Tochmarc Emire
Encyclopedia
Tochmarc Emire is one of the stories in the Ulster Cycle
of Irish mythology
and one of the longest when it received its form in the second recension (below). It concerns the efforts of the hero Cú Chulainn
to marry Emer
, who appears as his wife in other stories of the cycle, and his training in arms under the warrior-woman Scáthach
. The tochmarc ("wooing" or "courtship") (along with cattle raids
, voyages, feasts, births and deaths) is one of the 'genres' of early Irish literature recognised in the manuscript corpus.
, where it lacks the first part, beginning instead with the last riddle exchanged between Cú Chulainn and Emer. The text has been dated by Kuno Meyer to the tenth century. An Old Irish original, possibly dating back to the 8th century, but transcribed and slightly modernised in the Middle Irish period appears to lie behind this text.
The longer recension (LU, Stowe D iv 2, Harleian 5280, 23 N 10 and two fragments) was written in the Middle Irish period and represents a greatly expanded version of the earlier version of the narrative.
, daughter of Forgall Monach
. However, Forgall is opposed to the match. He suggests that Cú Chulainn should train in arms with the renowned warrior-woman Scáthach
in the land of Alba (Scotland
), hoping the ordeal will be too much for him and he will be killed. Cú Chulainn takes up the challenge. In the meantime, Forgall offers Emer to Lugaid mac Nóis, a king of Munster
, but when he hears that Emer loves Cú Chulainn, Lugaid refuses her hand.
Scáthach teaches Cú Chulainn all the arts of war, including the use of the Gáe Bulg
, a terrible barbed spear, thrown with the foot, that has to be cut out of its victim. His fellow trainees include Ferdiad
, who becomes Cú Chulainn's best friend and foster-brother. During his time there, Scáthach faces a battle against Aífe
, her rival and in some versions her twin sister. Scáthach, knowing Aífe's prowess, fears for Cú Chulainn's life and gives him a powerful sleeping potion to keep him from the battle. However, because of Cú Chulainn's great strength, it only puts him to sleep for an hour, and he soon joins the fray. He fights Aífe in single combat, and the two are evenly matched, but Cú Chulainn distracts her by calling out that Aífe's horses and chariot, the things she values most in the world, have fallen off a cliff, and seizes her. He spares her life on the condition that she call off her enmity with Scáthach, and bear him a son.
Leaving Aífe pregnant, Cú Chulainn returns from Scotland fully trained, but Forgall still refuses to let him marry Emer. Cú Chulainn storms Forgall's fortress, killing twenty-four of Forgall's men, abducts Emer and steals Forgall's treasure. Forgall himself falls from the ramparts to his death. Conchobar has the coll cétingen or "right of the first night" over all marriages of his subjects. He is afraid of Cú Chulainn's reaction if he exercises it in this case, but is equally afraid of losing his authority if he does not. Cathbad suggests a solution: Conchobar sleeps with Emer on the night of the wedding, but Cathbad sleeps between them.
, the son Cú Chulainn fathers on Aífe in Tochmarc Emire, comes to Ireland at the age of seven to seek out his father. His extraordinary skills make him seem a threat, however, and because of a geis placed on him by his father, he refuses to identify himself, and Cú Chulainn kills him in single combat, using the Gae Bulg.
In another related story, Aided Derbforgaill ("The Death of Derbforgaill"), the Scandinavian princess Derbforgaill, whom Cú Chulainn rescues from being sacrificed to the Fomorians
in some versions of Tochmarc Emire, comes to Ireland with her handmaid, in the form of a pair of swans, to seek Cú Chulainn, who she has fallen in love with. Cú Chulainn and his foster-son Lugaid Riab nDerg
see the swans, and Cú Chulainn shoots Derbforgaill down with his sling. The slingstone penetrates her womb, and to save her live Cú Chulainn has to suck it from her side, but since he has tasted her blood he cannot marry her. Instead, he gives her to Lugaid, and they marry and have children. One day in deep winter, the men of Ulster make pillars of snow, and the women compete to see who can urinate the deepest into the pillar and prove herself the most desirable to men. Derbforgaill's urine reaches the ground, and the other women, out of jealousy, attack and mutilate her. Lugaid notices that the snow on the roof of her house has not melted, and realises she is close to death. He and Cú Chulainn rush to the house, but Derbforgaill dies shortly after they arrive, and Lugaid dies of grief. Cú Chulainn avengeds them by demolishing the house the women are inside, killing 150 of them.
In Táin Bó Cúailnge
("The Cattle Raid of Cooley"), two of the warriors Cú Chulainn faces in single combat, Fer Báeth and Fer Diad, are his foster-brothers and fellow trainees under Scáthach.
.
Ulster Cycle
The Ulster Cycle , formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly counties Armagh, Down and...
of Irish mythology
Irish mythology
The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...
and one of the longest when it received its form in the second recension (below). It concerns the efforts of the hero Cú Chulainn
Cú Chulainn
Cú Chulainn or Cúchulainn , and sometimes known in English as Cuhullin , is an Irish mythological hero who appears in the stories of the Ulster Cycle, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore...
to marry Emer
Emer
Emer , in modern Irish Éimhear, or, erroneously, Eimhear or Éimear, daughter of Forgall Monach, is the wife of the hero Cú Chulainn in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.-Tochmarc Emire "The Wooing of Emer":...
, who appears as his wife in other stories of the cycle, and his training in arms under the warrior-woman Scáthach
Scáthach
Scáthach is a figure in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. She is a legendary Scottish warrior woman and martial arts teacher who trains the legendary Ulster hero Cú Chulainn in the arts of combat...
. The tochmarc ("wooing" or "courtship") (along with cattle raids
Táin Bó
The Táin Bó, or cattle raid , is one of the genres of early Irish literature. The medieval Irish literati organised their work into genres such as the Cattle Raid , the Voyage , the Feast , the Wooing , the Conception and the Death , rather than the familiar but...
, voyages, feasts, births and deaths) is one of the 'genres' of early Irish literature recognised in the manuscript corpus.
Recensions and manuscript sources
The early Irish tale Tochmarc Emire exists in two (main) recensions. The earliest and shortest version is extant only as a copy in a late manuscript, the 15th/16th-century Rawlinson B 512Rawlinson B 512
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson B. 512 is an Irish vellum manuscript in quarto, numbering 154 folios and written in double columns by multiple scribes in the course of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The compilation presents a diverse range of medieval texts in verse and in prose, some...
, where it lacks the first part, beginning instead with the last riddle exchanged between Cú Chulainn and Emer. The text has been dated by Kuno Meyer to the tenth century. An Old Irish original, possibly dating back to the 8th century, but transcribed and slightly modernised in the Middle Irish period appears to lie behind this text.
The longer recension (LU, Stowe D iv 2, Harleian 5280, 23 N 10 and two fragments) was written in the Middle Irish period and represents a greatly expanded version of the earlier version of the narrative.
- Leabhar na hUidreLebor na hUidreLebor na hUidre or the Book of the Dun Cow is an Irish vellum manuscript dating to the 12th century. It is the oldest extant manuscript in Irish. It is held in the Royal Irish Academy and is badly damaged: only 67 leaves remain and many of the texts are incomplete...
(LU): p 121a-127b (Dublin, RIARoyal Irish AcademyThe Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...
). Second part missing. - Stowe D IV 2: f 74Ra-78Vb (Dublin, RIARoyal Irish AcademyThe Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...
). Complete. - Rawlinson B 512Rawlinson B 512Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson B. 512 is an Irish vellum manuscript in quarto, numbering 154 folios and written in double columns by multiple scribes in the course of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The compilation presents a diverse range of medieval texts in verse and in prose, some...
: f 117Ra-118Rb (Oxford, Bodleian Library). First part missing. - Book of Fermoy 23 E 29: p 207a-212b (Dublin, RIARoyal Irish AcademyThe Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...
). Fragment - Egerton 92: f 24Ra-25Vb (London, British Library). Fragment
- Harley 5280: f 27R-35Rb (London, British Library). Complete.
- 23 N 1023 N 10Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS. 23 N 10, formerly Betham 145, is a Gaelic-Irish medieval manuscript.-Overview:MS 23 N 10 is a late sixteenth-century Irish manuscript currently housed in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin...
(formerly Betham 145): p 21-24 & 113-124 & 11-12 & 25-26 & 125-128 (Dublin, RIARoyal Irish AcademyThe Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...
). Complete. - Book of LeinsterBook of LeinsterThe Book of Leinster , is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled ca. 1160 and now kept in Trinity College, Dublin, under the shelfmark MS H 2.18...
(LL), f 20a46 ff (Trinity College Dublin). Variant of § 30 as found in Echtra Machae.
Summary
In his youth, Cú Chulainn is so beautiful that the Ulstermen become worried that, without a wife of his own, he will steal their wives and ruin their daughters. They search all over Ireland for a suitable wife for him, but he will have none but EmerEmer
Emer , in modern Irish Éimhear, or, erroneously, Eimhear or Éimear, daughter of Forgall Monach, is the wife of the hero Cú Chulainn in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.-Tochmarc Emire "The Wooing of Emer":...
, daughter of Forgall Monach
Forgall Monach
Forgall Monach or Manach is a character in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He lives at Luglochta Loga in Lusk, County Dublin....
. However, Forgall is opposed to the match. He suggests that Cú Chulainn should train in arms with the renowned warrior-woman Scáthach
Scáthach
Scáthach is a figure in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. She is a legendary Scottish warrior woman and martial arts teacher who trains the legendary Ulster hero Cú Chulainn in the arts of combat...
in the land of Alba (Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
), hoping the ordeal will be too much for him and he will be killed. Cú Chulainn takes up the challenge. In the meantime, Forgall offers Emer to Lugaid mac Nóis, a king of Munster
Munster
Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...
, but when he hears that Emer loves Cú Chulainn, Lugaid refuses her hand.
Scáthach teaches Cú Chulainn all the arts of war, including the use of the Gáe Bulg
Gáe Bulg
The Gáe Bulg , meaning "spear of mortal pain/death spear", "gapped/notched spear", or "belly spear", was the name of the spear of Cúchulainn in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology...
, a terrible barbed spear, thrown with the foot, that has to be cut out of its victim. His fellow trainees include Ferdiad
Ferdiad
Ferdiad , son of Damán, son of Dáire, of the Fir Domnann, is a warrior of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. In the Táin Bó Cúailnge, Ferdiad finds himself on opposite sides to his best friend and foster-brother Cúchulainn, with whom he had trained in arms under the renowned warrior...
, who becomes Cú Chulainn's best friend and foster-brother. During his time there, Scáthach faces a battle against Aífe
Aífe
Aífe is a character from the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. She appears in the sagas Tochmarc Emire and Aided Óenfhir Aífe . In Tochmarc Emire she lives east of a land called Alpi, usually understood to mean Alba , where she is at war with a rival warrior-woman, Scáthach...
, her rival and in some versions her twin sister. Scáthach, knowing Aífe's prowess, fears for Cú Chulainn's life and gives him a powerful sleeping potion to keep him from the battle. However, because of Cú Chulainn's great strength, it only puts him to sleep for an hour, and he soon joins the fray. He fights Aífe in single combat, and the two are evenly matched, but Cú Chulainn distracts her by calling out that Aífe's horses and chariot, the things she values most in the world, have fallen off a cliff, and seizes her. He spares her life on the condition that she call off her enmity with Scáthach, and bear him a son.
Leaving Aífe pregnant, Cú Chulainn returns from Scotland fully trained, but Forgall still refuses to let him marry Emer. Cú Chulainn storms Forgall's fortress, killing twenty-four of Forgall's men, abducts Emer and steals Forgall's treasure. Forgall himself falls from the ramparts to his death. Conchobar has the coll cétingen or "right of the first night" over all marriages of his subjects. He is afraid of Cú Chulainn's reaction if he exercises it in this case, but is equally afraid of losing his authority if he does not. Cathbad suggests a solution: Conchobar sleeps with Emer on the night of the wedding, but Cathbad sleeps between them.
Related stories
In a related story, Aided Óenfir Aífe ("The Death of Aífe's Only Son"), ConnlaConnla
Connla or Conlaoch is a character in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, the son of the Ulster champion Cú Chulainn and the Scottish warrior woman Aífe. He was raised alone by his mother in Scotland...
, the son Cú Chulainn fathers on Aífe in Tochmarc Emire, comes to Ireland at the age of seven to seek out his father. His extraordinary skills make him seem a threat, however, and because of a geis placed on him by his father, he refuses to identify himself, and Cú Chulainn kills him in single combat, using the Gae Bulg.
In another related story, Aided Derbforgaill ("The Death of Derbforgaill"), the Scandinavian princess Derbforgaill, whom Cú Chulainn rescues from being sacrificed to the Fomorians
Fomorians
In Irish mythology, the Fomoire are a semi-divine race said to have inhabited Ireland in ancient times. They may have once been believed to be the beings who preceded the gods, similar to the Greek Titans. It has been suggested that they represent the gods of chaos and wild nature, as opposed to...
in some versions of Tochmarc Emire, comes to Ireland with her handmaid, in the form of a pair of swans, to seek Cú Chulainn, who she has fallen in love with. Cú Chulainn and his foster-son Lugaid Riab nDerg
Lugaid Riab nDerg
Lugaid Riab nDerg or Réoderg , son of the three findemna, triplet sons of Eochu Feidlech, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland.-Conception:...
see the swans, and Cú Chulainn shoots Derbforgaill down with his sling. The slingstone penetrates her womb, and to save her live Cú Chulainn has to suck it from her side, but since he has tasted her blood he cannot marry her. Instead, he gives her to Lugaid, and they marry and have children. One day in deep winter, the men of Ulster make pillars of snow, and the women compete to see who can urinate the deepest into the pillar and prove herself the most desirable to men. Derbforgaill's urine reaches the ground, and the other women, out of jealousy, attack and mutilate her. Lugaid notices that the snow on the roof of her house has not melted, and realises she is close to death. He and Cú Chulainn rush to the house, but Derbforgaill dies shortly after they arrive, and Lugaid dies of grief. Cú Chulainn avengeds them by demolishing the house the women are inside, killing 150 of them.
In Táin Bó Cúailnge
Táin Bó Cúailnge
is a legendary tale from early Irish literature, often considered an epic, although it is written primarily in prose rather than verse. It tells of a war against Ulster by the Connacht queen Medb and her husband Ailill, who intend to steal the stud bull Donn Cuailnge, opposed only by the teenage...
("The Cattle Raid of Cooley"), two of the warriors Cú Chulainn faces in single combat, Fer Báeth and Fer Diad, are his foster-brothers and fellow trainees under Scáthach.
Adaptations
The story was adapted as a dramatic musical program, "Celtic Hero", for the National Public Radio series Radio TalesRadio Tales
Radio Tales is an American series of radio dramas produced by Generations Productions. This series adapted classic works of American and world literature such as The War of the Worlds, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Beowulf, Gulliver's Travels, and the One Thousand and One Nights...
.
Tochmarc Emire: editions and translations
- Meyer, KunoKuno MeyerKuno Meyer was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature. His pro-German stance at the start of World War I while traveling in the United States was a source of controversy.-Biography:...
(ed. and tr.). "The Oldest Version of Tochmarc Emire." Revue Celtique 11 (1890): 433-57. Text edited from Rawlinson B 512. - Hamel, A.G. van (ed.). Compert Con Culainn and other Stories. Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series 3. Dublin, 1933. 16-68. Based on Stowe D IV 2, with variants from LU, Harleian 5280 and Rawlinson B 512.
- Meyer, KunoKuno MeyerKuno Meyer was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature. His pro-German stance at the start of World War I while traveling in the United States was a source of controversy.-Biography:...
(ed.). "Mitteilungen aus irischen Handschriften. Tochmarc Emire la Coinculaind." Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 3 (1901): 226-63 (229-63). [version of Harleian 5280 with variants from LU, Stowe D IV 2, Fermoy/Egerton 92 and 23 N 10]. Available online at CELT - Meyer, KunoKuno MeyerKuno Meyer was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature. His pro-German stance at the start of World War I while traveling in the United States was a source of controversy.-Biography:...
(ed.). Verba Scáthaige fri Coin Chulaind. Anecdota from Irish Manuscripts 5. 1913: 28-30. - Thurneysen, Rudolf (ed.). "Verba Scáthaige nach 22 N 10." Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 9 (1913): 487-8. Available from CELT
- Meyer, KunoKuno MeyerKuno Meyer was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature. His pro-German stance at the start of World War I while traveling in the United States was a source of controversy.-Biography:...
(tr.), "Wooing of Emer", Archaeological Review 1 (1888): 68-75, 150-5, 231-5, 298-307. - Meyer, KunoKuno MeyerKuno Meyer was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature. His pro-German stance at the start of World War I while traveling in the United States was a source of controversy.-Biography:...
(tr.). In The Cuchulinn Saga in Irish Literature, ed. Eleanor Hull. Grimm Library 8. London, 1898. 57-84. Abridged version of Meyer's translation above. Available from Internet Archive - Kinsella, ThomasThomas KinsellaThomas Kinsella is an Irish poet, translator, editor, and publisher.-Early life and work:Kinsella was born in Lucan, County Dublin. He spent much of his childhood with relatives in rural Ireland. He was educated in the Irish language at the Model School, Inchicore and the O'Connell Christian...
(tr.). The Táin. Oxford, 1969. 25 ff. - Guyonvarc'h, C.-J. (tr.). "La courtise d'Emer, Version A." Ogam 11 (1959): 413-23. (French)
- d'Arbois de Jubainville, H. (tr.). L'épopée celtique en Irlande. Paris, 1892. (French)
- Agrati, A. and M. L. Magini (trs.). La saga irlandese di Cu Chulainn. Milan, 1982 (ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
)
Further reading
- Baudiš, J. "On Tochmarc Emere." Ériu 9 (1923): 98-108. Available from Scéla.
- Edel, D. Helden auf Freiersfüßen. 'Tochmarc Emire' und 'Mal y kavas Kulhwch Olwen'. Studien zur Frühen Inselkeltischen Erzähltradition. Amsterdam, Oxford, and New York, 1980.
- Findon, Joanne. "Gender and Power in Serglige Con Culainn and The Only Jealousy of Emer." Language and Tradition in Ireland: Continuities and Displacements, eds. Maria Tymoczko and Colin Ireland. Amherst & Boston, 2003. 47-61.
- Findon, Joanne. A Woman's Words: Emer and Female Speech in the Ulster Cycle. Toronto, 1997.
- Findon, Joanne. "A Woman's Words: Emer versus Cu Chulainn in Aided Oenfir Aife." Ulidia. 139-48.
- Ó Concheanainn, T. "Textual and historical associations of Leabhar na hUidhre." Éigse 29 (1996): 65-120, especially 94.
- O'Curry, E. Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of ancient Irish History. New York, 1861. 278-2.
- Oskamp, H.P.A. "Notes on the history of Lebor na hUidre." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 65C (1966–67): 117-37, especially 126-7.
- Sayers, William. "Concepts of Eloquence in Tochmarc Emire." Studia Celtica 26/27 (1991–1992): 125-54.
- Thurneysen, Rudolf, H. Hessen and G. O'Nolan. "Zu Tochmarc Emire." Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 8 (1912): 498-524.
- Thurneysen, Rudolf. Die irische Helden- und Königssage. Halle, 1921. 377 ff.