{"id":332,"date":"2013-08-16T16:41:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T16:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/2013\/08\/16\/the-morrigan-and-cu-chulainn-part-1-on-saying-no\/"},"modified":"2022-03-25T16:36:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T20:36:29","slug":"the-morrigan-and-cu-chulainn-part-1-on-saying-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/2013\/08\/16\/the-morrigan-and-cu-chulainn-part-1-on-saying-no\/","title":{"rendered":"The Morr\u00edgan and C\u00fa Chulainn Part 1: On Saying “No”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Buy<\/a>If you find this article helpful, please remember this was work to put together and I have animals to feed and vet<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Those of us who follow an Morr\u00edgan<\/i> are in an interesting position compared to many Gaelic Polytheists. We actually have an example of a patron\/client relationship between a Deity and a human (albeit a human with divine paternity, sort of).\u00a0 It is, of course, through Christian eyes that we get it, so many dismiss this all together. This is particularly true as this warrior, C\u00fa Chulainn, often offends the sensibilities of many who claim to be devoted to Her and on the warrior path.<\/p>\n

There are many issues, really, but right now I want to concentrate on aspects of the relationship between CC and the Morr\u00edgan which I feel are widely misunderstood.\u00a0 The problem is that without looking at some of the issues from a warrior perspective, including by people who claim to be warriors, and with an understanding of certain elements of Irish culture, it can be read in a very different way from what it may have meant to early warriors who may have heard and orally shared the stories. Some of the scribes who wrote them down, also not being warriors, may well have considered them much as we do today, yet the actual stories seem to give a different read when taken from a warrior perspective.<\/p>\n

The reading that many in the Pagan community, from the “fluffiest of fluffies” to the “hardest core Reconstructionists,” give the relationship is that CC is rude, arrogant and offensive to the Morr\u00edgan.\u00a0 And it can appear so. Even form the earliest encounters as a boy, when She mocks him as unable to fight a phantom, which he then does defeat.(TBC <\/i>Rec I, pg. 16, 139) It seems there that She doesn’t like him much, but consider then what that means that CC actually orders his charioteer to mock him at a later point.(TBC <\/i>Rec I, pg. 93, 207) At some point I hope to further explore gressacht<\/i>, inciting by ridicule, something which is very difficult to understand in a culture where it would be mistaken for bullying which is meant to crush us.(MacCana)<\/p>\n

The biggest confusion comes from his response to Her in T\u00e1in B\u00f3 C\u00faailnge<\/i> Rec I, when she comes to him and offers him Sex in the middle of his standoff at the ford. This tale actually does not appear in all of the versions of the TBC and I hope to explore the events in the T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Regamna <\/i>(Edit: and I did in Part 2<\/a>) which also serves to set up the same events at a later time. (I have explored both somewhat already in, “Musings on the Irish War Goddesses” publication pending)\u00a0 Both of these do, after all, seem to get heavily misread.<\/p>\n

The reading of this version is that he spurns Her offer of “love” and She, being female and therefore only able to resort to revenge when crushed in this way, punishes him by coming against him while he’s in battle. Some of these retellings of the meeting between CC and the Morr\u00edgan make Her out to be a truly pathetic woman we are supposed to feel sorry for while others point what a mistake it is to refuse such a powerful Goddess…some manage to take both these directions at once.\u00a0 It is used by several “warriors” to show why one does not refuse the demands of the Goddess, ever (in what appears to be an attempt to excuse their own recent actions).<\/p>\n

This is a translation of the exchange in question:<\/p>\n

\u00a0C\u00fa Chulainn saw coming towards him a young woman of surpassing beauty, clad in clothes of many colours. \u2018Who are you?\u2019 asked C\u00fa Chulainn. \u2018I am the daughter of B\u00faan the king,\u2019 said she. \u2018I have come to you for I fell in love with you on hearing your fame, and I have brought with me my treasures and my cattle.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It is not a good time at which you have come to us, that is, our condition is ill, we are starving (?). So it is not easy for me to meet a woman while I am in this strife.\u2019 \u2018I shall help you in it.\u2019 \u2018It is not for a woman’s body that I have come.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It will be worse for you\u2019, said she, \u2018when I go against you as you are fighting your enemies. I shall go in the form of an eel under your feet in the ford so that you shall fall.\u2019 \u2018I prefer that to the king’s daughter,\u2019 said he. \u2018I shall seize you between my toes so that your ribs are crushed and you shall suffer that blemish until you get a judgment blessing.\u2019 \u2018I shall drive the cattle over the ford to you while I am in the form of a grey she-wolf.\u2019 \u2018I shall throw a stone at you from my sling so and smash your eye in your head, and you shall suffer from that blemish until you get a judgment blessing.\u2019 \u2018I shall come to you in the guise of a hornless red heifer in front of the cattle and they will rush upon you at many fords and pools yet you will not see me in front of you.\u2019 \u2018I shall cast a stone at you,\u2019 said he, \u2018so that your legs will break under you, and you shall suffer thus until you get a judgment blessing.\u2019 Whereupon she left him (Cecile O’Rahilly, trans. T\u00e1in B\u00f3 C\u00faalnge<\/i>, Recession 1 Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976 English<\/a> pg. 177, Irish<\/a> pg. 37)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At face value, taken as a modern story, the reading given does seem obvious. It appears She comes in disguise, however, even in doing so Her role is very clear. Epstein notes that She clearly reveals Herself as a Sovereignty\/Victory Goddess when She offers help in his battle. (Epstein, sorry due to mangled formatting I have no page number) Yet there seems at least some hint in calling Herself the daughter of King B\u00faan.\u00a0 A king’s daughter to make a king, B\u00faan linked to “B\u00faanann<\/i>” a name related to Anann and therefore the Morr\u00edgan.(O’Donavan, pg. 17, Epstein)\u00a0 She does indeed say She loves him…for his fame<\/i>. Which many others did as well, but given context, it could serve as a reminder that, indeed, the glory he has sought since childhood is why She is there.<\/p>\n

Certainly, She does say,\u00a0 “It will be worse for you when I go against you as you are fighting your enemies.” So that must mean She’s angry and is going to retaliate.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 Say “no” to this Goddess is a foolish thing.\u00a0 Because C\u00fa Chulainn’s life was horrible and hard and we’d never want what he had.\u00a0 Wait? What?<\/p>\n

No, let’s look at what is She really offering and what is he rejecting?\u00a0 She is saying She is offering love and, obviously, sex.\u00a0 Yet even those mistaking this for a story of scorn love realize that this is also about offering victory as She offered Dagda in the Cath Maige Tuired.\u00a0<\/i>(CMT, para. 84) Of course, many seem to think of that as a love story as well, rather than the powerful rite that it was. Dagda accepts and while the victory is not easy, it is had.\u00a0\u00a0 C\u00fa Chulainn refuses, the Morr\u00edgan is hurt and refuses him victory and he is destr…..oh, wait.<\/p>\n

I realize this may be really hard for people to grasp. But C\u00fa Chulainn does win. But it’s not easy. And She does make it harder. But was that punishment?\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n

Let’s compare what is different about CC and Dagda for a moment.\u00a0 Dagda is a God, an equal in all ways to the Morr\u00edgan. He is an established warrior among the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann and has even been king. He has His own magic, again well established.\u00a0 Mostly, He has nothing to prove.<\/p>\n

C\u00fa Chulainn as a boy took up arms when he heard it was a good hour to do so to live a glorious life and die<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"C\u00fa<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The boy C\u00fa Chulainn<\/i>
\nby Stephen Reid
\n1912<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

young and famous. He had by this time proven himself many times yet was always challenged for his youth and strangeness. He was still a youth and this was, in fact, the story which would make that fame if he was to have it. While other exploits contributed, this was the story which marked him.\u00a0 He still had to fight it.<\/p>\n

So let us think what the Morr\u00edgan was doing here, actually doing here.<\/p>\n

Let’s think that all evidence we have. She does<\/i> love him.. If we try to understand the gressacht<\/i> for what it is and we realize that at his death She is distraught and is not Cailit\u00edn’s daughter who is also, confusingly, called Badb<\/i>, who facilitates his death. Rather She tries, despite obviously knowing it’s futile to prevent it. (Van Hamel, pg. 69-133, O’Grady and Stokes in Hull, pg. 235-263) this becomes clear. And She does love him for his fame or rather his determination to have it. And that is important.<\/p>\n

What she is offering, by offering him to lie with Sovereignty\/Victory, is to lose that all.\u00a0 Think. Go beyond what you think is good or bad, is reward or punishment and think what he<\/i> had wanted. And think what laying with Victory would give.<\/p>\n

What she offered was an easy victory during the events which would mark his fame. He clearly knew who She was and what that would mean.\u00a0 He would have won easily, there would be no tale to tell, he would have been at best a side note but possibly totally forgotten. We’d have no stories today.<\/p>\n

ETA: I should also note, that She’d have turned from him, as well.\u00a0 He’d be forgotten for he’d never do anything of note. He’d be no champion and his people would be left without.<\/p>\n

This is called a test. She did not want him to say “yes.” If he had then he’d undoubtedly have been punished.\u00a0 He’d have won easily and been forgotten. The worse punishment there could have been for him.<\/p>\n

The punishment you<\/i> see, that She comes against him while he is in battle, serves to further his fame. A fight that is “worse” means winning is better.\u00a0 For he not only faced a warrior but the War Goddess in battle.\u00a0 Do you really believe that She is so weak he would have won against Her if that wasn’t the point?\u00a0 Then why worship such a weak Goddess?<\/p>\n

That<\/i>, btw, is something that boggles me.\u00a0 Especially, among those who then claim “well, She showed him not to say “no” to her!” Um, he won. Is this the extent of strength you see in your Goddess?\u00a0 That She’d try to fight him for real and failed?\u00a0 Then you claim you are afraid to say “no” to Her?\u00a0 What sort of wimp are you then?<\/p>\n

Instead, I believe She acts to show Her chosen favorite is indeed mighty!\u00a0 Rather than an easy and easily forgotten victory, She gives him a harder one, one that let’s him rise above all! Because he knew to say “no” to Her test.<\/p>\n

She then offers him milk, again in “disguise” which must clearly have been evident.\u00a0 A three teated cow in the presence of an old woman doesn’t add up to a Goddess of cattle?\u00a0 In this She gives him fame for the other side of war, that he also can heal, even a Goddess.<\/p>\n

Think.\u00a0 What is punishment to a warrior who as a very small child declared he wanted to have a glorious, famous short life?\u00a0 Why, it would be to have forgotten long one.<\/p>\n

And if one thinks a forgotten life is better if you live safely into old age, are you ready to walk the warrior path?\u00a0\u00a0 None of us are C\u00fa Chulainn, but if you choose a safe life and easy victories, if you choose to say “yes” when ever She tests you to see how much you want what you claim you want then you are far from following his way.<\/p>\n

This is a lesson we must learn, that She will ask of us things that go against what we know deep down in our hearts is the right way.\u00a0 She will ask us to do things which She does not want us to do. To serve the Morr\u00edgan one needs to have the courage to say “no.”\u00a0 While there are many ways that C\u00fa Chulainn might be a problematic role model, showing the importance of passing such tests is not one of them.\u00a0\u00a0 He shows us well. Act in accordance to your heart when the Phantom Queen tests you and it will serve you well. Even if the weak can never understand.<\/p>\n

See also:
\nThe Morr\u00edgan and C\u00fa Chulainn pt. 2: Insult and Praise as Incitement<\/a><\/p>\n

The Morr\u00edgan and C\u00fa Chulainn pt. 3: Of death and dog meat <\/a><\/p>\n

I also discuss some of this, as well as expand on the nature of the Morr\u00edgan “Musings on the Irish War Goddesses” in By Blood, Bone and\u00a0 Blade: A Tribute to the Morr\u00edgan<\/a><\/i> Nicole Bonivusto, ed,\u00a0 Ashville, NC: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2014<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/b><\/p>\n

Angelique Gulermovich Epstein, \u201cWar Goddess: The Morr\u00edgan and her Germano-Celtic Counterparts\u201d dissertation, University of California in Los Angeles, 1998<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Gray, trans. Cath Maige Tuired: The Second Battle of Mag Tuired\u00a0<\/i> Dublin: Irish Text Society,\u00a0 Irish<\/a> English<\/a><\/p>\n

Eleanor Hull, ed., The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature: being a collection of stories relating to the Hero Cuchullin<\/i><\/a>, London: David Nutt on the Strand, 1898 (Hayes O’Grady, trans., \u201cThe Great Defeat on the Plain of Muirthemne before Cuchullin\u2019s Death\u201d and Whitley Stokes, trans., \u201cThe Tragical Death of Cochulainn,)<\/p>\n

Proinsias MacCana, \u201cL\u00e1ided, Gressacht<\/i> \u2018Formalized Incitement\u2019\u201d \u00c9rui <\/i>vol. 43<\/p>\n

Kuno Meyer, trans. \u2018The Wooing of Emer\u2019\u201cTochmarc Emire<\/i>,\u201d Archaeological Review 1<\/i>, 1888, Irish<\/a> English\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

John O’Donovan, ed. and trans. (with notes and translations from Whitley Stokes) Sanas Cormaic<\/i><\/a> Calcutta: O. T. Cutter for the Irish Archeological and Celtic Society, 1868,<\/p>\n

Cecile O’Rahilly, trans. T\u00e1in B\u00f3 C\u00faalnge<\/i>, Recession 1 Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976 Irish<\/a> English<\/a><\/p>\n

AG van Hamel Compert Con Culainn and Other Stories<\/a>, Medieval and Modern Irish Series,<\/i> Vol 3, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1933<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2013 Saigh Kym Lambert <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you find this article helpful, please remember this was work to put together and I have animals to feed and vet   Those of us who follow an Morr\u00edgan are in an interesting position compared to many Gaelic Polytheists. We actually have an example of a patron\/client relationship between a Deity and a human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[31,49,7,66,38,42,61,32,36,33,15,48],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pad6Py-5m","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}