An Chraobh Airgid

Being of the sídhe

Finnbennach

Finnbennach

The White-horned: the bull of Ailill’s herd, who would not belong to a woman.

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

He was calved by one of Medb’s cows, but “deeming it no honour to be in a woman’s possession, had left and gone over to the kine of the king” (Joseph Dunn, 1914), so that Ailill was one bull richer than his wife. That is why Medb went after the Brown Bull of Cúailnge. The two bulls met at Tarbga in Mag Aí, fought until night fell and went over the greater part of Ireland through the night, and in the morning the Brown came back over Cruachan with what was left of him on his horns: his loin fell at Áth Luain, Athlone, and his liver at Áth Truim, Trim.

Kin and bonds

In the tales

  • The Cattle Raid of Cooley An argument in bed over who is richer ends in a war for a brown bull, and one young man holding a ford against all Ireland.
  • The Adventure of Nera On Samhain night a man goes out in the dark to tie a withe round a hanged man’s foot, and follows the host of the sídhe into the cave of Cruachan.

See also

  • Ailill mac Máta King of Connacht, Medb’s husband.
  • Medb Queen of Connacht, who went to war for the Brown Bull of Cúailnge.
  • Nera The man who followed the sídhe into the cave of Cruachan.
  • Ráth Cruachan Rathcroghan and Oweynagat. Queen Medb’s royal seat, and a cave called the gate of hell.

Sources

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

Each tale above lists the sources it is retold from. Every source the site draws on is listed on the full site.