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THE TWINS OF MACHA | THE TAIN

“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.

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There was once a wealthy Ulster farmer named Crunnchu, son of Agnoman, dwelling in a solitary place among the hills, who found one day in his dun a young woman of great beauty and in splendid array, whom he had never seen before. Crunnchu was a widower, his wife having died after bearing him four sons. The strange woman, without a word, set herself to do the household tasks, prepared dinner, milked the cow, and took on herself all the duties of the mistress of the household. At night she lay down at Crunnchu's side, and thereafter dwelt with him as his wife; and they loved each other dearly. Her name was Macha.

One day Crunnchu prepared himself to go to a great fair or assembly of the Ultonians, where there would be feasting and horse-racing, tournaments and music, and merrymaking of all kinds. Macha begged her husband not to go. He persisted, "Then," she said, "at least do not speak of me in the assembly, for I may dwell with you only so long as I am not spoken of."

Crunnchu promised to obey the injunction, and went to the festival. Here the two horses of the king carried off prize after prize in the racing, and the people cried: "There is not one in Ireland swifter than the King's pair of horses."

I have a wife at home," said Crunnchu, in a moment of forgetfulness, "who can run quicker than these horses."

"Seize that man," said the angry king, "and hold him till his wife be brought to the contest."

So messengers went for Macha, and she was brought before the assembly; and she was with child. The king bade her prepare for the race. She pleaded her condition. "I am close upon my hour," she said. "Then hew her man in pieces," said the king to his guards. Macha turned to the bystanders. "Help me," she cried, "for a mother hath borne each of you! Give me but a short delay till I am delivered." But the king and all the crowd in their savage lust for sport would hear of no delay. "Then bring up the horses," said Macha, "and because you have no pity a heavier infamy shall fall upon you." So she raced against the horses, and outran them, but as she came to the goal she gave a great cry, and her travail seized her, and she gave birth to twin children. As she uttered that cry, however, all the spectators felt themselves seized with pangs like her own and had no more strength than a woman in her travail. And Macha prophesied: "From this hour the shame you have wrought on me will fall upon each man of Ulster. In the hours of your greatest need ye shall be weak and helpless as women in childbirth, and this shall endure for five days and four nights — to the ninth generation the curse shall be upon you." And so it came to pass; and this is the cause of the Curse of Macha, the debilitating pains that was wont to afflict the warriors of the province during their time of greatest need.

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