Conchobar mac Nessa

Conchobar mac Nessa is the King of Ulster throughout the Ulster Cycle, ruling from Emain Macha with the elite warriors of the Red Branch. He is said to have gained the throne through his mother Ness's cunning — she agrees to marry the previous king, Fergus mac Róich, only if he grants Conchobar the kingship for a year first, and by the year's end Conchobar has ruled so capably, and Ness worked so effectively on his behalf, that the Ulstermen refuse to give the throne back to Fergus at all, leaving Conchobar king permanently and Fergus displaced. Conchobar's court, and the code of honor and hospitality that governs it, sit at the heart of most Ulster Cycle tales, whether or not he himself is the central figure. His decisions frequently set tragedy in motion elsewhere in the cycle. It is Conchobar's determination to marry the girl Deirdre himself, despite a prophecy that she would bring ruin to Ulster, that drives her to flee with Naoise instead — and Conchobar's subsequent treachery in reclaiming her, breaking a promise of safe return and having Naoise killed, is what drives Fergus mac Róich and other warriors into exile and hostility toward Ulster, weakening the kingdom's defenses in time for the events of the *Táin Bó Cúailnge*. Conchobar's own death is tied to an old injury: he carries a sling-stone lodged in his skull for years, kept still by his physician's warning that any sudden exertion could kill him — until, hearing of the crucifixion of Christ (in the later Christianized layer of the tradition), his fury at the injustice causes the stone to work loose, killing him. Whether read as a late Christian addition to an older figure or not, the story is typical of how the Ulster Cycle's material was reshaped and reframed as it passed through Christian-era scribes.