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By Root 662 0

At Áth Chind Chon in Bile the dog’s head fell from the chariot pole. As the hosts swept west over Mide, Fer Loga, Ailill’s charioteer, hid himself in the heather; when the Ulaid came past, he leapt into a chariot and seized Conchubur by the head from behind. ‘Beware, Conchubur!’ he said. ‘Whatever you want!’ said Conchubur. ‘Not much my wish,’ answered Fer Loga: ‘Take me with you to Emuin Machae, and every evening send the women of Ulaid and their nubile daughters to sing in chorus “Fer Loga Is My Darling”.’ The Ulaid granted that, since for Conchubur’s sake they dared not refuse. A year later Fer Loga returned west across Áth Lúain, taking with him two of Conchubur’s horses and golden bridles for both.

The Intoxication of the Ulaid

Introduction

One of the wildest and most comical of the Ulaid stories, ‘The Intoxication of the Ulaid’ reveals both a mythic and a historical subtext. The text itself, however, is a problem. The story survives incomplete in both of our early manuscripts, and while the Lebor na huidre account takes up about where the Book of Leinster account leaves off, the juncture is only approximate. Moreover, the two versions are quite disparate: names change (Triscatail becomes Triscoth; Róimít turns into Réordae), roles change (the gadfly part played by Bricriu is taken up by Dubthach Dóeltenga), important plot elements (such as the iron house) disappear altogether. The Lebor na huidre version is generally less psychological and less refined, and, while it has its own merits, it is frustrating not to know how the Book of Leinster story would have been resolved.

The mythic subtext harbours the remains of a ritual killing story. ‘The Intoxication of the Ulaid’ takes place at Samuin, which as the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one would have been an appropriate time for a new king to replace an old one; moreover, there are traditions that make Cú Chulaind and Cú Ruí rivals, and in ‘The Death of Cú Ruí’, Cú Chulaind kills Cú Ruí for the sake of his wife, Bláthnait (another example of the regeneration motif found so often in these stories). The idea appears also in ‘The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel’ (which takes place at Samuin and wherein invaders attempt to burn and perhaps drown Conare) and in ‘The Destruction of Dind Rig’ (wherein Labraid burns Cobthach in an iron house).

The historical subtext treats the theme of tribal warfare that obtains in all three stories. It may well be that, in an older recension, ‘The Intoxication of the Ulaid’ described an attack by the Ulaid upon Temuir, which would have been a much more logical target. Subsequently, however, the story was grafted on to a mythological fragment involving Cú Chulaind and Cú Ruí, and since the ‘historical’ Cú Ruí had been localized in the south-west, it became necessary to reconcile that tradition with the one about the attack on Temuir. The result: Temuir Lúachra (Temuir of the Rushes), located, conveniently, in south-west Ireland.

In any case, the storytellers have turned the improbability of the Ulaid’s careering across Ériu into a splendidly comic tale. What might have been a heroic foray is reduced to a drunken stagger; Cú Chulaind’s inability to navigate from Dún Dá Bend to Dún Delga except by way of Temuir Lúachra (like going from London to Canterbury by way of Edinburgh) is a humorous reflection upon his original name, Sétantae, which means ‘one who knows the way’; and the exchanges between Cromm Deróil and Cromm Darail are more characteristic of comedians than of druids.

The Intoxication of the Ulaid

When the sons of Mil Espáne reached Ériu, their wisdom circumvented the Túatha Dé Danand. Ériu was left to the division of Amorgen Glúnmár son of Mil, for he was a king’s poet and a king’s judge; Amorgen divided Ériu into two parts, giving the part under the ground to the Túatha Dé Danand and the other part to the sons of Mil Espáne, his own people.

The Túatha Dé Danand went into the hills – the region of the Síde – then, and they submitted to the Síde under the ground. But they left behind, in each province