I think that Medb’s death might be the last major event in the narrative timeline of the Ulster Cycle.  Her death is the subject of its own story Aided Meidbe “The Violent Death of Medb.”  One of the interesting features of this story is that it seems to cover most of the timespan during which the main events of the Ulster Cycle occur.  It begins with the introduction of Find and his three sons: Conall Anglonnach, Eochaid Airem, and Eochaid Feidlech, who is Medb’s father.  Eochaid Airem is a central figure in the text Tochmarc Étaíne “The Wooing of Étaín,” where he is the mortal husband of Étaín before she is reclaimed by her previous husband, Midir of the Túatha Dé Danann.  Within the chronology of the Ulster Cycle, the earliest period of narrative deals with the enmity between Eochaid Feidlech and Fachtna Fathach, sometimes known as the father of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster.  The conflict between these two is described most fully in the text Cath Leitrech Ruidhe “The Battle of Leitrech Ruidhe,” during which Fachtna Fathach is killed and Eochaid Feidlech takes his place as high king of Ireland.  In a later battle, the Ulstermen attack Eochaid Feidlech and defeat his forces. He is required to pay éric or compensation to Conchobar for the death of his father.

Part of this compensation involves four of Eochaid Feidlech’s daughters being given to Conchobar: Medb, then Clothra, then Eithne, and finally Mugain, who is Conchobar’s main wife in the Ulster Cycle.  These four marriages are also mentioned in Ferchuitred Medba “Medb’s Selection of Husbands,” which tells us that Mugain was the mother of Conchobar’s son Glasne, Eithne was the mother of his son Furbaide, and Clothra was the mother of his son Cormac Conn Longes, although it is also suggested that Cormac’s mother might actually have been Conchobar’s own mother Ness.  Ferchuitred Medba also describes the sequence of events by which Medb became queen of Connacht and took Ailill as her husband.

Most of the Ulster Cycle tales concern the period during which Conchobar is king of Ulster and Medb and Ailill rule Connacht, and several stories deal with the period after Conchobar’s death.  Medb’s death is one of the last, if not the last, event within the internal chronological sequence of the Ulster Cycle.  Aided Meidbe also describes some of the complex history between Conchobar and Medb’s family as well as some of the details of the lives of Medb’s siblings. It describes how Clothra bore her son Lugaid Ríab nDerg to her three brothers, the Find Emna, who conceived him with her the night before they went to war against their own father and were killed.  According to this text, Clothra had a second son, Furbaide Fer Benn, who was born by caesarean after Medb killed her.  In most other sources, however, Furbaide is named as the son of Eithne rather than Clothra. 

My suggestion that Medb’s death is the last event of the Ulster Cycle is mainly based on the relative chronology.   The story of Medb’s death includes the story of the birth of two of her nephews: Lugaid Ríab nDerg and Furbaide Fer Benn.  Lugaid’s death is not mentioned in this text, but by following the stories of a series of deaths, beginning with his, and the resulting acts of vengeance that follow these deaths, we can determine a rough chronology for several stories.

Lugaid’s death is described in Aided Derbforgaill “The Violent Death of Derbforgaill,” in which he dies of grief upon seeing the mutilated body of his wife Derbforgaill, who had been tortured by the women of Ulster out of jealousy.  The deaths of Derbforgaill and Lugaid are avenged by Cú Chulainn, who traps 150 queens of Ulster in a house and burns it down around them.  Cú Chulainn’s own death takes place in the text Brislech Mór Maige Muirthemne and he is avenged by Conall Cernach, with whom, we are told, he had sworn a pact of mutual vengeance.  Although Conchobar is not present for the action in this text, Ulster is referred to as “Conchobar’s province,” and so I take it that he is still alive and his death takes place after Cú Chulainn’s.

Conall Cernach, we know, outlives most of the other Ulstermen, as does Fergus mac Róich. Both are involved in the conflicts over succession that follow Conchobar’s death and which are described in Bruiden Da Choca “Da Coca’s Hostel” and Cath Airtig “The Battle of Airtech.”  Both were in exile in Connacht following Conchobar’s betrayal of the sons of Uisliu in Longes mac nUislenn “The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu,” and both return to their exiles in Connacht before their deaths. Fergus’ return takes place in Cath Airtig, and his death is described in Aided Fergusa meic Róich “The Violent Death of Fergus mac Róich.”  Ailill’s jealousy over Medb’s ongoing affair with Fergus causes his brother Lugaid Dalléces, who also declares himself to be Fergus’ foster-brother, to kill Fergus while swimming with Medb.  Ailill’s own death and that of Conall Cernach are described in Goire Conaill Chernaig i Crúachain ocus Aided Ailella ocus Conaill Chernaig “The Maintenance of Conall Cernach in Crúachan and the Violent Deaths of Ailill and Conall Cernach.”¹ Following the deaths of Conchobar and Cú Chulainn, Conall Cernach finds himself old and infirm and alone, and so decides to go to Ailill and Medb because he thinks they alone have the resources to support him.  They welcome him, and Medb takes him into her household. Ailill, meanwhile, is carrying on an affair behind Medb’s back and she instructs Conall Cernach to kill him, which he is happy to do as vengeance for Fergus. Ailill survives long enough to identify Conall Cernach as his killer, and Conall himself is then also killed. Medb is present for all of these events.

Based on these stories of death and vengeance, we can identify the following order of deaths:

Lugaid Ríab nDerg < Cú Chulainn < Conchobar < Fergus < Ailill < Conall Cernach < Medb

Medb’s death comes about when Furbaide Fer Benn sees her bathing and asks who she is. When he learns her identity, he uses a piece of cheese as a sling-stone to kill her in vengeance for his mother, who, according to Aided Meidbe, was Clothra and had been killed by Medb. 

Since he outlives Medb, we can add Furbaide to the above chronology of deaths:

Lugaid Ríab nDerg < Cú Chulainn < Conchobar < Fergus < Ailill < Conall Cernach < Medb < Furbaide Fer Benn

The problem comes when we take the story of Furbaide’s own death into account. Furbaide’s birth and death are both related in the Dinnshenchas of Carn Furbaide. Here, his mother is Eithne, described as daughter of Eochaid Feidlech and wife of Conchobar mac Nessa. Clothra’s druid tells her that she will be killed by the son of her sister.   At this time, Eithne is traveling to Crúachan from the east (presumably from Emain Macha) in order to give birth. Clothra sends her son Lugaid Ríab nDerg to kill her. He drowns her and cuts Furbaide from her body.  When he is older, Furbaide kills Clothra in order to avenge his mother Eithne, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Clothra’s druid. This stands in contrast to Aided Meidbe, in which he killed Medb in order to avenge his mother Clothra.  Lugaid then kills Furbaide in order to avenge Clothra.  This puts Furbaide’s death before Lugaid’s and makes Furbaide both the first and final death in the chronology above, which is clearly impossible. 

Discrepancies such as which of Eochaid Feidlech’s daughters is Furbaide’s mother and which of his aunts he kills to avenge her death are not uncommon in the Ulster Cycle. Conchobar is said to be the son of the druid Cathbad in some texts and the son of Fachtna Fathach in others.  Some texts give the name of Cú Chulainn’s mother as Deichtine and others Deichtire, and she is sometimes Conchobar’s own daughter, but elsewhere the daughter of Cathbad and sister of Conchobar.  Conall Anglonnach is sometimes named as a son of Eochaid Feidlech and elsewhere as his brother. In Serglige Con Culainn “The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulainn,” Cú Chulainn’s wife is named sometimes Emer, as is common, but sometimes Eithne Ingubai.  The extent to which any of these discrepancies actually affect the overall storyline of the Ulster Cycle varies.  The question of Conchobar’s paternity has more far-reaching implications than, for example, his exact relationship to Deichtine/Deichtire. If Cathbad is his father, then among his half-sisters is Findchóem, mother of Conall Cernach, and in Findchóem Conchobar shares a half-sister with his own eventual killer Cet mac Mágach.  If, on the other hand, Conchobar is the son of Fachtna Fathach, then we have an explanation for his marriages to four of the daughters of Eochaid Feidlech.  There is no one explanation for these variations and discrepancies.  Some have come about due to the complex histories of the texts as we have them. Some may be simply mistakes or come about as a result of scribes trying to reconcile the irreconcilable. Some are likely due to experimentation in the reworkings of familiar materials. The result is an Ulster Cycle corpus that is rich, complex, and quite far from presenting a unified account of its storyline.

It’s probably fair to say that most modern audiences are familiar with the idea of alternate timelines thanks to major movie franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Trek.  This is hardly a new feature of storytelling though, and medieval and ancient narrative systems offer many examples of alternate timelines. In a 2023 article called “Deirdre and the Story-World of the Ulster Cycle,” I explored some of the alternate versions of the story of Deirdre in the Ulster Cycle and compared this with some of the alternate versions of the story of Helen of Troy.  Everyone who is at all familiar with Helen’s story knows the version that involves her being taken to Troy by Paris, which launches the Trojan War.  There is another version of the story though, found in sources like Euripedes’ Helen, in which Helen never actually went to Troy. Instead, an εἴδωλον (eidōlon) or image of Helen was created by Hera and sent in her place.  Even in the versions of the story in which Helen truly does go to Troy, the portrayals of her actions and motivations vary considerably, with her sometimes working with the Trojans against the Greeks and sometimes helping the Greeks against the Trojans.

There is certainly dialogue between these different versions.  According to Plato,² the poet Stesichorus was blinded for having said that Helen went to Troy, and his sight was restored when he recanted.  Plato states that Stesichorus, unlike Homer, was able to reclaim his sight because he knew the cause of his blinding, whereas Homer did not. Here we find the two versions of Helen’s story contrasted, with Homer’s version, in which she went to Troy, condemned.  Similarly, some of the accounts of Conchobar’s birth in which Fachtna Fathach is his father make reference to claims that Cathbad was his father and declare them false.  Far from posing a problem for storytellers and audiences, these variations seem instead to offer them opportunities. As I wrote in my article: “these variations can strengthen the audience’s attachment to the characters as well as increase their engagement with the story-world.”  Plurality or multiformity or variation are common properties of complex narrative story-worlds, and thinking about these kinds of issues maintains the audience’s interest in the stories and allows them to engage with the different aspects of the stories and versions of the characters in ways that are personal and unique to them.

These kinds of variations are just one of the things that a modern reader of the Ulster Cycle corpus might find challenging and disorienting.  It’s not just about conflicting information in different versions of stories, but also the absence of information.  There is no clear starting point for reading the Ulster Cycle because each text makes reference to and depends on information given in other stories, even if it’s just about who the characters are and how they are related to one another.  Writing about Greek myth, Sarah Iles Johnston has said that “There is no such thing as a Greek mythic character who stands completely on his or her own; he or she is always related to characters from other myths, and the narrators take some pains to tell us that (and, one assumes, to invent such relationships when they need to).”³

There is no text that can “introduce” the Ulster Cycle and its characters, because no text operates independently or is intended as a “beginning.”  It is also true that no story or text is intended to be experienced only once. It is by reading the stories repeatedly in a cyclic fashion rather than once in a linear one that a reader gains the knowledge needed to appreciate and understand the nuances of each individual story.  You still have to start somewhere, of course, and for at least some modern readers I do think that starting with a reasonably linear approach guided by the internal chronology of the main storyline of the Ulster Cycle might work.  If Medb’s death is the end of the narrative timeline of the Ulster Cycle, then Conchobar’s birth is probably the beginning.  These two events, Conchobar’s birth and Medb’s death, seem to bookend the storyline of the Ulster Cycle.  While we have one version of Medb’s death, there are several different stories about Conchobar’s birth. When my next series of blog posts starts in the new year, I will start by discussing some ideas about a reading order for the Ulster Cycle and I will  publish a translation of the story of Conchobar’s birth as preserved in the Yellow Book of Lecan and the Book of Ballymote, since I think this makes an excellent starting point for reading the Ulster Cycle and it is not currently available in English.

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This will be my last post for this year. My next series of posts will start some time in February or March, and I’ll begin with a return to the question of the chronology of the Ulster Cycle, especially from the perspective of how to approach developing a reading order.

For anyone who can’t get enough of the Ulster Cycle stories and other wonderful medieval Irish stories, I really recommend the podcast Guth: Reading Irish Myths and Legends with Dr. Emmet Taylor, which is available on Spotify.  This podcast is a chance to hear translations direct from the medieval Irish texts themselves rather than modern retellings of the stories, along with some discussion of current scholarship about the stories.  It is an absolute must for anyone interested in medieval Ireland and Irish myth and literature.