Macgnímrada Con Culainn

Macgnímrada Con Culainn [ 'makɣʴnʴiːvraða kon' kuliNʴ ] ("Cú Chulainn's youthful deeds ") is the title of a chapter in the Táin Bó Cuailnge ("The Robbery of Cooley ") from the Ulster cycle of Irish mythology .

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The death of Culann's dog

Some of the various reasons for Connacht and its royal couple Ailill mac Máta and Medb overflowed Ulster warriors (see also Longas mac nUislenn - "The Exile of the Sons Uislius") tell during the advance of the army as a Teichoscopy the Connachtern stories from the youth of the dreaded Ulster hero Cú Chulainn .

Fergus mac Róich was the first to report that the boy Sétanta (Cú Chulainn's child's name) at the age of five defeated 50 boys of the macrad (“boyhood of the court”) in front of the Emain Macha royal castle in a ball game without difficulty. Conall Cernach explains how the six-year-old's name changed because he killed the blacksmith Culann's dog, who was considered invincible and who was supposed to protect his property, with a sling (see also Aided Cheltchair maic Uthechair , “The death of Cheltchar, the son of Uthechar "). Since he committed himself as atonement to protect Culann's property until a new guard dog was trained, he got his real name, which means "Culann's dog", from the druid Cathbad . In a more recent version, this story is told by Cormac Conn Longas .

Fiachu mac Fir Febe then reports that Cú Chulainn returned to the royal castle of Ulster after a victorious battle with the têtes coupées of the "three sons of Nechtan ", a stag caught alive and some wild swans.

[...] and it is terrible. He has the bloody heads of his enemies in his car.

That he also turned the left side of the castle was the traditional sign of hostile intentions. Thereupon the king Conchobar mac Nessa ordered the women of the court to face the madman with bare breasts and shame in the manner of the Sheela-na-Gig , whereupon he hid his face in his hands in horror. Now the warriors could seize him and put him one after the other in three vats of cold water until he came to his senses again.

See also

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

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 .
• Ingeborg Clarus : Celtic Myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter Verlag 1991, ppb edition Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 .
• Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 .

Web links

• Childhood chapter in the article Cú Chulainn on the English language Wikipedia
• Ann Dooley: Playing the Hero: Reading the Irish Saga Táin Bó Cúailnge . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2006, ISBN 0-8020-3832-8 , pp. 105 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 666.
2. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. P. 122 f.
3. ↑ Barry Cunliffe : The Celts and Their History. 7th edition, Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 2000, p. 82 f.
4. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 807.
5. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. P. 125 f.