#this is why i like medb so much. if you just read the tain you lack the incredible context for the war that occurs

[lordelmelloi2]

On Cu Chulainn’s mythological background:

I want to make it clear that this is strictly about the mythological Cu Chulainn and that, as there are people who would be appalled by the behavior of even the mythological origins of the characters they enjoy within the Fate series, there isn’t much exposition on Cu Chulainn’s background as a legend. 

I also, while editing this post, decided to add in some information about his father/foster-father/king/man who has been associated with his life since the very beginning, Conchobar Mac Nessa. Reading about him, you’ll begin to understand what an awful person he is. 

I’ve spent at least 3 years researching Ulster mythology as a side hobby and the one thing that never really came into the spotlight was that Cu Chulainn had committed some heinous crimes. It’s been lightly brushed upon before, this I know, but these specific things from his origins (and I mean the actual texts; not the retellings of his mythos that came later) have near-never been spoken of on tumblr. This is a blogging website, I am a blog author sometimes and not just a shitposter, so sometimes I really want to write about things that are - to me - important to know or reflect on. This will likely also be published on wordpress at some point for a more permanent home. 

Preliminary trigger warnings are: sexual assault, threats of sexual assault, cheating, incest mention. 

Under the cut I will give the full trigger warnings

TW: rape/sexual assault, threats of sexual assault, brief mention of incest, cheating/ppppossibly? gaslighting? the way cuchullin goes about his affair is, like many men, atrocious 

I’ve spoken before about Cu Chulainn’s heritage and how he’s technically not the son of Lugh because of how originally - and I mean earliest translationswise- he was born of his mother and his uncle. 

His uncle is King Conchobar, and was married to Medb at one point. 

Medb became ruler of Connacht after a while and gained enough political power through her royal heritage to be able to be declared ruler of Connacht on her own. She was unhappy with her marriage with Conchobar (for decent reasons, 1) she was only married to him as compensation, 2) one version of the story of Furbaide, Medb’s killer, has Conchobar cheating on Medb with her sister Eithne and fathering a child, the later version has that child being the product of incest between Clothru and Lugaid, other siblings of Medb’s; either way you get the idea.) and left him, and Eochu set her up as ruler of Connacht.. There is an assembly at Tara in which rulers meet to discuss things, and after that assembly Conchobar raped Medb. 

After that, after some time, Setanta/Cu Chulainn enters the story, and Conchobar acts somewhat as a foster-father, though Fergus is on record and in practice his main fatherly figure. 

Fergus gets exiled from Ulster because Conchobar attempts to groom and marry a girl from birth because she was prophecied to be essentially the next Helen of Troy and Conchobar wanted to marry her; when Deirdre attempted to escape, Fergus’s son was involved, and Conchobar had him killed. The death of his son causes Fergus to burn Emain and kill maidens and yadda yadda he goes into exile in Connacht. 

You get the idea. Conchobar is a sack of shit. But that’s not why we’re here. 

Eventually, as you all know, Setanta kills a dog, becomes Cu Chulainn in repentance, and then zzzzzzzzzzzzzz goes to Dun Scaith to train with the warrior Scathach. 

Scathach has a sister named Aoife/Aife/Aiffe/Eva/(The spelling differs because it’s an old name that became modernized) who she goes to war with. Scathach slips Cu Chulainn a sleeping potion knowing that his involvement in this conflict will be catastrophic. Cu Chulainn, being Cu Chulainn hero protag #32848024, wakes up because the potion wasn’t enough. He goes out to fight. 

Fighting with Aoife, she breaks his sword, and he’s at a disadvantage; he asks Scathach what Aoife’s most prized possessions are, and Scathach says it’s her chariots. At that point Cu Chulainn seizes Aoife by the breasts (CELT, LU has it under her breasts/potatosack carry), hoists her over his shoulders, throws her to the ground, and as she begs for her life, he says he’ll spare it if she has sex with him that night and bears him a son. And thus, Aoife is raped. 

(The Wooing of Emer, LU) (http://sejh.pagesperso-orange.fr/keltia/version-en/wooemer1.html)

(The Wooing of Emer, CELT) (https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T301021/)

There is another version of the time Cu Chulainn went to Dun Scaith. In this version, he meets Uathach, Scathach’s daughter, breaks her finger(s), and then kills the man who comes to fight him when that man goes out to find out why Uathach is screaming in pain. 

(The Wooing of Emer, LU) (http://sejh.pagesperso-orange.fr/keltia/version-en/wooemer1.html)

Uathach visits him later with the intention of having sex with him, and he obviously repeals her. She says she’d give him good rewards if he has sex with her that night, and Cu Chulainn, being Cu Chulainn, has sex with her and then asks her in the morning what the rewards are. Uathach replies that she knows where and when Scathach is unarmed and in which he can threaten to kill her unless she gives him those rewards. 

Cu Chulainn follows through; approaching Scathach while she’s unarmed, holds her at swordpoint and states he will kill her. Scathach states that it isn’t wise and she would rather give him rewards instead of dying. Cu asks “what are those” and Scathach replies, whatever you want. Cu, of course, holding her at swordpoint still, replies that he wants to learn feats she has never taught anyone, the “friendship of her thighs” which is a quick euphemism for sex, and to marry her daughter. 

(The Training of Cu Chulainn) (http://sejh.pagesperso-orange.fr/keltia/version-en/cu-training.html)

It is incredibly disappointing to say that no matter what text I find, Cu Chulainn still commits a sexual crime at Dun Scaith. It is also noted that he is violent towards the women he knew at that time. 

Unfortunately, this does not really change. 

Later on, he cheats on his wife Emer with Fand, a fairy princess. 

(The Sick-bed of Cu Chulainn, or, Emer’s Only Jealousy) (http://sejh.pagesperso-orange.fr/keltia/version-en/cu-sickbed.html)

Emer, being a woman written in the Ulster cycle, decides she is going to kill Fand, not Cu Chulainn for cheating on her. Cu Chulainn states that Emer will not even reach Fand after seeing Emer approaching with 50 maidens with knives. Cu Chulainn ridicules Emer for even attempting to fight against him; Emer asks him why he would decide to dishonor her amongst every woman in Erinn.

(The Sick-bed of Cu Chulainn, or, Emer’s Only Jealousy) (http://sejh.pagesperso-orange.fr/keltia/version-en/cu-sickbed.html)

Cu Chulainn does not take well to this, and asks what business Emer has denying him Fand. His speech is almost a “how dare you” to Emer, continuing to ridicule her for standing up against him. 

(The Sick-bed of Cu Chulainn, or, Emer’s Only Jealousy) (http://sejh.pagesperso-orange.fr/keltia/version-en/cu-sickbed.html) 

Emer is overcome with grief, and says she will give him up to Fand. Fand is overcome with grief, and says she will give Cu Chulainn to Emer. The two have a “I’m sorry” battle where they continue to insist that they should feel guilt, because Cu Chulainn is so great, and they can not possibly blame him for cheating on anyone. 

(The Sick-bed of Cu Chulainn, or, Emer’s Only Jealousy) (http://sejh.pagesperso-orange.fr/keltia/version-en/cu-sickbed.html)

So with that, Fand leaves Cu Chulainn, and her father makes it so that Cu and Fand may never meet again, and druids provide a memory-wiping potion that erases the event from Emer and Cu Chulainn’s memory. Yeesh. 

Summary: 

It is not hard to see the mythological background of Cu Chulainn is rife with sexism and illicit activity. The topic of sexism within the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology has been studied time and time again, both in regard to Cu Chulainn’s heroism, and in regard to the villainy of Medb (which even some have argued is simply retaliation for being sexually assaulted). 

I feel that many people excuse Cu Chulainn for his behavior because he has not had his crimes written about in depth. While there are quite a few talks about the Ulster Cycle of mythology’s sexism, they are hidden behind the barriers of academic accessibility. Despite my interest I myself can’t shell out $45 USD for some of the books I’ve been recommended and have to make do with what I’ve got. 

I understand a lot of people like Cu Chulainn, but from what I also understand a good number of them would not like him very much if they knew of what his original mythos was. In another post I will explain how author Nasu Kinoko fails to retcon his mythos within the Fate/Series, namely within Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, and adds ‘sexual harassment of teenagers’ to the number of things Cu Chulainn had done in his stories, but not now. 

I hope this shines light on the kind of character Cu Chulainn was within his origin, and that readers understand that he wasn’t a perfect hero like his retellings insist. It’s important to note that it wasn’t Christianization that gave the impression that Cu Chulainn was a great, noble hero - it was largely the work of the storytellers whose job it was to retell the story for a modern Irish audience. One of the most infamous retellers of Irish myth has been criticized for her decision to make the history black and white - her name was Lady Augusta Gregory, one of the key founders of the Irish Literary Revival. 

I also would like to encourage anyone who has any other sources to come forward to discuss this in an academic light. It is hard for a non-native Irish speaker to gain access to this info and I have many Irish mythology blogs to thank. 

Thank you for reading this. 

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

what kind of stuff do you feel like people who read your fic but haven't read the tain miss out on reading in loco parentis?

hmm, good question. it's a tricky one because I'm not JUST drawing on TBC, I'm also drawing on a bunch of other stories, so even people who've read the táin might miss some details if they haven't read the others! so for example...

a lot of it's in the character relationships and stuff. everything with conchobar, dee and naoise is a reference to "longes mac nuislenn", so if you know the plot of that, you can see how i've adapted it. láeg as the designated driver and mum friend obviously comes from how he functions as charioteer in most texts. conall's motorbike is based on his horse, which mainly shows up in "brislech mór maige muirthemni" / "oidheadh con culainn". this text and others also provide the background for "conall is always away when shit goes down and turns up 15 minutes late with starbucks". cormac's characterisation is... mostly my invention, tbh, he doesn't have much of a personality in canon

a lot of things with cú chulainn and ferdia have a grounding in the texts. ferdia's moment of jealousy, when he says that there's no point competing against cú chulainn as he'll never win, echoes a similar outburst in "oileamhain con culainn", while the idea of the two of them being forced to compete in a way that doesn't allow for them both to win is drawing on the táin, specifically the "comrac fir diad" episode. emer daring cú chulainn to take on a challenge that leads to him training with scáthach comes from "tochmarc emire". cú chulainn's defence of derbforgaill comes from "aided derbforgaill", but his anger, and the way he talks about rage and dance and so on is drawing on descriptions of the ríastrad from the táin and other texts.

ferdia's flatmates being medb and ailill and the fact that fergus is sleeping with both of them is a táin detail although. well. he's not canonically sleeping with ailill as well in TBC, but... maybe he should've been lmao. the fact that they are loud and obnoxious and láeg and cú chulainn are half ready to declare war on their neighbours was at one point going to be more of a plot point, but i got distracted. that would've been a táin detail as well though, if it had happened

so that's like, plot stuff (there's probably a lot more of it that I would've forgotten about by now). but then there are small details like some of the imagery used – e.g. the use of colours in the most recent chapter, which comes from "longes mac nuislenn" again, sort of. again, the descriptions that are supposed to echo the ríastrad, which ties into the way I'm using ballet as a stand-in for cú chulainn's heroic feats and therefore leaning on some of those associations...

plus all the like, analytical levels of stuff of cú chulainn using pointework to compensate and compete when others see his position as a male dancer as dubious echoes the way he uses his feats and tricks and training to beat those who question his beardlessness and small size in the táin – turning his unconventional masculinity to his advantage

there are a lot of layers of references and some are more obvious than others. also some of them are accidental because I am often VERY immersed in the ulster cycle to the point of like. making references unconsciously that then other people point out to me. so there are probably some obvious ones. but that's like a quick rundown of some of the most obvious "easter eggs" that those with knowledge of the texts would pick up on but those who didn't, wouldn't. idk that they're essential for following the story in any way, i guess they might just explain why I made the narrative choices i made at various points.

[atlantic-riona]

21,22,24

21. How do you come up with titles? Do you use placeholders or tend to change your titles while writing the first draft?

It depends? I like to have a title to work with once I really get going, but it can take a while. The Raven’s Return was an accident, I was trying to describe the plot to someone over text (or maybe e-mail?) and wrote “when the Raven returns.” And immediately I was like “oh that’s the title. duh.” Because so much of the book revolves around Bran’s return, and the aftereffects of it, plus the question of whether or not Bran can really go back home. I See It Crimson, I See It Red was a title I’d been bouncing around for a very long time, as well as the story idea, so that one was easy. It’s what Fedelm says in Kinsella’s translation of the Tain, in response to Medb questioning her about her army’s future.

I don’t really like placeholders, because I don’t want the placeholder to become the title in my head, which will absolutely happen. Once I have a title, I get attached to it, so I don’t like to change titles while writing either.

22. How do you come up with character names? Do the names have a special meaning? If so, what are they?

I usually think about the culture the character comes from, fictional or otherwise. Because Falia is based on Ireland, I try to choose names that are Irish, and furthermore, I try to choose names that are older or a little bit less common now. (Which means I need an in-universe reason for why Gwydion is named that, since it’s Welsh, not Irish). And then the names usually have some sort of special meaning or context that reminds me of the character, or they just sound right for the character.

Quick run-down of the main characters’ names and meanings (in The Raven’s Return):

Bran: it’s an Irish (and Welsh) name meaning raven (sometimes I’m, uh, not very subtle with names), but it also has associations with the sea; in Welsh mythology Bran the Blessed was the son of Llyr, who seems to have been the Welsh equivalent of Ler, a god of the sea.

Cait: there actually isn’t any meaning behind this one, haha. Technically it should be Cáit, but then I’d have to explain that it’s pronounced “caw-tch” and I didn’t want to deal with that when I was first starting to seriously work on this story. I’d probably make a different decision nowadays, but I’ve gotten used to thinking of her name as being pronounced “Kate”. Anyway, it’s a shortening of Caitríona, the Irish version of Catherine, which...apparently we don’t know what that means for sure? I just looked that up, so that’s interesting. I chose Cait because I wanted originally to use “Cáelfind/Caoilfhionn,” because it was very pretty...and then I realized most people would probably be very confused by the name and how to pronounce it (it’s pronounced “kee-lin” as far as I know). I wanted to keep the “c” at the beginning, so I chose Cait instead.

Gwydion: according to some stuff I’ve read, it could mean “born of trees,” but I picked it because of its association with a famous Welsh hero who appears in the Mabinogion, Gwydion fab Don, who’s very skilled with magic.

Alasdair: it’s the Scottish Gaelic version of Alexander, meaning “defender of the people/man”. I picked it because I thought of Aly as a strategist and a fighter, and I liked the association behind the name.

Art: it means “bear,” and was also used as another word for champions (from what I understand?). I also picked it as a reference to King Arthur.

Conor: it’s an Anglicized form of “Conchobar,” which seems to mean “lover of hounds or wolves.” I love the Ulster Cycle, so this is sort of a nod to that, because Conchobar is the king of the Ulaid.

Marian: I’m going to be honest here and say I totally chose this one because of Maid Marian. She’s in love with Bran, who’s an outlaw, and I just couldn’t resist the Robin Hood reference.

Lucan: I liked how it sounded, and later discovered that it was the name of a prominent Roman figure. I also discovered just now that apparently it’s also the name of one of King Arthur’s knights? So there’s a bit of a Roman/British connection there, which I did not expect.

Natalia: I liked how it sounded (again), and it sounded like a winter name to me, which seemed perfect for Natalia. It apparently means “Christmas Day.”

Bella: I chose Bella because 1) it means beauty, 2) it’s similar to the Roman goddess of war, Bellona, and 3) it’s a pretty name.

Marcus: it’s derived from Mars (the Roman god of war), and (I forget where I found this) it apparently means “of the sea” or defense.”

Lia: I really liked this name, but couldn’t figure out how she would have gotten it, since she’s supposed to be from Hanaji (which is heavily inspired by Japan). I went back and forth on it for awhile and finally decided to keep it. It sounds pretty.

24. Do you let your story evolve as you write or do you meticulously plan everything prior to writing the first draft?

I’ve tried both, and I think that I have to let it evolve as I write. Otherwise I get too panicked about whether everything’s going according to plan (or get bored writing it). It’s hard in a different way, but I can handle it better.

[lordelmelloi2]

Like I kind of just want to take a moment to outline my experiences with learning about the Ulster cycle having first heard about it through Fate/Series tbh like this isn’t “please pity me” or any shit like that I’m just Saying this is how it affected Me, Personally 

I learn that he exists in Fate, I learn he’s an Irish mythological character (2015ish) 

I start researching him because I’m Interested obviously 

I read his wikipedia article because first things first, right, and I see they’ve marked that he raped Aoife and uhhh PTSD reaction there

I’m hesitant but I read the talk page about it and I’m like What and in shock 

so I go and do more research about it and start reading the original texts themselves because I don’t like to go thru retellings if I’m trying to get to the absolute bottom of things, I want to know if the people who made and wrote this story had that intention 

I find out they Had That Intention and that it differs from the retellings

I spend years just going thru academia and shit in my spare time finding out how the Ulster cycle has pretty much always been sexist, that its retellings are firmly centered towards showing Cu as a hero despite what they know, and villainizing characters who absolutely do not deserve it like Medb 

dragged myself thru the Tain Bo Cuailnge at this point and hated it for the most part (took me like 3 separate nights to read it bc I’m ADD) 

eventually I’m at a point where I know Enough. i go into the hollow ataraxia part about Lancer’s past like, last year or so 

n find out that nasu literally didn’t retcon anything and keeps talking about how Cu “Takes Women He Likes” i.e. fucks them and im just like literally sick to my stomach 

earlier than that actually I read that scene where he sexually harasses the track team girls and now that I read thru it again it scares the shit out of me lmfao 

i make several draft posts and then never post them because It’s Fucking Scary, Okay 

It’s Scary To Tell People That A Popular Character They Like Is A Sack Of Shit, Especially When You Know On This Website There Aren’t Decent Reactions To Those Sort Of Things 

And I’m No Stranger To Harassment After Calling Out Genuinely Awful Shit, Survivor-related Or Not 

so you get the idea

especially as to why it took me so fucking long to actually publish it, I just could never muster the strength because even though I told plenty of people in private I could never muster the strength to come out about it