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DoctorChevlong — Cu Chulainn

#cattleraidofcooley #cuchulainn #irish #lugh #queenmedb #scathach #setanta #ulster #connacht #ulstercycle #ferdiad #gaebulg #tainbocuailnge #celticfolklore #celticmythology #celticwarrior #irishmythology
Published: 2023-09-07 17:36:39 +0000 UTC; Views: 7487; Favourites: 132; Downloads: 0
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Here’s my take on Cú Chulainn (meaning “Hound of Culann”, pronounced “kukchulain”), the most famous hero of Irish Celtic mythology! Champion of the kingdom of Ulster (a province at the north of Ireland), he was endowed with superhuman strength, mastered several martial arts, had notions of magic, could turn into a berserk monster, and wielded the formidable spear Gae Bulg (which could be translated as "lightning javelin")

He was not always attributed the same origins, but the best known version makes him a demigod, son of Lugh, the polytechnician god, and Deichtine, who is sometimes the daughter, sometimes the sister of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster. Indeed, while Conchobar and his court had chased a flock of magical birds, they were surprised by a snowstorm, and had to seek shelter in the first house they could find. However, the host who welcomed them was none other than the god Lugh, incognito, and it was on this occasion that he and Deichtine were able to conceive the one who would become Cú Chulainn. In another version, the young hero is the fruit of two incestuous unions, on two planes of existence : that of Lugh with the Fomorian Eithne (considered the mother of all the gods of her pantheon), in the divine plane, and that of Deichtine with King Conchobar, in the Sidh (the Other World of the Celts). In any case, the child in question, at birth, was named Setanta, a name that could be translated as “the one who progresses”. Although one version of his legend gave the child six guardians among the nobles of Ulster (including Conchobar), the most popular entrusted this role to the druid Cathbad, famous for his prophecies, who was also the maternal grandfather of Setanta. The future hero was therefore raised at the castle of Breth, in the plain of Muirthemne.
When he was five years old, Setanta was invited by King Conchobar (who was in awe, seeing his performance at the game of iomáint/hurling) to a banquet which was held at the home of a man named Culann, the master blacksmith of the kingdom. The child not having finished his game, he asked the king to go ahead. However, Conchobar forgot to warn Culann of the boy's imminent arrival, and the latter, thinking that all the guests had arrived, had released his formidable hound to stand guard. When Setanta approached the blacksmith's house, the enormous beast attacked him. But the demigod was already known to enter a state of fighting frenzy that made him unrecognizable when attacked, and he brought down the great dog (either by smashing it against a standing stone or by throwing a shot in his throat with the caman which he had used at iomáint). Although Culann apologized for the mistake, he lamented the death of his guard dog. But Setanta offered to take the hound's place, until another animal raised by Culann could fill that role again. This is why Cathbad renamed the young boy, giving him the name Cú Chulainn, the “Hound of Culann”.

At the age of seven, one day, he overheard his tutor Cathbad prophesying to his students that whoever took up arms on that specific day would gain eternal glory. The young boy then ran to see the king, so that he could give him weapons. Of all those tested by Cú Chulainn, only Conchobar's own weapons withstood the strength of the demigod, who decided to go and kill three brothers who had boasted of having killed more Ulaidh than there were alive. But upon his return, his berserk rage had not stopped, and it was feared that he would attack his allies. After several women revealed their breasts to disturb him, several men plunged him into a barrel of cold water, which exploded because of the demigod's extreme body heat ! Alas, before doing all this, Cúchulainn had not heard Cathbad add that if the one who took up arms on this day would remain famous, he would also have a short life...

As a young man, Cú Chulainn was so handsome that the Ulaidh feared that he would take their wives and daughters if he did not quickly find a wife of his own. Only Emer, princess of the county of Meath, suited him ; but the father of the latter was opposed to their union, and invited the demigod to go to the Isle of Skye, to follow the teaching of Scathach, a magician-warrioress (counting on the fact that the young man could never come back). Cú Chulainn accepted, and then left for the far north of Scotland, where this island was located, and Dún Scaith, the enchantress' fortress. There, Scathach taught him the art of combat, introduced him to magic, and taught him to wield Gae Bulg, a magical javelin with a barbed tip, made from the bones of a sea monster called Curruid. The young hero became very close to another disciple of the sorceress, who was called Ferdiad (known for his impenetrable skin), and became the lover of Uathach, the daughter of his mentor, who approved this union. But during this period, a conflict broke out between Scathach and her sister Aife. Knowing the power of her sister, the enchantress tried to prevent Cú Chulainn from confronting her, by putting her to sleep with a potion. But this only took effect for an hour, and the demigod threw himself into the fray, and put Aife at his mercy ; he demanded that she stop her quarrel with her sister, and that she...bear his child.
At the end of their formation, Scathach made them swear never to fight among themselves, then they all left, each on their own. Returning to Ulster, the "Hound of Culann" once again asked for Emer's hand, but her father stubbornly refused. In anger, Cú Chulainn invaded the latter's castle, killing twenty-four of his men, kidnapped Emer, and even allowed himself to steal the king's treasure, who committed suicide by jumping from the top of a wall. And they were finally able to get married, despite the demigod's Scottish “adventures”...
Eight years later, Connla (the son whom the young hero had with Aife) went to Ireland, in search of his father ; however, his mother had made him promise not to reveal his identity, and not to refuse any challenge. When Cú Chulainn met the boy, who came from elsewhere and did not deign to reveal his identity, he took him for an intruder, and the fight began. Connla too had been trained by the female warriors of Dún Scaith, and might have prevailed ; but upon realizing that he was fighting against his father, he purposely missed him with his spear, and allowed himself to be mortally wounded by Gae Bulg... Before dying, he had the time to confess who he was to his father, and to tell him that they could have enlarged the kingdom of Ulster as far as Rome, and beyond, which filled Cú Chulainn with grief. Aife had indeed avenged herself…

It was at the age of seventeen that the young hero fought his greatest battle. Following a whim motivated by her pride (her husband's livestock having one more animal than hers), Queen Medb, sovereign of Connacht (a province at the west of Ireland), declared war on Ulster, with all the other provinces of the country ; her primary goal was in fact to steal Donn Cuailnge, a magnificent bull. And, helped by druids, she invoked the goddess Macha, so that she would curse all the Ulaidh, making them suffer the pain of a woman in labour. Only Cú Chulainn was capable of fighting despite this affliction, and he then had to defend his kingdom, alone against three allied armies...
After he had killed the opposing scouts, and a first hundred men, Medb and her allies tried to bribe the demigod, who refused the riches offered. The war continued, and each day Cú Chulainn massacred a hundred men. Seeing that their situation was stagnating, the coalition adopted a new strategy : each day, a man would come to confront the demigod, to occupy him and allow the rest of the army to advance towards Ulster ; thus the enemies of the Ulaidh could invade this province. At one point, before a fight, the goddess Morrigan (who could be compared to a valkyrie) came to the hero, and tried to seduce him ; as he spurned her, she came back to attack him in the form of several animals (eel, she-wolf, heifer...), but more to annoy him than to kill him. Fortunately, after several months, there were soon no more volunteers to fight the "Hound of Culann", and his father Lugh came to him, to heal him with herbs from the Sidh ; Cú Chulainn then rested for three whole days.
But when he woke up, noting the invasion of his province, he had his most spectacular berserk frenzy, which caused him to transform into an abominable creature shaken by spasms, with twisted limbs, and an enormous mouth, from which an abundant amount of burning foam escaped. One of his eyes had retracted inside his skull, while the other was completely bulging, and his hair stood up like a thorny bush that had come to life... The horror that he had become jumped into the fray, killing several hundred men, and piling up the corpses. But he ended up becoming himself again, before Fergus mac Roich (one of his former guardians) who was in exile at the court of Medb, came to ask him to surrender. The demigod agreed, on the condition that Fergus promised to return the favor one day.
Then Cú Chulainn had to fight a particularly tragic battle again, since he had to face Ferdiad, his best friend met on the Isle of Skye, who unfortunately was fighting for the opposing camp, manipulated by Medb and her druids. The two friends fought with various weapons for three days, and it was not until the last one that Ferdiad began to have the upper hand. So the demigod had Gae Bulg brought to him, and he managed to mortallywound his tough-skinned friend, by thrusting the weapon through...his anus. The "Hound of Culann" mourned the death of the one he considered his brother, and realized that they had both just broken the promise made to Scathach... However, the effects of the curse that weighed on the Ulaidh dissipated, and little by little, the latter came to lend a hand to an exhausted Cú Chulainn. During another battle, the latter encountered Fergus mac Roich again, and asked him to surrender. Honoring his promise, the warrior ordered his men to leave the battlefield. The rest of the opposing forces panicked, then retreated, including Queen Medb herself. Unfortunately for her, her periods came to weaken her at this moment ; the demigod, who had pursued her, held her at his mercy for a moment, before sparing her, reluctant to kill a woman. The war was over, but the Queen of Connacht was not done with Lugh's son...

In anger, Medb began to conspire with high-ranking relatives of the many victims of the demigod. Calling on her druids once again, she discovered that her young enemy's invincibility was due to respecting two taboos imposed by the gods : he should never eat dog meat, and never refuse the hospitality of others. A witch in the service of the perfidious queen then came and stood on Cú Chulainn’s way, and cooked dog meat, which she offered to him as he passed. Trapped, the demi-god had no choice but to violate one of these prohibitions, and was drastically weakened spiritually...
The son of one of the victims of the "Hound of Culann", named Lugaid mac Con Roi, had three spears, each of which was prophesized to slay a king. Once in the presence of his enemy, he threw a first javelin at the driver of Cú Chulainn's battle chariot, a man named Laeg, considered the “king” of chariot drivers ; the second killed the horse that pulled the said cart, Liath Macha, the “king of horses”. As for the last spear, it mortally wounded the demigod himself. But Lugh's son still had enough strength to attach himself to a standing stone, on his feet, facing his enemies. He looked so fierce that Morrigan had to come and perch on his shoulder in the form of a raven for them to notice his death. Lugaid beheaded the demigod, who dropped his sword, which fell to the ground severing the murderer's hand. Then Morrigan escorted the soul of the deceased to the Sidh... This is how Cú Chulainn died, in the year 1 AD, according to the annals.

Some fitting music ! : youtu.be/U5u9glfqDsc

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Comments: 17

Zotco [2023-09-09 06:39:05 +0000 UTC]

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DoctorChevlong In reply to Zotco [2023-09-09 07:31:02 +0000 UTC]

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Zotco In reply to DoctorChevlong [2023-09-09 09:38:17 +0000 UTC]

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Lorenzuccio2008 [2023-09-08 15:41:24 +0000 UTC]

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DoctorChevlong In reply to Lorenzuccio2008 [2023-09-08 17:52:20 +0000 UTC]

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Lorenzuccio2008 In reply to DoctorChevlong [2023-09-08 19:10:01 +0000 UTC]

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firerockbird [2023-09-08 12:59:52 +0000 UTC]

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DoctorChevlong In reply to firerockbird [2023-09-08 13:46:35 +0000 UTC]

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Lorenzuccio2 [2023-09-08 08:30:02 +0000 UTC]

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DoctorChevlong In reply to Lorenzuccio2 [2023-09-08 08:52:35 +0000 UTC]

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JafanAdis [2023-09-08 04:00:47 +0000 UTC]

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DoctorChevlong In reply to JafanAdis [2023-09-08 07:15:50 +0000 UTC]

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Evil-God-Chernabog [2023-09-07 18:49:07 +0000 UTC]

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DoctorChevlong In reply to Evil-God-Chernabog [2023-09-07 19:13:49 +0000 UTC]

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Evil-God-Chernabog In reply to DoctorChevlong [2023-09-07 20:43:24 +0000 UTC]

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BluegirlWoomy [2023-09-07 17:56:00 +0000 UTC]

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DoctorChevlong In reply to BluegirlWoomy [2023-09-07 18:29:07 +0000 UTC]

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