Робочий аркуш (a worksheet): Celtic saga

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Спецкурс з Літератури Великої Британії для учнів 10-11 класів Тема: Early Britain

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A CELTIC SAGA: RAIDING OF THE CATTLE OF COOLEY

The War O ver the Brown Bull Begins

One da y Ailill and Medb, King and Queen of Connaught began to count up their possessions. Although they were equal in every other thing, in jewels and clothes, in sheep and hourses and swine and cattle, no bull of Medb’s was equal to Ailill’s White -Horned Bull. Only the Brown Bull of Ulster was as good as the White-Horned Bull. And refusing to be less in anything than her husband the proud queen decided to take the Brown Bull be force.

Medb gathered the armies of all the rest of Ireland to go against Ulster. She expected to have an easy victory, for the warriors of Ulster were at that time lying under a magic weakness which fell upon them for many days each year, as a result of a curse laid upon them, long before, by a goodness who had been insulted by one Conchobar’s ancestors. Medb called up a prophetess of her people to foretell victory. “How do you see our host?” asked the queen of the prophetess. “I see crimson on them; I see red,” she replied. “But the warriors of the Uls ter are lying in their sickness. Now, how do you see our men?” “I see them all

crimson. I see them all red,” she repeated. And then she added to the astonished queen, who had expected a quite different prophecy: “For I s ee a small man doing deeds of arms, though there are many wounds on his smooth skin; the hero light shines round his head, and there is victory on his forehead; he is young and beautiful and modest, but he is a dragon in a battle. I know that all our army will be reddened by him. He is the only man in Ulster who is not

under the magic weakness and he is setting out for battle .”

ABOUT THE STORY

Raiding of the Cattle of Cooley is the central epic of the Ulster cycle. Queen Medb of Connaught gathers an army in order to gain possession of the most famous bull in Ireland, which is the property of Daire, a chieftain of Ulster. Because the men of Ulster are afflicted by a debilitating curse, the seventeen-year-old Cuchulainn must defend Ulster single-handedly. The battle between Cuchulainn and his friend Ferdiad is one of the most famous passages in early Irish literature.

Cuchulainn Defends Ulster Against the Forces of Medb

Man after man came against Cuchulainn, and not one went back. In the intervals between these duels, Cuchulainn harassed the army with his sling, slaying a hundred men a day.

The fighting was so continuous that Cuchulainn got no sleep, except just for a while, from time to time, when he coul d rest a little with his head on his hand and his hand on his spear and his spear on his knee. He did not leave his place for a single night. The gods were watching the hero. His exploits kindled love in the fierce heart of the great war-godness and she gave him her help in his battles.

The great queen determined to see with her own eyes this marvelous hero who was putting all her warriors in fear. She sent a messenger asking him to come and parley with her. Cuchulainn agreed and, at the meeting, Medb was amazed at his boyish look. She found it hard to believe that it was this boy of seventeen who was killing her champions. She offered him her own friendship and great honours and possessions in Connaught if he left Co _{nchobar. He refused; but she offered it again and} again. At last Cuchulainn indignantly declared that the next man who came with such a message would risk his head. He said he was willing to fight one man of Medb’s army every day, and, while the duel lasted the main army might march on, but as soon as he had killed the man, it had to halt until the next day. Medb agreed to this, thinking it better to lose one man a day than a hundred.

The Duel with Ferdiad

All the great warriors whom Medb sent against Cuchulainn he slew one after another, until only Ferdiad was left to match him. But Ferdiad was Cuchulainn’s dear friend, from the days when they were pupils of the woman warrior Scathach inScotland, and he did not wish to fight with Cuchulainn. Medb offered him a great rewards and honours, but he said, “I cannot fight with my foster-brother whom I love, my equal in arms and battle, Cuchulainn.”

Then Medb and the druids told him, that if he refused, he would die of shame, and his name would be a reproach foe ever. And Ferdiad obeyed the order of the queen.

Cuchulainn saw Ferdiad coming and went out to welcome him; but Ferdiad said that he had not come as a friend, but to fight. Cuchulainn begged him by the memory of those old times when they had been together in Scathach’s Island to go back. But Ferdaid said he could not.

They fought all day and neither could overcome the other. At sunset they threw down their weapons and kissed one another and each went back to his camp. Ferdiad sent half his food and drink to Cuchulainn, and Cuchulainn sent half his medicines to Ferdiad, and their horses were put in the same stable, and their charioteers slept by the same fire. And so it happened on the second day. But at the end of the third day they parted without word of friendship, knowing that on the morrow one of them must fall, and their horses were not put in the same stable that night, neither did their charioteers sleep by the same fire.

The fourth day saw the end, for though they were equal in arms and battle, only Cuchulainn could use the terrible aword and with this he killed his friend.

But when he saw that Ferdiad was dying, the battle-fury passed away, and he took his old companion up in his arms and carried him across the river to the Ulster side, so that he could be with the men of Ulster in his death. And wept over him, and said, “It was all a game and a sport until Ferdiad came. Oh, Ferdiad! Your death will hang over me like a cloud for ever. Yesterday you were greater than a mountain; today you are less than a shadow.”

The End of the War

While Cuchulainn was engaged in these duels, Medb broke the agreement and her army made a raid on Ulster. They found the Brown Bull and drove him, with fifty cows, into her camp.

It was this time that the curse came to an end, and the men of Ulster took up arms and pursued the cattle-plunderers. Then was fought such a battle as had never been before in Ireland. Medb’s army fled and the Brown Bull of Cooley was driven into Connaught. There he met Ailill’s bull, the WhiteHorned. The sight of one another was a signal for a terrific fight. The whole province rang with the roars of the two bulls. Men, women and children, hid themselves in caves. At last the Brown Bull raised the enemy on his horns and tore him into pieces and went back to Cooley.

This was the end of the Great War.

TASKS to the material:

1. Read the extracts from the saga given above and see what information you can gather about the early inhabitants of the British Isles. What conclusions you can draw on the basis of this information?

2. Answer the questions on the saga:

1. What was the cause of the great war between Ulster and Connaught?

2. What conclusion does it allow us to draw about the main occupation and the main wealth of the Celts?

3. What facts characterize Cuchulainn as a demigod?

4. What is the role of the druids and wise women?

5. What feats of Cuchulainn describe the Celts as travellers? What dangers did he face?

6. How do the sagas show that the Celts were in a period of transition to class society?

7. “I swear by the gods of my people,” was the ordinary oath of a hero in the ancient Celtic Sagas. What conclusion does this oath allow us to make about the religion of the Celts?

What other information about their religion can you get from the extracts you have read?

3. *** (optional) Translate the poem Cuchulainn Laments Ferdiad by George Sigerson into Ukrainian with rhythm and rhyme.

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Натяніна Галина Сергіївна

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