MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE
cup of the wife of an Ulster king and is reborn 1,012
years after her first birth. In the second story, another
thousand years have passed, and the descendants of
Míl Espáine (the mortal Gaels) rule Ireland. She is
married to Eochaid Airem, king of Tara, but Eochaid’s
brother is also in love with her and falls ill as a result.
Étaín agrees to meet with him at a separate location
so as not to bring shame on her husband. However, on
her third rendezvous she discovers that she has been
sleeping with her former husband, Midir. Nevertheless,
Eochaid’s brother is cured when she returns to the
palace, and her virtue remains intact. In the third story,
Midir abducts Étaín from Eochaid’s house through
trickery and carries her off. Eochaid destroys many
fairy mounds in his pursuit of Midir before catching
up with him at Brí Léith. Midir again tricks Eochaid,
this time by passing the daughter of Étaín and Eochaid
off as Étaín herself. Enraged, Eochaid destroys Brí
Léith and retrieves his wife. But Eochaid’s daughter
had already borne him a daughter. She is abandoned
to die but is found and reared by a herdsman. When
she grows up, she marries Eterscél, king of Tara.
Later Tales
Interest in the Mythological Cycle continued into the
Early Modern Irish period (c .1200–c. 1650), although
the earlier tales were only rarely copied. Cath Maige
Tuiredwas revised in the later Middle Ages, and sev-
eral other tales were either revised or composed anew.
Altram Tige Dá Medar (“The nourishment of the
houses of the two milk vessels”) opens with a descrip-
tion of the settlement of the fairy mounds by the Túatha
Dé Danann after their defeat by the descendants of Míl
Espáine. Brug na Bóinne was initially assigned to
Elcmar but Óengus, son of the Dagda, expels him at
the instigation of Manannán. A beautiful daughter by
the name of Eithne is born to Óengus. When she is
fully grown, a bawdy insult causes her to fast, after
which she will only take milk from Óengus’s marvelous
cow which had been brought from India. When sum-
moned to Manannán’s palace she again refuses to eat,
drinking only milk from Manannán’s marvelous cow.
Manannán reveals that the demon of the Túatha Dé
Danann had left her when she was insulted to be
replaced by an angel and that she is therefore unable
to eat their food. Thereafter, Eithne refuses to eat food
of the otherworld and consumes only milk from mar-
velous cows. Centuries later, she is baptized by St.
Patrick and dies a fortnight later.
The tale of the death of the children of Lir (Oidheadh
Chloinne Lir) was probably written in the fifteenth
century. In later manuscripts it is enumerated among
the three sorrows of storytelling (trí truaighe na
sgéalaigheachta), although it was originally intended
as an explication of the transient nature of temporal
pleasure and the purgative effects of suffering. It tells
how Aoife, wife of Lir of Síd Fionnachaidh, turned
his four children into swans out of jealousy. After
nine hundred years of exile, they settle on an island
where the saint Mochaomhóg finds and comforts
them. Aoife’s spell is finally broken, and the four
children are transformed into wizened old people
whom Mochaomhóg baptizes before they die. The
death of the children of Tuireann (Oidheadh Chloinne
Tuireann), a tale of murder and revenge, is also num-
bered among the three sorrows of storytelling.
Although the earliest surviving text was written in
the later Middle Ages, a version existed as early as
the eleventh century. The three sons of Tuireann
(Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharbha) slay Cian, the father
of Lugh (Lug) of the Túatha Dé Danann, and as
compensation Lugh demands that they undertake var-
ious dangerous quests. They perish during the final
quest, and the mortally wounded Brian carries his
brothers home. Lugh refuses to save Brian with a
healing pigskin and he dies. Tuireann buries his three
sons in a single grave and dies himself soon after.
GREGORY TONERReferences and Further Reading
Breatnach, Caoimhín. “The Religious Significance of Oidheadh
Chloinne Lir.”Ériu50 (1999): 1–40.
Carey, John. “Myth and Mythography in Cath Maige Tuired.”
Studia Celtica24–25 (1989-90): 53–69.
Dillon, Myles. Early Irish Literature. Chicago: University of
Chicago, 1948. Reprint, Dublin & Portland: Four Courts,
1994.
———, ed. Irish Sagas. Dublin & Cork: Mercier, 1968.
Gantz, Jeffrey. Early Irish Myths and Sagas. London: Penguin,
1981.
Gray, Elizabeth. Cath Maige Tuired, the Second Battle of Mag
Tuired. Irish Texts Society 52 (1982).
Mac Cana, Proinsias. Celtic Mythology. Feltham: Hamlyn,
1970.
McCone, Kim. Pagan Past and Christian Present.Maynooth:
An Sagart, 1990.
Ó Cathasaigh, Tomás. “Cath Maige Tuiredas exemplary myth.”
InFolia Gadelica, edited by Pádraig de Brún et al., pp. 1–19.
Cork: Cork University Press, 1983.
O’Rahilly, T. F. Early Irish History and Mythology. Dublin:
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946.
Rees, Alwyn and Brinley Rees. Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition
in Ireland and Wales. London: Thames & Hudson, 1961.
Sjoestedt, Marie-Louise. Gods and Heroes of the Celts. Trans-
lated by Myles Dillon. London: Methuen, 1949. Reprint,
Dublin & Portland: Four Courts, 1994.
See alsoDinnsenchas; Invasion Myth; Eachtrai;
Imrama; Pre-Christian Ireland; Scriptoria