Cathbad (Druid)

**Appears In**

**Family**

Father

* Rus Ruad - was Rus Ruad, Dagda?

Sons

* Aenfeld Nessa/Conchobar Mac Nessa

Wife

* Nessa/Ness/Neasca [Maybe]

**Timeline of Actions**

Cathbad

Actual meaning of Cathbad's tattoo. He was the strongest of all seers. Able to discern the future in ways even the gods could not. He used these powers only for personal gain, until one day he conspired to trick the gods themselves.

He tricked the Morrigan herself and stole something from her. This angered her so much that she had the god Acat, the god of tattoos, tattoo a geas on his forehead. It made it so he could never look into the future of his own volition, and never into his own future. He could only look into the futures of others, and even then, only when they asked him. He would always use his powers to serve others from then on, never himself.

Black and thick black hair. Tanned skin and green eyes. Average height but thin for a man, with delicate features and a thin small mouth. His eyes were small and green and hooded under large and thick eye brows. He had a presence, standing almost too straight, his chin always slightly raised, and his steps always silent. His most distinctive mark he bore on his forehead. A dark blue woad ink tattoo, a geas, in the shape of an intricate knotwork the stretched across his brow, and if his head were shaved you would see that the band went almost all the way around his skull. It was a geas rumored to have been done by the tattoo god himself, Acat, at the behest of Morrigan, when he refused to give her a prophecy. The geas forced Cathbad to tell someone a prophecy about their future if he knew one and they asked.

When Aenfeld had become King, he ruled it illegal to ask Cathbad that question. His birth had been a product of one of those prophecies, and he feared other prophecies could end his rule like they had ended Fergus'.

As Cathbad supposedly overpowered Ness bathing in the river to father Concho­bar, so Conchobar overpowered Medb while bathing in the water. This rape is said to be one of the causes of the great cattle raid, the Táin.

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Cathbad (Old Irish pronunciation: [ˈkaθvað]) or Cathbhadh (modern spelling) is the chief druid in the court of King Conchobar mac Nessa in the Ulster Cycle of Irish Mythology.

He features in both accounts of Conchobar's birth, in one of which he is the king's father. In the first, Nessa, daughter of Eochaid Sálbuide, the then king of Ulster, asks the druid what it is an auspicious time for (as he had the ability to foretell the future). Cathbad replies, "for begetting a king on a queen". There were no other men around, so Ness takes Cathbad to bed and conceives a son.[1][2]

In the second version,[3][4] Cathbad, who is a leader of a band of fianna (landless warriors) as well as a druid, attacks Ness's foster-father's house, killing all 12 of them. Because the culprit cannot be identified, Eochaid is powerless to do anything about it, so Ness forms her own band of 27 fianna to track him down. However, one day, when she goes off on her own to bathe, Cathbad comes upon her alone and unarmed, and demands her as his wife. She has no choice but to agree. However, in this version, Ness's child is the son of her lover, High King Fachtna Fáthach, not Cathbad's. Ness goes into labour, and Cathbad tells her if she can manage not to give birth until the following day, her son will be a great king and have everlasting fame. Ness sits on a flagstone by the river Conchobar and the following morning gives birth. The baby falls into the river, but Cathbad lifts him out, names him Conchobar after the river, and brings him up as his own son.[5][6]

The druid was also present at the birth of Deirdre and prophesied her tragic fate, but Conchobar ignored him.[7] On another occasion, the young Cú Chulainn overheard Cathbad prophesies that anyone who took arms on that day would have everlasting fame but a short life; he immediately ran to Conchobar and asked to be armed.

References

Kinsella, Thomas (1969). The Táin. Oxford University Press. p. 3.

"Cathbad". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.

Whitley, Stokes, ed. (1908). "Tidings of Conchobar son of Ness". Ériu. 2. Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. Retrieved 2014-06-30.

Meyer, Kuno (1883-1885). "Anecdota from the Stowe MS". Revue Celtique. 6 (992): 171–186.

Stokes, Whitley (1910). "Tidings of Conchobar mac Nessa". Ériu. 4: 18–38.

Meyer, Kuno (1884). "Anecdota from the Stowe MS. No 992". Revue Celtique. 6: 178–182.

Heroic Romances of Ireland. I. Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved December 24, 2011.

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