#Táin

[thequiver]

It is a beautiful day in Ulster and you are a terrible 17 year old boy

[sadbhkellett]

I just love this contemporary interpretation of Cú Chulainn by Smug One in Dundalk

[apaelfwine]

Tháinig mé ar neart fanfic don Táin, ach faraor ní raibh fiú ceann amháin i nGaeilge. Mar sin, thuig mé go raibh orm an bearna a líonadh. Tá cosc tiomána sé mhí ar Chú Chulainn, agus an tionól ealaín chomhraic is mó in Éirinn ar siúil i gCuaille ag deireadh na seachtaine. Mar sin, téann sé ag lorg síbe ó Lao Mac Rianghabhra, a sheanchomrádaí fadfhulangach. (Irish-language fanfic: in a modern au of the Táin Bó Cuailgne, Cú Chulainn, under a six month driving ban, wants to travel to Cuailgne and compete in Ireland's largest martial arts tournament. Therefore, he begs a lift off his long-suffering childhood friend Láeg.)

[bloctg4]

please share the setanta gossip video you put on IG here, i know the tumblr nerds will appreciate it and i want to share it with them 💚

ÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚ yass

d'athraigh setanta a ainm? slé!

[ranticore]

every so often i do get people asking for books recommendations for getting into irish mythology (just answered an ask privately about it.. at length) and this one deserves to be in a public post but seriously read The Táin (translated by Thomas Kinsella). This is THE best book and best translation. it's a fascinating look into life under Brehon Law, especially where female characters are concerned - i'm not saying it's not sexist but it's not the sexism you expect from a prechristian story put to writing by monks in the middle ages. this is why you need the Kinsella translation, earlier Victorian translations heavily censored 'unseemly' topics, like expressions of womens' sexual desire (which is almost constant in this book i'm ngl the girls are getting it. cúchulainn's wife emer refuses to marry him until he kills 900 men for her and of course our hero kills 900 men for her what is he, a bad husband??)

but also it's just a good story and extremely funny. it's something a lot of recommendations never really express - it is a story with a sense of humour and you will laugh. it's designed to entertain people around a fire during black winter nights.

it's a written version of the Ulster Cycle, a series of intertwined stories about our best boy Cúchulainn becoming the sole defender of Ulster after all the other men are cursed to experience debilitating period cramps by Macha. He has to defend Ulster because the queen of Connacht is coming to steal a bull belonging to them, and she's doing that because she got in a fight with her consort* over who's the richest and found that their wealth was exactly equal aside from him having a nicer bull. so she goes to war to get her own awesome bull.

best book ever. read it

[sissiarte]

Did these Láegs with horsies some time ago and I forgot to post them sorry

[werewolfetone]

Hi my name is cú chulainn who is sétanta the son of sualdam and conchobar's sister dechtire and I guard the house of culann (that's how I got my name) with hair that stands on end and one eye that closes and one eye that pops out like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like my father sualdam (a/n if you don't know who that is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to láeg but I wish I was because he's a major fucking hottie. I'm an ancient celt and my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I'm also an undefeated warrior, and I fight for the army of ulster where I'm the only one not afflicted by the curse (I'm seventeen). I'm the strongest warrior in ireland (in case you couldn't tell) and I wear mostly black. I love scáthach and I get all my weapons from her. for example today I was carrying my ball and my javelin and my hurley stick. I was being driven in my chariot to áth grena. it was snowing and raining and there was no sun, which I was very happy about. a lot of connachtmen stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them

[rotomartsblog]

Ever After High OCs let’s gooo!!1!

Info dump is undercut because holy shit it got long

Madra Chulainn, the Daughter of Cú Chulainn.

Okay so first things first, me making her is dooming EAH!Ulster to go to war every generation so. Keep that in mind

Her time as an EAH student is a mix of during and after her training with the next Scathach, her first two years would be during it and her last two would be after.

That does mean during her final years she could possibly be married to the next Emer.

Let me try to explain her family because it gets weird. She’s not technically the daughter of Cú Chulainn. The last Cú Chulainn, let’s call him Gadhar, would’ve died young and way before she’d be born. Her mother is Gadhar’s Emer figure, but her technical father is Lugh, following the story of Lugh magically putting a baby in Cú Chulainn’s mother’s womb without actually having sex with her. So her mother was the previous generation’s Emer, her technical father is the god Lugh, and Gadhar Chulainn is her already-dead stepdad and technical half-brother through Lugh. However, in the story Cú Chulainn is not only Lugh’s son but also an incarnation of Lugh, meaning Cú is an aspect of Lugh himself. So Madra is both Lugh’s technical daughter and an aspect of Lugh himself, and Gadhar is her already-dead stepdad, technical half-brother, and also a past incarnation of herself. Also, she has like way too many foster parents.

This does make her a demigod of sorts.

The fact that she’s a girl does make people be extremely doubtful if she’s capable of being the next Cú Chulainn, but no one can really deny she’s supposed to be Cú Chulainn because of the whole, y’know, Lugh thing.

Much like Cú Chulainn himself, Madra got the name Madra Chulainn after acting as a guard dog for the Culann house. Her name before that was Síthmaíth.

Madra is freakishly strong. To give an example, in the story Cú once broke about seventeen chariots because they could not withstand his strength.

Madra does go into a ríastrad/battle frenzy like Cú did. This has banned her from the Bookball team.

Madra cannot refuse food given to her by a girl. If she does she’ll become physically weaker.

She weirdly acts like a dog at times despite not actually even being part dog.

She has a loud personality and she’s very active. She also gets very violent when shocked or just caught off guard. She’s definitely broken someone’s nose when they surprised her. She’s also prone to fits of anger and gets irritated very easily.

She plays Camogie and wants to introduce it to Ever After High.

Her pet is an Irish Wolfhound named Dorcha.

Madra would like to Rebel against destiny but she doesn’t think she can. She’s been fated to everlasting fame but dying young ever since she was a child, and once she graduates Ulster will go to war with Connacht because of the next Medb, and Madra will have to fight because otherwise Ulster doesn’t stand a chance. She doesn’t think she can stop the war from happening so she doesn’t think she has a choice other than living out her story. Not only that, she worries that if she doesn’t go through with her story she’d be going directly against the will of her gods, especially Lugh, and she knows that eventually The Morrígan will seek her out, so to her it’s better if she just goes through with her destiny instead of trying to fight against it.

She’s roommates with Momoko. The two do them get along relatively fine, but they’re not particularly close.

Momoko Hana, the Daughter of Momotaro

Momoko attends Ever After High as part of an exchange program. She used to go to a school in East Asia.

In between the years Momoko attended Ever After High, she would complete her destiny during the summer, as Momotaro is typically depicted as a teenager when he sets out on his expedition.

People were shocked that she was a girl, but like Madra her destiny can’t be denied because of her unique birth, coming out of a giant peach.

Momoko struggles to understand people. She wants to make people happy but she’s really bad at conflict resolution, especially since her main method is just giving people Kibi dangos.

Momoko is one of the few girls to be taking Heroics classes. Other girls in the class would be Madra and Jillian.

Momoko is extremely skilled with weaponry, especially sharp ones such as knives and swords. She’d be able to cut down a tree in just a few swings.

Momoko, surprisingly, does not dislike the Oni.

Momoko has spoken with her gods before.

Momoko believes it is impossible to go against destiny and that even the act of going against the set stories is the work of destiny itself.

A lot of people, both Royals and Rebels, are annoyed by Momoko because she kind of refuses to look at destiny at a deeper level. She’s very dismissive of the conflict and sees herself as above it, thinking of it as a silly Ever After thing that’ll blow over at some point. She gets proven wrong about this pretty quickly though.

Momoko doesn’t see the word of the Grimm family as absolute law, since she is not from a place where they have influence over the native fairy tales.

Momoko’s only respect for Milton Grimm comes from the fact that he’s an authority figure. If they were on equal standing she would absolutely destroy him.

Momoko has three animal companions. A monkey, a pheasant, and a dog named Nashi, Yuzu, and Ume respectively. They’re not pets, being capable of speech and human level intelligence, and they live with Momoko in her dorm room. They do not get along with each other.

Along with being skilled in martial arts and weaponry, she also like the theatre and acting.

When Momoko first came to Ever After High, one of the biggest culture shocks she experienced was the fact that she was important. Obviously in Japan the story of Momotaro is extremely popular and influential, so Momoko was a highly respected figure in her homeland. In Ever After though? Very little people knew of the Momotaro story. She thinks it’s unfair, since Ever After’s stories are also very popular in Japan but not the vice versa. It wouldn’t bother her so much if it weren’t for the fact that some students are very dismissive of her influence and importance in her homeland, since she’s not a famous figure in Ever After.

She’s roommates with Madra. Their dorm is as clean as a dorm housing four animals and Madra can be.

Lucia Wick, the Niece of Lucignolo

Starting with the obvious. The reason she’s to niece of Lucignolo instead of daughter is because the Lucignolo from the generation before went missing after turning into a donkey, so it was his sister that had to continue the story.

Lucia is a childhood friend of Cedar. According to the story the two of them should be best friends so they were often paired together whenever they were younger. Despite this the two of them never really clicked with each other.

Since Lucia was expected to be a troublemaker, the adults in her life didn’t define the boundaries of what’s right or wrong as much as they did with other children.

A good portion of her time at Ever After High consists of taking detention.

I’ve recently been imagining her with a New Yorker accent.

Sometimes, Lucia’s ears will turn into donkey ears. This mostly happens when she sneezes but it can be triggered by other things.

Lucia is afraid of her destiny because of the uncertainty around it. Her uncle went missing after being turned into a donkey and this is a pattern with the Lucignolo destiny. Most of them went missing and of those who were found, most of them would end up dying as donkeys. Of all the Lucignolos from way back to the 1880s, Lucia only knows of one that was saved and transformed back. It’s because of this uncertainty and not-very-good chances that Lucia aligns herself with the Rebel cause.

Her fear of her destiny began around the time she was a preteen-tween, when she was starting to actually comprehend it, and because of this she started to distance herself from Cedar, hoping to delay her ending for as much as possible. During her first year of Ever After High she actively avoided Cedar. However, she also feels partially guilty that perhaps she’s also delayed Cedar’s story. Almost every Pinocchio became a human when they were young so Lucia worries that her trying to escape her story might have messed up with Cedar’s.

She’s really into embroidery and textile arts.

She also likes using incenses.

She’s very clever and quick-witted.

Lucia likes causing mischief around the school, especially towards the professors but also just to anyone who annoys her.

She has a pet salamander called Matchstick

It’s very hard to convince her to do something that she wouldn’t derive personal enjoyment from. Because of this she often never does her school work or assignments.

Lucia doesn’t think she has many friends, despite hanging out with a lot of people, because she has pretty high standards.

She’s roommates with Hannah. She thinks Hannah is very bothersome, especially with her music. She’d considers Hannah her best friend.

Hannah Hedgehog, the Daughter of Hans My Hedgehog

She’s the same age as the others, she’s just short.

Don’t draw attention to the fact that’s she’s short, even in a joking manner. It really pisses her off.

Hannah doesn’t shift between her humanoid form and an animal farm, like Bunny or Duchess. She’s stuck in her hybrid form.

Hannah does curl into herself when scared, angry, or just upset.

As hedgehogs are nocturnal, Hannah has a more erratic sleep schedule than others.

Hedgehogs hibernate for six months starting in October/November. During that time Hannah sleeps most of the day and only gets up for classes.

Hannah is firmly a Rebel and has a genuine disliking towards the Royals.

Hannah spends most of her time in the woods.

She plays the bagpipes.

Hannah chooses to rebel, despite having a typical happy ending, is because she disagrees with the ending itself. In the end of the story, Hans would be rid of his hedgehog half and live on as a human man, finally being accepted. Hannah doesn’t want to give up a part of herself simply so others would see her as an equal. She’d rather have people treat her respectfully the way she is.

Hans My Hedgehog’s parents treated him awful and unfortunately, that is the same for Hannah. Her parents are ashamed of her being half hedgehog, despite her father himself having been half hedgehog in the past. They make her sleep by the stove and neglect her.

During the time she attends Ever After High, she isn’t living with her parents. In the Hans My Hedgehog story, Hans left to live alone in the woods when he was eight, so when Hannah was young her parents forced her out so she would follow her story.

She has a pet rooster called Rusty.

Hannah hates being treated differently in any way for being half hedgehog. Obviously she doesn’t like being treated unkindly like her parents and a lot of others have, but she also doesn’t like how a lot of people in Ever After High treat her, where it’s in the opposite direction and they’re infantilising her.

Because she tries so hard to be seen as equal to others, she hates asking for help since she sees it as a weakness on her part.

She’s roommates with Lucia. She thinks Lucia is irritating, especially when she’s using incense. She’d consider Lucia her closest companion.

[the-ever-flowing-styx]

it’s that time of the year again :)

[amylouioc]

PREORDERS OPEN 🌀

My Cú Chulainn and the Morrígan standees are now available for preorder!

Preorders close September 1st with delivery end of September/early October. I will have a limited quantity available for general release also, but preorders will help me gauge the interest properly, thanks for the support!

Preorder here!

[riastarthe]

gang i know you love the epic of gilgamesh so i raise you Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad, from the Kinsella translation of the Táin Bó Cúailgne. fuckinnnnnnn... kills my ass dead

Táin spoilers, beloved

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Real talk: i have been pretty absent from this blog (i wouldn't say slacking necessarily because it is first and foremost a hobby, a means of communication second, and i do not consider it a job to any degree). Do not worry, nothing bad has happened, and a big part of it is rediscovering my love of literature. Got my hands on a copy of Thomas Kinsella's The Táin, read The Handmaid's Tale, and recently finished Ivanhoe through audiobook.

I've already been singing the praises of the Táin Bó Cúailnge so i'll spare you having to read through that gushing. Ivanhoe is incredible and shockingly sensitive on the topic of antisemitism for something written by an early 19th century Christian author intended for a majority Christian audience. The scenes with Robin Hood also filled me with a childish glee and i think it was suppose to be a surprise that this guy is Robin Hood but he introduces himself as Locksley and wins an archery contest and leads a gang of outlaws in the woods, including a hermit who refers to Alan-a-Dale quite a bit so it's very obvious to a modern reader. Handmaid's Tale was also as good as i've heard it was, but there's a specific detail i want to discuss that feels relevant to how i think of this blog and how others use it.

I've read the reviews and the plot synopses amd analyses, i knew about the epilogue that frames the story as a historical document a century or so in the future. This did not surprise me. What did catch me by surprise, and something i feel is entirely overlooked, is that this story of an oppressive theocratic regime that uses Biblical precedence to excuse extreme atrocities of human rights violations and turned out to not even last very long, is contextualized as the topic of a discussion hosted by First Nations academics who study white people cultures. You can be pedantic and say "oh but technically they're only First Nations coded because it's presented as a transcript with no physical descriptions" and to a degree you would be right; but when you see names like Maryann Crescent Moon and Johnny Running Dog used for professors of a University of Denay (an anglo-phonetic spelling of Diné/Dene) in Nunavit, there isn't much room for speculating what ethnicity they're supposed to be.

There are so many little details in the book referencing Indigenous genocide. Details suggesting forms of genocide Atwood would be familiar with as a Canadian citizen. To only bring up religious fanaticism and patriarchal regressive politics in Middle Eastern nations like Iran and Afghanistan as well as the United States as inspirations for a surface level five minute summary is one thing, but to ignore all the anti-Indigenous policies that are also obvious inspirations (literally just read the passages about how the Narrator/Offred's daughter was taken from her, renamed, and given to a "proper home" to get what i mean, it's that blatant) when the iconic epilogue makes it as explicit as it can be without writing "THESE ARE NATIVE ISSUES" in big red letters? I won't lie to you, it feels like a slap to the face. Especially when the take away message of such a conclusion seems to be that Native peoples will outlive these regimes.

[sadbhkellett]

I just know the Book of Leinster/Recension II scribe was the Jenny Joyce of the twelfth century

[amarkofcain]

reject coffee shop au embrace medieval au

[ofleafstructure]

Cú Chulainn in Battle ; J. C. Leyendecker

[pagan-stitches]

The Tain is an EP by The Decemberists released in 2004 by Acuarela Discos and in 2005 by Kill Rock Stars. The single 18-plus minute track, in five parts, is named after the Irish mythological epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, often simply called The Táin.

The Táin or less commonly as The Cattle Raid of Cooley, is an epic from Irish mythology. It is often called "the Irish Iliad", although like most other early Irish literature, the Táin is written in prosimetrum, i.e. prose with periodic additions of verse composed by the characters. The Táin tells of a war against Ulster by Queen Medb of Connacht and her husband King Ailill, who intend to steal the stud bull Donn Cuailnge.

Video directed by Andy Smetanka

Lyrics:

[part 1]

[Crone]

Here upon this pillow

Made of reed and willow

You're a fickle little twister

Are you sweet on your sister?

Your fallow won't leave you alone

And granted for their pleasure

Possessions laid to measure

She's a salty little pisser

With your cock in her kisser

But now she's a will of her own

[PART II]

[Husband]

Damn your ankles and eyes wide

From you fingernails to your ponytails too

King of the insects and the m-5

Over Charlemagne in a motorcade too

And baby needs a new prize

Baby needs a new and shiny prize

[Captain]

In this place called heavenly

You were born here

This place called heavenly

You were born here

You were born here

[Husband]

And now all the marchers descend from high

I will dedicate all of my awakenings to this

And damn all the angles that oppress my sight

I will bleed your heart through a samovar soon

Baby needs a new prize

Baby needs a new and shiny prize

[Captain]

In this place called heavenly

You were born here

This place called heavenly

You were born here

You were born here

You were born here

[PART III]

[Soldier]

They settled dust in your hair

To watch you shake and shout it out

With our armaments bared

We shed our bags and travel-alls

From the lee of the wall

He comes in the chang and chariot

And all his eunuchs in thrall

Can scarce lift his line and lariat

Here come loose the hounds

To blow me down

[Chorus Of Waifs]

Blow me down

[Soldier]

On this stretch of ground

I'll lay me down

[Chorus Of Waifs]

Lay me down

[Soldier]

To sleep

[Chaplain]

And now stricken with pangs

That tear at our backs like thistle down

The mirror's soft silver tain

Reflects our last and birthing hour

[Soldier]

Here come loose the hounds

To blow me down

[Chorus Of Waifs]

Blow me down

[Soldier]

On this stretch of ground

I'll lay me down

[Chorus Of Waifs]

Lay me down

[Soldier]

Here come loose the hounds

To blow me down

[Chorus Of Waifs]

Blow me down

[Soldier]

On this stretch of ground

I'll lay me down

[Chorus Of Waifs]

Lay me down

[Soldier]

To sleep

[PART IV]

[Widow]

O the wind is blowing, it hurts your skin

As you climb up hillside, forest and fen

Your arms full of lullabies, orchids and wine

Your memories wrapped within paper and twine

The room that you lie in is dusty and hard

Sleeping soft babies on piles of yards

Of gingham, taffeta, cotton and silk

Your dry hungry mouths cry for your mother's milk

When the dawn comes to greet you, you'll rise with clothes on

And advance with the others, singing old songs

Of cattle and maidens and withered old queens

Let the music carry you on

The room that you lie in is dusty and hard

Sleeping soft babies on piles of yards

Of gingham, taffeta, cotton and silk

Your dry hungry mouths cry for your mother's milk

[PART V]

[Woman]

Darling dear what have you done?

Your clothes are torn, your make-up runs

[Daughter]

I ran through brambles, blooming thistle

I washed my face in the river when you whistled me on

[Woman]

Darling dear, what have you done?

Your hands and face are smeared with blood

[Daughter]

The chaplain came and called me out

To beat and to butcher his mother's sow

[Woman]

But darling dear, they found him dead

This morning on the riverbed

But hush now darling, don't you cry

Your reward's in the sweet by-and-by

Hush now baby, don't you cry

Your reward's in the sweet by-and-by

[Crone]

And now we've seen your powers

Softly stretch the hours

You're a fickle little twister

Are you sweet on your sister?

As now you go wandering home