Táin Bó Cúailgne Comprehension Questions 4 Q-1 • Cú Chulainn suffers utter exhaustion and significant injuries as a result of his four-day combat against his foster-brother, Fer Diad. Who places in the streams and rivers that flow through Cú Chulainn’s home territory of Muirthemne the “herbs and healing plants” used in an attempt to restore the young warrior to health? Q-2 • In a gesture of support for the injured Cú Chulainn, the Ulster warrior Cethern mac Fintain attacks Medb’s camp. What kind of armor does he wear? Severely injured as a result of his offensive, Cethern joins the convalescing Cú Chulainn, who asks his charioteer, Láeg, to obtain physicians from among the “men of Ireland” to cure Cathern. How does Cathern interact with the 15 physicians who — having, with great reluctance, responded to Cú Chulainn’s demand (conveyed by Láeg) — conclude that Cathern can’t be cured? Q-3 • At Cú Chulainn’s request, Láeg obtains the services of Fíngan, a “seer-physician,” who examines several of Cathern’s wounds individually. From Cathern’s descriptions of who inflicted a given wound, Cú Chulainn is able to identify the attacker or attackers by name — for example, two of Medb and Ailill’s sons (known as the Maines): Maine Máithremail and Maine Aithremail. From which foreign country did two other warriors, inflictors of wounds, come? With which of his sons did Ailill attack Cethern, and what does that individual’s name mean? Q-4 • Of the two options for healing that Fíngan proposes to Cethern, which one does the injured warrior choose? Why, having engaged in the chosen cure, does Cathern fix the “board of his chariot” to his person? Q-5 • What does one of the Maines (Maine Andóe) do when — after having been healed — Cethern approaches the encampment of the men of Ireland? Why does he take that action? After Cethern’s death, his father, Fintan, attempts to avenge his honor by means of an action remembered as Fintan’s tooth fight. Q-6 • Findabair, daughter of Medb and Ailill, divulges deep sexual desire for a certain warrior, deeming him her “beloved” and her “chosen warrior.” Who is that individual, and on which side does he fight during Táin Bó Cúailgne? Soon after satisfying her desire, Findabair dies when her heart “cracks like a nut.” What is the cause of the distress that yields this outcome? 1 Q-7 • Soon after narrating the death of Findabair, the text presents accounts of attacks upon Medb’s forces (the “men of Ireland”) by two Ulster warriors: first, the eccentric Íliach; and, second, Amargin. Each man uses the same type of weapon or missile as he attacks the enemy. What is that weapon- type? Q-8 • The convalescing Cú Chulainn receives a visit from his father, Sualtaim. What kind of warrior is Sualtaim, and what does Cú Chulainn ask him to accomplish? Q-9 • At Emain Macha (known in English as Navan Fort) — capital of Ulster and headquarters of Conchobar’s Red Branch dynasty — why does Sualtaim first speak with Cathbath, the principal druid, as opposed to King Conchobar? Q-10 • Having failed to receive what he would deem an appropriate response from Cathbath, Sualtaim leaves Emain Macha on his multi-colored horse, known as the Líath Macha. What action does the animal then take, and how precisely does that action provoke a response from Conchobar, king of Ulster and head of the Red Branch dynasty? (Please ensure that the word “head” appears in your answer.) Conchobar proceeds to fully come out of his “debility,” and he loses no time in assembling a vast Ulster army to attack Medb’s forces. Q-11 • When surveying the “great plain of Meath,” Medb’s herald, Mac Roth, sees and hears evidence of the amassing of Conchobar’s Ulster army, in preparation to do battle with the men of Ireland. What is Medb’s initial response to the intelligence that Mac Roth delivers (and that Fergus explicates)? Q-12 • Although he has lived as an Ulster exile in Medb’s court in Connacht, Conchobar’s son Cormac Cond Longas (“Cormac, the exiled prince”) turns against Medb and her husband, Ailill, deploying “his force of thirty-hundred.” What assertion by Medb prompts that action? (Note that, according to several sources, Cormac’s mother is also his grandmother, Nessa. By sleeping with her son, Conchobar, Nessa became pregnant with Cormac.) Q-13 • Medb and Ailill again dispatch Mac Roth. Specifically, he must ascertain details about the “men of Ulster” (i.e. Conchobar’s troops) as they congregate at Slemain Mide (often Anglicized as Slanemore; a site in present-day County Westmeath) to establish a pre-battle camp. When Mac Roth reports on his observations, Fergus elucidates them for Medb and Ailill, although he can’t identify at least one, young Ulster leader. He speculates concerning his identity. Who, according to Fergus, might that individual be, and how might he prove significant in the anticipated battle between the men of Ulster and the men of Ireland? Q-14 • While, initially, Cú Chulainn is too injured to engage in the great Ulster-versus-Ireland battle, he does instruct Láeg to “rouse the Ulstermen to the battle.” On what does Conchobar insist before permitting his troops to commence fighting, and what battle-dress do the men of Ulster wear? Q-15 • Who are the ferchuirredaig, and what two roles do they have in the battle? Q-16 • What is the name of Fergus’s sword (originally obtained from “the elf-mounds”), and what does that name mean? What causes Fergus to deploy his sword to “strike off the tops” of three hills, which thereby gain the name “the three Máela” (“the three balds”). 2 Q-17 • What sound, emanating from the field of battle, causes Cú Chulainn to rise from his sick bed with the intention of joining the fight on behalf of Ulster? What happens to the blood that issues from Cú Chulainn’s unhealed wounds as he leaves his bed with a “mighty spring”? When Cú Chulainn resumes fighting, which two members of Medb’s retinue become his first victims? Q-18 • The final battle of Táin Bó Cúailgne is called the Battle of Gáirech and Ilgáirech. Its turning point in favor of the Ulster side is a literal one. It occurs when Fergus “turn[s] and [takes] three mighty heroic strides” westwards, towards Connacht. That action causes “all the men of Ireland” to turn also. Why does Fergus make the decision to turn? Q-19 • During her army’s retreat, what favor does Medb ask when speaking directly to Cú Chulainn? What is Medb’s condition at that time? (Please ensure that the term “three great trenches” appears in your answer.) Q-20 • Even though Conchobar’s Ulster army successfully drives away Medb’s coalition forces, Donn Cúailnge (the brown bull of Cooley) does end up in captivity at Crúachu, capital of Connacht. There, he and Ailill’s bull, Findbennach, begin a one-on-one fight that eventually extends across much of Ireland. How does the bulls’ combat precipitate a change in name for a major crossing of the River Shannon, from Áth Mór to Áth Luain? What happens when, on the verge of his death, Donn Cúailnge returns to his native territory, the “land of Cúailnge”? ••• 3 .