The Irish Cycle

The mythological ancient tales known as the Ulster cycle is set within an heroic age of the Ulaid a tribe from in North of Ireland, there are the earliest recorded western literature written down by the monks from the much earlier oral tradition as earliest the 7 th century.The oldest cycle, The Ulster Cycle is preserved in the Lebor Gabala. The cycle describes the early settlement of Ireland through a succession of invasions by five supernatural races. The most important race was the Tuatha De Danann, or People of the Goddess Danu. The Tuatha De Danann was the fourth of the five invading races. They defeated two other races, the Firbolgs and the Fomoirans, and were in turn defeated by the Sons of Mil, also called the Milesians. The Tuatha De Danann were the source of most of the divinities that the Irish people worshipped before they became Christians in the A.D. 400's.

The Ulster cycle centre's on the court of King Corncob at Ulster, probably before the time of Christ. The stories deal with the adventures of Cuchulainn, a great Irish hero who can also be considered a demigod. In some ways, he resembled the Greek hero Achilles. But unlike Achilles and other Greek heroes, Cuchulainn had many supernatural powers. He was also a magician and poet.

Many stories about Cuchulainn appear in the Ulster cycle. Probably the best known is the Tain Bo Cuailgne, the Cooley Cattle Raid. In this story, Queen Maeve of Connacht ordered a raid on Ulster to capture the famous brown bull. Cuchulainn the champion of Ulster, single handedly fought off the invaders, because the men of Ulster are suffering the 'Pangs', which the is curse of Macha, until the Queen Mahee's forces finally captured the bull. However, by the time the Ulster warriors led by King Conchobar come to Cuchulainn's aid, he and all the young boys of Ulster are dead and drove the brown bull is gone with the invaders out of the county.It is only left to inflict revenge on Queen Maeve.