Early Irish Myths and Sagas (4 page)

As history, the early Irish tales verge upon wishful thinking, if not outright propaganda. The Ulster Cycle, however, does appear to preserve genuine traditions of a continuing conflict between the Ulaid (who appear to have concentrated in the area round present-day Armagh) and the Uí Néill (who were probably centred at Temuir, though for reasons suggested earlier – see
page 7
– they have been moved to present-day Connaught by the storytellers); in any case, it is a valuable repository of information about the Ireland of prehistory – what Kenneth Jackson has called ‘a window on the Iron Age’
¹³
– with its extensive descriptions of fighting (chariots are still the norm) and feasting (an abundance of strong words and strong drink) and dress (opulent, at least
for the aristocracy) and its detailing of such institutions as fosterhood, clientship and the taking of sureties. The important but not very surprising conclusion generated by this information is that the Irish society represented by the Ulster Cycle is still very similar to the Gaulish civilization described by Caesar; and there are good reasons to think it not very different from the Celtic world of an even earlier period.

What is surprising, though, is that these tales – which betray a natural and unmistakable bias towards the Ulaid and against the Connachta – do not more consistently depict Ulster society at its zenith. Cú Chulaind is the only true hero in the Ulster Cycle, and his deeds are more often superhuman than heroic; Conchubur, as early as ‘The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulaind’, serves notice that he will be largely a
roi fainéant
; and among the Ulaid warriors there is, ‘The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge’ excepted, more talk than action. Odder still, in many of the best-known and most important tales, there are clear instances of parody. In ‘The Death of Aífe’s Only Son’, the Ulaid are awestruck by the feats of a seven-year-old boy; in ‘The Tale of Macc Da Thó’s Pig’, Ulaid and Connachta are reduced to fighting over a dog (at least, in ‘The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge’, the bone of contention is a bull), and the Ulaid are ridiculed and put to shame by the Connachta champion; in ‘The Intoxication of the Ulaid’, Cú Chulaind loses his way and leads the Ulaid on a drunken spree across Ireland, while the two druids guarding Cú Ruí’s stronghold bicker and quarrel; and in ‘Bricriu’s Feast’, the wives of the Ulaid warriors squabble over precedence in entering the drinking hall, while Bricriu is accidentally flung out of his house and on to a garbage dump. Conchubur’s treachery (equivalent to Arthur’s murdering Lancelot) in ‘The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu’ eliminates any doubt: the society of the Ulster Cycle, for all the splendour that attaches to it, is a society in decline.

The purpose of this translation is to offer accurate, idiomatic renderings of a representative sample of early Irish stories. For reasons of space I have had, unfortunately, to limit my selection to tales from the Mythological and Ulster cycles, which often seem earlier in feeling and more characteristically Celtic. Two prominent stories from the represented cycles have also had to be omitted. ‘The Second Battle of Mag Tured’ is a valuable enumeration of the Túatha Dé Danand, but as a tale it is of less interest, and it stands somewhat apart from the mythological tales presented here. The centrepiece of the Ulster Cycle, ‘The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge’, could fill a small volume by itself; and though the Book of Leinster version opens very promisingly, the narrative quickly deteriorates. Moreover, modem translations are available elsewhere.

As in my translation of the Welsh Mabinogion, I have not attempted to be absolutely literal. Where a scribe has written ‘et reliqua’, I have expanded; where repetitions and duplications and irrelevant interpolations appear, I have removed them. Where the manuscripts are obscure or corrupt, I have had to guess. Most tales are translated entire; but where an archaic rhetorical section is hopelessly obscure, or where a long poetic passage seemed expendable, I have omitted it. Some flaws, unfortunately, are irreparable: there is a puzzling non sequitur near the beginning of ‘The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel’, and the Book of Leinster and Lebor na huidre fragments of ‘The Intoxication of the Ulaid’ do not quite meet. The stories are arranged chronologically (so far as one can tell).

All Celtic proper names are spelt in their Old Irish forms, which seemed preferable to anglicizations and modernizations;
this should not cause undue concern, but the reader may want to glance at the note on geographic names. The pronunciation guide is an approximation; Old Irish is more phonetic (and thus easier) than English, but a few inconsistencies persist. The map indicates the location of the major strongholds and natural features (to show every place name would have been impractical); the bibliography, while not exhaustive, will afford a useful starting point.

I would like to thank Will Sulkin and Betty Radice for their help and encouragement, and my brother Timothy for his numerous valuable suggestions.

Lebor na huidre: Book of the Dun Cow
, edited by R. I. Best and Osborn Bergin (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy), 1929.

The Book of Leinster
, five volumes, edited by R. I. Best, Osborn Bergin and M. A. O’Brien (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1954–67.

‘Tochmarc Étaíne’ (The Wooing of Étaín), Y B L 985–98; edited by Osborn Bergin and R. I. Best in
Ériu
12 (1937): 137–96.

‘Togail bruidne Da Derga’ (The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel), L U 83a1–99a47 and Y B L 91a1–104.10; edited by Eleanor Knott in
Togail bruidne Da Derga
(Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1936.

‘Aislinge Óengusso’ (The Dream of Óengus), Egerton 1782; edited by Eduard Müller in
Revue Celtique
3 (1882): 344–7.

‘Táin bó Froích’ (The Cattle Raid of Fróech), L L 248a12–252b6; edited by Wolfgang Meid in
Taín bó Fraích
(Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1967.

‘Noínden Ulad & Emuin Machae’ (The Labour Pains of the Ulaid & The Twins of Macha), LL 125b42–126a30.

‘Compert Con Culaind’ (The Birth of Cú Chulaind), LU 128a–128b47; edited by A. G. van Hamel in
Compert Con Culainn
(Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1933.

‘Maccgnimrada Con Culaind’ (The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulaind), L U 4855–901, 4924–54. 4973–5033, 5035–210; edited
by John Strachan in
Stories from the Táin
(Dublin: Royal Irish Academy), 1944.

‘Aided óenfir Aífe’ (The Death of Aífe’s Only Son), Y B L 214a–215a; edited by A. G. van Hamel in
Compert Con Culainn
(Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1933.

‘Serglige Con Culaind & Óenét Emire’ (The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulaind & The Only Jealousy of Emer) LU 43a1–50b14; edited by Myles Dillon in
Serglige Con Culainn
(Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1953.

‘Scéla mucce Make Da Thó’ (The Tale of Macc Da Thó’s Pig), LL 112a1–114a54; edited by Rudolf Thurneysen in
Scéla mucce Meic Dathó
(Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1935.

‘Mesca Ulad’ (The Intoxication of the Ulaid), LL 261b25–268b49 and LU 19a1–20b31; edited by J. C. Watson in
Mesca Ulad
(Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1941.

‘Fled Bricrend’ (Bricriu’s Feast), LU 99b1–112b48; edited by George Henderson in Fled
Bricrend
(Dublin: Irish Texts Society), 1899.

‘Longes macc nUislend’ (The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu), LL 192b11–193b24 and Y B L 749–53; edited by Vernam Hull in
Longes mac n-Uislenn
(New York: Modern Language Association), 1949.

Ancient Irish Tales
, edited by T. P. Cross and C. H. Slover, various translators (New York: Henry Holt), 1936; reprinted, with a revised bibliography by C. W. Dunn (New York: Barnes and Noble), 1969.

Lebor Gabála Érenn
(The Book of the Invasions of Ireland), five volumes, edited and translated by R. A. S. Macalister (Dublin: Irish Texts Society), 1938–54.

Táin Bó Cúalnge from the Book of Leinster
(The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge), edited and translated by Cecille O’Rahilly (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1967.

The Taín
(The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge and other Ulaid stories), translated by Thomas Kinsella (Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1969, and London: Oxford University Press, 1970).

Táin Bó Cúalnge from the Book of the Dun Cow
, edited and translated by Cecille O’Rahilly (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1978.

Bibliography of Irish Philology and of Printed Irish Literature
, edited by R. I. Best (Dublin: National Library of Ireland), 1913.

Bibliography of Irish Philology and Manuscript Literature 1913–41
, edited by R. I. Best (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1942.

Rudolf Thurneysen,
Handbuch des Altirischen
, 1909; translated by D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin as A
Grammar of Old Irish
(Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1946; revised edition, 1961.

Rudolf Thurneysen,
Die irische Helden- und Königsage
(Halle: Max Niemeyer), 1921.

T. F. O’Rahilly,
Early Irish History and Mythology
(Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), 1946.

Gerard Murphy, Saga
and Myth in Ancient Ireland
(Dublin: Cultural Relations Committee of Ireland), 1961.

K. H. Jackson,
The Oldest Irish Tradition: A Window on the Iron Age
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1964.

S. P. Ó Ríordáin,
Tara: The Monuments on the Hill
(Dundalk: Dundalgan Press), 1954.

S. P. Ó Ríordáin and Glyn Daniel,
New Grange
(London: Thames & Hudson), 1964.

T. G. E. Powell,
The Celts
(London: Thames & Hudson), 1958. Myles Dillon and Nora Chadwick,
The Celtic Realms
(New York: New American Library), 1967.

Nora Chadwick,
The Celts
(Harmondsworth: Penguin), 1970.

Anne Ross,
Everyday Life of the Pagan Celts
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), 1970.

Duncan Norton-Taylor,
The Celts
(Alexandria, Va: Time-Life); 1974.

Barry Cunliffe,
The Celtic World
(New York: McGraw-Hill), 1979.

Alwyn Rees and Brinley Rees,
Celtic Heritage
(London: Thames & Hudson), 1961.

Proinsias Mac Cana,
Celtic Mythology
(London: Hamlyn), 1970.

Stuart Piggott,
The Druids
(London: Thames & Hudson), 1968; reprinted (Harmondsworth: Penguin), 1974.

K. H. Jackson, A
Celtic Miscellany
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), 1951; reprinted (Harmondsworth: Penguin), 1971.

The Mabinogion
, translated by Jeffrey Gantz (Harmondsworth: Penguin), 1976.

James Stephens,
Deirdre
(1913).

J. M. Synge,
Deirdre of the Sorrows
(1909).

W. B. Yeats,
On Baile’s Strand
(1904);
Deirdre
(1907);
The Green Helmet
(1910);
At the Hawk’s Well
(1915);
The Only Jealousy of Enter
(1916);
The Death of Cuchulain
(1937).

Although the spelling system of Old Irish may seem confusing at first, it is still more consistent than that of English. Moreover, the actual pronunciation is not at all difficult.

Consonants
. These are mostly as in English; the major difference is that some are softened when they stand alone in medial or final position. Consonant clusters tend to be pronounced as they would be in English.

b
(initial):
b
oy,
b
(medial or final): ne
v
er or
w
in.

c
(initial),
cc
:
c
ane, never
c
inder;
c
(medial or final): e
gg
.

ch
: Scottish lo
ch
or German Ba
ch
, never
ch
ur
ch
.

d
(initial):
d
og;
d
(medial or final): ra
th
er.

f
:
f
ort.

g
(initial):
g
irl, never
g
in;
g
(medial or final): German Ma
g
en.

h
:
h
ill.

l, ll
:
l
ow.

m
(initial),
mb, mm
:
m
ow;
m
(medial or final): ne
v
er or
w
in.

n, nd, nn
:
n
ew.

p
(initial):
p
ort;
p
(medial or final): ca
b
in.

r, rr
: Italian se
r
a.

s, ss
(before
a, o
or
u
, or after when final):
s
in, never rose;
s, ss
(before
e
or
i
, or after when final):
sh
ow.

t
(initial),
tt
:
t
ow;
t
(medial or final):
add
.

th
:
th
in.

Vowels
. These are largely as in continental languages,

a, ai
: f
a
ther.

á, át
: l
a
w.

áe, aí
:
ai
sle.

e, eí, éo, éoi
:
be
t.

i
: p
i
n.

í, íu, íui
: k
ee
n.

ía, ía
: I
a
n.

o, oi
: p
o
t.

ó, ói
: l
o
ne.

óe, oí
:
oi
l.

u, ui
: p
u
t.

ú, úi
: m
oo
n.

úa, úai
: m
oo
r.

Stress
. This usually falls on the first syllable. Unstressed vowels, when not long, are usually reduced to the sound of
a
in sof
a
.