In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, Medb—later written Meadhbh, Méabh, and Méibh—and frequently anglicized as Maeve—is the queen of Connacht. Although she had a number of spouses prior to Ailill mac Máta who were also rulers of Connacht, he is the man she is married to in the central stories of the cycle. She had authority at Cruachan, which is modern-day Rathcroghan in the County of Roscommon. She was the rival of Conchobar mac Nessa and also his previous spouse. She is most remembered for initiating the Táin Bó Cúailnge to seize the prized stud bull Donn Cailnge of Ulster. The classic warrior queen, Medb was strong-willed, ambitious, clever, and promiscuous. Some people think she is a manifestation of the goddess of sovereignty. The Tara sovereignty goddess Medb Lethderg and Medb of Connacht are likely the same person, and there may also be a connection to the Morrígan. Táin Bó Cúailnge - meaning the driving-off of the cows of Cooley, often known as The Táin or less frequently as The Cattle Raid of Cooley, is an epic from Irish mythology. The Táin is frequently referred to as The Irish Iliad, despite the fact that it is written in prosimetrum, or prose with sporadic inserts of verse written by the characters, like the majority of other early Irish literature. The Táin describes a war that Queen Medb of Connacht and her husband King Ailill plan to wage against Ulster in order to take the stud bull Donn Cuailnge. Only the child demigod Cú Chulainn is able to repel the invaders because of a curse placed upon the king and Ulster warriors. The Táin, the main text of a collection of tales known as the Ulster Cycle, is customarily set in the first century, during a pagan heroic age. In manuscripts from the 12th century and later, it can be found in three written forms or recensions: the first is a collection that was primarily written in Old Irish, the second is a more coherent work written in Middle Irish, and the third is an Early Modern Irish version. Irish literature and culture have benefited from The Táin. It is frequently referred to as national epic of Ireland. The Táin is preceded by a number of remscéla, or pre-tales, that give the backdrop on the primary characters and explain things like why certain Ulster characters are in the Connacht camp, why the remaining Ulstermen are temporarily unable to fight due to a curse, and how the bulls Donn Cuailnge and Finnbhennach got their magical origins. There are numerous more stories that have been referred to as remscéla to the Táin, some of which are only distantly related to it. Ailill and Medb are seen gathering their army in Cruachan at the start of the first recension; the reason for this military build-up is assumed for granted. In the second revision, a prologue is added in which Ailill and Medb compare their wealth and discover that the only thing that sets them apart is that Ailill owns the extraordinarily fertile bull Finnbhennach, who was born into the herd of Medb but despised being owned by a woman and chose to move to that of Ailill. To match the wealth of her husband, Medb resolves to obtain the similarly potent Donn Cuailnge from Cooley. She is able to work out a one-year rental agreement with the owner of the bull, Dáire mac Fiachna. However, Medb intends to take the bull by force if she is not allowed to borrow him, as her inebriated messengers reveal. When the agreement falls through, Medb gathers an army, including exiles from Ulster led by Fergus mac Róich, and sets out to seize Donn Cuailnge. The ces nonden, which is literally translated as debility of nine (days), is a disease that appears to be afflicting the men of Ulster but actually lasts for several months. According to a different story, this is the result of the curse of Goddess Macha, which she placed after being made to race against a chariot when heavily pregnant by the king of Ulster. Only seventeen-year-old Cú Chulainn is qualified to protect Ulster, but he lets the army surprise Ulster by going out on a tryst instead of keeping an eye on the border. With the help of his charioteer Láeg, Cú Chulainn engages in a guerilla war against the oncoming army before stopping it at fords by using the right of single combat and taking out champion after champion in a standoff that lasted months. He is powerless to stop Medb from catching the bull, though. The magical characters of the Tuatha Dé Danann both help and hinder Cú Chulainn. Before a battle, the goddess of war, Morrígan, appears to Cú Chulainn in the appearance of a lovely young woman and professes her love. However, Cú Chulainn rejects her. She then makes herself known and makes a threat to become involved in his upcoming fight. She performs this three times, first as an eel that trips him in the ford, then as a wolf who stampedes livestock through the ford, and finally as a cow leading the stampede. However, in each of these appearances, Cú Chulainn injures her. When he wins the battle, the Morrígan reappears to him as an elderly woman milking a cow with wounds that are an exact replica of those that Cú Chulainn inflicted on her in her animal incarnations. She extends to him three milk sips. He blesses her with each cup, and the blessings mend her wounds. Cú Chulainn claims to the Morrígan that he would not have rejected her if he had known her true identity. Cú Chulain is visited by Lug, another otherworldly being, who reveals himself to be father of Cú Chulainn, after a particularly taxing battle. For three days, Lug puts Cú Chulainn to sleep so that he can receive his recovery. The Ulster youth corps come to help of Cú Chulainn while he is sleeping, but they are all killed. When Cú Chulainn wakes up, he experiences a stunning ríastrad or distortion, during which his body twists in its skin and he transforms into an unrecognisable creature that has no concept of friend or foe. Cú Chulainn attacks the Connacht camp viciously and exacts sixfold retribution for the slaughter of the young corps. The series of single combats resumes after this exceptional episode, though Medb repeatedly violates the agreement by sending more warriors against Cú Chulainn at once. When his foster father Fergus is dispatched to battle him, Cú Chulainn consents to submit to him on the condition that Fergus submits to him the following time they encounter each other. Finally, Medb calls Ferdiad, the foster brother of Cú Chulainn, into the fight, promising him the hand of her daughter Finnabair and her own friendly thighs in exchange. Chulainn begs Ferdiad to end the conflict because he does not want to kill his foster brother. The hero and his foster brother engage in a three-day battle that is both physically and mentally taxing. Ferdiad is eventually defeated by Cú Chulainn, who uses the fabled Gáe Bolga spear to kill him. Cú Chulainn, who has been severely wounded and is unable to continue fighting, is carried away by the healers of his clan. The paralysed Ulstermen begin to stir, first one by one and then collectively. King Conchobar mac Nessa swears that he will return every cow to its stall and every kidnapped woman to her house as long as the sky is above and the Earth is beneath. The crucial conflict gets going. Cú Chulainn initially observes the battle while healing from his wounds. Fergus now had Conchobar at his mercy, but Cormac Cond Longas, son of Conchobar and foster-son of Fergus, stops him from killing him. Enraged, Fergus then uses his sword to sever the tops of three hills. Chulainn pushes his injuries aside, enters the conflict, and confronts Fergus, compelling him to fulfill his word and submit to him. Fergus leaves the area and removes all of his troops. The rest of friends of Connacht flee in fear, forcing Medb to withdraw. When Medb was apparently having her period, Cú Chulainn now appeared before her (Is and drecgais a fal fola for Meidb, i.e. Then Medb began to experience the blood issue.). Chulainn however spares her because of her cries for life and also watches over her escape. Now Donn Cuailnge was returned to Connacht by Medb, where the bull confronts Finnbhennach there. The bull defeats him, but is severely wounded. He then wanders over Ireland, dropping parts of Finnbhennach from his horns and giving those locations their names. Finally, the bull returns home and eventually passes away from fatigue [Information Credit : Medb, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medb ]
[Information Credit : Táin_Bó_Cúailnge, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A1in_B%C3%B3_C%C3%BAailnge ]
[Image Credit : Medb, Wikipedia] [Image : Queen Maev by J. C. Leyendecker]
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