The route of Táin Bó Cúailnge in counties Westmeath and Meath

2014

This thesis considers the role and presentation of Cú Chulainn in a broad range of texts belonging to the Ulster Cycle. Chapter I offers a general introduction to the thesis. Relevant scholarly theories to date are presented along with an outline of the methodological approaches underpinning this study. The scope of the research in the form of a database of tales is detailed in Chapter II. The textual history of this material is also found therein. This is intended as a quick reference chapter. Chapter III considers the key area of Cú Chulainn's heroic biography. This encompasses a study of his depiction in a number of tales including Táin Bó Cúailnge. In a bid to provide a well-rounded evaluation of the hero, a number of key thematic elements are addressed in the remaining chapters. Understandably, considerable emphasis is placed upon his function as a warrior. Chapter IV looks at his martial prowess, his ríastrad, his weaponry and his special skills or cleasa. Warrior codes and honour are discussed in Chapter V. Chapter VI moves away from the domain of warfare to examine his physical presentation and his appeal to the opposite sex. His offspring are also considered therein. Cú Chulainn's parentage and his connection to his homeland, Mag Muirthemne, are appraised in Chapter VII along with an evaluation of his presentation as a saviour-type figure. Finally, Chapter VIII draws together the general research findings with concluding remarks about Cú Chulainn's role within these sagas. Chapter I: General Introduction I.1. Ulster Cycle material The Ulster-Cycle material is the platform upon which Cú Chulainn is presented. This body of literature consists of about eighty sagas, poems and shorter texts and its central concern is the warfare-related activities of the prehistoric inhabitants of Ulster (Ó hUiginn, 1992, 29). 1 Most of the tales are set in Ulster and Connacht with Emain Machae being presented as the royal centre of the Ulstermen. It is the most significant literary collection of this period with the epic Táin Bó Cúailnge (TBC) being its centrepiece owing to its length and the number of tales, referred to as remscéla, that are either dependant on or derivative from it. Material from the Ulster Cycle, like Verba Scáthaige and Conailla Medb Míchura, are amongst our earliest surviving written pieces with a tentative date of the seventh century being proposed for both of these texts. Mac Cana's (1975, 103-4) assertion that the following two centuries were particularly productive is largely true. The writing down of many primary texts, including key Ulster-Cycle tales

2014

Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 1997

is a complex epic. To view the work as an epic despite the predominant use of prose no longer poses a problem. The growing awareness of literatures from other parts of the world has made Western literary scholars realize that epic "[w]hile being for the most part set in verse ... may also be couched in prose form, either partially or wholly". According to Heda Jason, just quoted, "[i]n such cases monologues tend to be set in verse and the narration of events in prose" 2which corresponds to the situation found in the Tain. However, to view the Tain as a work of considerable complexity is still not commonly accepted. The complex character of the Tain is still evinced to a much higher degree by the wide range of critical approaches the work has been subjected to than by the depth and discernment with which it has been approached in individual cases. The study of the Tain has been hampered mainly by two problems. One of them regards the form, more precisely the relation between the various versions or redactions 3 in which the work has reached us and the work 'proper', the other the content, particularly the moral aspects of the content. Both 4 One of the results of this encounter are the Folklore Fellows in Oral (and Semi-Literate) Epics, founded some years ago. 5 I am working on a book on the Tain, which will start with a discussion of these factors. 6 0 Coileäin 1978, p. 7. 7 Four redactions, if the so-called Stowe version (lib) is regarded as a separate redaction. In that case, however, for one redaction, the LL-Tain, we have only one manuscript.

Northern Scotland, 2012

History, 2018

Crusading and Warfare in the Middle Ages: Realities and Representations. Essays in Honour of John France. Edited by Simon John and Nicholas Morton. Routledge. 2014. xxv + 231pp. £85.00. This Festschrift for John France is a worthy and deserved tribute to the historian's contributions to crusading scholarship. Maintaining a sharp focus, the editors have gathered together a truly impressive array of leading historians on the crusades and medieval military history, with only three of the fifteen chapters not addressing the crusades. Clifford J. Rogers's opening piece on Carolingian cavalry is a lively but friendly counter to France's emphasis on the infantryman in medieval warfare, restoring the cavalryman to his leading role in the wars of the age. He pays special attention to a close reading of Annales regni Francorum, interpreting it at variance with France and Bachrach, especially for the battle of 784 near the river Hase. He also scrutinizes the 876 battle of Andernach to argue again for the dominance of cavalry. Nicholas Morton's contribution on the first crusaders' foreknowledge of their enemies offers for the recruitment stage of the First Crusade a productive look at the usage of European terminology for the enemy: 'pagans', 'Saracens', 'gentiles' and/or 'Turks', the last being 'relatively unknown', he argues 'tentatively' (p. 68). Richard Abels and Denys Pringle examine illustrative evidence for their excellent chapters. Abels studies the glorious mid-thirteenth-century Morgan Picture Bible (the Maciejowski Bible), a wonderful source for medieval military historians, arguing persuasively that the Bible 'reflected the cultural expectations of its patron and his household knights' so that they might be 'validated and legitimated as a military elite, one in which battles predominated and knights remained supreme' (p. 14). The Bible depicts warfare as they wanted it to be portrayed, not as it was. Pringle's short but fascinating piece scrutinizes an early thirteenth-century graffito of a traction trebuchet in an Etruscan tomb in northern Italy. Another brief chapter by Benjamin Kedar, predominantly comprising quotations, assesses an early Muslim response to the first crusade. The neglected topic of military intelligence and espionage on the First Crusade is the subject of Susan Edgington's interesting explorative study, recognizing the difficulties of an area obviously clouded in secrecy. (Some useful broader context night have been supplied by Michael Prestwich's 1994 article on military intelligence under the Norman and Angevin kings.) Edgington has stated elsewhere that Ralph of Caen's Gesta Tancredi is the most overlooked of the First Crusade's major contemporary sources. Bernard and David Bachrach aim to put this right with an insightful chapter on Ralph

In the Tain, the reader learns a good deal about the culture of the time and is introduced to many of the most famous figures from the ancient Celtic pantheon. In particular, reading the Tain shows us a great deal about the role of women in ancient Ireland. To see the cultural relevance of Celtic women, we will explore the Tain and review the roll of the Connacht queen, Madb.

This paper discusses the tale Cath Ruis na Ríg for Bóinn, a sequel to the early Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailgne, in light of the historical context of the period when it was written (the second half of the twelfth century). It argues that its author drew on contemporary historical events and developments as models for episodes in the plot of his story. Specifically, his depiction of Irish kings importing foreign mercenaries from the Hebrides and struggling for influence over the midland province of Mide resonates with distinctly twelfth-century historical phenomena. As a result, although it is set in the heroic past, the images of kingship and of inter-provincial politics depicted in Cath Ruis na Ríg were shaped by the twelfth-century struggle for dominance amongst the various contenders for the high-kingship of Ireland. The paper tentatively suggests that the text might have been written as a commentary on the period of conflict between Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, king of Cenél Eógain, and Tairdelbach Úa Conchobair, king of Connacht, during the early 1150s.