Exploring Celtic Mythology: Cú Chulainn

From Hercules, to Spartacus, to Captain America, history is filled with great and legendary heroes, both real and fictional, and Celtic mythology has no shortage of heroic figures. While King Arthur has been far more prevalent in popular culture, Cú Chulainn is easily among the most well-known Celtic heroes. Cú Chulainn's tales invoke many of the tropes that we're familiar with in mythological heroes. A connection to the gods, unsurpassed beauty and combat prowess, unshakable bravery and honor, and a tragic death. Like many parts of Celtic mythology, stories and characters have been expanded upon, altered, and twisted over the centuries, but this video should provide a brief look at the common depiction of Cú Chulainn. There are a couple different versions of Cú Chulainn's birth, but the most common one involves Cú Chulainn's mother, the sister of a king, who disappeared along with 50 other maidens one day from the capital. Despite men searching for them for three years, they couldn't be found anywhere. A flock of birds came to the plains outside of the capital and destroyed the vegetation there, so the men, along with the king, readied their chariots to hunt down the birds. They followed the birds throughout the day, but by nightfall the birds managed to escape their pursuit, and so they searched for shelter. They found a small house, and were invited in by the married couple there. And so all the men came into the house along with their horses. The house turned out to be very large and majestic, and the couple there revealed themselves to be the sister of the king and the champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Lu. During the night, Lu's wife went into labor, and in the morning the king found a baby wrapped in his cloak. The child was named Sétanta, and was raised outside of the capital. When the boy was seven, he decided to head towards the capital so that he could join the boy troop of aspiring knights. Against his parents' wishes, he leaves his home on his own, carrying only his wooden toy weapons. Upon arrival, he immediately approaches the group of boys in the field, ignoring the custom of asking for their protection first, due to being unaware of it. The boys take this as a challenge, and he is assailed by all 150 of them. While normally this would prove insurmountable, Sétanta suddenly undergoes a process called a reastrade, sometimes called a warp spasm. This process turns the boy into a monstrous thing, where his entire body shakes and his legs twist around backwards. His mouth distorts, peeling his cheeks back far enough that it's said you could see his lungs looking down his throat. One of his eyes falls out, while the other sinks deep into his skull. His hair stands up on its ends, sharp enough to impale, and massive muscles cover his entire body. With this tremendous form, he easily defeats the group of boys, and afterwards demands that they put themselves under his protection. Sometime later, a smith named Cullen invited the king to a feast at his home. While on his way there, the king saw his nephew, Sétanta, playing hurling, and was so impressed that he invited him to join him for the feast. Sétanta told the king he would join him once the game was finished, and later Cullen asked the king if he was expecting anyone else. The king had forgotten about Sétanta, and told the smith no, and so Cullen unleashes his ferocious hound, so that it may protect his home from any threats. When Sétanta finally does show up, he is attacked by the hound, and kills it. Cullen is devastated by the loss of his hound, and so Sétanta tells him that until he can rear a replacement, he himself will guard his home, earning him the name Cucullen, meaning Cullen's Hound. One day, while Cucullen was still seven years old, he overheard a druid instructing his pupils, telling them that any warrior who took up arms this day would become famous in Ireland forever. Cucullen goes to his uncle, the king, and asks for some weapons, but they all ended up breaking due to his strength. After going through fifteen sets, the king finally gives him his own weapons, which managed to not break. When the druid sees that Cucullen has taken up arms, he laments that Cucullen didn't hear the entire prophecy, as the warrior would become famous forever, but would live a short life. Cucullen replied that he would be okay living for only a single day, as long as he was famous forever. Cucullen rides off and eventually kills three warriors, who had boasted about how many of Cucullen's kinsmen they had slaughtered. Cucullen went under another reistrade when he killed them, and was still undergoing it when he returned to the capital. The king feared that in his frenzy, Cucullen could easily slaughter the young men of the city, and so they devised a plan to subdue him. The women of the city gathered together, and bared their breasts to the fearsome boy. Despite his monstrous frenzy, Cucullen retained his excessive modesty, and so shied his eyes away from the women. In that moment, he was seized by a group of men, and dunked into a vat of cold water, in an attempt to calm him. The first vat of water instantly boiled, and the vat broke, so they dunked him in a second one, with the same effect. They dunked him into a third one, causing the water to become hot, but by this point, Cucullen had calmed out of his frenzy. As Cucullen grew older, he was so incredibly handsome, that the men of the kingdom worried that he would take their wives and daughters, without a wife of his own. Men searched Ireland for a year for a suitable wife, but Cucullen had settled on Eimear, a beautiful woman living on the edge of the kingdom. Her father opposed the situation however, either because it wasn't right that his youngest daughter got married before his oldest, or because of Cucullen's fearsome reputation. Whatever the case, the father visits the king in disguise, and suggests to send Cucullen to be trained in Scotland by a legendary warrior, hoping that Cucullen will die in the process. Cucullen accepts the proposition, and while he's away, Eimear's father attempts to marry her off to another king, but when the king hears that she is in love with Cucullen, he refuses out of fear. Cucullen trained with a female Scottish warrior, who teaches him extensively in the arts of war. Specifically, she trains him to use the Gae Bolg, a terrifying spear-like weapon made from the bones of a sea creature, that contains many painful barbs. The flesh must be cut out around any wound made by this weapon, in order to remove the spear. After finishing his training and having multiple sexual affairs, Cucullen returns to Ireland to marry Eimear, but her father still refuses to give her up. Angered, Cucullen storms his castle, slaughtering 24 men as well as Eimear's father, steals his treasure, and takes Eimear with him. Cucullen's most well-known tale occurs when he is merely 17, known as the Cattle Raid of Coulee. Despite its seemingly innocuous title, the events involve Cucullen single-handedly defending the kingdom from an army, slaughtering hundreds in a tremendous battle frenzy, and building walls of corpses. This tale is important enough to earn its own video, so we'll discuss it in detail some other time. Other stories of Cucullen of course exist throughout mythology, including competitions, many love affairs, including one with a fairy, and plenty of killing. But the prophecy of Cucullen's short life must eventually come true, and so we come to the tale of his death. Multiple conspirators began to gather against him, family members of those he had killed throughout his young life. They announced their intent to attack Cucullen's land, and so he sets out to meet them. Those close to him beg for him not to go, as they know his death approaches, but he ignores them. The group conspired for him to break certain taboos that were forbidden to him, and would greatly weaken him in a fight. One of the taboos on Cucullen was he was forbidden from eating the meat of a dog. Three old crones come to him one night on his way to the battle, and offer him some dog meat to eat. Since there was a strong taboo across all of Ireland about refusing any hospitality, Cucullen was stuck in this situation, forced to break one of the two taboos. He chose to eat the meat, and because of this, the career of Cucullen both begins and ends with the killing of a dog. The breaking of the taboo causes his physical form to distort, leaving him as only half a man, without strength in one arm and one leg. Despite this weakness, Cucullen was still a fearsome foe, able to kill nine men with a single throw of his spear, and left the battlefield a red mess. Finally, however, a spear destined to kill kings was thrown at Cucullen, and it split open his belly, forcing him to hold his intestines. Cucullen asked for a small break, so that he could take a small drink of water from a nearby lake. He gathered his intestines, walked to the lake, took a drink and washed his face, knowing his death was imminent. Wanting to die standing while facing his enemies, he then lashed himself to a nearby standing stone. It's only when a raven lands on his shoulder that his enemies believe Cucullen is truly dead, and they approach. One of them beheads Cucullen, and a light begins to burst forth from Cucullen's body. His sword falls from his hand, cutting off the hand of his beheader. The light only dissipates once they cut off Cucullen's sword arm, leaving him truly dead. Cucullen is an interesting mythological hero. More akin to the Incredible Hulk than to King Arthur. Although his battle frenzies have become his most well-known feature, studying the various tales associated with him give a large amount of insight to ancient traditions and histories of Ireland. Straddling the line between beautiful and horrifying, honorable and monstrous, Cucullen will certainly be a figure at the forefront whenever Celtic mythology enters the mainstream of pop culture. .