Cu Chulainn

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Cu Chulainn Apparently Dies at age 17? Other Source say:

According to the best-known legends, he **was** tricked by his enemies into an unfair fight and slain at the **age** of 27. **Cú Chulainn** riding his chariot into battle.

27 Makes a *lot* more sense considering the timeline.

According to the Annals, Cú Chulainn died in the year AD 1.

The Cattle Raid of Cooley apparently happened when Cu Chulainn was 17.

Almost all of his adventures seem to occur on Samhainn, or November.

"I believe that the otherworld was intimately intertwined with Cu Chulainn. Every adventure I deal with in this paper happens to him at Samhain the liminal time of the year. We are either told this or we can see from the weather descriptions of great snow storms that it was obviously winter. He seems to be controlled by the otherworld, his riastrad where his body contorts and he goes into battle rage is triggered and if not controlled by the otherworld. I believe that Cu Chulainn violated the sanctity of Tara on his first outing in his boyhood deeds and ever since that he was manipulated by otherworld deities or circumstances and never had any good fortune or self control again. The otherworld could intervene for better or worse throughout his life and at all these important events birds feature. Birds were seen as liminal creatures that could pass through the boundaries between worlds and they portent that something supernatural is about to happen. I believe the geiss or taboos given to a warrior are connected to the otherworld and in this way Cu Chulainn is controlled by these too. They give him his role in society, he is to be the guardian of the province but they also doom him to death."

The two types of heroes that were most popular in Ireland were; firstly, the martial hero like Cu Chulainn, the warrior figure that could protect from invasion no matter how intense the raid was and the second is the truthfiil leader. His powers included the ability to judge fairly and rule wisely, the most famous of these characters is Cormaic mac Airt

The life of Cu Chulainn follows

DE VRIES TEN POINT SYSTEM

1. Begetting by (a) Virgin mother seduced by a God or an affair (b) Human mother and a God ( c) God disguised as an animal visit’s the mother or (d) incest.

2. Birth

3. Youth

4. The way the hero is brought up

5. Acquires invulnerability

6. Hero fights a monster

7. Hero woos a maiden after dangerous adventures

8. Otherworld voyage

9. Banishment and return with a victory over his enemy

10. Death

Cú Chulainn’s name is itself transparent as “the Hound of Culann the Smith”. As noted above, it is in this light that one should possibly view Conchobar’s name as “Who has a Victorious Hound”, indicating Cú Chulainn’s special role as protector of the Ulaid in general and of Conchobar in particular. Cú Chulainn’s byname Sétanta probably derives from the same root apparent in Irish sét “road, way” (\*sento‑ “way”; DPC: 330, IEW: 908), but another Irish word sét “wealth, cattle” may have played a role as well. The byname Sétanta then would indicate Cú Chulainn’s role as the “Guide of Routes and Roads”, making him cognate with this aspect of Gaulish Mercurius.

He was born around 200 BC

The boy Sétanta is abandoned by his mother because of his illegitimacy (his father is his mother’s brother Conchobar)[This part is a maybe]. The twin colts (in the LU version) born at the same time then give parallels to the twins of the Roman tales. The boy Cú Chulainn is raised by several men. In his youth he forms a band of youths. Like a shepherd, he protects the cattle and flocks of the plain. After killing the hound of the smith, he takes on the role of watchdog of the plain. In the final battle of the Táin, on Imbolc, February 1, the first day of spring, the youths take his place in rescuing the stolen cattle, an event which, as we shall see, also happens to Romulus. In this same battle he kills his own son for the honor of Ulster,(Does this happen at the end of the battle, or afterwards?) as Romulus kills his brother for the honor of Rome.

Eye brows Black

Hair a varying shade of brown, red, and blonde. Three haircolors.

Eyes Grey

He is described as short, but he is also very young in the stories.

A list of CuChulainn's gifts is included in *Tochmarc Emire* (*The Wooing of Emer* ):

*"Many were his gifts. First, his gift of prudence until his warrior's flame appeared, the gift of feats, the gift of buanfach (a game like draughts), the gift of chess-playing, the gift of calculating, the gift of sooth-saying, the gift of discernment, the gift of beauty"* (*AIT* 154).

*The Story of Mac Datho's Pig* has a list of the banquet halls of Ireland and their appurtenances (*AIT* 199), and an itinerary of the route taken by Medb's forces to Ulster is found in *Táin Bó Cúailnge* (C. O'Rahilly 11. 280–96). A list of lists in early Irish literature could be extended at some length.

**Other items of Note:**

*Ochain was there, Conchobor's shield, the Ear of Beauty— it had four gold borders around it;*

*Cúchulainn's black shield Dubán;*

***Lámthapad**—the swift to hand—belonging to Conall Cernach;*

*Ochnech belonging to Flidais;*

*Furbaide's red-gold Orderg;*

*Cúscraid's triumphant sword Coscrach. . .*

Cú Chulainn, who is said to be one-eyed (caech), could function as the “One-Eyed God” - he becomes one eyed during his riastrad, when his eyes pops out.

He is described as having 7 pupils, and 4 dimples in each cheek. How does that work? Perhaps is it just an exaggeration. That doesn't sound like it would be attractive. (Maybe he gains pupils as his Riastrad sets in?)

Being the Son of the Oathbinder he is unable to break oaths that he makes. He swears fealty to King Aenfeld before he leaves for his training, and so must aid him even when he would not want to otherwise.

His sling -

"Three gods (or euhemerized gods) have a claim to being a wielder of what might be considered the thunderbolt: (1) Cú Chulainn, the son of the nocturnal Upper-Realm controller, (2) Lug (equivalent to Vedic Mitráḥ and Roman Fidius, controllers of the Upper Realm during the day), and (3) Dagda, the Irish equivalent of the original PIE Sky Father. Throughout the whole of the Ulster Cycle neither Conchobar, the nocturnal Upper-Realm controller, nor Fergus, the Middle-Realm controller, utilizes anything which can be considered a thunderbolt."

Is akin to the Lightning bolt of Zeus. It never misses.

Dagda is the grandfather of Cú Chulainn. As is Conchobar/Aenfeld

Cu Chulainn, Loegaire, and Conall have a competition at the house of Cu Roi

In Fled Bricrend, Cú Chulainn competes with Lóegaire Buadach and Conall Cernach to see who will receive the curadmir “champion’s portion” of the boar at the feast (fled). They hold many contests and seek out many judges, in all of which Cú Chulainn is obviously the victor and the champion. But at the feast, Conall and Lóegaire refuse to admit that Cú Chulainn is the champion. Finally a huge peasant (bachlach) appears who is twice as tall as any normal man.

Horrible and ugly was the carl’s guise (a innas in bachlaig). Next to his skin he wore an old hide with a dark dun mantle around him, and over him [was] a great spreading club-tree (branch) the size of a winter shed, under which thirty bullocks could find shelter…. In his left hand [was] a stalk, a burden for twenty yoke of oxen. In his right hand [was] an axe weighing thrice fifty glowing molten masses [of iron]. Its handle would require a plough-team to move it. Its sharpness [was] such that it would lop off hairs [from] the wind blowing them against its edge. (Henderson 1899: 116-7).

Cú Rói requests of any of the warriors, “that I may cut off your head tonight; you cut off mine tomorrow night” (Henderson 1899: 120-1). When no one can be found to agree to this, he changes the condition. “[He] is to cut off my head tonight; I [am] to cut off his tomorrow” (1899: 98-9). First Munremur beheads the bachlach, who arises and takes his head, block, and axe, and leaves the hall. The next night he returns, but Munremur refuses to be beheaded in turn.

“Who of the warriors that contest Ulster’s Champion’s Portion (cauradmír) will carry out a covenant tonight with me? Where is Lóegaire Buadach?”, asked he. “Here,” said Lóegaire. He pledged him too, yet he would not keep his pledge. The bachlach returned the next day and similarly pledged Conall Cernach, who came not as he had sworn.” (1899: 124-5).

The bachlach returned the fourth night and requested that Cú Chulainn make a covenant with him.

“No covenant do I desire with you,” said Cú Chulainn. “Likely is that you wretched fly (cuil), greatly do you fear to die.” Whereupon Cú Chulainn sprang towards him and dealt him a blow with the axe, hurling his head to the top rafter…. Cú Chulainn again caught up the head and gave it a blow with the axe and smashed it. Thereafter the bachlach rose up. (Henderson 1899: 124-5).”

The next night the bachlach appeared again to see if Cú Chulainn would be beheaded in turn.

This whole next paragraph is basically Cu Chulainn having a Riastrad.

Then Cú Chulainn stretched out his neck so that a warrior’s full-grown foot would have fitted between any two ribs; he distorted his neck till it reached the other side of the block. The bachlach raised his axe (bial) till it reached the rooftree of the hall. The creaking of the old hide that was about the fellow and the crashing of the axe, both of his arms being raised aloft with all his might, were as the loud noise of a wood tempest tossed in a night of storm. Down it came then … on his neck, its blunt side below.” (1899: 128-9).

Cú Chulainn then arose having attained the rige laech nEirenn “the sovereignty of the warriors of Ireland”. He had won the curadmir gen chosnum “the champion’s portion undisputed”. The text then goes on to state that “it was Cú Rói mac Dairi, who in that guise had come to fulfill his promise to Cú Chulainn” (1899: 128-9). Medb awards Cú Chulainn a goblet of precious metal full of wine.

In the story, let's have them have the comepetition, and the giant Churl appears. They agree, and then they each cut off it's head. Loegire goes first. Then the giant puts its head back on. Then the other two go. When it comes to having their heads chopped off. They all bow out, exceot for Cu Chulainn. He begins to go into a Riastrad to protect himself from the blow.

The Churl could be a kind of Clay Golem. That's how it would be able to put its head back on.

When does this happen? We know that is leads to the Death of Cu Roi. In this task Cú Chulainn is aided, of course, by Bláthnat’s betraying Cú Rói in the bath.

The Irish tale Aided Conrói (Best 1905: 20-1) explains that Bláthnat ingin Mind was carried off by Cú Chulainn during a raid on the Fer Failgi.

It is significant that in the Forfess fer Falgae, as in the Táin, Cú Chulainn takes solely upon himself the night action against his foes. Cú Chulainn cuts down all of his foes among the Fer Falchae in single combat

A gloss equating the Fer Falgae with the Fer Manann suggests an underworld raid upon the land of Manannán, who supposedly inhabited the Isle of Man.

The future struggle against Cú Rói is outlined in the lines which follow Cú Chulainn’s killing Gét

Fights will be issued.

The fair man will be fought

because of the night watch booty.

Because of the night watch of Falgae, there will be passed

the night watch in the slaughter

of Cú Rói of the plain,

during the warlike deeds against Gét,

the base client to Conchobar,

(from) beyond the land of the Dal Dedaid (the Erenn).

ided Con Rói explains that the booty carried off at forbais fer Failgi included not only Bláthnat, but the teóra herca Iuchna “three cows of Iuchna”, the eóin bega nobítis for hóib na mbó “the little birds that used to be on the ears of the cows”. These birds were known as the three men of Ochain. The booty also included a cauldron (Best 1905: 20‑1). The cauldron itself would hold the milk of thirty cows, which was what the three cows of Iuchna produced daily. The text of this saga also contains a poem in which Cú Chulainn states dobert-sa in core sin la hingin in ríg “I carried off the cauldron with the daughter of the king”.

When the booty was being divided from the siege of the Fer Failgae, Cú Rói was not given his share. Since justice (cert) was not given Cú Rói, he took the woman.

He ran in among the cows and gathered them before him; [he] collected the birds in his girdle, thrust the woman under one of his armpits, and went from them, with the cauldron on his back. (Best 1905: 20-1).

When Cú Chulainn pursued him, Cú Rói got the better of him.

Cú Rói thrust him in the earth to his armpits, cropped his hair with his sword, rubbed cow-dung into his head, and then went home.” (1905: 22-3).

After that, Cú Chulainn went to meet the woman Cú Rói had carried off, Bláthnat the daughter of Iuchna, king of the Fer Falgae, “for he had loved her even before she was brought over the sea” (1905: 22-3). Cú Chulainn made a tryst to meet her on samain, the first day of winter. On samain then Cú Chulainn set forth with a province of Ireland (cóiced Erend) to take the fort built for Cú Rói by the Cland Dedad (Cathair Con Rói).

This was the token that was between her and Cú Chulainn, namely to pour the milk of Iuchna’s cows down the river in the direction of the Ulstermen, so that the river might be white when she was washing him (Cú Rói)…. Thereupon he (Cú Rói) went inside. The woman washed him. She bound his hair to the bedposts and rails, took his sword out of its scabbard, and threw open the stronghold. He heard nought, however, until the men had filled the house and had fallen upon him. (Best 1905: 22-3).

Cú Chulainn and the Ulstermen then killed Cú Rói and took the fort, though they also had to battle the Cland Dedaid, for Cú Rói was their king (1905: 26-7). Cú Rói’s fili “poet” Ferchertne then grabbed Bláthnat and leapt off the cliff holding on to her to avenge her betraying Cú Rói.

Bláthnat, the daughter of Mend, was slain

in the slaughter above Argat-glenn.

(It was) an incredible deed for a wife to betray her man.

On account of it, judgment went against her. (Best 1905: 300).

Does what happens next happen before the death of Cu Roi or after?

In Serglige Con Culainn (Dillon 1953) while the Ulaid celebrate the oenach at Samain, a flock of beautiful birds settles upon the lake nearby. The women of the Ulaid are seized with a desire to have a bird set upon each of their shoulders. Leborcham goes to Cú Chulainn to tell of the women’s desire. All of the women love Cú Chulainn, and all of them share their beds with him as well as with their husbands. He comes in his chariot and strikes the birds lightly with his sword, so that their wings cling to the water. All but his wife Ethne Inguba, or Emer (he seems to have had two wives), receive a pair of the birds. To console her, Cú Chulainn promises to get Ethne the loveliest pair of any other birds that may show up later.

Like Lug, Cú Chulainn bears a special relationship to human kingship. In the interpolation to Serglige Con Culainn, Cú Chulainn gives instructions to Lugaid Réoderg on how to be a proper king (Dillon 1941: 8-10). In this, Cú Chulainn embodies the concept of truth (fír), for it is only through Truth that one may be a proper king. One may also note that in the final combat of the Táin, Cú Chulainn enters the battle only when Conchobar is endangered by Fergus and his great sword. Cú Chulainn, himself, also could be said to be a king. In Mesca Ulaid (ll. 18-28), Fintan, Conchobar, and Cú Chulainn originally share the rule of Ulster, which is divided into three parts. Fintan and Cú Chulainn then give their rule voluntarily to Conchobar that he may be an over-king. It is clear, nonetheless, that Cú Chulainn maintains control over Mag Muirthemne, his special domain. However, like Lug in Cath Maige Tuired, Cú Chulainn in Táin bó Cuailnge comes to the court of a reigning king (his father) as an outsider and takes over his role as battle leader (Cú Chulainn alone is spared the noiden Ulaid, the special debility cursed upon the Ulaid by Macha).

In Serglige Con Culainn (Dillon 1953) while the Ulaid celebrate the oenach at Samain, a flock of beautiful birds settles upon the lake nearby. The women of the Ulaid are seized with a desire to have a bird set upon each of their shoulders. Leborcham goes to Cú Chulainn to tell of the women’s desire. All of the women love Cú Chulainn, and all of them share their beds with him as well as with their husbands. He comes in his chariot and strikes the birds lightly with his sword, so that their wings cling to the water. All but his wife Ethne Inguba, or Emer (he seems to have had two wives), receive a pair of the birds. To console her, Cú Chulainn promises to get Ethne the loveliest pair of any other birds that may show up later.

Soon afterwards two birds, linked by a golden chain, alight upon the lake. Cú Chulainn casts a sling stone at them, but strangely, for the first time ever, misses the mark. He misses three times in succession. He then casts his spear, which goes through a wing of one of the birds. At that, Cú Chulainn falls into a trance.

In his sleep Cú Chulainn sees two women coming towards him, one dressed in a green cloak, the other in a purple cloak. They come up to him smiling, but then they begin striking him with their horse whips. They beat him till he is almost dead. When he finally awakens, he is so weak he cannot speak. The Ulaid then carry him to Fergus’s house to spend a year in bed in a wasting sickness induced by unsatisfied longing.

A year later at Samain, Oengus, son of Aed Abrat (since Aed Abrat is a byname of the Dagda, this Oengus is Oengus Mac ind Óc), journeys from over the sea to tell Cú Chulainn that his sisters could heal him. Oengus tells Cú Chulainn that Lí Ban will come to him with a message from his sister Fand, the wife of Manannán. Cú Chulainn then awakens and tells of his vision. He arises from bed and journeys again to the lake side.

While Cú Chulainn is at the lake, Lí Ban comes up to him. She tells him that her sister Fand has come to live with her. Because Manannán has deserted her, Fand is now in love with Cú Chulainn. Lí Ban tells Cú Chulainn that if he will fight for her husband Labraid but a single day, Labraid will give Fand to him. She promises to heal Cú Chulainn before the fight. She is emphatic that of Fand’s beauty no woman can compare.

Over clear waters Labraid dwells

where bands of women stay.

Leaving his people, you would not be weary,

if you visit Labraid Lúaith.

(ll. 421-4).

…

Two kings dwell in that hall

Failbe Find and Labraid.

Three times fifty [stand] about each king,

such is the great hall’s size.

…

There before the entrance to the west,

where the evening sun goes down,

are grey horses with gleaming manes

and others purple brown.

There before the entrance to the east

are three trees of purple glass.

From these trees birds always gently call

to children of that kingly hall.

There is a tree at the hall’s entrance;

the singing from it is not unpleasant.

Through the shining sun this silver tree

gleams like gold in its brilliance.

Before [the hall] stand sixty trees.

In touching their boughs touch not.

From each tree three hundred feed

on plentiful nuts which have no hulls.

In the síd hall is a well

with three-times-fifty brook trout.

On the side of each speckled trout

is a fin of brilliant gold.

There stands a cauldron of spirited mead

to share among those in the hall.

They keep a custom there

that it always shall be full.

Within the hall is a girl

with flowing yellow hair,

beautiful and skilled in arts,

surpassing all Irish women.

…

Beautiful women, unsurpassed in virtue,

are the daughters of Aed Abrat.

Fand’s form, renowned for brilliance,

no king’s queen has attained.

(ll. 478-556).

Cú Chulainn journeys to the land of Lí Ban. There he fights Eogan Inbir and men summoned from Manannán. He defeats them all. In return, as promised, he is given Fand. He then sleeps with Fand and stays with her for a month. But after a month he decides to leave her and return to Emain Macha. Before he leaves, he makes a tryst to meet her again.

Before setting out to meet Fand, however, Cú Chulainn tells his wife Emer of the tryst. Emer demands to know why she is dishonored before all. Cú Chulainn explains that Fand is clean, fair, chaste, clever, and fit for a king. She is a girl from the waves beyond the fair seas, with beauty, grace, and nobility. Moreover, she has skills in embroidery and crafts. She has sense and wisdom, and is also steadfast. She has many horses and herds of cattle.

Emer accompanies Cú Chulainn to his tryst with Fand. Emer tells Fand and Cú Chulainn that all that is new is bright, all that is lacking is delight, whereas all that is familiar is neglected.

“Let him leave me then,” Fand responds.

“It is more just that he leave me,” replies Emer in turn.

“No,” says Fand, “it is I who should be abandoned, though I have come through danger from afar to be with him.” Fand has grown sad and faint of spirit. She feels ashamed that Cú Chulainn had already left her once before, after being with her but a month. The love that she has given Cú Chulainn troubles her, and she begins to lament.

Manannán then comes to retrieve Fand, since she has been dishonored. On perceiving him, Fand makes a lay.

When Manannán first brought me home

I was a steadfast fitting wife.

He gave me a bracelet of solid gold

as the price of my maidenhead.

…

As for me, I got what I deserved.

Foolish are the senses of women.

The one I loved exceedingly

has brought me to distress.

(ll. 783-806).

Fand then sets off with Manannán, who asks her if she really will come with him or would rather stay with Cú Chulainn. She answers that though she would rather stay with Cú Chulainn, she will go with Manannán since Cú Chulainn had abandoned her. She also goes with Manannán because he has no other wife, and his need is greatest. The druids give Cú Chulainn a drink of forgetfulness, so that he cannot remember Fand. Manannán then shakes his cloak between Cú Chulainn and Fand, that they may never meet again.

Appearance[edit]

Cú Chulainn's appearance is occasionally remarked on in the texts.

He is usually described as small, youthful and beardless.

He is often described as dark: in The Wooing of Emer and Bricriu's Feast he is "a dark, sad man, comeliest of the men of Erin",[37] in The Intoxication of the Ulstermen he is a "little, black-browed man",[38] and in

The Phantom Chariot of Cú Chulainn "[h]is hair was thick and black, and smooth as though a cow had licked it… in his head his eyes gleamed swift and grey";[39] yet the prophetess Fedelm in the Táin Bó Cúailnge describes him as blond.[40] The most elaborate description of his appearance comes later in the Táin:

And certainly the youth Cúchulainn mac Sualdaim was handsome as he came to show his form to the armies.

You would think he had three distinct heads of hair—brown at the base, blood-red in the middle, and a crown of golden yellow. This hair was settled strikingly into three coils on the cleft at the back of his head. Each long loose-flowing strand hung down in shining splendour over his shoulders, deep-gold and beautiful and fine as a thread of gold. A hundred neat red-gold curls shone darkly on his neck, and his head was covered with a hundred crimson threads matted with gems. He had four dimples in each cheek—yellow, green, crimson and blue—and seven bright pupils, eye-jewels, in each kingly eye. Each foot had seven toes and each hand seven fingers, the nails with the grip of a hawk's claw or a gryphon's clench.

— Thomas Kinsella (translator), The Táin, Oxford University Press, 1969, pp. 156–158

People may think of Cú Chulainn (pronounced ‘Ku Kullen’) as a uniquely Irish hero – it was in Ireland that the Hound of Ulster’s most heroic deeds took place, after all – but one amateur historian now thinks that Cú Chulainn’s fame extended far beyond the shores of the Emerald Isle.

Blogger Xavier Séguin thinks the Mayans worshiped Cú Chulainn as a god a millennium ago. His theory is that a shipwrecked on the Maine coast was navigated by a man the Mayans called Kukulcan.

Vikings are thought to have been the first white men to discover North America several centuries before that and Séguin believes Cú Chulainn could have joined them.

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“Thus the famous Cuchulainn of Ulster after many battles and glorious facts [sic], reached the islands of Atlantis [with the Vikings] and then Mesoamerica … This scenario seems very complicated. I think Cuchulainn is Atlantean, and not from Ulster. This is one of three sons of Lugh, the last of the giant god-kings who reigned in Atlantis. Cuchulainn had three brothers, three princes without kingdom because Avalon – the island of Atlantis – was no more.

“The other two brothers, the most illustrious princes, have faced the same cruel fate, escape from a magical island to reach unknown lands.”

Kukulcan was indeed a Mayan God, but legend has it that he was a feathered snake and not an Irishman. In one legend he is cited as the reason for earthquakes in July, which he causes to let his sister know he is still alive.

**Appears In**

**Family**

Father

* Lugh or Conchobar or Sualtam/Sualdaim

Son

* Connla with Aife

Brothers

* Two other sons of Lugh

**Timeline of Actions**