67 pages • 2 hours read
Transl. Thomas KinsellaThe Tain
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Before the TáinChapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 1-2 Summary: “How the Táin Bó Cuailnge Was Found Again”
The poets of Ireland gather to see if they can remember the whole Táin Bó Cuailnge, but when they find that they can only remember parts of it, Senchán sends his son Muirgen with others to the land of Letha to trade the book Cuilmenn for The Táin. Sitting at Fergus mac Roich’s gravesite, Muirgen chants a poem to the gravestone, and he disappears in a great mist for three days, during which Fergus visits him and teaches him The Táin. Muirgen returns home to be celebrated and share the tale.
Pages 3-20 Summary: “Conchobor”
In “How Conchobor Was Begotten, and How He Took the Kingship of Ulster,” Nes is sitting outside Emain with her women. When the druid Cathbad passes by, she asks him about the day’s fortune, and he informs her it is lucky for begetting a king “who would be heard of in Ireland for ever” (3). She takes him inside and becomes pregnant with Conchobor, who is delivered after gestating for more than three years.
Courted by Fergus mac Roich, the king of Ulster, Nes agrees to marriage if he gives her son Conchobor the kingship for one year, so he may someday call his son the son of a king. Fergus agrees, and during Conchobor’s kingship the people grow to appreciate his generosity and resent Fergus “giving” them as a dowry, so they demand that Conchobor remain king (4). He is loved by the people, and his vast household is supplied and divided into three parts: Craebruad for the kings; the Téte Brec as an arsenal for the weaponry; and the Craebderg as the treasury for all the spoils of war.
In “The Pangs of Ulster,” an unknown woman (Macha) arrives at the home of the widower Crunniuc mac Agnomain and takes on the role of his wife and homemaker. When it is time for the fair at Ulster, she warns Crunniuc not to become boastful. He does not heed her and claims his wife is faster than the king’s chariots. When he is taken prisoner, she must race a chariot to free him; however, she is pregnant and goes into labor. When no one comes to her aid, she curses all the men and reveals her identity to the king as Macha, daughter of Sainrith mac Imbaith. She delivers twins, a son and a daughter, as she finishes the chariot race, cursing the men so that for nine generations “all who heard that scream would suffer from the same pangs for five days and four nights in their times of greatest difficulty” (7). Only women, children, and Cúchulainn are free of the curse.
In “Exile of the Sons of Uisliu,” the wife of Conchobor’s storyteller, Fedlimid mac Daill, is pregnant. One night the child screams in her womb. Cathbad predicts that the child will be the most beautiful woman in Ireland, Derdriu, but that she will bring evil. Conchobor allows her to be born so he can keep her for himself, hiding her until she is ready for marriage. One day Derdriu encounters Noisiu, son of Uisliu, and binds him to her so he is obligated to marry her. Knowing this will provoke Conchobor’s wrath, Derdriu, Noisiu, his brothers, and an entourage of warriors flee, eventually settling in Alba. However, the king of Alba discovers Derdriu, and after multiple aggressions, the sons of Uisliu flee again to an island.
Back in Ulster, the people encourage Conchobor to welcome the brothers back. He allows them to return, promising their safe return with Dubthach and Fergus as their escorts. However, through trickery he ensures Fergus and Dubthach cannot escort them, making sure they are obligated to attend a feast elsewhere. When Noisiu and company arrive in Emain, they are attacked, and he is killed by Eogan mac Durthacht. Fergus and Dubthach hear of this and retaliate, killing some of Conchobor’s family. The survivors are exiled, and they flee to the rival kingdom of Ailill and Medb in Connacht, where they are welcomed. Derdriu is taken captive of Conchobor and is inconsolable, only chanting poems about her lost love Noisiu. When she learns that Conchobor wishes to share her with another man, she kills herself, leaning from their chariot to smash her head against a large block of stone.
Pages 21-45 Summary: “Cúchulainn”
In “How Cúchulainn Was Begotten,” Conchobor and the men of Ulster must chase off a flock of birds that are eating all their plants and grasses. With Conchobor’s sister Deichtine driving his chariot, they chase the birds until nightfall, and it snows. Seeking shelter, they crowd into a house where the host’s wife is giving birth just as a mare outside births two foals. Deichtine helps with the delivery and nurses the child herself, then takes him as a foster son until he dies from an illness. During her mourning she drinks from a cup and a tiny creature slips into her mouth; in a dream a man tells her the child is his, and it is the same boy who has just died whom she should call Sétana. As the child grows in her, she is married to Sualdam mac Roich at her brother’s wishes. On her wedding night she is ashamed to sleep with him while pregnant, so she becomes sick and vomits up the creature. She then becomes pregnant by her husband and bears a son (Cúchulainn) who she names Sétana.
The men of Ulster argue over who should foster the boy, and they decide to have the judge Morann decide. Conchobor’s sister Finnchaem is given the boy to nourish, while Sencha will teach him eloquence, Blai Briuga will provide him shelter, Fergus will raise him as a warrior, and Amargin will teach him to be a prince, so he is raised by many.
In “Cúchulainn’s Courtship of Emer, and His Training in Arms,” the men of Ulster are performing feats and practicing when they decide that Cúchulainn should marry so he can produce a son. Conchobor sends nine men to scout out a woman for the boy, but in the meantime, Cúchulainn pursues Emer, daughter of Forgall Monach. They greet each other and “spoke together in riddles” (27), with Cúchulainn wooing her, saying, “I see a sweet country […] I could rest my weapon there” (27). Emer responds, “No man will travel this country” (27), unless he can complete three complex tasks, ranging from killing 100 men to staying awake from Samain to Imbolc, to which he agrees. Forgall Monach fears their courtship will lead to Cúchulainn’s death, so he comes to visit them disguised as a Gaul and persuades Cúchulainn to take a journey to Alba to learn to fight. The next day Cúchulainn and Emer promise fidelity to one another, and he leaves to train with Domnall Míldemail, who then sends him learn from Scáthach.
When Cúchulainn arrives, Scáthach sends her daughter Uathach to meet him; she falls in love with him and pretends to be a servant. Cúchulainn grabs her, and when she screams, one of Scáthach’s soldiers comes to her rescue, but Cúchulainn kills him, then offers to take on his duties and become Scáthach’s champion. Uathach urges him to go to Scáthach and place his sword between her breasts and demand three things: a dowry for his marriage, tidings of the future, and training alongside her two sons Cúar and Cat. He does so, and Scáthach agrees, teaching him “brave deeds and the craft of arms” (31).
During his training, Scáthach goes to war with another chief named Aife, “the hardest woman warrior in the world” (32). Cúchulainn fights alongside Scáthach’s sons and enters into single combat with Aife herself. However, he tricks her and captures her, and she grants him three wishes: hostages, her company that night, and that she bear him a son. He names the boy Connla and makes her promise that he will “reveal his name to no man, that he must make way for no man, and refuse no man combat” (33). She says the boy will come to Ireland in seven years, when his finger can fit the ring Cúchulainn gives her for him.
Once Cúchulainn’s training is complete, he has learned many supernatural feats beyond a normal human’s capability. He is summoned home, and Scáthach predicts that his future is defined by great feats, but that he will die young, at 33. He returns home, but Emer is heavily guarded and he must slay many to get to her, completing one of the tasks she originally gave to him. He captures Emer and her sister, and leaps away with their weight in gold, completing the second task, and this continues until he completes all the tasks she set out for him. That night they arrive in Emain, but Cúchulainn is enraged when it is said that Conchobor has the right to sleep with Emer first. However, Cúchulainn is sent to cool down and collect himself while herding animals, and Conchobor protects Emer’s honor by allowing two other men to be present during the night, so they literally sleep together but she remains a virgin. Cúchulainn and Emer are inseparable after that.
In “The Death of Aife’s One Son,” Cúchulainn’s son Connla comes to Ireland looking for him after seven years. From his boat offshore he performs superhuman feats. Conchobor is impressed but knows he must stop the boy from coming ashore. Condere mac Echach goes to stop him, but the boy says, “I’ll give my name to no man […] and I’ll make way for no man” (40). Condere tried to convince him to yield, but the boy presses on and no one can defeat him. Emer warns Cúchulainn not to kill his own son, but he insists he must kill Connla for the honor of Ulster. The two battle on the beach, and while the boy is exceptionally skilled, Cúchulainn mortally wounds him and presents him to the men of Ulster, who lament the loss. In his dying moments Connla says, “If only I had five years among you, I would slaughter the warriors of the world for you. You would rule as far as Rome” (45), and he dies saluting them.
Pages 46-51 Summary: “The Quarrel of the Two Pig-keepers and How the Bulls Were Begotten”
Friuch is the pig-keeper for Bodb, king of the Munster síd, and Rucht is the pig-keeper for Ochall Ochne, the king of the Connacht síd. The two pig-keepers are close friends, both “practiced in the pagan arts” (46) and capable of shapeshifting, but there is bad blood between their kings. The people seek to turn the pig-farmers against each other by creating competition between the two. When each pig farmer travels to the other’s lands to graze their herd, as was previously done in friendship, the other tricks them so their pigs come away lean. Both are eventually dismissed from their work. They spend two years as birds bickering in the north and south, returning momentarily to curse the men at Munster, saying, “We will bring you only war-wailing and a fullness of friends’ corpses” (48) before leaving to continue their dispute as sea creatures, stags, warriors, phantoms, and dragons. When they take the form of maggots, cows drink them both up from a spring, and in this way the two bulls are born: Rucht becomes Finnbennach “the white-horned of Ai Plain” and Friuch becomes Dub “the dark bull of Cuailnge” (49). Both bulls are described as supernaturally large and powerful.
“Before the Táin” Analysis
In the opening tale The Táin is described as a lost history, only remembered in parts by the poets of Ireland. Throughout the epic song and poetry are central to the telling of the story and to the lives and identities of the characters. Piecing together this shared history is an important job given to the king’s own son, who seeks to receive it in exchange for another history. Cultural heritage is its own currency here. However, Muirgen learns it from a first-hand source when his magical song, sung atop Fergus’s grave, opens a spiritual “door” for that ancient king to teach him The Táin. This version of The Táin offers a less mystical explanation as well, likely influenced by Christian scribes working on the manuscript. This opening grounds the tale in its mystical, pre-Christian early medieval past and affords it the importance it merits in the historical “present” of 12th-century Ireland.
One part of the introductory chapters concerns the birth and kingship of Conchobor, who is born to a princess and a druid, so he possesses both royal and sorcerer blood. Conchobor acquires the kingship from Fergus through his mother’s trickery; however, they keep it by gaining the respect of the people, demonstrating the importance of smart resource distribution at the time.
In “The Pangs of Ulster” the narrative explains why Cúchulainn must fight without the support of the men of Ulster, describing the curse brought on them that they must occasionally suffer birth pangs for five days and four nights. This curse originates from a mysterious woman who arrives out of nowhere to serve a widower as his wife. When his pride gets the best of him, the widower brags about her after promising her he would not, and his boastful talk results in his imprisonment and a death sentence. The wife, a symbol of abundance, who gives in the household and who is on the verge of giving him twin children (both of the private domain), rescues him by beating the king’s chariots in the public domain. The husband is spared, but her curse extends to the men of Ulster, who did nothing to spare her this hardship and humiliation.
“Exile of the Sons of Uisliu” presents a moment in Conchobor’s kingship where the king attempts to ignore a prophecy, resulting in the exile and split of his community, for in the end he loses the sons of Uisliu, Fergus, and numerous exiles to his enemies. At the center of this tale is Derdriu, a woman whose beauty is so exceptional that war and death follow her everywhere. This violence results from the conflict between men’s desire to possess and hide her (Conchobor and the king of Alba), and her own desire to love someone of her choice (Noisiu). Ultimately, the prophesy told by Cathbad at Derdriu’s birth comes to pass, and the massacre splits Conchobor’s men. Her only escape from captivity is death, and her death by suicide a rare moment of personal agency.
The second part of “Before the Táin” concerns the birth and youth of Cúchulainn, nephew of Conchobor. His birth is tied to a sudden disruption from the natural world—a beautiful flock of nine scores of birds ravage the people’s land and resources. The men’s pursuit of the birds leads to the supernatural circumstances in which Cúchulainn is conceived. He is essentially “born” three times: first as a foster child to Deichtine, then as a small creature she ingests, and lastly as her own child with her new husband. In this way his birth is extraordinary, remembered in relation to signs from the natural world.
The assignment of foster parents is common in The Táin, signifying the communal practice of raising a child and shared responsibility within a kingdom. Cúchulainn’s “adoption” is unusual, as he is raised by multiple families. Each foster parent imports something of value to Cúchulainn, the eventual great warrior, reflecting what Irish society at this time valued in a leader: Conchobor’s sister Finnchaem nourishes him, Sencha offers eloquence and knowledge, Blai Briuga provides him a safe residence, Fergus will equip him for battle, and Amargin will teach him to behave as a prince. When raised by the community, Cúchulainn becomes one from the many, representing the whole of the community in his successes.
In “Cúchulainn’s Courtship of Emer, and His Training in Arms,” the warrior-hero begins his journey upon meeting his future wife, who gives him his first set of feats to perform. Tests of bravery, cunning, and skill are typical and necessary to the epic, where the warrior-hero must prove his worthiness, and often supernatural prowess, before engaging in the battle at the center of the narrative. During his training he learns from extraordinary warriors, primarily women, who prepare him for the feats he will accomplish alone in The Táin. The women warriors he trains with are also gifted in foresight, and his future is laid out in verse by Scáthach, who speaks to him “of his future and his end” (34). Her predictions are ominous, foreshadowing the glory of his battles and victories with the inevitability of his untimely death. With the completion of these tasks and more, Cúchulainn wins Emer and establishes himself as the warrior he will become.
However, with Aife he created Connla, a child of extraordinary power. Cúchulainn essentially secures his own child’s death through the rules he sets, that Connla “was to reveal his name to no man, that he must make way for no man, and refuse no man combat” (33). In “The Death of Aife’s One Son,” this child returns to his father to fulfill this purpose, which in its rigidity can only lead to his destruction—these uncooperative and isolating values cannot work in premodern society. Furthermore, the threat of the child of two exceptional warriors is too chaotic for their society in Ulster; Cúchulainn is the only one capable of stopping Connla “for the honor of Ulster” (44), in effect obliging himself to kill his own son. This story reads like a parable, where the father’s rules to protect his son ironically lead to his own destruction, and the loss of this child’s great potential is a loss for the entire community, as Cúchulainn could have ruled “as far as Rome” (45) with Connla’s support.
“The Quarrel of the Two Pig-Keepers” is a story of metamorphosis that gives the origins of the dispute over a bull at the heart of The Táin. The conflict arises from the interference of others, for while the pig-keepers have a close friendship despite their opposed kings, the people manage to disrupt their harmony. Their conflict continues perpetually because they are both pagan mages of equal power, so one cannot dominate the other. This balance of power is a theme that runs throughout the epic—consolidating, redistributing, and breaking up power to maintain authority over the people. Otherwise the power struggle continues indefinitely, as between the two pig-keepers, and menaces the land. This conflict between two equals segues into a similar rivalry at the heart of The Táin, that of Ailill and Medb.
