Birth There are a number of versions of the story of Cú Chulainn's
miraculous birth. In the earliest version of
Compert C(h)on Culainn ("The Conception of Cú Chulainn"), his mother
Deichtine is the daughter and charioteer of King
Conchobar mac Nessa of
Ulster, and accompanies him as he and the nobles of Ulster hunt a flock of magical birds. As snow begins to fall, Ulstermen seek shelter in a nearby house. As the host's wife goes into labour, Deichtine assists in the birth of a baby boy, while a mare gives birth to twin colts. The next morning, the Ulstermen find themselves at the
Brug na Bóinde (the Neolithic mound at
Newgrange)—the house and its occupants have disappeared, but the child and the colts remain. Deichtine takes the boy home and begins raising him as her own, but the boy falls ill and dies. The god
Lug appears to her and tells her he was their host that night, and that he has put his child in her womb, who is to be called Sétanta. Her pregnancy turns into a scandal as she is betrothed to
Sualtam mac Róich, and the Ulstermen suspect Conchobar of being the father, so she aborts the child and goes to her husband's bed "virgin-whole". She then conceives a son whom she names Sétanta. In the later and better-known version of
Compert Con Culainn, Deichtine is Conchobar's sister, and disappears from
Emain Macha, the Ulster capital. As in the previous version, the Ulstermen go hunting a flock of magical birds, are overtaken by a snowstorm and seek shelter in a nearby house. Their host is Lug, a member of the
Tuatha Dé Danann, but this time his wife, who gives birth to a son that night, is Deichtine herself. The child is named Sétanta. The nobles of Ulster argue over which of them is to be his foster father, until the wise Morann decides he should be fostered by several of them: Conchobar himself;
Sencha mac Ailella, who will teach him judgement and eloquent speech; the wealthy
Blaí Briugu, who will protect and provide for him; the noble warrior
Fergus mac Róich, who will care for him and teach him to protect the weak; the poet
Amergin, who will educate him, and his wife
Findchóem, who will nurse him. He is brought up in the house of Amergin and Findchóem on
Muirthemne Plain in modern
County Louth (at the time part of Ulster), alongside their son
Conall Cernach. In another version, the child is named Sédana, and the name is given to him by
Ceat mac Mágach. Ceat takes Sédana into fosterage and gives him to his own foster parents, Srían and Gabur, to nurse; they are the parents of Láeg, Cú Chulainn's charioteer, and so the pair grow up together from infancy. The County Louth town of
Dundalk has the motto
Mé do rug Cú Chulainn cróga(
Irish) "I gave birth to brave Cú Chulainn". in Eleanor Hull's ''The Boys' Cuchulain'', 1904
Childhood The stories of Cú Chulainn's childhood are told in a flashback sequence in
Táin Bó Cúailnge. As a small child, living in his parents' house on Muirthemne Plain, he begs to be allowed to join the boy-troop at Emain Macha. However, he sets off on his own, and when he arrives at Emain he runs onto the playing field without first asking for the boys' protection, being unaware of the custom. The boys take this as a challenge and attack him, but he has a
ríastrad (transformative battle frenzy) and beats them single-handed. Conchobar puts a stop to the fight and clears up the misunderstanding, but no sooner has Sétanta put himself under the boys' protection than he chases after them, demanding they put themselves under his protection.
Culann the smith invites Conchobar to a feast at his house. Before going, Conchobar goes to the playing field to watch the boys play
hurling. He is so impressed by Sétanta's performance that he asks him to join him at the feast. Sétanta has a game to finish, but promises to follow the king later. But when Culann asks if anyone will be arriving late to the feast, Conchobar forgets about Sétanta, and Culann lets loose his ferocious hound to protect his house. When Sétanta arrives, the enormous hound attacks him, but he kills it in self defence, in one version by smashing it against a standing stone, and in another by driving a
sliotar (hurling ball) down its throat with his
hurley. Culann is devastated by the loss of his hound, so Sétanta promises he will rear him a replacement, and until it is old enough to do the job, he himself will guard Culann's house. The
druid Cathbad announces that his name henceforth will be
Cú Chulainn—"Culann's Hound". One day at Emain Macha, Cú Chulainn overhears Cathbad teaching his pupils. One asks him what that day is auspicious for, and Cathbad replies that any warrior who takes arms that day will have everlasting fame. Cú Chulainn, though only seven years old, goes to Conchobar and asks for arms. None of the weapons given to him withstand his strength, until Conchobar gives him his own weapons. But when Cathbad sees this he grieves, because he had not finished his prophecy—the warrior who took arms that day would be famous, but his life would be short. Soon afterwards, in response to a similar prophecy by Cathbad, Cú Chulainn demands a chariot from Conchobar, and only the king's own chariot withstands him. He sets off on a foray and kills the three sons of
Nechtan Scéne, who had boasted they had killed more Ulstermen than there were Ulstermen still living. He returns to Emain Macha in his battle frenzy, and the Ulstermen are afraid he will slaughter them all. Conchobar's wife
Mugain leads out the women of Emain, and they bare their breasts to him. He averts his eyes, and the Ulstermen wrestle him into a barrel of cold water, which explodes from the heat of his body. They put him in a second barrel, which boils, and a third, which warms to a pleasant temperature.
Emer and Cú Chulainn's training In Cú Chulainn's youth he is so beautiful the Ulstermen worry that, without a wife of his own, he will steal their wives and ruin their daughters. They search all over Ireland for a suitable wife for him, but he will have none but
Emer, daughter of Forgall Monach. However, Forgall is opposed to the match. He suggests that Cú Chulainn should train in arms with the renowned warrior-woman
Scáthach in the land of Alba (
Scotland), hoping the ordeal will be too much for him and he will be killed. Cú Chulainn takes up the challenge, travelling to her residence
Dún Scáith (Fortress of Shadows) on the Isle of
Skye. In the meantime, Forgall offers Emer to Lugaid mac Nóis, a king of
Munster, but when he hears that Emer loves Cú Chulainn, Lugaid refuses her hand, especially because Cú Chulainn is his foster brother. Scáthach teaches Cú Chulainn all the arts of war, including the use of the
Gáe Bulg, a terrible barbed spear, thrown with the foot, that has to be cut out of its victim. His fellow trainees include
Ferdiad, who becomes Cú Chulainn's best friend and foster brother. The two foster brothers share a very close relationship, sharing a bed at times and speaking often and at great length of their love for one another; this has at times led to speculation that the two men were lovers (though this theory is controversial). During his time there, Scáthach faces a battle against
Aífe, her rival and in some versions her twin sister. Scáthach, knowing Aífe's prowess, fears for Cú Chulainn's life and gives him a powerful
sleeping potion to keep him from the battle. However, because of Cú Chulainn's great strength, it only puts him to sleep for an hour, and he soon joins the fray. He fights Aífe in single combat, and the two are evenly matched, but Cú Chulainn distracts her by calling out that Aífe's horses and chariot, the things she values most in the world, have fallen off a cliff, and seizes her. With his sword at her throat, he agrees to spare her life on the condition that she call off her enmity with Scáthach, and bear him a son.
Killing his son Eight years later,
Connla, Cú Chulainn's son by Aífe, comes to Ireland in search of his father, but Cú Chulainn takes him as an intruder and kills him when he refuses to identify himself. Connla does not identify himself, as his mother Aífe bound him to not identify himself or back down from a challenge. She does this as she wishes revenge upon Cú Chulainn for loving another woman after her. Connla was also trained and almost beat his father in battle, but misses his spear shot on purpose as he finds out Cú Chulainn is his father. However Cú Chulainn hits Connla with his spear, the Gae Bulg, which mortally wounds him. Connla's last words to his father as he dies are that they would have "carried the flag of Ulster to the gates of Rome and beyond", leaving Cú Chulainn grief-stricken. The story of Cú Chulainn and Connla shows a striking similarity to the legend of
Persian hero
Rostam who also kills his son
Sohrab. Rostam and Cú Chulainn share several other characteristics, including killing a ferocious beast at a very young age, their near invincibility in battle, and the manner of their deaths. Another similar myth is found in the
Hildebrandslied, in which Hildebrand is thought to kill his son, Hadubrand, though the poem's ending is lost.
Lugaid and Derbforgaill During his time abroad, Cú Chulainn had rescued Derbforgaill, a Scandinavian princess, from being sacrificed to the
Fomorians. She falls in love with him, and she and her handmaid come to Ireland in search of him in the form of a pair of swans. Cú Chulainn, not realising who she is, shoots her down with his sling, and then saves her life by sucking the stone from her side. Having tasted her blood, he cannot marry her, and gives her to his
foster-son Lugaid Riab nDerg. Lugaid goes on to become
High King of Ireland, but the
Lia Fáil (stone of destiny) fails to cry out when he stands on it, so Cú Chulainn splits it in two with his sword. When Derbforgaill is mutilated by the women of Ulster out of jealousy for her sexual desirability and dies of her wounds, Lugaid dies of grief, and Cú Chulainn avenges them by demolishing the house the women are inside, killing 150 of them.
The Cattle Raid of Cooley in T. W. Rolleston's
Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race, 1911 At the age of seventeen, Cú Chulainn single-handedly defends Ulster from the army of
Connacht in the
Táin Bó Cúailnge.
Queen Medb of
Connacht mounted the invasion to steal the stud bull
Donn Cúailnge, Cú Chulainn allows her to take Ulster by surprise because he was with a woman when he should have been watching the border. The men of Ulster were disabled by a curse that caused them to suffer from labour pains, so it becomes Cú Chulainn's job to stop
Medb's army from advancing further. He does this by invoking the right of single combat at fords. He defeats champion after champion in a standoff that lasts for months.
Bricriu's Feast The troublemaker
Bricriu once incites three heroes, Cú Chulainn,
Conall Cernach and
Lóegaire Búadach, to compete for the
champion's portion at his feast. In every test that is set, Cú Chulainn comes out on top, but neither Conall nor Lóegaire will accept the result.
Cú Roí mac Dáire of Munster settles it by visiting each in the guise of a hideous churl and challenging them to behead him, then allow him to return and behead them in return. Conall and Lóegaire both behead Cú Roí, who picks up his head and leaves, but when the time comes for him to return they flee. Only Cú Chulainn is brave and honourable enough to submit himself to Cú Roí's axe; Cú Roí spares him and he is declared champion. This beheading challenge appears in later literature, most notably in the
Middle English poem
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Other examples include the 13th century
French Life of Caradoc and the English romances
The Turke and Gowin, and
Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle.
The Death of Cú Roí Cú Roí, again in disguise, joins the Ulstermen on a raid on
Inis Fer Falga (probably the
Isle of Man), in return for his choice of the spoils. They steal treasure, and abduct
Blathnát, daughter of the island's king, who loves Cú Chulainn. But when Cú Roí is asked to choose his share, he chooses Blathnát. Cú Chulainn tries to stop him taking her, but Cú Roí cuts his hair and drives him into the ground up to his armpits before escaping, taking Blathnát with him. Like other heroes such as the
Biblical Samson,
Duryodhana in the
Mahabharata and the
Welsh Llew Llaw Gyffes, Cú Roí can only be killed in certain contrived circumstances, which vary in different versions of the story. Blathnát discovers how to kill him and betrays him to Cú Chulainn, who does the deed. However, Ferchertne, Cú Roí's poet, enraged at the betrayal of his lord, grabs Blathnát and leaps off a cliff, killing her and himself.
Emer's only jealousy from Charles Squire,
Celtic Myths and Legends, 1905 Cú Chulainn has many lovers, but Emer's only jealousy comes when he falls in love with
Fand, wife of
Manannán mac Lir. Manannán has left her and she has been attacked by three
Fomorians who want to control the
Irish Sea. Cú Chulainn agrees to help defend her as long as she marries him. She agrees reluctantly, but they fall in love when they meet. Manannán knows their relationship is doomed because Cú Chulainn is mortal and Fand is a fairy; Cú Chulainn's presence would destroy the fairies. Emer, meanwhile, tries to kill her rival, but when she sees the strength of Fand's love for Cú Chulainn she decides to give him up to her. Fand, touched by Emer's magnanimity, decides to return to her own husband. Manannán shakes his cloak between Cú Chulainn and Fand, ensuring the two will never meet again, and Cú Chulainn and Emer drink a potion to wipe the whole affair from their memories.
Death in Eleanor Hull's ''The Boys' Cuchulain'', 1904 (Irish:
Aided Con Culainn, also known as
Brislech Mór Maige Muirthemne). Medb conspires with
Lugaid, son of Cú Roí,
Erc, son of
Cairbre Nia Fer, and the sons of others Cú Chulainn had killed, to draw him out to his death. His fate is sealed by his breaking of the
geasa (taboos) upon him. Cú Chulainn's
geasa included a ban against eating dog meat, but in early Ireland there was a powerful general taboo against refusing
hospitality, so when an old crone offers him a meal of dog meat, he has no choice but to break his
geis. In this way he is spiritually weakened for the fight ahead of him. Lugaid has three magical spears made, and it is prophesied that a king will fall by each of them. With the first he kills Cú Chulainn's charioteer
Láeg, king of chariot drivers. With the second he kills Cú Chulainn's horse,
Liath Macha, king of horses. With the third he hits Cú Chulainn, mortally wounding him. Cú Chulainn ties himself to a standing stone to die on his feet, facing his enemies. This stone is traditionally identified as
Clochafarmore, located near
Dundalk. Due to his ferocity even when so near death, it is only when a
raven lands on his shoulder that his enemies believe he is dead. Lugaid approaches and cuts off his head, but as he does so the "hero-light" burns around Cú Chulainn and his sword falls from his hand and cuts Lugaid's hand off. The light disappears only after his right hand, his sword arm, is cut from his body. According to the Annals, Cú Chulainn died in the year AD 1.
Conall Cernach had sworn that if Cú Chulainn died before him he would avenge him before sunset, and when he hears Cú Chulainn is dead he pursues Lugaid. As Lugaid has lost a hand, Conall fights him with one hand tucked into his belt, but he only beats him after his horse takes a bite out of Lugaid's side. He also kills Erc, and takes his head back to
Tara, where Erc's sister
Achall dies of grief for her brother.
Appearance Cú Chulainn's appearance is occasionally remarked on in the texts. He is usually described as small, youthful and beardless. He is often described as dark: in
The Wooing of Emer and ''
Bricriu's Feast he is "a dark, sad man, comeliest of the men of Erin", in The Intoxication of the Ulstermen he is a "little, black-browed man", and in The Phantom Chariot of Cú Chulainn
"[h]is hair was thick and black, and smooth as though a cow had licked it... in his head his eyes gleamed swift and grey"; yet the prophetess Fedelm in the Táin Bó Cúailnge
describes him as blond. The description of his appearance comes later in the Táin'': ==Later stories==