Cú Roí

Cú Roí mac Dáiri [ kuː Roi mak 'daːrʴi ] is the name of a king in some of the tales in the Ulster cycle of the Celtic mythology of Ireland .

mythology

Cahergal, Cú Roís Castle in Caherconree

Cú Roí is the king of the Irish province of Munster , his seat is assumed in Cathair (today the Promontory Fort Cahergal near Caherconree west of Tralee ).

He is an important person in the story Fled Bricrenn ("Bricrius Fest"). In the original legend, Cú Roí is the arbiter of a dispute between the Ulster heroes Loegaire Buadach , Conall Cernach and Cú Chulainn over the hero's bite ( curad-mír ). Since they do not agree with his saying, he appears to them as a giant and challenges them to a life-and-death competition. Another version takes place in Cathair, where Cú Roí transforms into an Otherworld cat . The castle rotates incessantly every night, so the entrance cannot be found during this time. Cú Chulainn turns out to be the bravest in both versions of the story.

In Mesca Ulad ("The drunkenness of the warriors of Ulster "), Cú Roí shows himself insidious against his host friends Cú Chulainn and Conchobar mac Nessa . Here his castle is called Temaír Luchra (possibly Tara in Mide ), where he wants to burn the guests from Ulster who are his enemies. This fails and Temair is destroyed by them.

Cú Roí's death is indirectly related to this event. His wife Bláthnat betrays him to Cú Chulainn, with whom she has fallen in love and who then murders him. For this she is killed by her husband's bard , Ferchertne , too - he jumps with her from a cliff into the sea.

In one version of the Táin Bó Cuailnge , Cú Roí is said to have fought a duel with giant stones at the beginning of the battle between Ulster and Connacht with the Ulter poet Amairgin mac Ecit Salaig , which they finally had to break off on the orders of Queen Medb .

See also

• List of Celtic gods and legendary figures
• Myths and legends from Ireland

literature

• Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .
• Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 .
• Rudolf Thurneysen : "Die Sage von CuRoi" , in Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 9 (1913), pp. 189–234.

Web link

• John T. Koch: Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2006

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 971.
2. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Pp. 834 f, 841, 961.
3. ↑ Cecile O'Rahilly: Táin Bó Cúalnge from the Book of Leinster , Institute for Advanced Studies, Dublin 1967, p. 244 f.