The Mythological Cycle is that body of medieval Irish narrative literature chiefly concerned with the deeds of the inhabitants of the Irish otherworld. Characters from this cycle frequently appear in the other three main cycles (the Ulster Cycle, the King Cycle, and the Finn Cycle) as well as in other categories of narrative that fall outside this classification such as the dinnsenchas ("place lore").
The inhabitants of the otherworld are collectively known as Tuatha De Danann ("tribes of the goddess Danu/Danann"), a term that first appears around the turn of the eleventh century in poems associated with Lebor Gabala Erenn (see Invasion Myth). Earlier texts called them Tuatha De ("tribes of gods"), but the more common designation at all periods was aes side ("folk of the fairy-mound"). They inhabited the side ("fairy-mounds"), which were natural hillocks or man-made mounds such as the ancient tomb complex at Brug na Boinne (Newgrange, Co. Meath). Their divine origin is sometimes explicitly recognized, but Christian writers occasionally rationalize them as fallen angels or demons. Attempts to euhemerize them (to suppose that they were mortals who were worshipped after their deaths) are most successful in the influential Lebor Gabala Erenn, where they are usually portrayed as descendants of Noah.
The names of some of the principal characters suggest an origin in native mythology. One of their chiefs was the Dagda whose name means "good god" (Dago-devos). The king of the Tuatha De Danann at the battle of Mag Tuired is Nuadu Argatlam ("Nuadu silver-arm") whose name is cognate with Lludd Llawereint ("Lludd silver-arm") of Welsh saga and is thought to be the same as the deity called Nodons who appears on Romano-British dedications. Lug Lamfhata ("Lug long-arm") is associated with the harvest festival (Lugnasad) and is thought to be a reflex of the Celtic god whose name may be preserved in various continental European place names such as Lyon and Leiden (Lugudunum).
Cath Maige Tuired
There are two distinct but related battles of Mag Tuired. The first, often known as Cath Maige Tuired Conga ("the battle of Mag Tuired of Cong") is recounted in Lebor Gabala Erenn and tells of the invasion of Ireland by the Tuatha De Danann and the subsequent battle with the Fir Bolg. Although chronologically anterior to the second battle, it was composed at a later date. In the battle, Nuadu, king of the Tuatha De Danann, loses his arm. A replacement is fashioned from silver by the physician Dian Cecht and the smith Credne, and so Nuadu is called Arcatlam, "silver arm." However, this physical blemish renders Nuadu unsuitable for kingship and he is replaced by Bres, the son of the king of the Fomoiri ("demons from over the sea") and a woman of the Tuatha De Danann. Bres proves himself in battle by overthrowing the Fir Bolg and exiling them to Connacht and distant coastal islands.
The second battle of Mag Tuired (Cath Maige Tuired) is probably the most important of the mythological tales because of its narrative sophistication and its inclusion of almost all the known Irish gods. The earliest versions are an eleventh- or twelfth-century composition based on Old Irish material, and a version that was incorporated into Lebor Gabala Erenn in the eleventh century. It was influenced by Lebor Gabala Erenn, from which it draws accounts of the first battle of Mag Tuired and the loss of Nuadu’s arm. This is an important prelude to the second battle, as it explains how Bres came to be king of the Tuatha De Danann. Bres’s rule is unjust, and he forces the champions of the Tuatha De Danann to perform demeaning tasks. When the poet Coirpre is treated inhospitably, he composes a satire on Bres after which the Tuatha De Danann expel him. Bres then seeks help from the Fomoiri. Meanwhile, Nuadu’s arm grows back and he is restored to the kingship. The Tuatha De choose Lug as their leader in battle. In the subsequent conflict with the Fomoiri, Nuadu is slain by Balor whose single eye, when opened, paralyses the opposing army. Lug and Balor are engaged in combat when Balor again opens his eye, but Lug slays him with a slingshot in a scene reminiscent of the biblical story of David and Goliath. The Tuatha De Danann win the battle and drive their enemies into the sea. Bres, however, is spared when he promises to teach the victors the secrets of agriculture. Lug, the Dagda, and Ogma pursue the Fomoiri to Bres’s banqueting hall where they retrieve their cattle and the Dagda’s harp.
Various attempts have been made to distill ancient myth from the surviving texts. T. F. O’Rahilly’s theory that the original myth dealt with the defeat of the sun-god Balor by the divine hero Lug has been discredited. Dumezil places the tale within the context of Indo-European myth according to which battle is waged by representatives of the first (sacred) and second (martial) functions against the third function (material), resulting in the integration of the three functions. This is represented here by the defeat of the Fomoiri by Nuadu and Lug and the divulging of the secrets of agriculture by Bres to the victors. While this interpretation requires some modification to accommodate the extant narrative, it has been widely accepted. The story also functions as an exemplary myth embodying and validating in dramatic form the ideology of its originators. This is done here negatively through the portrayal of undesirable characters such as Bres, and affirmatively through the depiction of positive role models such as Lug. In doing so it explores the nature of kinship and kingship, intertribal and intratribal relationships, and the interplay between social and cosmic order.
Other interpretations have focused on the significance and meaning of the tale within its contemporary context, indicating that monastic writers had a profound influence on the form of the tale. The negative portrayal of the cainte ("satirist") who overburdens the unfortunate Dagda may be clerically inspired. The threat from the Fomoiri is depicted as an alliance among Scandinavian forces intent upon the conquest of Ireland, and this may be a reflection of the threat from the Viking incursions of the ninth century when the tale was first written. The text may have had an overarching contemporary political message, namely, the importance of unity around the Tara kingship in order to repel foreign attacks. If so, it could be regarded as propaganda for the Ui Neill dynasty that controlled the kingship of Tara during this period.
Aislinge Oengusso (The Dream of Oengus)
This Old Irish story tells how Oengus, son of the Dagda and Boann, fell ill after seeing a beautiful maiden in a dream. The forces of the otherworld are marshaled to reveal that the woman is Caer Ibormeith from Sid Uamain in Connacht, and the assistance of Ailill and Medb, king and queen of Connacht, is enlisted to procure her from her father. It is revealed that she takes the form of a swan every other year and her father reveals where she will be the following Samain. Oengus goes to her there, and, in the form of swans, they sleep together before going to Brug na Boinne. The episode is used to explain Oengus’s participation in the cattleraid of Cooley in the Ulster Cycle.
Tochmarc Etafne (The Courtship of Etain)
This is actually a sequence of three interrelated stories. In the first, Midir of Bn Leith obtains as compensation for an alleged injury Etain, the fairest of all the maidens of Ireland and daughter of Ailill, king of northeast Ulster. However, in her jealousy Midir’s first wife, Fuamnach, turns her consecutively into a pool of water, a worm, and a fly or butterfly. A wind conjured up by Fuamnach drives Etain out to sea, and she wanders the coast for seven years. She eventually encounters Oengus, son of the Dagda, who carries her in a crystal cage until Fuamnach again drives her off. She falls into the 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 Mil Espaine (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. Etafn 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 Etafn 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 Brf Leith. Midir again tricks Eochaid, this time by passing the daughter of Etafn and Eochaid off as Etafn herself. Enraged, Eochaid destroys Brf Leith 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 Eterscel, 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 Tuired was revised in the later Middle Ages, and several other tales were either revised or composed anew. Altram Tige Da Medar ("The nourishment of the houses of the two milk vessels") opens with a description of the settlement of the fairy mounds by the Tuatha De Danann after their defeat by the descendants of Mil Espaine. Brug na Boinne was initially assigned to Elcmar but Oengus, son of the Dagda, expels him at the instigation of Manannan. A beautiful daughter by the name of Eithne is born to Oengus. When she is fully grown, a bawdy insult causes her to fast, after which she will only take milk from Oengus’s marvelous cow which had been brought from India. When summoned to Manannan’s palace she again refuses to eat, drinking only milk from Manannan’s marvelous cow. Manannan reveals that the demon of the Tuatha De 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 marvelous 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 (tri truaighe na sgealaigheachta), 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 Sid Fionnachaidh, turned his four children into swans out of jealousy. After nine hundred years of exile, they settle on an island where the saint Mochaomhog finds and comforts them. Aoife’s spell is finally broken, and the four children are transformed into wizened old people whom Mochaomhog baptizes before they die. The death of the children of Tuireann (Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann), a tale of murder and revenge, is also numbered 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 Tuatha De Danann, and as compensation Lugh demands that they undertake various 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.
