1 Ireland's Four Cycles of Myth and Legend Irish Mythology Has Been

Ireland's Four Cycles of Myth and Legend u u Irish mythology has been classified or taxonomized into four cycles (collections, sets) • From the oldest tales to the most recent, they are: the Mythological Cycle; the Ulster (or Red Branch) Cycle; the Fenian (or Ossianic) Cycle; and the Historical (or Kings') Cycle u u The Mythological Cycle is dominated by origin myths called pseudohistories • These tales narrate a series of foreign invasions of Ireland, with each new wave of invader-settlers marginalizing the formerly dominant group u The oldest group, the Fomorians, resemble the Greek Titans: semi-divine beings associated with the chaos that preceded the civilizing gods u The penultimate aggressor group, the Tuatha Dé Danann (people of the goddess Danu), suffered defeat at the hands of the Milesians or Gaels, who entered Ireland from northern Spain • Legendarily, some surviving members of the Tuatha Dé Danann became the fairies or "little people," occupying aerial or subterranean (underground) zones on the island of Ireland but with a different temporality • The Irish author C.S. Lewis uses this idea in his Narnia series, where the portal into Narnia—a place outside "regular' time—is a wardrobe u Might the Milesians have, in fact, come from Spain? • A March 2000 article in the esteemed science journal Nature revealed that 98% of Connacht (west-of-Ireland) men and 89% of Basque (northeast-of- Spain) men carry the ancestral (or hunter-gatherer) European DNA signature, which passes from father to son • By contrast with the high Irish and Basque numbers, just 63% of British and 2% of Turkish men exhibit this DNA signature u The standard sequence of pseudohistorical invasion tales is called Lebor Gabála Érenn ("book of the takings of Ireland"), which appears in five versions or recensions • One recension—the "first redaction"— survives in two manuscript collections (or codecies): the 12th-century Book of Leinster and the 14th- century Book of Fermoy u u The Ulster Cycle is dominated by tales of the adolescent superhero Setanta, who receives an "achievement" name Cú Chulainn (rather as, in the Bible, Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel, and Simon becomes Peter) • While Cú Chulainn tends to function as a free agent, he serves his maternal uncle, Conchubar, King of Ulster (Ulaid in the Irish language), who maintained two rooms called the Red Branch at his ráth or fort called Eamhain Mhacha (near the present-day city of Armagh) • The dull Red Branch room is for introspection and deliberation ('thinking the thoughts"), while the bright Red Branch room is for displaying slain enemy bodies (evidence of "fighting the fight") u The Ulster Cycle's major narrative is the Táin Bó Cúailnge or "The Cattle Raid of Cooley," which consists of a number of primary tales, as well as so-called fore-tales (prequels) • Queen Medb of Connacht assembles a coalition army (primarily from Connacht, Munster, and Leinster) and, leaving her ráth at Cruachan (in present-day Co. Roscommon), invades Ulster to seize Donn Cúailnge: i.e. the brown stud- bull of the Cooley peninsula • Medb's foremost warriors must battle Cú Chulainn, who transforms via a "warp spasm" into a fierce opponent u Many scholars estimate that the Ulster Cycle reflects or hyperbolizes events that occurred in Ulster and Ireland around the time of Christ • The Ulster Cycles portrays an Ireland fractured into petty kingdoms (i.e. without effective central authority) u u Like the Ulster Cycle, the Fenian Cycle centers on a charismatic warrior, Fionn mac Cumhaill; however, Fionn ("the fair-haired one") is less of a loner than Cú Chulainn, becoming leader of an elite martial troop (or kern) called the Fianna • Most of the Fenian Cycle is narrated (in prose and verse) by one of Fionn's 1 sons, the warrior-poet Oisín • For that reason, the tales are also called the Ossianic Cycle • To a degree, the relationships and rivalries between Fionn and other members of the Fianna resemble Britain's legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table • One popular Fenian Cycle tale concerns Fionn's hunting of his fellow warrior Diarmuid once the latter absconds with Fionn's intended wife Gráinne • Leinster and Munster are the provinces most highlighted in the Fenian Cycle u u Produced by bards (i.e. court poets), the Historical (or Kings') Cycle contains several sub-cycles, most of which focus on kings, their deeds, and their genealogies • Some kings are mythological, which others (like Brian Boru) are historical • The "jewel in the crown" of the Historical Cycle is the poetry-and-prose work Buile Shuibhne ("Frenzy of Sweeney"), which concerns the half-man, half-bird existence of Suibhne, a cursed Ulster king • In 1983, Seamus Heaney published a translation of Buile Shuibhne, which he titled Sweeney Astray u END 2 3 .

Load more