The Táin Bó Cúailnge , which one usually translates by the “Raid (or Raid) of the Cows of Cooley” is the principal account and longest of the Cycle of Ulster which, with the mythological Cycle, the Cycle Fenian, and the historical Cycle, constitutes the literary corpus of the Irish Celtic Mythologie. The handwritten version the oldest date of the whole beginning of the 11th century, but its composition goes back to the protohistoric period.

A coalition of the kingdoms of Ireland, taken along by the sovereigns of the Connaught invade the kingdom of Ulster for the possession of the fabulous bull, the Brun of Cúailnge. They must face most terrible of the warriors, Cúchulainn.

Manuscripts and versions

There exist two principal versions of the account:

• part of the first version is contained in the Lebor Na hUidre ( Livre of the brown cow ) which dates from the beginning of the 11th century, but the language used shows that it belongs to the 9th century and perhaps to the 8th century. The second part is included in the Yellow Book off Lecan ( yellow Livre of Lacan ) which is later, it dates from the 14th century. These two units constitute, once assembled, the complete history of the raid, without there being literary unit, taking into account the various times of composition.
• the second version is included in the Livre of Leinster (in Gaélique Lebar Na Nuachongbala - Livre of the New Foundation ), manuscript which dates from the 12th century. This version was established starting from the Lebor Na hUidre and of the Yellow Book off Lecan , with incorporation of original elements.
• There exists a third later and very fragmentary version.

These texts are written in Vieil Irish, used of VIIIe in XIe century and in Moyen Irish, used of XIe in XVe century. The narrative form is prose except for versified passages, which underline the dramatic intensity. This work of literary compilation was completed by clerks, within the framework of the Irish monasteries. A Christian varnish is superimposed on the Celtic substrate.

On the other hand, the dating of the matter is impossible. The framework is undoubtedly préchrétien and a warlike company of the age of iron describes us. The oral transmission was done over several centuries. On a purely anecdotic basis, a legend makes of king Conchobar a contemporary of the Christ.

The epopee

The royal argument

The sovereigns of the Connaught, the queen Medb and the king Ailill, are in their royal residence of Crúachan. The queen points out her prestigious genealogy, it enumerates the noble applicants whom it got rid of by specifying that her husband was to be a man without avarice, jealousy and fear, because itself is generous, is unaware of the jealousy and can show courage, the equality is appropriate in their couple.

The conversation comes on their inheritances and Medb claims to have more goods, which question its husband. One thus brings all their businesses and treasures, one counts jewels, crockery, sheep, horses, pigs, cows, but their goods are equal of number and in value, except for a calf (the Horned White) which belongs to the king. Medb requires of Mac Roth where one can get a similar animal and he answers that in Ulster, a man of the name of Dáre has a bull, called the Brun of Cooley.

Mac Roth is dispatched on the spot so that Dáre rents the animal for one year, against payment of fifty heifers and much if necessary (another field are equivalent to his, a tank being worth “three times seven slaves” and “the friendship of the thigh of Medb”). Initially, Dáre accepts the proposal, but he learns by the indiscretion from a messenger that if he had refused, his bull of force would have been taken to him. He charms himself and refuses to yield his animal.

The invasion of Ulster

Medb makes come in Crúachan, the seven “Basket”, the wire of Mága, like Cormac Cond Longas and Fergus Mac Roeg, all with their armies. They remain 15 days to be feasted. Before launching forwarding, the queen will consult her Druide. Then it is a multitude of kings, warriors and of people which move towards Ulster. Cúchulainn and Sualtam discovers the armies and will give alarm. Medb was informed that Conchobar and Ulates is in the incapacity to fight, but in the Irish camp a druid warns against the power of a royal warrior.

The first confrontation with place in Ath Gabla (the Ford of the Fork), Cúchulainn decapitates two wire of Nera and their coachmen, who constituted the avant-garde of the Irishmen and returns their corpses. Fergus informs Ailill and Medb which this slaughter can be only the fact of Cúchulainn, the most frightening warrior and most sanguinary. He then tells them the childhood and the exploits of Setanta.

The next day, Cúchulainn goes ahead of of the armies of the four large kingdoms of Ireland, it cuts the head of Orlám and the three wire of Arach, come to face it undergo the same fate. The following day, they are hundred warriors who succumb. The come night, whereas it prepares its weapons, they are hundred other warriors who die of fear. Change of strategy, one decides to compensate it and to suborn it on several occasions, but the champion of Ulster refuses and finds more glorious to remain at the court of Conchobar. The massacres begin again, each time hundred warriors perish. Then it is agreed that each day a warrior will fight Cúchulainn, the army will be able to advance the time of the combat, then will stop with dead of the warrior. Many combat at the conclusion invariable follow.

The Brown one of Cooley and its 50 cows are captured by Buide, wire of Blai Bath. Fifteen days later, the armies of the four kingdoms meet. Cúchulainn uses for the first time the “Gae bolga” against Redg, the satirist of Medb. The engagements continue, but the volunteers to face the champion of Ulster are not numerous; the queen attracts them by promises, the fact drinking and the book with the caresses of Findabair. Medb sends 100 warriors who are killed. The armies of the four kingdoms settle in the plain of Murthemme and send spoils and herd towards the south.

The intervention of Lug

An invisible warrior for the enemies of Ulates arrives at the camping of Cúchulainn. It is Lug, the supreme god, who also the divine father of the hero. With plants of the Sidh, it looks after the wounds of his son who sleeps during three days and three nights because it had not taken any rest between Samain and Imbolc. At the conclusion of this rest, it makes harness its Tank and launches the attack, this episode is known under the name of “massacre of Murthemme”: six thicknesses of corpses of enemy warriors pile up on the battle field, a hundred and fifty kings lose the life and a third of the Irishmen is wounded.

All the combatants being systematically decapitated, Medb calls upon the most valorous warrior, Ferdiad. Thanks to the magic of its druids, with enivrement, with the promises of treasure and the hand of Findabair, it constrained to accept the duel against his/her friend. The meeting takes place on the ford and after a long discussion, the attack starts. That lasts during three days, the nights they are looked after and restored. At the last day, the combat is if violent that the river changes course; Cúchulainn receives a blow of sword in the chest, then it kills Ferdiad of a blow of “Gae bolga”. Ulates warriors take along Cúchulainn to wash it and look after it, in a torrent where the Tuatha Dé Danann deposited medicinal herbs.

At this point in time intervenes Cethern Mac Fintan, it attacks and devastates the camp of the Irishmen, but is itself wounded. It is looked after by Fingen, the personal druid-doctor of the king Conchobar Mac Nessa who, to the sight of the wounds, can say which caused them. Arrived of Fintan with “three times fifty” warriors, they fight three battles and kill three times their number before succumbing.

Rochad Mac Fathemain comes to lend strong hand to Cúchulainn, Findabair is encouraged by his/her mother to spend the night with him and to obtain a truce, before the great battle of Gárech and Ilgárech, announced by the druids. Princes de Munster with whom it hand of the princess had been promised revolt and Findabair dies of shame.

The alarm clock of Ulates

Sualtam, one of the terrestrial fathers of Cúchulainn goes close to his/her failing son, who asks him to go to seek of the assistance at Ulates. Arrived at Emain Chewed, its harangue remains without answer, because no one cannot speak before the king who cannot itself speak before his druids. To have harangué the king of the kind, the druid Cathbad causes the death of the messenger, but Conchobar decides to rameuter all the warriors of Ulster. Conchobar and Celtchar, with the head of “three thousand chiefs of tank” and very many riders sink on the camp of the Irishmen; with the first attack the king kills eight hundred warriors.

After having been to observe the camp of Ulates, Mac Roth submits his report/ratio with the sovereigns of Connaught and Fergus explains which are the noble ones why he saw and which is their value. He predicts the defeat of the coalition. At this point in time Morrigan comes to excite the men of the two camps. Cúchulainn, casualty, cannot attend the final battle, whose unfolding is told to him by its coachman, Lóeg. Ulates victorious, are overcome turn over to Crúachan.

The Brown one of Cúailnge, during this time, had arrived in Connaught. It must face the Horned White, the bull of Ailill, the combat makes them cross all Ireland. After having massacred its adversary, the Brown one turns over to Cooley to die there.

Analyzes

• Throughout the account, the Druide S are omnipresent, one often requests their opinion on the action to be taken and they announce the events before they occur. The extent of their science is coloured by the episode of Fingen looking after Cethern Mac Fintan: only by examining its wounds, it is able to appoint the author of it. The most revealing fact of their statute in the Celtic Société is in the episode of dead of Sualtam. Cathbad makes it die because it has enfreint an interdict (a “Geis”), according to which one cannot speak before the king, who himself cannot express himself before these druids. This hierarchy, which reveals the primacy of the sacerdotal class, is in conformity with the trifonctionnelle ideology of the Indo-Europeans, worked out by Georges Dumézil.
• Contrairement to a text like Cath Maighe Tuireadh , in which the Tuatha Dé Danann are major actors, the gods of the Celtic Mythologie are absent from this war, except for two of them. The first appearance is that of Lug, which goes invisible to the eyes of the Irish warriors. It intervenes as a divine father of Cúchulainn, to look after it and take care on its rest, but he is also the supreme god, called “Samildanach” (the polytechnician). The second divinity is Morrigan, which pokes the warriors of the two camps before the ultimate battle. As a goddess of the war, her presence is obligatory at this time account.
• Except for two mentions relating to the respective genealogies of Medb and Conchobar, there is no laughed Ard Érenn (supreme king of Ireland), in the raid. The island is made up only of four large kingdoms and they are the sovereigns of Connaught who join together and direct the coalition against Ulster, considered like a foreign kingdom. This absence of sovereignty on the whole of the island shows, according to Alain Deniel (see the sources), “the seniority of work”. In other texts of mythology, the supreme king resides at Tara, capital of the fifth kingdom of Mide (Meath, in English) and the other kings owe him a tax in cattle, the boroma .
• Medb, whose name means “intoxication”, is not only the wife of Ailill, it reigns jointly with him on Connaught, it is equal for him. In other accounts, she is married with other kings, of which Conchobar Mac Nessa, itself. The consideration of the woman in the Celtic company is a recurrent theme, in particular with the discovery of sumptuous the Tombe of Vix. According to Christian-J. Guyonvarc' H and Francoise the Russet-red, there is equality between man and woman, even at the military level. This is why, Medb takes share with the final battle. More generally, it represents the sovereignty which it confers on that it marries and the intoxication of the capacity.
• the near total of the victims of Cúchulainn are decapitated, there is only Etarcumul which is cut into two of a blow on cranium, Redg and Ferdiad are victims of the “gae bolga”. It is about a systematic warlike ritual in the engagements, the winner “adapts” the head of its enemy, it comes to decorate the neck of its horse or the entry of its residence (see the pillars of the Oppidum d' Entremont).
• the “weakness” of Ulates at the time of the attack of their country is a pretext to propose their champion and his magico-warlike qualities. Because, it was initiated in Scotland by the magician Scáthach. The heroes move on their tank, directed by a coachman, who is also used as development.

The French text

• the Raid of the cows of Cooley , Irish Celtic account translated from Irish, presented and annotated by Christian-J. Guyonvarc' H, Gallimard, “coll the Paddle of the People”, Paris, 1994,
• the Raid of the cows of Cooley , Irish Celtic account translated from Irish, presented and annotated by Alain Deniel, Harmattan, Paris, 1997,

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