There are no snakes in Ireland. Not because a Saint drove them out, either. It’s too bloody cold in the old country for snakes.
So with apologies to Patrick I want to share my favorite story about a another Celtic legend, a myth that holds enough truth to warrant the tilting of the tankard…
Cuchulainn, “The Hound Of Ulster,” was the greatest warrior in Eire, and his beloved was the beautiful Emer. According to the epic Irish tale ‘Tain Bo Cuailnge” (The Great Cattle Raid) this is how they came to be:
“Cuchulainn greeted the troop of girls and Emer lifted up her lovely face. She recognized Cuchulainn, and said:
“May your road be blessed.”
“May the apple of your eye see only good,” he said.
Then they spoke together in riddles.
Cuchulainn caught sight of the girl’s breasts over the top of her dress. “I see a sweet country,” he said. “I could rest my weapon there.”
Emer answered him by saying: “No man will travel this country until he has killed a hundred men at every ford from Scenmenn ford on the river Ailbine, to Banchuing- the ‘Woman Yoke’ that can hold a hundred- where the frothy Brea makes Fedelm leap.“
“In that sweet country I’ll rest my weapon,” Cuchulainn said.
”No man will travel this country,” she said, “until he has done the feat of the salmon-leap carrying twice his weight in gold, and struck down three groups of nine men with a single stroke, leaving the middle man of each group unharmed.”
“In that sweet country I’ll rest my weapon,” Cuchulainn said.
“No man will travel this country,” she said, “who hasn’t gone sleepless from Samain, when the summer has gone to its rest, until Imbolc, when the ewe’s are milked at spring’s beginning; from Imbolc to Beltine at the summer’s beginning and from Beltine to Bron Trogain, earth’s sorrowing autumn.”
“It is said and done,” Cuchulainn said.*
As a man who has done a lot of foolish things to impress women is it any wonder that I find this story rings true?
*From Thomas Kinsella’s translation of the Tain, Oxford University Press 1969
