Táin Bó Cúailnge – The Cattle Raid of Cooley

The Cattle Raid of Cooley is a legendary epic written in prose that tells of a war that all began because of a prize bull.

The war was one against the region of Ulster by the region of Connacht.  Queen Medb and her husband Ailill intended to steal the bull, named Donn Cuailnge.  He is a brown bull like our Irish cow this year!  Of course, this bull wasn’t just any old bull.  It was a special, magical bull.    

Then there was Medb.  She was a proud queen and was determined to be every bit as powerful as her husband.  One day Queen Medb and King Ailill were comparing wealth.  Queen Medb determined that the only thing keeping her from being equal to her husband was owning a magical bull like her husband did. 

Queen Medb [source: painted by J. Leyendecker, 1916]

Actually, the magical bull that King Ailill owned was originally in Queen Medb’s flock.  However, the bull did not like belonging to a woman, so the bull moved himself over to her husband’s herd.  Well, Medb knew that there was the every-bit-as-powerful-as-her-husband's-magic-bull, the Ulster bull Donn Cuailnge.

The queen sent messengers over to the county to offer to rent the bull for a year.  She also told them that if they are denied, then they are to take the bull by force.  At first, the county agreed to let her rent it.  Unfortunately, her messengers get drunk after talking over the deal, and they told the others that they were going to steal the bull if they couldn’t borrow it.  Naturally, the deal fell apart when the other side heard those claims.

So Queen Medb raised an army to capture the bull.  At that time, the men of the rival county Ulster had been cursed by a goddess and were too ill to fight.  The only person well enough to fight was the seventeen year old boy Cú Chulainn. 

Poor Cú Chulainn, who was both helped and hindered by various gods and goddesses, lost the bull to Queen Medb.  However, eventually, the Ulstermen began to rouse from their sickness, so they could partake in the final battle.  As bad as she is for stealing someone’s bull, I will say it was pretty cool that even Queen Medb fought in the battle.  Although Medb was forced to retreat in the end, she did manage to take the bull home with her. 

Alas, this tale has as sad of an ending as I have ever known.  When the two magical bulls were near each other, they began fighting.  Eventually, the stolen bull Donn Cuailnge killed the other bull.  But, he was also injured badly enough that after some roaming, he too died. 

[source: painted by Brian Boylan]