brown DONN CUAILNGE grazed on the lands of
the minor king DÁIRE. (The two bulls were the
reincarnations of bitter enemies, fated to cause
trouble; see FRIUCH and RUCHT.)
First Medb tried to coax Dáire to loan her
the great brown bull for a year, hoping that it
would leave her COWS pregnant with astonishing
offspring. Dáire overheard Medb’s warriors
boasting that his cooperation was irrelevant, for
they intended to take back the bull even if he
refused to lend it. Insulted, Dáire prepared for
war. Medb marshaled her armies to march upon
Ulster, taking advantage of the
CURSE she knew
would leave the men of the province unable to
defend themselves (see DEBILITY OF THE
ULSTERMEN)—a curse leveled upon them by the
goddess MACHA in retaliation for their abuse of
her during her pregnancy. Knowing her oppo-
nents would be writhing with the pains of a
woman in labor for four days and five nights as
soon as she launched the campaign, Medb set
out from Cruachan, marching north and east.
She traveled in an open cart with four chariots
surrounding her, dressed in all her royal finery.
However, Medb made her plans without fig-
uring on the strength of the hero CÚCHULAINN,
who single-handedly defended Ulster against
one great Connacht champion after another.
While this combat was underway, Medb stole
past and kidnapped the bull she needed. Soon
the Ulstermen roused from their cursed state
and began a massive battle against the forces of
Connacht, who were finally driven off.
In perhaps the greatest anticlimax in ancient
literature, the two bulls fell upon each other and
fought—a fight of such magnitude that it
extended across all the fields of Ireland.
Although the brown Donn Cuailnge finally
killed Ailill’s white FINNBENNACH, he himself
died not long after limping home to Ulster.
Without the white bull, Ailill’s possessions then
matched Medb’s, making her once again equal to
her husband. Thus, from Medb’s standpoint, the
ending is a happy one.
Medb met her own end on the ISLAND of
Clothrann in Lough Ree in the River Shannon,
a place that was apparently sacred to her. On the
island was a WELL in which Medb bathed each
morning, apparently thereby renewing her
youth and strengthening her power. Her
nephew FURBAIDE FERBEND could not forgive
Medb for killing his mother, her sister CLOTHRA.
Although the island was far from shore, he prac-
ticed hurling stones from a slingshot until he was
sure of his aim, then flung a ball of dried brains
across the water to bring down the great Medb.
Medb may have died on Lough Ree, but she
is said to be buried far away, in the great mega-
lithic tumulus of
KNOCKNAREA above the town
of Sligo. Despite these connections with
Connacht, she is also associated with the central
province, MIDE, most notably with the hill of
TARA, where Rath Medb may have been the site
of ancient kingly inaugurations. Under the name
of Medb Lethderg (“Maeve Red-Sides”) she
married one king of Tara after another, showing
her to be the great goddess of Sovereignty so
important in Irish myth.
Often described as a war goddess or warrior-
queen, Medb indeed seems a strong battle leader,
quite willing to put her champions in harm’s way
to gain her will. Her connection to battle is
intensified by the fact that she is shadowed,
throughout the Táin, by the even more frighten-
ing figure of the black-winged Mórrígan, a
superhuman bird-woman who foretold the
future of warriors as they began to fight. That
Oweynagat, the Mórrígan’s home, was at
Cruachan suggests that the two figures were
closely connected in the Irish mythological mind.
Sources: Dexter, Miriam Robbins. Whence the
Goddesses: A Sourcebook. New York: Pergamon
Press, 1990, pp. 91–93; Hull, Eleanor. The
Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature. London: David
Nutt, 1898, p. liii; Kinsella, Thomas, transl. The
Tain. Dublin: The Dolmen Press, 1969.
Medocius British god. Known from only one
inscription in Colchester, Medocius may have
been a local god of the land, a GENIUS LOCI; he is
320 Medocius