Uathach

Uathach [ 'uaθax ] is the name of a legendary figure from the Celtic mythology of Ireland .

mythology

Uathach is the ugly and violent daughter of the warrior queen Scáthach from Alba ( Scotland ). In the story Tochmarc Emire (“The Advertise for Emer”) she defends her mother's entry to her mother's castle against Cú Chulainn , because Cú Chulainn desperately wants to learn the secrets of Scathach's battle in order to be able to marry Emer . But Cú Chulainn overpowers her, breaks her finger, kills servants hurrying to help and has to become a servant of the Scathach himself for atonement. Uathach falls in love with him and tells him how to outsmart her mother. Finally, he gets from Scathach that she will let him have her daughter without any bridal money - that means that this sexual intercourse takes place without any contractual obligation. Uathach and Scathach also try to stop him from fighting Aife , but they fail. After a year of apprenticeship, Cú Chulainn returns to Ulster .

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 .

See also

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

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter Verlag 1991, ppb edition Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 , p. 132 ff.