67 pages • 2 hours read
Transl. Thomas KinsellaThe Tain
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Parts 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1 Summary: “The Pillow Talk”
Ailill and Medb are talking in their royal bed in Connacht. When Ailill boasts that Medb’s life has improved since marrying him, Medb replies, “I was well enough off without you” (52), enumerating her family’s resources and warriors, then recalling that she asked for the most difficult wedding gift from Ailill: “the absence of meanness and jealousy and fear” (53). She emphasizes the importance of equality in the marriage union—in spirit, generosity, energy—which she feels she found in Ailill. She concludes instead that he is the “kept” man, but Ailill refutes this, and they begin to compare all their belongings, from their iron pots and tubs to their livestock. Eventually they discover that Finnbennach, the White Horned, though born from one of Medb’s cows, has gone over to Ailill’s side, and Medb is discouraged “as though she hadn’t a single penny” (55).
Mac Roth informs Medb that a match for Finnbennach exists—the Brown Bull of Cuailnge. She sends a messenger to Ulster to ask Dáire mac Fiachna to loan the bull for a year, promising him 50 yearling heifers, a portion of the Plain of Ai, a fine chariot, and a night with Medb. At first Dáire is happy to accept the offer, but he rescinds when the messengers are overheard boasting that while the host and Conchobor are good men, Ailill and Medb (and Fergus) are more powerful, and they could simply take the bull by force and cunning. The messengers return home empty-handed, and Medb resolves to take the bull.
Part 2 Summary: “The Táin Bó Cuailnge Begins”
Ailill and Medb assemble a large army, with allies throughout their provinces meeting in Cruachan Ai. As they are assembling and a charioteer is moving to pull down the power of the sun for their safe return, a girl with triple irises appears in front of them, holding a weaving-rod on a chariot pulled by two black horses. She is a poet of Connacht named Fedelm, and she has “the imbas forasnai, the Light of Foresight” (61). Medb asks her to predict their future, and she replies, “I see it crimson, I see it red” (61), signifying blood and death. Medb is in disbelief, for the men of Ulster are suffering their pangs, her own army is larger, and she anticipates wounded in battle. But Fedelm chants her prediction of Cúchulainn the Forge-Hound’s violent victory over their army: “Whole hosts he will destroy, making dense massacre. In thousands you will yield your heads” (63). The army sets out southeast, toward Finnabair in Cuailnge.
Part 3 Summary: “The Army Encounters Cúchulainn”
The army is completing its first stage of the march when Medb remarks to Ailill that the Galeóin troop of 3,000 should not come with them, as they are too competent and might take all the credit for their victory, suggesting they should be killed. Fergus suggests instead they break up the Galeóin troop, scattering the warriors among the 17 remaining troops, and Medb agrees. Over a meal Dubthach chants a prediction of their loss of a third of their troops against Cúchulainn. The men are seized with panic brought by the war-spirit Nemain, but they continue on after Medb calms them.
Fergus sends a warning to the men of Ulster, all of whom are suffering from their pangs, except Cúchulainn and his father. The two men set up a lookout. Cúchulainn sends a warning to Ulster and leaves a “spancel-hoop of challenge” (68) for the approaching army to find, while Fergus attempts to take a detour out of friendship for the men of Ulster. When Medb notices, he explains it is to avoid Cúchulainn. Scouts riding ahead of the army discover the spancel-hoop with a note challenging, “Come no further, unless you have a man who can make a hoop like this with one hand out of one piece. I exclude my friend Fergus” (70). The army decides to avoid the challenge by passing through a forest rather than draw Cúchulainn’s wrath.
The next morning, after the army passes a difficult night in the snow, Cúchulainn awakes and tries to estimate how many troops there are by their tracks. At first he is confused, but with his “three talents of sight and intellect and reckoning” (72), he sees that there are 18 troops, with the Galeóin broken up between them. He sets another challenge for them at Ath Gabla, blocking the stream-crossing with a tree-fork that they must complete before they can pass.
When the army scouts arrive, he cuts off their heads and tosses them on four spikes. Medb’s army is astounded to find some of its best warriors decapitated and wonders who could have done this—Conchobor? Celtchar mac Uthidir? Eogan mac Durthacht? Fergus tells them only Cúchulainn could cut the tree with one stroke, kill their warriors so quickly, and arrive only with his charioteer. Fergus outlines Cúchulainn’s youth, when he went on a quest at five years old, courted Emer, and studied the arts and crafts of war at seven, and then became a warrior at eight years old. He is now 17, and Fergus asserts there is no harder warrior in Ulster. Medb tries to downplay Cúchulainn’s achievements, noting he is only one man. This prompts Fergus to tell of Cúchulainn’s boyhood deeds.
Parts 1-3 Analysis
The action of The Táin begins in the simple intimacy of the marriage bed, spiraling out to implicate two equally powerful kingdoms. This introductory scene starts out as a playful exchange between a husband and wife who are equally matched in resources and demeanor, emphasizing the importance of a balanced partnership for peace. When the imbalance is identified (the missing bull to match the White Horned), their harmony is disrupted. This imbalance ripples across society from the highest to the lowest tier, for it is even mirrored in the boasting of the messengers, who ultimately undermine the peaceful deal reached with Dáire. Echoing the rivalry between the two pig-keepers/bulls themselves, who were also intimate friends well-matched in talent and ability, the underlying conflict of this epic is rooted in a dispute between equal, intimate partners thrown out of harmony by pride and boasting.
The army Medb assembles is a collection of different tribes ready to fight alongside the exiled from Ulster for her cause. As the army assembles to march toward Cuailnge, Medb is looking for a good omen for their departure, which the charioteer attempts to create by turning right with the sun, to “draw down the power of the sign” (60). Significantly, this is interrupted before it can be completed. In a moment of foreshadowing, the poet Fedelm appears to tell of their demise. She is gifted with foresight, symbolized by her triple irises (perhaps signifying past, present, and future vision), along with her light gold weaving-rod, symbolic of the magical weaving element of prophecy. She repeats her prophetic “I see it crimson” four times before foretelling Cúchulainn’s victory. As with similar predictions, this is given in verse, as much a magical incantation as it is a prediction and an exaltation of Cúchulainn’s prowess on the battlefield. Medb does not heed her warning, for the odds are in her favor, as they are planning to attack when the men of Ulster are debilitated by their pangs and their own army is superior in size.
The text traces a map of the army’s journey across Ireland to Cuailnge that plays out in The Táin, presenting the listener with a map of Ireland long before the advent of the modern map, and certainly before the premodern map was commonplace. The long listing of place names gives the reader an idea of the scale of this epic before it begins while also tracing this shared history across the landscape and natural spaces of Ireland.
The army first encounters Cúchulainn in Part 3, though this is not a direct conflict but more of a trickster mocking and challenging while weakening his enemy. The challenges he sets before the approaching army require impossible feats, using both his superhuman strength and cleverness to disrupt their progress. In this way the epic hero continues to prove himself in strength and cunning, becoming a folk legend in the process.
These encounters are likewise Medb and Ailill’s first reckoning with this mythical warrior. Despite the cautions and prophesies from poets and her own warriors, Medb continues to brush off the warnings that their endeavor is a losing one. This skepticism provokes Fergus to delve into the hero’s past, while the army becomes more curious about this enemy: Who is he, and what are they up against?
