I would like to take this opportunity to ask anyone who hasn’t already done so to sign this petition to save the Bachelor of Celtic at Utrecht University.  It is an outstanding program with a long history of producing excellent scholars and important scholarship. It is also one of the few remaining Celtic Studies degrees in mainland Europe.  It is crucial that our universities continue to support the study of smaller subjects to preserve diversity in our educational ecosystem. We can’t have every university offering the same handful of programs. That will only lead to stagnation and a greatly impoverished intellectual and cultural landscape.  Your help is greatly appreciated.

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Like many of the other Ulster Cycle stories, there are different versions of Aided Chon Roí “The Violent Death of Cú Roí.” The list of translations of Ulster Cycle stories from Ulidia, the proceedings of the first conference on the Ulster Cycle,¹ lists two prose versions and then lists two related poems as separate items: Amrae Con Roí “The Eulogy of Cú Roí” and Brinna Ferchertne “The Vision of Ferchertne.” CODECS instead lists three versions of Aided Chon Roí and combines the poems with the prose versions based on their being presented together in various manuscripts, although it also has separate listings for the two poems.

This is a bit complicated, so to simplify things I will refer to:

1. Aided Chon Roí Version 1 (ACR1) – the Egerton 88 prose text.
2. Aided Chon Roí Version 2 (ACR2) – the Laud Misc. 610 prose text
3. Aided Chon Roí Version 3 (ACR3) – the longer prose text found in several manuscripts, including the Yellow Book of Lecan
4. Amrae Chon Roí – poem
5. Brinna Ferchertne – poem
6. The Dindshenchas of Findglais – prose and metrical

There is also a version of the story found in Geoffrey Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn “History of Ireland.” Items 3-6 on this list have all been translated into English, in some cases more than once. As far as I can tell though, the Version 1 text has only ever been translated into German, and the Version 2 text has never been translated at all. (I’ll post a translation in a few weeks.) Broadly speaking, items 2-6 and the Keating version all seem to be based around the same core narrative, while Version 1 offers some significant differences.

In 1913, Rudolf Thurneysen’s edition and German translation of the Version 1 text was published. R. I. Best had previously included a transcription of this version of the text as an appendix to his 1905 edition and translation of the Yellow Book of Lecan copy of Version 3, saying that “I print it below, with its many and ambiguous contractions unextended, following the manuscript as closely as ordinary typography will permit. The whole text is very puzzling and obscure” (32).  Best also described this earlier version as “quite independent” of the later version. It is certainly different enough from the other versions of the story to deserve attention, and so I have decided to provide it with a publicly available translation into English.  This is a working translation, and certain passages remain unclear to me, but they seem to have given Thurneysen trouble as well, and that is greatly reassuring.  My goal here is not to resolve every issue of language and meaning, but simply to provide a readable translation that fairly accurately represents the content of the original.

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The Ulstermen were in Emain Macha, and they saw one of the Fer Ecencaill coming toward them across the plain of Emain. He asked for Bláithine daughter of Conchobar, and he brought her away by her consent. The witch² and sorcerer Cú Roí son of Dáre loved her.³ It was Echde Echbél who had done that, and no one of the Ulstermen knew except Cú Roí alone.

Echde, moreover, was in Ard Echdi, which was in Cenn Tire of the Fer Ecencaill. He had three special cows that were very speckled and pleasant.  It is because of this that “three spotted⁴ cows of Echde” is said. He had brought them from the big world, from the expedition from which he brought the belt of Úar Galmáir and the fidchell of the sons of Solomon. These three cows used to visit from Ard Echdi, into Semne and Láthairne. A copper cauldron was their calf. Sixty sesra⁵ was the fullness of the cauldron from each single day to another. It is of it that Cú Chulainn said in the Síaborcharpat:⁶

There was a cauldron in the fort,
calf of three cows.
Thirty oxen in its mouth
was not a burden to it.

They used to visit that cauldron,
it was a pleasant undertaking.
They did not leave him
until they left him full.

There was much of gold and silver in it,
it was a good find.
I took that cauldron,
with the daughter of the king.

The grazing of their land was a distress to the Ulstermen.  They were guarding their land. They gathered around the cows, but they escaped from them.  The Ulstermen went across the sea on the track of the cows until they were at the tower of Echde. They all went except Conall and Lóegaire. Cú Chulainn did not go.  It did not seem good to any of them.⁷

Cú Chulainn went after them. When he went into a boat, another young warrior of indifferent appearance overtook him. He had a dun tunic and a dun cloak and a copper muirnech⁸ in his cloak. They went across the sea as well.  They were granted three nights of hospitality.

The Ulstermen arose after Echde had fallen asleep.  They took the cauldron and the girl and much of the other treasures. When they had gone a great distance, Echde followed them across the sea. The cattle were given to Cú Roí in order to keep Echde away. The young warrior leapt from the ship so that he rose into (?) a great flood that was beside him to the south. That was the extinction of his life. Echde fell. He died.⁹

The Ulstermen and the young warrior came to the land of Ireland. They entreated him so that he would take all of the treasure and leave the cows and the girl with them until the end of a year. He was asked this again until the end of three years, and he did it. He came at the end of the year. In the end they were lying, and they did not allow him to take them. The meetings failed.

He himself took the cows and the cauldron and the girl from them. Cú Chulainn went after him. He placed his hand across the handle of the cauldron. The young warrior turned to him. He threw him from him into the ground, once to his knees, then to his hindquarters, then to his belt, then to his two armpits.¹⁰ Moreover, he then took the cows and the girl until he was at the fortress of Cú Roí, between it and the sea in the west. The cows produced [milk] then, after being driven without milking. An herb grew from it there. Its name is bo-eirne, for Cú Roí is of the Érna.

Then Ferchertne, poet of Cú Roí, came to the Ulstermen with a demand, and he took the Líath Macha.  Moreover, he took him for the sake of their honour. He came again after a month. The áes aisndisen “people of explaining” used to praise the banqueting hall of the Ulstermen and their king and their queen in the presence of Ferchertne. One time he arrived. He said…

[retoiric – There is a passage of retoiric here – a form of particularly obscure and difficult verse – that Thurneysen left out of both his edition and translation. I will also leave it aside for now. Best does include it in his transcription, but without any editing. Clearly though, Fercherne reveals the true identity of the “young warrior” who took the cauldron, the cows, and Bláithine and defeated Cú Chulainn.]

It is then indeed that they discovered that it was Cú Roí who had come and who had gotten the better of them.  The Ulstermen thought this a great distress.

Then Cú Chulainn went in the guise of a beggar so that he was in the fortress of Cú Roí. He recognized her, the daughter of Conchobar.  He told her of his doings for the sake of the Ulstermen and her father, in order that she would betray the man.

There was a copper ship from which he [Cú Roí] used to strike Alba and the islands of the sea besides, (and) he reached the big world. The woman betrayed him then. He told her through his sincerity in order to comfort her distress that there was a spring on the side of Slíab Mis in the west. A salmon used to appear there after seven years. A golden apple¹¹ was in its stomach. This apple could only be cut with his own sword.  It is inside it that his soul was. The woman was in the west for seven years until Cú Chulainn came in the appearance of a leper, and it was another seven years from that until the salmon appeared.

She was waiting for that good fortune, moreover.  The Ulstermen went so that they were all in the plain to the north of the fortress. The man cast large stones at them so that they did not reach [him].  Cú Chulainn killed the salmon. That took Cú Roí’s strength from him, and his valour, and he said: “No secrets to women, no treasures to slaves.”¹² Cú Chulainn killed him then and they took his victory.

Two from his household avenged him. Lúach Mór, Cú Roí’s charioteer, went into the chariot of Coirpre son of Conchobar and he carried him over the cliff so that they were killed. Moreover, Ferchertne, the poet, when he was brought to Bláithine, drove a dagger¹³ between her two breasts so that she died. He was killed at once. It is from this that the grave of Bláithine is at Luimnech, together with Ferchertne’s grave.

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In my next post I will consider the description of Cú Roí as an ammait, which the Dictionary of the Irish Language defines as a “woman with supernatural powers, witch, hag; spectre.” The following post will turn to the fact that Cú Roí is apparently invincible due to his soul or life-force being hidden in an apple until he is tricked into revealing this to Bláithine. There are many, many interesting parallels for this, and I will discuss a few of them.

1. Mallory, J. P. and Ruairí Ó hUiginn. 1994. “The Ulster Cycle: A Check List of Translations”. In J. P. Mallory and Gerard Stockman (eds) Ulidia: Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Ulster Cycle of Tales. Belfast: December Publications. 291-303. [↩]
2. The Irish word used here is ammait, which Thurneysen translates into German as “Hexenmeister.” According to eDIL, the word is gendered and used exclusively of women.   Its use here to describe Cú Roí is therefore noteworthy and will be the subject of a future post. [↩]
3. Please see the Addendum to this post in which I discuss this passage and offer the following updated translation: He asked for Bláithine, daughter of Conchobar, and she said: “According to his will, however I love the sorcerer and magician Cú Roí.” [↩]
4. Or possibly “dark red” (eDIL s.v. 2 erc) or “red-eared” (eDIL s.v. 4 erc). [↩]
5. A sesra is a measure of capacity corresponding to Latin sextarius, roughly 540ml.  The capacity of the cauldron would therefore be something like 32 litres. [↩]
6. The reference here is to Síaburcharpat Con Culaind “The Phantom Chariot of Cú Chulainn.” These three quatrains occur in the middle of a longer poem. There is no reference to Cú Roí or Echde or his cows or cauldron in the Siaburcharpat, however. These three verses are also included in the later versions 2 and 3 of Aided Chon Roí.  There are only minor differences between the four copies of these verses. [↩]
7. Thurneysen translates this line as “keiner von ihnen hatten Lust” – “none of them wanted to.” [↩]
8. The meaning of muirnech is unclear in this context. Thurneysen suggests that it may mean some kind of clasp or pin. [↩]
9. This passage is quite unclear. Thurneysen declines to translate it in full, rendering it as: “Der junge Mann sprang (?) aus dem Schiff, so dass … in eine grosse Flut (starke Brandung?), die südlich in seiner Nähe war. Das war … seiner Seele. Echde fiel. Er starb.” “The young man leaped from the ship so that … into a large flood (strong surf?) that was near him to the south. That was …  of his soul. Echde fell. He died.” There is no clear corresponding passage in ACR2/3.  I have translated “rose into a large flood” based on the verbal form -raidh, which I take to be a form of at-reig. It could also be a form of ráidid “speaks, says, tells, calls,” so maybe something like “he calls a large flood”?  I’m not sure that ráided can be used in the sense of “summons” though. I have translated “that was the extinction of his life” based on églach / éclach, which eDIL doesn’t translate but suggests could be connected to Modern Irish éaglach “extinction, death.” [↩]
10. This encounter is described in more detail in Version 3 of the story, where it ends with Cú Roí cutting Cú Chulainn’s hair off with his sword and rubbing cow dung on his head. [↩]
11. The primary meaning of uball is “apple,” and Thurneysen translates “Apfel” here, but also notes that the secondary meaning “Kugel” or following eDIL “any globular object, a ball” is also possible. [↩]
12. This phrasing echoes that found in a passage of verse spoken by Mac Dathó in Scela mucce Meic Da Thó: “Cremthann nía Nair said / You should not give your secret to women. / The secret of a woman is not well hidden. / Treasure is not repaid by a slave.” (My translation.) [↩]
13. eDIL s.v. cleittíne “small light javelin, dart (usually one of Cú Chulainn’s weapons); dagger(?).” I think dagger works best in this context. [↩]