Táin Bó Cúailnge
The Cattle Raid of Cooley, Ireland's great epic, the war of Ulster and Connacht over a prize brown bull.
Core Characteristics
- Preserved in the 12th-century Book of Leinster from older oral matter.
- Queen Medb of Connacht invades Ulster while its men lie in their birth-pangs; only the seventeen-year-old Cú Chulainn holds the ford.
- Its single-combat set pieces made Cú Chulainn the Achilles of Irish legend.
Related Concepts & Sources
Celtic, Heroic Virtue, Acallam na Senórach