Fate & Fabled

Everyone loves a hero story.

It's satisfying to see good overcome evil and then ride off blissfully into the sunset.

But there's a long history of stories with heroes who don't get their happily ever after.

According to Aristotle, the function of these so-called tragic heroes was to provide a catharsis or a release of emotions for the audience when a fatal character flaw led to the hero's untimely demise.

The tragic hero is meant to be the face of a cautionary tale, but Irish folklore offers an interesting take on this classic archetype in the story of Cu Chulainn, a gifted warrior who knew from childhood that he would live a short but legendary life.

[whimsical music] Cu Chulainn is considered by many to be the greatest hero in Irish mythology with only one real rival for the top spot, the hunter Fionn mac Cumhaill.

Most of our knowledge of these and other figures from Celtic folklore come from records taken by Christian monks in the 11th and 12th centuries.

Before that, the people we now call the Celts, thanks to ancient Greeks, were an oral society.

They passed knowledge from one generation to the next in the form of stories, poems, or songs that were recited and memorized.

The Celts were a collection of culturally similar but independent tribes who traveled from the Alps around 1200 BCE and spread across much of Western Europe by the third century BCE.

Rome conquered much of Europe two centuries later, but the northern parts that became Ireland, Scotland, and Wales remained mostly unbothered for another several hundred years.

The monks' records don't reveal too much about Celtic societies, and it's impossible to say how their Christian perspective influenced the writing we do have, but we know that the Celts understood astronomy, respected nature, and valued cattle so highly that wars were often fought as cattle raids or one-on-one duels between champions.

Remember that because it will come up later.

Modern scholars have divided the stories from these records into four roughly chronological cycles: Mythology, Ulster, Fenian, and Historical.

Each cycle is full of really interesting stories, and if you want to learn about some of the Mythology Cycle, check out the "Monstrum" episode on Celtic fairies.

Woo.

But here, we'll focus on the Ulster Cycle, which is set around the time of Christ and heavily features the life of the warrior Cu Chulainn.

Born with the name Setanta, anyone could tell Cu Chulainn was destined to be a hero from the beginning simply because his birth was so remarkable.

Cu Chulainn's mother was a woman named Deichtine, the sister of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster, or Ulaid, the region of Northern Ireland for which the folkloric cycle is named.

Setanta's father was the sun god Lugh, one of the mythical Tuatha De Danann.

There are multiple versions of Setanta's birth story.

In one, Deichtine and her handmaidens are whisked away on the eve of her wedding to the mystical Otherworld, where she accidentally drinks a tiny version of Lugh and becomes pregnant.

In another, Cu Chulainn is conceived thrice.

At first, he was born to a woman who Deichtine helped through labor thanks to Lugh's interference, but he died in childhood as Deichtine's foster son.

Next, he was conceived in a dream Deichtine had of the sun god Lugh, but she aborted the pregnancy because she was married to a mortal man.

Finally, Deichtine became pregnant by her husband and was urged by Lugh to name the baby boy Setanta.

When Setanta was a young boy, around six, in most versions of the tale he earned himself a new name.

He traveled with his family to the home of the blacksmith Culann for a feast where he was separated from the group and came face-to-face with the smith's vicious guard hound.

Despite his youth, Setanta defeated the hound and then promised to act as the smith's new guard dog in recompense.

Thus Cu Chulainn, or Culann's Hound, was born again.

The next year, Cu Chulainn overheard a prophecy spoken by his maternal gr andfather, the Druid Cathbad.

It said that anyone who took up arms on that day would have eternal fame, but live a short life.

Cu Chulainn approached the king that very day and asked to begin his warrior training, thus sealing his fate.

Cu Chulainn was sent to Scotland to train with the renowned fighter Scathach, who gifted him his legendary spear Gae Bulg, which could travel at lightning speeds and shoot 30 little barbs from its tip.

Cu Chulainn was naturally strong and fast thanks to his divine parentage, bu t while he was away he really learned the ways of both war and love.

He even sired a son, whom he later accidentally killed, by Scathach's daughter despite the fact that he was betroth to a woman back in Ireland.

By the time he returned to his homeland, Cu Chulainn was a young man often described as short and notably beardless with fuzzy hair.

Though it was said that the women of Ulster were driven mad with lust for him.

As perhaps the most skilled of the king's Red Branch warriors, it was Cu Chulainn's responsibility to protect his land and people.

Whenever his strength, speed, and training weren't enough to defeat a foe, Cu Chulainn relied on his special power called the riastrad.

Much like a Norse berserker, Cu Chulainn could change form in battle.

He grew to nine feet tall and one of his eyes either bulged or rolled back in his head and a haze of blood appeared around his fuzzy mane.

When Cu Chulainn was in this state, he was invincible and so enraged he couldn't tell friend from foe.

No one was safe from his ire, and it was nearly impossible to bring him back to normal.

Upon returning home from a particularly violent mission, Cu Chulainn, still gripped by the riastrad, demanded to be given an opponent to fight or else he would kill everyone in the entire fortress.

Instead of offering up a victim, the leaders of Ulster sent out a group of naked women.

Cu Chulainn was so embarrassed by the sight that he averted his gaze, giving the other warriors time to restrain him and dunk him in water until he calmed down.

The people of Ulster were grateful for Cu Chulainn's murderous rage, however, when their kingdom was invaded by the army of Connacht's warrior queen Medb.

Remember when Moiya told you cattle were valuable in ancient Celtic societies?

Well, Medb's master plan was to amass empire-building wealth by stealing Ulster's prize bull.

On the day of the attack, all of the soldiers in Ulster's army were struck down by a curse that gave them menstrual pangs and prevented them from fighting.

To that I say two things.

One, this wouldn't have happened if you had more women warriors who already knew how to fight through the pain.

And two, it was Cu Chulainn's time to shine.

In what became known as the legendary Tain Bo Cuailnge, or the Cattle Raid of Cooley, 17-year-old Cu Chulainn single-handedly fought off Medb's army one soldier at a time for days until the rest of the Ulster men recovered enough to back him up.

Medb's army was forced to retreat, but it wouldn't be their last invasion of Cu Chulainn's home.

In a classical tragedy, this would be about the time that Cu Chulainn would be lured fr om the path of greatness by his fatal flaw.

He would demonstrate too much hubris or get caught up in a web of his own lies.

But instead of a fatal flaw, it's something called a geis that leads to Cu Chulainn's demise.

Geasa are taboos, or curses, or can even be seen as gifts bestowed upon people by their parents, a Druid, or some other authority figure.

To break a geis is to bring about extreme misfortune.

Cu Chulainn's behavior was constrained by two geasa.

He must accept any food offered to him by a woman, and he must not eat dog meat.

If you are familiar with common folklore tropes, you might be able to see where these unfortunately contradicting taboos will lead our hero.

When Cu Chulainn was 27 years old, Queen Medb and one of his other enemies, Lugaid mac Con Roi, invaded Ulster.

On his way to the battle, Cu Chulainn was tricked into accepting hound meat from a group of women, breaking one geis to uphold another.

The strength and power were immediately sapped from his body and he was made vulnerable to weapons.

Cu Chulainn was mortally wounded in that battle by one of Lugaid's spears, but he didn't go down without a fight.

In one last heroic move, Cu Chulainn tied himself to a standing stone and faced down his opponents.

Even in death, his reputation kept the other army at bay for more than a day until a raven landed on his body and broke the illusion.

Cu Chulainn likely wasn't based on a real person, but the legendary figure continues to inspire and influence in modern-day Ireland.

You can find murals and statues dedicated to him around the country, and references to him can be found in media around the world, like the popular myth-based video game "SMITE."

In classical literature, according to Aristotle, tragic heroes were defined by their fatal flaw and untimely death.

One could argue that Cu Chulainn fits this mold and that his fatal flaws were the hubris, impulsivity, and desire for fame that led him to fulfill Cathbad's prophecy at the age of seven.

(host 2) But Cu Chulainn's death wasn't too early at all.

He always knew his days were numbered, and he got exactly the destiny he wanted.

He lived the rough-and-tumble life of a warrior, built a reputation as a truly fearsome opponent, and continued to live on in national memory for thousands of years.

Sorry Aristotle, but that doesn't sound very tragic to me.

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