Cú Chulainn- Celtic DemigodDemigod"Hound of Ulster"

Miraculous Birth

Cú Chulainn was born Sétanta, son of Deichtine, sister of King Conchobar mac Nessa of Ulster. Lugh, the many-skilled god, was his father, though he was raised as the son of the mortal warrior Sualtam mac Róich. The Compert Con Culainn preserves multiple versions of his conception. In one account, Deichtine and a party of Ulstermen chased a flock of magical birds to a mysterious house where a woman was in labor; the child born there was Sétanta, and Lugh revealed himself as the father. In another version, Deichtine swallowed a mayfly in her drink and dreamed of Lugh, who told her she would bear his son.

The Boyhood Deeds

The Macgnímrada Con Culainn recounts how the boy Sétanta, barely five years old, left his mother at Muirthemne and journeyed alone to Emain Macha, the royal seat of Ulster, to join the boy-troop led by King Conchobar's foster-sons. When the 150 boys attacked him for entering the playing field without first asking their protection, he defeated them all in a fury, chasing them around the grounds. King Conchobar recognized the child and took him under his protection. Before his seventh year, Sétanta could outrun horses and had killed a full-grown warrior in combat.

How He Won His Name

Sétanta was invited to a feast at the house of Culann the smith. Arriving late after a hurling match, he found the smith's fierce guard-dog, a beast requiring three chains and three men on each chain to restrain it, blocking his path. The hound attacked, but the boy killed it by hurling a sliotar down its throat with such force it burst through the animal's body. Culann mourned his protector, for the dog guarded his herds and household. Sétanta offered to serve as the smith's guard himself until a replacement dog could be raised. The druid Cathbad bestowed the new name: Cú Chulainn, "Hound of Culann," and prophesied that this name would be on the lips of all men.

The Wooing of Emer

Cú Chulainn sought to marry Emer, daughter of Forgall Monach. Forgall, hoping to rid himself of the suitor, sent Cú Chulainn to train under the warrior woman Scáthach in Alba, believing the journey would kill him. The path required crossing the Plain of Ill Luck, where men's feet stuck fast, and the Perilous Glen, filled with devouring beasts. At Scáthach's fortress, Dún Scáith in the Land of Shadows, he performed the salmon-leap across her bridge of pupils and burst into her stronghold.

Training with Scáthach

Under Scáthach's instruction, Cú Chulainn mastered combat arts unknown in Ireland, feats with names like the thunder-feat and the salmon-leap. She gave him the Gáe Bolga, a barbed spear made from the bone of a sea-creature that, once inside a body, opened into thirty barbs and could not be extracted without cutting away the flesh. During his training, he fought alongside Scáthach against her rival, the warrior woman Aífe. After defeating Aífe in single combat, he took her as a lover and fathered a son, Connla. Before departing, he left Aífe a gold ring by which the boy might later identify his father.

Returning to Ireland a master of arms, Cú Chulainn stormed Forgall's fortress to claim his bride. Forgall fell to his death leaping from the ramparts in flight, and Cú Chulainn carried Emer away with her weight in gold and silver, cutting down any who stood in their path.

The Ríastrad: Warp-Spasm

In battle-fury, Cú Chulainn underwent a terrifying physical transformation called the ríastrad or "warp-spasm." His body contorted: one eye sank deep into his skull while the other bulged as large as a cauldron, and his hair stood rigid as hawthorn bristles with a drop of blood on each tip. Every joint reversed. He was unrecognizable as human. A "hero-light" blazed from his brow. In this state, he could not distinguish friend from foe and had to be plunged into three successive vats of cold water. The first burst apart from the heat. The second boiled over. Only the third brought him back to his senses.

The Táin Bó Cúailnge

Cú Chulainn's greatest trial came during the Táin Bó Cúailnge, when Queen Medb of Connacht invaded Ulster to seize the Donn Cúailnge, the Brown Bull of Cooley. The men of Ulster lay helpless under the ces noínden, the curse of labor-pangs inflicted by the goddess Macha, which left them incapacitated whenever danger threatened. Only Cú Chulainn, exempt through his divine blood, could defend the province. He harried Medb's army through guerrilla attacks, felling men from a distance with his sling, then held the ford at Áth Fhirdia, invoking the right of single combat. For months he fought champion after champion each day under the rules of fair challenge, slaying warrior after warrior while the main army could not advance past the crossing.

The Death of Ferdia

The most tragic episode of the Táin was Cú Chulainn's combat with Ferdia mac Damáin, his foster-brother and closest friend from their training with Scáthach. Medb sent Ferdia against him after exhausting all other champions, goading him with accusations of cowardice and bribing him with her daughter Finnabair. For three days the two fought evenly, each night sending healing herbs and food to the other across the ford. On the fourth day, driven to desperation as Ferdia's horn-skin armor turned every blow, Cú Chulainn called for the Gáe Bolga and killed his foster-brother. Over Ferdia's body he spoke: "All was play, all was sport, until Ferdia came to the ford."

The Morrigan's Pursuit

The war goddess Morrigan appeared to Cú Chulainn during the Táin, offering her love and alliance. He rejected her, saying he had no time for women during war. Enraged, she attacked him in three forms during his next combat at the ford: as an eel that tripped him in the water, then as a grey-red she-wolf that stampeded cattle over him. He wounded her each time, breaking the eel's ribs and putting out the wolf's eye. Later, disguised as an old woman milking a cow with three teats, she offered him three drinks of milk. With each drink he blessed her, unknowingly healing her wounds.

The Wasting Sickness

In the Serglige Con Culainn, Cú Chulainn was struck by two Otherworld women with horsehair whips after he failed to catch two enchanted birds for his wife Emer. He fell into a year-long wasting sickness, lying bedridden at Emain Macha. The fairy woman Fand, wife of the sea-god Manannán mac Lir, sent her sister Lí Ban to offer Cú Chulainn her love if he would fight her enemies in the Otherworld. He journeyed there, defeated the hostile forces, and remained with Fand for a month. When Emer came with fifty women bearing knives to confront them, Fand yielded and returned to Manannán. The sea-god shook his cloak of forgetfulness between Cú Chulainn and Fand so they would never meet again.

Tragedy of Connla

Years after leaving Alba, Cú Chulainn saw a boat approaching Ulster's coast bearing a young warrior. This was Connla, his son by Aífe, sent by his mother to seek his father in Ireland but bound by geasa never to reveal his name to any man, never to refuse single combat, and never to turn back. Father and son fought without recognition at the shore. When Cú Chulainn found himself nearly defeated, he resorted to the Gáe Bolga and killed the boy. Only as Connla lay dying did he reveal his identity by the gold ring on his finger. Cú Chulainn carried the boy's body before the men of Ulster, crying "Here is my son."

The Final Battle

Cú Chulainn's enemies, the children of Calatin whose father he had slain, knew he was bound by numerous geasa but that breaking them would destroy him. Through sorcery and deception, they maneuvered him into violating his taboos one by one: he was forced to eat dog-flesh, forbidden because his name meant "hound," and he could not refuse the hospitality of three crones who offered it at the roadside. Three magical spears were fashioned by the children of Calatin, each destined to slay a king. The first killed his charioteer Láeg, king of charioteers. The second killed his horse Liath Macha, king of horses. The third struck Cú Chulainn himself, king of warriors. Mortally wounded with his entrails spilling out, he washed himself in a lake and tied himself to a standing stone with his own belt so he would die on his feet facing his enemies. Only when a raven landed on his shoulder did his foes dare approach, confirming he was dead. Lugaid mac Con Roí beheaded him, and the hero-light that blazed from his brow finally faded.