TAWN boh COOL-nyeh
The central epic of the Ulster Cycle.
The longest and best-known tale of the Ulster Cycle, the Táin recounts Queen Medb of Connacht's invasion of Ulster to seize the great brown bull of Cooley, Donn Cúailnge, after a bedroom argument with her husband Ailill over which of them owns more wealth. With the men of Ulster disabled by a curse that strikes them down at their hour of greatest need, the seventeen-year-old Cú Chulainn is left to hold the border alone, fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions — including his own foster-brother Ferdiad, trained alongside him by Scáthach.
The tale survives in two principal early versions: a shorter, more archaic recension preserved in the 12th-century Lebor na hUidre, and a longer, later recension in the 12th-century Book of Leinster that smooths over some of the earlier text's inconsistencies. Scholars generally date the underlying story's composition to the 8th century, making the Táin one of the oldest vernacular epics in western Europe, predating most of the Arthurian tradition by several centuries.
| Cycle | Entries here | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The Mythological Cycle | 17 | The oldest of the four cycles, telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the successive invasions of Ireland. |
| The Fenian Cycle | 6 | Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna, set generations after the Ulster Cycle in a world of hunting, romance, and roaming adventure. |
| The Ulster Cycle | 12 | The heroic tales of Conchobar mac Nessa's court at Emain Macha, centered on Cú Chulainn and the great cattle raid of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. |
| The Historical Cycle | 1 | Also the Cycle of the Kings — legendary and semi-legendary tales of Ireland's High Kings, treated by medieval scribes as genuine national history. |
Táin Bó Cúailnge ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley") is the central epic of the Ulster Cycle, in which Queen Medb of Connacht invades Ulster to seize the Donn Cúailnge bull while the young Cú Chulainn single-handedly holds off her army at a ford.
It's the longest and most celebrated tale of early Irish literature, sometimes compared to the Iliad, and brings together the Ulster Cycle's major characters and conflicts in a single sustained narrative.
A boastful argument between Medb and her husband Ailill over which of them owns more wealth reveals she's short exactly one bull to match his, and her refusal to be outdone drives her to invade Ulster and take the Donn Cúailnge by force.