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The Role of Cú Chulainn in Old and Middle Irish Narrative Literature with Particular Reference to Tales Belonging to the Ulster Cycle

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The Role of Cú Chulainn in Old and Middle Irish Narrative Literature with Particular Reference to Tales Belonging to the Ulster Cycle The role of Cú Chulainn in Old and Middle Irish narrative literature with particular reference to tales belonging to the Ulster Cycle. Mary Leenane, B.A. 2 Volumes Vol. 1 Ph.D. Degree NUI Maynooth School of Celtic Studies Faculty of Arts, Celtic Studies and Philosophy Head of School: An tOllamh Ruairí Ó hUiginn Supervisor: An tOllamh Ruairí Ó hUiginn June 2014 Table of Contents Volume 1 Abstract……………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter I: General Introduction…………………………………………………2 I.1. Ulster Cycle material………………………………………………………...…2 I.2. Modern scholarship…………………………………………………………...11 I.3. Methodologies………………………………………………………………...14 I.4. International heroic biography………………………………………………..17 Chapter II: Sources……………………………………………………………...23 II.1. Category A: Texts in which Cú Chulainn plays a significant role…………...23 II.2. Category B: Texts in which Cú Chulainn plays a more limited role………...41 II.3. Category C: Texts in which Cú Chulainn makes a very minor appearance or where reference is made to him…………………………………………………...45 II.4. Category D: The tales in which Cú Chulainn does not feature………………50 Chapter III: Cú Chulainn’s heroic biography…………………………………53 III.1. Cú Chulainn’s conception and birth………………………………………...54 III.1.1. De Vries’ schema………………...……………………………………………………54 III.1.2. Relevant research to date…………………………………………………………...…55 III.1.3. Discussion and analysis…………………………………………………………...…..58 III.2. Cú Chulainn’s youth………………………………………………………...68 III.2.1 De Vries’ schema………………………………………………………………………68 III.2.2 Relevant research to date………………………………………………………………69 III.2.3 Discussion and analysis………………………………………………………………..78 III.3. Cú Chulainn’s wins a maiden……………………………………………….90 III.3.1 De Vries’ schema………………………………………………………………………90 III.3.2 Relevant research to date………………………………………………………………91 III.3.3 Discussion and analysis………………………………………………………………..95 III.3.4 Further comment……………………………………………………………………...108 III.4. Cú Chulainn’s otherworldly trips………………………………………….112 III.4.1. De Vries’ schema.........................................................................................................112 III.4.2. Relevant research to date…………………………………………………………….112 i III.4.3.1. Cú Chulainn’s otherworldly trip I…………………………………………………118 III.4.3.2. Cú Chulainn’s otherworldly trip II………………………………………………..127 III.4.3.3. Cú Chulainn’s otherworldly trip III………………………………………………..133 III.4.3.4. Cú Chulainn’s otherworldly trip IV………………………………………………..143 III.5. The culmination of Cú Chulainn’s martial career…………………………148 III.5.1 De Vries’ schema……………………………………………………………………..148 III.5.2 Relevant research to date……………………………………………………………..148 III.5.3 Discussion and analysis………………………………………………………………151 III.6. Cú Chulainn’s death………………………………………………………..155 III.6.1 De Vries’ schema……………………………………………………………………..155 III.6.2 Relevant research to date……………………………………………………………..155 III.6.3 Discussion and analysis………………………………………………………………158 III.7. The remainder of the points in de Vries’ schema………………………….169 ii Acknowledgements I would like to extend my gratitude to Professor Kim McCone for suggesting this topic and for encouraging me to carry out this research. I would also like to thank my supervisor, An tOllamh Ruairí Ó hUiginn, for his guidance and support in bringing this thesis to fruition. I am grateful to the examiners of this thesis, Professor Gregory Toner and Dr Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, for their helpful comments and suggestions. The initial three years of this research was funded by a scholarship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences to whom I am very grateful. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to my colleagues for their unwavering support and encouragement throughout. I would especially like to thank Dr Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, An Dr Tracey Ní Mhaonaigh, An Dr Tadhg Ó Dúshláine and Dr Eoin Grogan. Your support has been and continues to be invaluable and I am forever indebted to you for this. I also wish to thank An Dr Aisling Ní Dhonnchadha, An Dr Brian Ó Catháin, Aisling Ní Bheacháin and Dr Peter Carr for their gentle words of encouragement and guidance. Thanks must also go to Gearóidín Ní Ruadháin and Mairéad Uí Fhlatharta. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the endless support of my parents, Paddy and Anna, my brothers and sisters, Ger, Bernie, Helen, Donal and the wider Leenane family. A special word of thanks is also due to Angela, Maurice and the Lane family for all their practical help. Finally, I owe a very special and enormous thanks to Peter for supporting me in every way throughout. Thanks also to our two wonderful daughters, Lily-Mae and Evie, who provided much needed distraction and entertainment. This thesis would have been impossible without this support and assistance. iii Abstract 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. 1 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 pre-historic 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 such as Scéla Muicce Meic Da Thó, Compert Con Culainn, Tochmarc Emire, Loinges mac nUislenn, Fled Bricrenn, Táin Bó Cúailnge is testimony to this. For example, Scéla Muicce Meic Da Thó, Compert Con Culainn, Tochmarc Emire, Loinges mac nUislenn, Fled Bricrenn, Táin Bó Cúailnge and a number of others, is testimony to this. He claims that this creative phase draws to a close in the ninth century and is followed, until the twelfth century, by a period whereby tales are mostly reworked and embellished with some expansion to the corpus. Certainly, this seems to be the case with respect to tales such as Tochmarc Emire, Mesca 1 See Ó hUiginn (1992) for a comprehensive evaluation of the background and development of TBC. 2 Ulad, Serglige Con Culainn and perhaps Cath Ruis na Ríg for Bóinn. However, beyond this there is further evidence for expansion and the reworking of tales down to the Early Modern Irish period as indicated through the existence of narratives like Foghlaim Con Culainn, Táin Bó Flidais, Cath Letreach Ruide and Aided Con Culainn. So, the timeframe for interest in Ulster Cycle material extends beyond the twelfth century. Some of the key studies on this literature have been provided by Thurneysen (1921), Carney (1955), Jackson (1964), Greene (1968), Aitchison (1987), McCone (1990), Ó hUiginn (1992) and Tristram (1995). For the most part, these approaches tend to focus on determining the origins and possible influential factors in the creation of these works as opposed to subjecting figures associated with the tales to close examination and study. These, therefore, are not central to the current research and will be revisited here only where relevant. In this respect, McCone’s (1990, 197-200) re-evaluation of the literary tradition, in which he suggests that there are parallels between the lives of Christ and Cú Chulainn will be considered in detail. Among the greatest difficulties surrounding this study of Cú Chulainn is the diverse range of sources spread over a wide time span in which he features. While some of the material can be dated to an early period, some of it can be shown to have undergone considerable reworking at a later point.
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