach's Clump-fight, 292.
XXIIIe The Deer-stalking of Amargin in Taltiu, 295.
XXIIIf The Adventures of Curoi son of Darè, 296.
XXIV The Repeated Warning of Sualtaim, 298.
XXIVa The Agitation of Celtchar, 306.
XXV The Array of the Host, 309.
XXVI The Decision of the Battle, 345.
XXVII The Battle of Garech, 348.
XXVIIa The Muster of the Men of Erin, 351.
XXVIII The Battle of the Bulls, 363.
XXIX The Account of the Brown Bull of Cualnge, 366.
Index of Place and Personal Names, 371.
* * * * *
[Illustration: FACSIMILE PAGE 55--_from Leabhar na h-Uidhri_.]
* * * * *
PREFACE
The Gaelic Literature of Ireland is vast in extent and rich in quality. The
inedited manuscript materials, if published, would occupy several hundred
large volumes. Of this mass only a small portion has as yet been explored
by scholars. Nevertheless three saga-cycles stand out from the rest,
distinguished for their compass, age and literary worth, those, namely, of
the gods, of the demigod Cuchulain, and of Finn son of Cumhall. The
Cuchulain cycle, also called the Ulster cycle--from the home of its hero in
the North of Ireland--forms the core of this great mass of epic material.
It is also known as the cycle of Conchobar, the king round whom the Ulster
warriors mustered, and, finally, it has been called the Red Branch Cycle
from the name of the banqueting hall at Emain Macha in Ulster.
Only a few of the hundred or more tales which once belonged to this cycle
have survived. There are some dozen in particular, technically known as
_Remscéla_ or "Foretales," because they lead up to and explain the great
Táin, the Táin Bó Cúalnge, "The Cualnge Cattle-raid," the Iliad of Ireland,
as it has been called, the queen of Irish epic tales, and the wildest and
most fascinating saga-tale, not only of the entire Celtic world, but even
of all western Europe.
The mediaeval Irish scholars catalogued their native literature under
several heads, probably as an aid to the memory of the professional poets
or story-tellers whose stock-in-trade it was, and to one of these divisions
they gave the name _Táinte_, plural of _Táin_. By this term, which is most
often followed by the genitive plural _bó_, "cows," they meant "a driving,"
or "a reaving," or even "a drove" or "herd" of cattle. It is only by
extension of meaning that this title is applied to the Táin Bó Cúalnge, the
most famous representative of the class, for it is not, strictly speaking,
with the driving of cattle that it deals but with that of the Brown Bull of
Cualnge. But, since to carry off the bull implies the carrying off of the
herd of which he was the head, and as the "Brown" is always represented as
accompanied by his fifty heifers, there were sufficient grounds for putting
the Brown Bull Quest in the class of Cow-spoils.
The prominence accorded to this class of stories in the early literature of
Ireland is not to be wondered at when the economic situation of the country
and the stage of civilization of which they are the faithful mirror is
borne in mind.[1] Since all wars are waged for gain, and since among the
Irish, who are still very much a nation of cattle raisers, cattle was the
chief article of wealth and measure of value,[2] so marauding expeditions
from one district into another for cattle must have been of frequent
occurrence, just as among the North American Indians tribal wars used to be
waged for the acquisition of horses. That this had been a common practice
among their kinsmen on the Continent also we learn from Caesar's account of
the Germans (and Celts?) who, he says, practised warfare not only for a
means of subsistence but also for exercising their warriors. How long-lived
the custom has been amongst the Gaelic Celts, as an occupation or as a
pastime, is evident not only from the plundering incursions or "creaghs"[3]
as they are called in the Highlands and described by Scott in _Waverley_
and _The Fair Maid of Perth_, but also from the "cattle-drives" which have
been resorted to in our own day in Ireland, though these latter had a
different motive than plunder. As has been observed by Sir Henry Sumner
Maine, Lord Macaulay was mistaken in ascribing this custom to "some native
vice of Irish character," for, as every student of ancient Ireland may
perceive, it is rather to be regarded as "a survival, an ancient and
inveterate habit" of the race.
One of these many Cattle-preys was the Táin Bó Cúalnge,[4] which, there can
be little doubt, had behind it no mere myth but some kernel of actual
fact. Its historical basis is that a Connacht chieftain and his lady went
to war with Ulster about a drove of cattle. The importance of a racial
struggle between the north-east province and the remaining four grand
provinces of Ireland cannot be ascribed to it. There is, it is true, strong
evidence to show that two chief centres, political, if not cultural and
national, existed at the time of the Táin in Ireland, Cruachan Ai, near the
present Rathcroghan in Connacht, and Emain Macha, the Navan Fort, two miles
west of Armagh in Ulster, and it is with the friendly or hostile relations
of these two that the Ultonian cycle of tales deals. Ulster, or, more
precisely, the eastern portion of the Province, was the scene of all the
Cattle-raids, and there is a degree of truth in the couplet,--
"Leinster for breeding, And Ulster for reaving;
Munster for reading, And Connacht for thieving."
But there are no indications of a racial clash or war of tribes. With the
exception of the Oghamic writings inscribed on the pillar-stones by
Cuchulain, which seem to require interpretation to the men of Connacht by
Ulstermen, the description of the warriors mustered by the Connacht warrior
queen and those gathered round King Conchobar of Ulster accord quite
closely.
The Táin Bó Cúalnge is the work not of any one man but of a corporation of
artists known as _filid_. The author of the Táin in its present state,
whoever he may have been, was a strong partisan of Ulster and never misses
an opportunity of flattering the pride of her chieftains. Later a kind of
reaction against the pre-eminence given to Ulster and the glorification of
its hero sets in, and a group of stories arises in which the war takes a
different end and Cuchulain is shown to disadvantage, finally to fall at
the hands of a Munster champion. It is to this southern province that the
saga-cycle which followed the Cuchulain at an interval of two hundred years
belongs, namely, the Fenian saga,--the saga of Finn son of Cumhall, which
still flourishes among the Gaelic speakers of Ireland and Scotland, while
the Cuchulain stories have almost died out among them. The mingling of the
two sagas is the work of the eighteenth-century Scots Lowlander, James
Macpherson.
The Táin Bó Cúalnge is one of the most precious monuments of the world's
literature, both because of the poetic worth it evidences at an early stage
of civilization, and for the light it throws on the life of the people
among whom it originated and that of their ancestors centuries earlier. It
is not less valuable and curious because it shows us the earlier stages of
an epic--an epic in the making--which it does better perhaps than any other
work in literature. Ireland had at hand all the materials for a great
national epic, a wealth of saga-material replete with interesting episodes,
picturesque and dramatic incidents and strongly defined personages, yet she
never found her Homer, a gifted poet to embrace her entire literary wealth,
to piece the disjointed fragments together, smooth the asperities and hand
down to posterity the finished epic of the Celtic world, superior, perhaps,
to the Iliad or the Odyssey. What has come down to us is "a sort of
patchwork epic," as Prescott called the Ballads of the Cid, a popular
epopee in all its native roughness, wild phantasy and extravagance of deed
and description as it developed during successive generations. It resembles
the frame of some huge ship left unfinished by the builders on the beach
and covered with shells and drift from the sea of Celtic tradition. From
the historical standpoint, however, and as a picture of the old barbaric
Celtic culture, and as a pure expression of elemental passion, it is of
more importance to have the genuine tradition as it developed amongst the
people, unvarnished by poetic art and uninfluenced by the example of older
and alien societies.
According to the Chronicles of Ireland, as formulated in the Annals of
Tigernach,[5] who died in 1088, King Conchobar of Ulster began to reign in
the year 30 B.C., and he is said to have died of grief at the news that
Christ had been crucified. His reign therefore lasted about sixty
years. Cuchulain died in the year 39 A.D. in the twenty-seventh year of
his age, as we learn from the following entry: "The death of Cuchulain, the
bravest hero of the Irish, by Lugaid son of Three Hounds, king of Munster,
and by Erc, king of Tara, son of Carbre Niafer, and by the three sons of
Calatin of Connacht. Seven years was his age when he assumed arms,
seventeen was his age when he followed the Driving of the Kine of Cualnge,
but twenty-seven years was his age when he died."[6]
A very different account is given in the manuscript known as H. 3. 17,
Trinity College, Dublin, quoted by O'Curry in his _Manuscript Materials_,
page 508. The passage concludes with the statement: "So that the year of
the Táin was the fifty-ninth year of Cuchulain's age, from the night of his
birth to the night of his death." The record first quoted, however, is
partly corroborated by the following passage which I translate from the
Book of Ballymote, facsimilé edition, page 13, col. a, lines 9-21: "In the
fourteenth year of the reign of Conairè (killed in 40 B.C.) and of
Conchobar, the Blessed Virgin was born. At that time Cuchulain had
completed thirteen years; and in the fourth year after the birth of Mary,
the expedition of the Kine of Cualnge took place ... that is, in the
eighteenth year of the reign of Conairè. Cuchulain had completed his
seventeenth year at that time. That is, it was in the thirty-second year of
the reign of Octavius Augustus that the same expedition took place. Eight
years after the Táin Bó Cúalnge, Christ was born, and Mary had completed
twelve years then, and that was in the fortieth year of the reign of
Octavius Augustus; and in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Conairè and
Conchobar, and in the second year after the birth of Christ, Cuchulain
died. And twenty-seven years was Cuchulain's age at that time."
These apparent synchronisms, of course, may only rest upon the imagination
of the Christian annalists of Ireland, who hoped to exalt their ancient
rulers and heroes by bringing them into relation with and even making them
participate in the events of the life of the Saviour. But in placing the
date of the expedition of the Táin at about the beginning of the Christian
era, Irish tradition is undoubtedly correct, as appears from the character
of the civilization depicted in the Ulster tales, which corresponds in a
remarkable degree with what authors of antiquity have recorded of the Celts
and with the character of the age which archaeologists call "la Tène," or
"Late Celtic," which terminates at the beginning of the first century of
our era. Oral tradition was perhaps occupied for five hundred years working
over and developing the story of the Táin, and by the close of the fifth
century the saga to which it belonged was substantially the one we have
now. The text of the tale must have been completed by the first half of the
seventh century, and, as we shall see, its oldest extant version, the Book
of the Dun, dates from about the year 1100.
But, whatever may be the precise dates of these events, which we are not in
a position to determine more accurately, the composition of the Táin
Bó Cúalnge antedates by a considerable margin the epic tales of the
Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians, the Franks and the Germans. It is the
oldest epic tale of western Europe, and it and the cycle of tales to which
it belongs form "the oldest existing literature of any of the peoples to
the north of the Alps."[7] The deeds it recounts belong to the heroic age
of Ireland three hundred years before the introduction of Christianity into
the island, and its spirit never ceased to remain markedly pagan. The
mythology that permeates it is one of the most primitive manifestations of
the personification of the natural forces which the Celts worshipped. Its
historical background, social organization, chivalry, mood and thought and
its heroic ideal are to a large extent, and with perhaps some pre-Aryan
survivals, not only those of the insular Celts of two thousand years ago,
but also of the important and wide-spread Celtic race with whom Caesar
fought and who in an earlier period had sacked Rome and made themselves
feared even in Greece and Asia Minor.
The following is the Argument of the Táin Bó Cúalnge, which, for the sake
of convenience, is here divided into sections:
I. The Prologue
One night at the palace of Cruachan in Connacht, a dispute arose between
Queen Medb, the sometime wife of Conchobar, king of Ulster, and her consort
Ailill, as to the amount of their respective possessions. It may be
remarked in passing that in those days in Ireland, married women retained
their private fortune independent of their husbands, as well as the dowry
secured to them in marriage. To procure the evidence of their wealth, the
royal pair sent messengers to assemble all their chattels which, on
comparison, were found to be equal, excepting only that among Ailill's kine
was a lordly bull called Finnbennach, "the Whitehorned," whose match was
not to be found in the herds of the queen.
II. The Embassage to Darè and the Occasion of the Táin
As we might expect, Medb was chagrined at the discovery. Now her herald
macRoth had told her that Darè macFiachna, a landowner of Cualnge, a
district in the territory of her former husband, possessed an even more
wonderful bull than Ailill's, called Donn Cualnge, "the Brown Bull of
Cualnge." So she despatched macRoth to Darè to pray for the loan of the
bull.
Darè received the queen's messengers hospitably and readily granted her
request, but in the course of the entertainment, one of the messengers,
deep in his cups, spoke against Darè, and he, hearing this, withdrew his
promise and swore that he would never hand over the Brown Bull of Cualnge.
III. The Gathering of Medb's Forces
The impetuous queen, enraged at the failure of her mission, immediately
mustered a formidable army, composed not only of her Connachtmen but also
of allies from all parts of Ireland, wherewith to undertake the invasion of
Ulster. On her side were the Ulster chieftains who had gone into exile into
Connacht after the treacherous slaughter of the sons of Usnech by King
Conchobar of Ulster. Chief among them was Fergus, who, moreover, had a
personal grievance against Conchobar. For, while Fergus was king of Ulster,
he had courted the widow Ness and, in order to win her, promised to
abdicate for the term of one year in favour of her son Conchobar. But when
the term had elapsed, the youth refused to relinquish the throne, and
Fergus in anger entered the service of Medb of Connacht. There he was
loaded with favours, became the counsellor of the realm and, as appears
from more than one allusion in the tale, the more than friend of the wife
of King Ailill.
The four leagued provinces of Ireland being gathered at Cruachan, the
guidance of the host was entrusted to Fergus, because he was acquainted
with the province of Ulster through which they were to march, and at
the beginning of winter--a point emphasized by the exponents of the
sun-theory--the mighty host, including in its ranks the king and queen and
some of the greatest warriors of Ireland, with the princess Finnabair as a
lure, set forth on the raid into Ulster.
They crossed the Shannon near Athlone and, marching through the province of
Meath, arrived at the borders of Cualnge. Fortunately for the invaders, the
expedition took place while the Ulstermen lay prostrate in their _cess_, or
"Pains," a mysterious state of debility or torpor which was inflicted on
them periodically in consequence of an ancient curse laid upon Conchobar
and the warriors of Ulster as a punishment for a wrong done to the goddess
Macha. This strange malady, resembling the _couvade_ among certain savage
nations, ordinarily lasted five days and four nights, but on this occasion
the Ulstermen were prostrate from the beginning of November till the
beginning of February. During all that time the burden of defending the
province fell on the shoulders of the youthful champion Cuchulain, who had
in his particular charge the plain of Murthemne, the nearest district to
Cualnge, the goal of the expedition. For Cuchulain and his father Sualtaim
were alone exempt from the curse and the "Pains" which had befallen the
remainder of the champions of Ulster.
IV. The Youthful Exploits of Cuchulain
The Connacht host had not proceeded far when they came upon evidence of
some mighty force that opposed them. In answer to the inquiries of Ailill
and Medb, Fergus explains that it is Cuchulain who disputes their further
advance, and, as evidence of the superhuman strength and prowess of the
Ulster youth, then in the seventeenth year of his age, the Ulster exiles
recount the mighty deeds he had performed in his boyhood, chief among which
is the tale according to which, as eric for the killing of the hound of
Culann the Smith, the boy-hero Setanta assumed the station and the name
which ever after clung to him of Cuchulain, "the Hound of Culann."
V. The Single Combats of Cuchulain
Cuchulain agrees to allow the Connacht host to continue their march on
condition that every day they send one of their champions to meet him in
single combat. When he shall have killed his opponent, the host shall halt
and pitch camp until the following morning. Medb agrees to abide by these
terms. In each of the contests which ensue, the heroic youth is victorious
and slays many of the most celebrated warriors on the side of Connacht.
The severest of all these single combats was the one in which he had as
opponent his former friend and foster-brother Ferdiad. At the end of a
four days' battle, in which both adversaries exhibited astounding deeds of
valour, Ferdiad fell by the hands of Cuchulain.
Impatient at these delays, Medb broke the sacred laws of ancient Irish
chivalry and led her army into Ulster, overrunning the province, pillaging
and burning as she went, even up to the walls of Emain Macha, the residence
of Conchobar, and finally took possession of the Brown Bull of Cualnge.
VI. The Gathering of the Ulstermen and the Final Battle of the Táin
By this time King Conchobar and his warriors have come out of their
debility and summoned their forces to an eminence in Slane of Meath. The
great gathering of the Ulstermen is reported to Medb by her trusty herald
macRoth, and from his description of the leaders and their troops, their
exiled countryman Fergus designates them to the nobles of Connacht. In the
final battle Medb's army is repulsed and retreats in flight into Connacht.
Thus each host has had its share of the fortunes of war: Medb has laid
waste the lands of her divorced husband and carried off the Brown Bull of
Cualnge, the prize of war, while on the other hand, Conchobar has won the
victory in the great battle of Garech and Ilgarech.
VII. The End of the two Bulls
On the way back to Connacht, the Brown Bull of Cualnge emitted such
terrible bellowings that they reached the ears of the Whitehorned remaining
at home in his stall in Cruachan, whence he rushed at full speed to attack
the other. A furious battle took place between the bulls, but the Brown was
the stronger, and raising his rival on his horns he shook the Whitehorned
into fragments over all Ireland. He then returned in fury to Ulster, and in
his wild rage dashed his head against a rock and was killed.
The Táin Bó Cúalnge has been preserved, more or less complete, in a score
of manuscripts ranging in date from the beginning of the twelfth to the
middle of the nineteenth century. There probably existed other manuscripts
containing not only the Táin as we have it but even episodes now wanting in
it. All of the extant manuscripts go back to versions which date from the
seventh century or earlier. No manuscript of the Táin is wholly in the
language of the time when it was copied, but, under the cloak of the
contemporaneous orthography, contains forms and words so obsolete that they
were not understood by the copyist, so that glossaries had to be compiled
to explain them.
It is by a singular good fortune that this, the greatest of all the epic
tales of the Irish, has been handed down to our day in the two most ancient
and, for that reason, most precious of the great Middle Irish collections
of miscellaneous contents known as the _Leabhar na hUidhre_, "the Book of
The Dun (Cow)," and the Book of Leinster. The former and older of these
vellum manuscripts (abbreviated LU.) is kept in the Library of the Royal
Irish Academy at Dublin. It must have been written about the beginning of
the twelfth century, for its compiler and writer, Moelmuire macCeilechair
(Kelleher), is known to have been slain at Clonmacnois in the year 1106;
some of its linguistic forms, however, are as old as the eighth century
glosses. Unfortunately, LU.'s account of the Táin is incomplete at the
beginning and the end, but the latter portion is made good by the closely
related, though independent, version contained in the manuscript known as
the Yellow Book of Lecan (abbreviated YBL.). This manuscript was written
about the year 1391 and it is also kept in Dublin in the Library of Trinity
College. To the same group as LU. and YBL., which for the sake of
convenience we may call version A, belong also the British Museum MSS.,
Egerton 1782, a large fragment, and Egerton 114, both dating from the
fifteenth or sixteenth century.
Version B comprises the closely related accounts of the Táin as contained
in the Book of Leinster (abbreviated LL.) and the following MSS.: Stowe
984 (Royal Irish Academy), written in the year 1633 and giving, except for
the loss of a leaf, a complete story of the Táin; H. 1. 13 (Trinity
College, Dublin), written in the year 1745 and giving the Táin entire;
Additional 18748 (abbreviated Add.), British Museum, copied in the year
1800 from a 1730 original; Egerton 209 and Egerton 106 (British Museum),
both fragments and dating from the eighteenth century. Fragments of a
modern version are also found in MS. LIX, Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.
To version C belong only fragments: H. 2. 17 (Trinity College, Dublin),
dating from the end of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth
century; the almost identical Egerton 93 (British Museum), consisting of
only ten leaves and dating from nearly a century later, and H. 2. 12
(Trinity College, Dublin), consisting of only two pages.[8]
The manuscripts belonging to each of these versions, A, B, and C, have
sufficient traits in common to place them in a group by themselves. The
question of the relationship of these manuscripts to one another and of the
character of the suppositional archetype from which they are all descended
is a most intricate one and one which has given rise to considerable
discussion. The question still awaits a definite answer, which may never be
forthcoming, because of the disappearance not only of the first draft of
the Táin, but also of that of some of its later redactions. We must not
overlook the possibility, either, of an otherwise faithful copyist having
inserted in the text before him a passage, or even an entire episode, of
his own fabrication. This, no doubt, happened not infrequently, especially
in the earlier period of the copying of Irish manuscripts, and a single
insertion of this kind, or the omission, intentionally or by oversight, of
a part of the original from the copy might, it will easily be seen, lead
one to conclude that there once existed a form of the story which as a
matter of fact never existed.
The version of the Táin which I have chosen as the basis for my translation
is the one found in the Book of Leinster (_Leabhar Laighneach_), a
voluminous vellum manuscript sometime called the Book of Glendalough and
now kept in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, catalogue number
H. 2. 18. Only a part of the original book remains. It dates from about the
year 1150. This date is established by two entries in the manuscript
itself: "Aed son of Crimthann (Hugh macGriffin) hath written this book and
out of many books hath he compiled it" (facsimilé, at the bottom of page
313). Who this Aed was will be clear from the other entry. It appears that
he had lent the manuscript while still unfinished to Finn macGorman, who
was Bishop of Kildare from 1148 and died in the year 1160, and who on
returning the book wrote in it the following laudatory note in Irish to
Aed: "(Life) and health from Finn, the Bishop of Kildare, to Aed son of
Crimthann, tutor of the chief king (i.e. of King Dermod macMurrogh, the
infamous prince who half a century later invited Strongbow and the Normans
to come over from Wales to Ireland) of Mug Nuadat's Half (i.e. of Leinster
and Munster), and successor of Colum son of Crimthann (this Colum was abbot
of Tir da ghlass the modern Terryglas on the shore of Lough Derg, in the
County Tipperary--and died in the year 548), and chief historian of
Leinster in respect of wisdom and intelligence, and cultivation of books,
science and learning. And let the conclusion of this little tale (i.e. the
story of Ailill Aulom son of Mug Nuadat, the beginning of which was
contained in the book which Finn returns) be written for me accurately by
thee, O cunning Aed, thou man of the sparkling intellect. May it be long
before we are without thee. My desire is that thou shouldst always be with
us. And let macLonan's Songbook be given to me, that I may understand the
sense of the poems that are in it. _Et vale in Christo._"[9]
It would seem from another note in the manuscript[10] that the Book of
Leinster afterwards belonged to some admirer of King Dermod, for he wrote:
"O Mary! Great was the deed that was done in Ireland this day, the kalends
of August (1166)--Dermod, son of Donnoch macMurrogh, King of Leinster and
of the (Dublin) Danes to be banished by the men of Ireland over the sea
eastwards. Woe, woe is me, O Lord, what shall I do!"[11]
My reason for founding the translation on the LL. version, in spite of the
fact that its composition is posterior by half a century to that of LU.,
was not merely out of respect for the injunction of the scribe of the _ne
varietur_ and to merit his blessing (page 369), but also because LL.'s is
the oldest _complete_ version of the Táin extant. Though as a rule (and as
is easily discernible from a comparison of LU. and LL.), the shorter,
terser and cruder the form of a tale is, the more primitive it is, yet it
is not always the oldest preserved form of a work that represents the
most ancient form of the story. Indeed, it is not at all improbable
that LL. contains elements which represent a tradition antedating the
composition of LU. At all events, LL. has these strong points in its
favour, that, of all the versions, it is the most uniform and consistent,
the most artistically arranged, the one with most colour and imagination,
and the one which lends itself most readily to translation, both in itself
and because of the convenient Irish text provided by Professor Windisch's
edition. In order to present the Táin in its completest form, however, I
have adopted the novel plan of incorporating in the LL. account the
translations of what are known as conflate readings. These, as a rule, I
have taken from no manuscript that does not demonstrably go back to a
twelfth or earlier century redaction. Some of these additions consist of
but a single word: others extend over several pages. This dovetailing could
not always be accomplished with perfect accuracy, but no variants have been
added that do not cohere with the context or destroy the continuity of the
story. Whatever slight inconsistencies there may be in the accounts of
single episodes, they are outweighed, in my opinion, by the value and
interest of the additions. In all cases, however, the reader can control
the translation by means of the foot-notes which indicate the sources and
distinguish the accretions from the basic text. The numerous passages in
which Eg. 1782 agrees with LU. and YBL. have not all been marked. The
asterisk shows the beginning of each fresh page in the lithographic
facsimilé of LL., and the numbers following "W" in the upper left hand
margin show the corresponding lines in the edition of the Irish text by
Windisch.
* * * * *
In general, I believe it should be the aim of a translator to give a
faithful rather than a literal version of his original. But, owing to the
fact that so little of Celtic scholarship has filtered down even to the
upper strata of the educated public and to the additional fact that the
subject matter is so incongruous to English thought, the first object of
the translator from the Old Irish must continue to be, for some time to
come, rather exactness in rendering than elegance, even at the risk of the
translation appearing laboured and puerile. This should not, however, be
carried to the extent of distorting his own idiom in order to imitate the
idiomatic turns and expressions of the original. In this translation, I
have endeavoured to keep as close to the sense and the literary form of the
original as possible, but when there is conflict between the two
desiderata, I have not hesitated to give the first the preference. I have
also made use of a deliberately archaic English as, in my opinion,
harmonizing better with the subject. It means much to the reader of the
translation of an Old Irish text to have the atmosphere of the original
transferred as perfectly as may be, and this end is attained by preserving
its archaisms and quaintness of phrase, its repetitions and inherent
crudities and even, without suppression or attenuation, the grossness of
speech of our less prudish ancestors, which is also a mark of certain
primitive habits of life but which an over-fastidious translator through
delicacy of feeling might wish to omit. These side-lights on the
semi-barbaric setting of the Old Irish sagas are of scarcely less interest
and value than the literature itself.
The Táin Bó Cúalnge, like most of the Irish saga-tales as they have come
down to us in their Middle Irish dress, is chiefly in prose, but
interspersed with verse. The verse-structure is very intricate and is
mostly in strophic form composed of verses of fixed syllabic length, rhymed
and richly furnished with alliteration. There is a third form of speech
which is neither prose nor verse, but partakes of the character of both, a
sort of irregular, rhymeless verse, without strophic division and
exceedingly rich in alliteration, internal rhyme and assonance. This kind
of speech, resembling in a way the dithyrambic passages in the Old
Testament, was known to the native Irish scholars as _rosc_ and it is
usually marked in the manuscripts by the abbreviation _R_. It was used in
short, impetuous outbursts on occasions of triumph or mourning.
While, on the whole, I believe the student will feel himself safer with a
prose translation of a poem than with one in verse, it has seemed to me
that a uniform translation of the Táin Bó Cúalnge in prose would destroy
one of its special characteristics, which is that in it both prose and
verse are mingled. It was not in my power, however, to reproduce at once
closely and clearly the metrical schemes and the rich musical quality of
the Irish and at the same time compress within the compass of the Irish
measure such an analytic language as English, which has to express by means
of auxiliaries what is accomplished in Early Irish by inflection. But I
hope to have accomplished the main object of distinguishing the verse from
the prose without sacrifice of the thought by the simple device of turning
the verse-passages into lines of the same syllabic length as those of the
original--which is most often the normal seven-syllable line--but without
any attempt at imitating the rhyme-system or alliteration.
In order not to swell the volume of the book, the notes have been reduced
to the indispensable minimum, reserving the commentary and the apparatus of
illustrative material for another volume, which we hope some day to be able
to issue, wherein more definitely critical questions can be discussed.
There are a few Irish words which have been retained in the translation and
which require a word of explanation: The Old Irish _geis_ (later, also
_geas_[12]; plural _geasa_) has as much right to a place in the English
vocabulary as the Polynesian word _tabu_, by which it is often translated.
It is sometimes Englished "injunction," "condition," "prohibition," "bond,"
"ban," "charm," "magical decree," or translated by the Scots-Gaelic
"spells," none of which, however, expresses the idea which the word had
according to the ancient laws of Ireland. It was an adjuration by the
honour of a man, and was either positive or negative. The person adjured
was either compelled or made in duty bound to do a certain thing, or, more
commonly, was prohibited from doing it. The Old Irish _gilla_ is often
translated "vassal," "youth," "boy," "fellow," "messenger," "servant,"
"page," "squire" and "guide," but these words bear false connotations for
the society of the time, as does the Anglicised form of the word, "gillie,"
which smacks of modern sport. It meant originally a youth in the third of
the six ages of man. Compare the sense of the word _varlet_ or _valet_ in
English, which was once "a more honourable title; for all young gentlemen,
untill they come to be eighteen years of age, were termed so" (Cotgrave),
and of the same word in Old French, which was "un jeune homme de condition
honorable" (J. Loth, _Les Mabinogion_, I, page 40, note). A _liss_ or
_rath_ is a fortified place enclosed by a circular mound or trench, or
both. A _dûn_ is a fortified residence surrounded by an earthen rampart.
In the case of names of places and persons, I have thought it best to
adhere as closely as possible to the spellings used in the LL. manuscript
itself. It is of the utmost importance to get the names of Irish places and
of Irish heroes correctly determined and to discard their English corrupted
spellings. There are certain barbarisms, however, such as Slane (Slemain),
Boyne (Boann), and perhaps even Cooley (Cualnge), which have been
stereotyped in their English dress and nothing is to be gained by reforming
them. The forms _Erin_ (dative of _Eriu_, the genuine and poetic name of
the island) and _Alba_ have been retained throughout instead of the hybrids
"Ireland" and "Scotland." Final _e_ is occasionally marked with a grave
(_e.g._ Manè, Darè) to show that it is not silent as it often is in
English.
I quite perceive that I have not always succeeded in reproducing the
precise shade of meaning of words certain of which had become antiquated
and even unintelligible to the native scholars of the later Middle Irish
period themselves. This is especially true of the passages in _rosc_, which
are fortunately not numerous and which were probably intentionally made as
obscure and allusive as possible, the object being, perhaps, as much the
music of the words as the sense. Indeed, in some cases, I have considered
myself fortunate if I have succeeded in getting their mere drift. No one
takes to heart more than the present writer the truth of Zimmer's remark,
that "it needs no great courage to affirm that _not one_ of the living
Celtic scholars, _with_ all the aids at their disposal, possesses such a
ready understanding of the contents of, for example, the most important Old
Irish saga-text, "The Cualnge Cattle-raid," as was required thirty or more
years ago in Germany of a good Gymnasium graduate in the matter of the
Homeric poems and _without_ aids of any kind."[13] However, in spite of its
defects, I trust I have not incurred the censure of Don Quijote[14] by
doing what he accuses bad translators of and shown the wrong side of the
tapestry, thereby obscuring the beauty and exactness of the work, and I
venture to hope that my translation may prove of service in leading
students to take an interest in the language and literature of Ireland.
WORKS ON THE TÁIN BÓ CÚALNGE
(Our Bibliography has no Pretension at being Complete)
The Táin has been analysed by J.T. Gilbert, in the facsimilé edition of
LU., pages xvi-xviii, based on O'Curry's unpublished account written about
1853; by Eugene O'Curry in his "Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of
Ancient Irish History," pages 28-40, Dublin, 1861; by John Rhys in his
"Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic
Heathendom," page 136, the Hibbert Lectures, London, 1898; by J.A.
MacCulloch in "The Religion of the Ancient Celts," pages 127 and 141,
London, 1911; in the Celtic Magazine, vol. xiii, pages 427-430, Inverness,
1888; by Don. Mackinnon in the Celtic Review, vol. iv, page 92, Edinburgh,
1907-8; by H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, in Bibliothèque de l'école des
chartes, tome xl, pages 148-150, Paris, 1879; by Bryan O'Looney, in the
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Second Series, vol. I, pages
242-248, Dublin, 1879; by H. Lichtenberger, "Le Poème et la Légende des
Nibelungen," pages 432-434, Paris, 1891; by Eleanor Hull, in "A Text Book
of Irish Literature," Pt. I, p. 24, Dublin and London, 1906; by Victor
Tourneur, "La Formation du Táin Bó Cúalnge," in Mélanges Godefroid Kurth,
II, 413-424, Liège, 1908; by E.C. Quiggin, in the Encyclopedia Britannica,
11th edition, page 626.
The text of the Táin is found in whole or in part in the facsimilé reprints
published by the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1870 and following; viz.: the
Book of Leinster, folios 53b-104b; the Book of the Dun Cow, folios 55a-82b,
and the Yellow Book of Lecan, folios 17a.-53a; in "Die Altirische
Heldensage, Táin Bó Cúalnge, herausgegeben von Ernst Windisch, Irische
Texte, Extraband, Leipzig, 1905"; from LU. and YBL., by John Strachan and
J.G. O'Keeffe, as a supplement to Ériu, vol. i, Dublin, 1904 and fol.; our
references to LU. and YBL. are from this edition as far as it appeared;
from that point, the references to YBL. are to the pages of the facsimilé
edition; the LU. text of several passages also is given by John Strachan in
his "Stories from the Tain," which first appeared in Irisleabhar na
Gaedhilge ("The Gaelic Journal"), Dublin; reprinted, London and Dublin,
1908; Max Nettlau, "The Fer Diad Episode of the Tain Bo Cuailnge," Revue
Celtique, tome x, pages 330-346, tome xi, pages 23-32, 318-343; "The
Fragment of the Tain Bo Cuailnge in MS. Egerton 93," Revue Celtique, tome
xiv, pages 254-266, tome xv, pages 62-78, 198-208; R. Thurneysen, "Táin Bó
Cúailghni nach H. 2. 17," Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, Bd. viii,
S. 525-554; E. Windisch, "Táin Bó Cúailnge nach der Handschrift Egerton
1782," Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, Bd. ix, S. 121-158. The text
of "The Fight at the Ford," from the Murphy MS. 103 (written about 1760),
is printed in Irisleabhar Muighe Nuadhad, Dublin, 1911, pp. 84-90.
The Táin has been translated by Bryan O'Looney in a manuscript entitled
"Tain Bo Cualnge. Translated from the original vellum manuscript known as
the Book of Leinster, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. To which
are added the ancient Prologues, Prefaces, and the Pretales or Stories,
Adventures which preceded the principal Expedition or Tain, from various
vellum MSS. in the Libraries of Trinity College and the Royal Irish
Academy, Dublin, 1872." (A good translation, for its time. For O'Looney's
works on the Táin, see the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Second
Series, Vol. i, No. 11, Polite Literature and Antiquities, Dublin, 1875;
for W.J. Hennessy's, see The Academy, No. 873, Lee, "Dictionary of National
Biography," xxv, 1891, pages 424-425, and V. Tourneur, "Esquisse d'une
histoire des études celtiques," page 90, note 5.) The Royal Irish Academy
contains another manuscript translation of the Táin (24, M, 39), by John
O'Daly, 1857. It is a wretched translation. In one place, O'Daly speaks of
William Rily as the translator. L. Winifred Faraday's "The Cattle-Raid of
Cualnge," London, 1904, is based on LU. and YBL. Two copies of a complete
translation of the LL. text dating from about 1850 is in the possession
of John Quinn, Esq., of New York City. H. d'Arbois de Jubainville
translated the Táin from the LL. text, but with many omissions: "Enlèvement
[du Taureau Divin et] des Vaches de Cooley," Revue Celtique, tomes
xxviii-xxxii, Paris, 1907 and fl. Eleanor Hull's "The Cuchullin Saga,"
London, 1898, contains (pages 111-227) an analysis of the Táin and a
translation by Standish H. O'Grady of portions of the Add. 18748 text. "The
Táin, An Irish Epic told in English Verse," by Mary A. Hutton, Dublin,
1907, and Lady Augusta Gregory's, "Cuchulain of Muirthemne," London, 1903,
are paraphrases. The episode "The Boyish Feats of Cuchulinn" was translated
by Eugene O'Curry, "On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish,"
Vol. i, Introduction, pages 359-366, and the episode "The Fight of Ferdiad
and Cuchulaind," was translated by W.K. Sullivan, ibid., Vol. ii, Lectures,
Vol. i, Appendix, pages 413-463.
Important studies on the Táin have come from the pen of Heinrich Zimmer:
"Über den compilatorischen Charakter der irischen Sagentexte im sogenannten
Lebor na hUidre," Kuhn's Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung, Bd.
xxviii, 1887, pages 417-689, and especially pages 426-554; "Keltische
Beiträge," Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum und deutsche Litteratur,
Vol. xxxii, 1888, pages 196-334; "Beiträge zur Erklärung irischer
Sagentexte," Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, Bd. i, pages 74-101, and
Bd. iii, pages 285-303. See also, William Ridgeway, "The Date of the first
Shaping of the Cuchulainn Saga," Oxford, 1907; H. d'Arbois de Jubainville,
"Étude sur le Táin Bó Cúalnge," Revue Celtique, tome xxviii, 1907, pages
17-40; Alfred Nutt, "Cuchulainn, the Irish Achilles," in Popular Studies in
Mythology, Romance and Folklore, No. 8, London, 1900. The Celtic Magazine,
Vol. xiii, pages 319-326, 351-359, Inverness, 1888, contains an English
translation of a degenerated Scottish Gaelic version taken down by A.A.
Carmichael, in Benbecula; the Gaelic text was printed in the Transactions
of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Vol. ii. In the same volume of the
Celtic Magazine, pages 514-516, is a translation of a version of the Táin,
taken down in the island of Eigg. Eleanor Hull's "Cuchulain, the Hound of
Ulster," London, 1911, is a retelling of the story for younger readers. The
following, bearing more or less closely upon the Táin, are also to be
mentioned: Harry G. Tempest, "Dun Dealgan, Cuchulain's Home Fort," Dundalk,
1910; A.M. Skelly, "Cuchulain of Muirtheimhne," Dublin, 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.