The Táin: Before the Táin
Trans. Thomas Kinsella
Since the table of contents divides this prologue chunk more or less into tales about Conchobor and tales about Cúchulainn, I'll follow suit. ("How the Táin Bó Cuailnge Was Found Again" was covered in a previous post.)
CONCHOBOR
The three tales given here concern the conception of Conchobor, how he got to be king of Ulster, and his cruel treatment of Derdriu (Deirdre). The middle tale is about Macha's curse of the Ulstermen, and though it doesn't explicitly state who the king is who decides to make the pregnant Macha race his horses, the fact that this tale is sandwiched in the "Conchobor" section of the prologue imply that Conchobor was the king in question.
Conchobor is clearly an important figure, likely beyond the Táin. He is the child of a druid and Queen Nes (in this version), and raised by the druid, Cathbad; though there is no supernatural element to his conception (as there is with Cúchulainn's), he is conceived at an auspicious hour, and thanks to his mother's cunning takes the kingship of Ulster at the age of seven.
His best qualities are given in the first tale, the highest being that "[t]here was no wiser being in the world" (Kinsella 4). On the same page, the narrative states that when it was time for Fergus to retake his kingship from Conchobor (as part of Nes's plot), the men of Ulster were angry at Fergus and conversely "grateful to Conchobor for all he had given them," indicating he was a generous as well as a wise king.
My reading of the second and third tales, then, is that they are included as foils for this first one. Where the first tale paints Conchobor as wise and good, the others complicate him: he sometimes makes bad decisions (as in the decision that lead to Macha cursing all of Ulster) and he can be cruel (as in his treatment of Derdriu, beyond imprisoning her for life, but especially in taunting her as she is being driven to Eogan, which prompts her to kill herself [Kinsella 20]).
CÚCHULAINN
Cúchulainn's relevant background is also given in three tales concerning how he was begotten, his courtship of Emer and his training in arms, and his killing of his own son, Connla.
Cúchulainn is a warrior-hero, and I suppose these three tales are meant to give a glimpse of what kind of warrior and hero he is. He is thrice-born, but his supernatural-ness is heralded even before his birth with the desolation of the plains of Ulster by a flock of supernatural birds. I was looking for this to somehow reflect badly back on Conchobor, since the health of the land and the legitimate rulership of the king were interconnected in Celtic cultures. Maybe, though, this immediately-established tension between Cúchulainn and Conchobor returns later in the Táin.
On pg. 25, it is shown how Cúchulainn is to be reared under the influence of many people: "he will be formed by all---chariot-fighter, prince and sage." I think we are to get a picture of him as what we would now call a well-rounded man, and not a mere brute. His complexity, too, is further hinted at in the story of his courtship of Emer, when he embarks on the journey to his training in arms and he and Emer swear to stay pure until they are reunited (Kinsella 29)--but of course he has a son with Aife while he is gone. He seems to be quick to anger when, on pg. 39, he has to go out and find all the herds of Sliab Fuait and bring them back to Conchobor, which exercises his anger. Then, of course, there is in "The Death of Aife's One Son" Cúchulainn killing Connla because he promised himself to the honor of Ulster.
As this is not meant to be a scholarly reading of anything, but a reader's reading, I am looking now for some of these complexities and faults of Cúchulainn's to come back and bite him in the ass, as they say.
THE QUARREL OF THE TWO PIG-KEEPERS, AND HOW THE BULLS WERE BEGOTTEN
The most I have to say about this tale, beyond that I freaking love it, is that all the shape-shifting calls to mind two tales from the Welsh tradition. One is in the tale of Math ap Mathonwy, who punishes brothers Gwydion and Gilfaethwy for their elaborate and organized rape of Math's maiden, Goewin, by having them take the shape of various wild animals and mate with each other, one pair of animals each year for three years. But the resemblance is, I think, only passing, or at least that's all I can make of it, for in the Math tale, this line of the story ends with the end of the punishment and immediately other matters take precedence.
The other tale is the one of Gwion Bach and Ceridwen, in which Gwion Bach receives the three drops that spring out of Ceridwen's cauldron, filling him with wisdom. Enraged, she chases him, and they take the form of various prey and predator animals, until finally Gwion Bach assumes the form of a grain and Ceridwen of a black hen and swallows him, then carries him for nine months and delivers him, thus bringing the poet Taliesin into the world.
It's obviously the shape-shifting aspects of the two stories that interest me, and the struggle and resistance in each. The pig-keepers fight each other in each shape until they become the maggots that are drunk up with the spring water by cows, one belonging to Dáire mac Fiachna and the other to Medb and Ailill, which resulted in the two bulls, the Dub of Cuailnge and Finnbennach.
Not to suggest that these two tales are directly related--only that there may be a theme or template in use here, or perhaps just a feature common to Celtic storytelling that was employed both in Ireland and in Wales, involving two characters changing shape multiple times and struggling against each other, and ending up with the gestation and birth of one or more important figures.
Which makes me wonder if the shape-shifting bit in the Math tale initially ended elsewhere, but with that result lost to the Christian re-writers.