The Tain Bo Cuailnge

The Tain Bo Cuailnge

Your Task

Resources:

http://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/ulsterhouse.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Cycle

http://www.legendarytours.com/tain.html

Explore the past history, identity and inter-relations of the characters in The Tain Bo Cuailnge.

For each character in your graphic organizer you must answer these questions:

1. Who is this character and where did he/she/it come from?

2. How is this character connected to the other characters?

3. What existing myths are there about this character prior to The Tain?

The Cattle Raid of Cooley

Cultural Background Cont.

The gathered armies in Celtic myth have complex allegiances. Much of a Celtic myth's emotional intrigue comes from the passionate devotion and divided loyalty of the warriors. Soldiers often have a clash of political fidelity and quasi-familial link of fosterage in stories of battle (Baswell&Schotter 2010).

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Cultural Background Cont.

Geography is as important as heroism in The Tain. The naming of locale is often subject to events, battles and wonders that happened in those areas. This serves as a way to virtually/verbally map the mythic significance of place in the northern parts of Ireland (Baswell&Schotter 2010).

Cultural Background

Despite Medb's quasi-goddess power and character, women in Medieval Irish law actually had fewer rights than their Anglo-Saxon (Germanic inhabitants of England) counterparts. Medb counteracts the passive objects of desire commonly seen in that period by using her sexuality as an active force for political gain (Baswell&Schotter 2010).

The Tain Bo Cuailnge

(The Cattle Raid of Cooley)

Cultural Background Cont.

It was not unlikely in the Celtic tradition to create myths that blurred the line between the heroic, the superhuman and the monstrous, which can be witnessed in the character Cu Chulainn of The Tain (Baswell&Schotter 2010).

Celtic Poets

The Tain Bo Cuailnge is the chief work in the "Ulster Cycle" of Irish heroic narratives which stems from an oral tradition starting as early as the fourth century (301 AD-400AD). The legend is that The Tain was recovered when the chief poet's son called upon the spirit of Fergus mac Roich as the poets of Ireland passed Fergus' gravestone on a quest to Brittany where they believed the only full version of The Tain existed. Fergus in turn recited the tale, which was previously only known in fragments, in its entirety to the chief poet's son (Baswell&Schotter 2010).

The highest class were called Filid (singular Fili) and inherited divination (formerly practiced by druids in the pagan era) and were believed to be surrounded by an aura of magic. Poets in Celtic Ireland had a sense of themselves as "spiritual and even genealogical heirs of an ancient calling which stretched back into the mythic past (Baswell&Schotter 2010).