MYTHOLOGICAL TALES | FAIRY TALES | FOLKTALES

MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE | ULSTER CYCLE | FENIAN CYCLE | CYCLE OF KINGS

Set around the beginning of the Christian era, the Ulster Cycle, also known as the “Ulaid” or “Ultonian” Cycle, is a collection of stories that centers around the legendary King Conchobar Mac Nessa of Ulster, Cú Chulainn, his greatest champion, and their immediate family, friends and enemies. Though the action is set around Emain Macha, the capitol of Ulster, in what is now County Armagh, it includes characters from both Ulster and Connaught provinces.

“The Curse of Macha”, 1910, Stephen Reid.

he Twins of Macha is the story of the founding of Emain Macha, the home of Cú Chulainn and The Knights of Red Branch. It begins one day describing how one day an Ulster nobleman named Crunnchu was sitting and tending his fire at home when a mysterious and beautiful woman suddenly entered his home, took the turf from his hands, and began tending the fire for him. Instead of leaving, however, she began to tend to his house as if she was his wife and, soon afterwards, consummated their relationship by sleeping with him. Before the mysterious beauty had entered his life, Crunnchu had been widowed for some time, and had been left to look after the house and his two children alone so, needless to say, this new development was quite a blessing. (Learn More...)

he Táin Bó Cúailnge, “The Cattle Raid of Cooley”, is generally considered to be the greatest epic of not only the Ulster Cycle, but of all Irish history. The Táin is essentially the story of a contest of wills between King Ailill and Queen Maeve of Connaught, and the consequences that can occur when there is competition between the king and the queen over who is truly the ruler. The story begins with a simple argument between Ailill and Maeve over who was the richest. While engaging in this “pillow talk”, they began to compare each other’s properties horse for horse, cow for cow, and goat for goat, until they realized that they were exactly equal in wealth, with one important exception. There was one exceptionally large and strong bull named Finnbennach (“the Whitehorned”), of which there was no match in all the herds of Connaught. Finnbennach had originally belonged to Maeve, but the proud bull had decided that he did not want the dishonor of being part of a woman’s herd, so he went over to dwell in Ailill’s herd instead. So great was this loss to Maeve that it was as if she had nothing at all, and she purposed to find a bull that was better than Finnbennach so her wealth would be greater than that of Ailill’s.(Learn More...)

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