Shauna Fox
According to mythology, the epic battle known as the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Battle of Cooley) was incited during a seemingly innocuous conversation between Medb and her then husband/consort, Ailill Mac Máta. What started as a bed-time discussion turned into one of the most brutal fights in pseudohistory.
“In Ailill’s herd there was a magnificent bull called the White-horned and Medb had none to touch it.”
As comparisons are made between the couple over who has the greater fortune, the most prized possessions, they realise they are equal in all things…bar one. Where Ailill is in possession of Finnbennach, the great White-Horned bull (who was once owned by Medb), Medb has nothing to match.
Knowing that the only way to surpass Ailill’s fortune is to obtain the Brown Bull of Cúailnge, Medb rallies troops of men behind her from her seat at Rathcroghan, and goes to war against Ulster when the bull’s owner refuses to hand him over.
There are two ways of reading Medb’s actions here:
The first is to see her decision to go to war as juvenile and trivial, risking people’s lives for mere belongings, just to win a competition against her husband.
The second, however, provides us with a more nuanced depiction of Medb’s character, as Queen, but also as a woman. According to Sylvia Brinton Perera, Medb’s decision to go to war signifies a determination to maintain independence, to retain and protect her power over herself and her land, from what Perera calls “the rising patriarchal Celtic aristocracy.”
Ailill receives his power, his authority, via his marriage to Medb; without her, his rule is not legitimate, demonstrating the influence that Medb holds. As the recognised Sovereign of Connaught, her authority over the lands of Rathcroghan and its people is power that Medb does not want to lose. Her being is so tied to Rathcroghan that her bodily functions actually alter the landscape when her menstrual blood creates the earthwork channels known as the Mucklaghs.
The Táin Bó Cúailnge symbolises Medb’s fight to remain equal to her husband and retain the lands that are so much a part of herself.
“ I have never heard in all Ireland of a province run by a woman except this one.”
Ailill confirms the power that Medb has within Connaught with this statement, which is why only Medb can determine who becomes king through a sacred marriage ritual.
This ritual involved the chosen man becoming so drunk that it would grant him access to the spiritual world, thus receiving the knowledge required to rule a kingdom. The word mead has a close correlation with Medb’s name, meaning ‘drunken one’ or ‘she who makes drunk’.
Perera notes that in other folklore, as well as Celtic, the goddess of sovereignty is not only the one serving the drink, but is also the drink herself, therefore giving her future king the power and knowledge to rule alongside her divine self. Only those kings selected by Medb were recognised by the people.
However, if the king was no longer fulfilling his duty, both as ruler and husband to Medb, the failure would be reflected in the land. Land that Medb is visible in.
At Rathcroghan, its earthworks and mounds reflect Medb’s bodily fluids and her physical form.
At Tara, where Medb’s father was King, the henge Rath Maeve is named after her (which could also refer to her predecessor Medb Lethderg).
At Knocknarea, Queen Medb’s Cairn is a symbol of the life/death cycle, representative of pregnancy in its rounded shape among the mountains, while also being Medb’s supposed resting place.
According to Gerard Mulligan, parts of Rathcroghan may have been deliberately created to represent Medb, “allowing the king to be ‘physically’ close to the goddess” even when she is not there, always maintaining that connection to his source of power.
The reach of Medb’s power across Ireland cannot be underestimated. Whether as Queen, Warrior, or Goddess, Medb holds sway over kings, wars, and the landscape. Despite warring opinions of her character, Medb is one of the best known ‘players’ in Celtic Myth, to the point that many Irish monuments are associated with her name.
It makes it hard to deny that Medb of Connaught is anything but legendary.
Sources:
Brinton Perera, Sylvia. Celtic Queen Maeve and Addiction: an archetypal perspective, 2001.
Dictionary of Irish Biography. Medb Chruachna, contributed by John Carey.
Lehmann, Edyta, 2008. ‘And thus I will it’: Queen Medh and the Will to Power. Jstor.
Mackillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, 2004.
Mulligan, Gerard, 2011. Archaeology and Myth: a consideration of the ancient royal site of Rathcroghan. Jstor.
Neolithic Cúil Irra, Co. Sligo – Knocknarea / Carrowmore / Carns Hill. 2017. Jstor.
Ó Cathsaigh, Tomás, 2002. “Táin Bó Cúailnge” in Coire Sois, The Cauldron of Knowledge. Ed. Matthieu Boyd. Jstor.
Waddell, John, 1983. Rathcroghan: a royal site in Connacht. Jstor.
Waddell, John, 2009. Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon: where the Táin Bó Cúailnge began. Jstor.
