An Chraobh Airgid

Person

Culann

Culann

Say it: KUL-un

The smith whose hound gave Cú Chulainn his name.

Open it on the full site There every name opens, and a web shows who is kin to whom.

A smith of Ulster who made a feast for King Conchobar and asked him not to bring a crowd: he had no lands behind him, only the work of his own hands and his tongs. His hound took three chains to hold, with three men on each. When the boy Sétanta killed it, Culann mourned it as the keeper of his house and herds, and the boy promised to be his hound until a whelp of the same litter was grown. So he became Cú Chulainn, the hound of Culann.

Kin and bonds

In the tales

  • The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulainn A small boy walks alone to Emain Macha, kills a smith’s hound and takes its place, and on a day of prophecy chooses fame over a long life.

See also

Sources

Medieval manuscript. Written down by Irish scholars between the eighth and seventeenth centuries.

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