An Irish legend revisitedViolent, sometimes vulgar, confusing as it is tragic, The Táin - or the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley, to give it its full name - stands as one of the great tales of early Irish literature This article deals with Old Irish and Middle Irish literature Old Irish The earliest existing examples of the written Irish language as preserved in manuscripts do not go back farther than the 8th century; they are chiefly found in Scriptural glosses written between the . It tells the story of the powerful queen Medb of Connacht, who was jealous of her husband Ailil's wealth. Though it surpassed her own only by the ownership of a famous bull, she managed to persuade him to launch a raid against Ulster to seize a suitable bull of her own: the legendary Donn Cúailgne. Struck down by a magical illness, the men of Ulster have to rely on Cúchulainn, the 'hound of Culainn', a teenage warrior of almost supernatural prowess, who at first seems almost marginal to the tale and then comes to dominate it. I first came across this remarkably vivid figure, who has inspired music, poetry and novels, through Yeats, which inspired me to track down a copy of Thomas Kinsella's 1970 translation of The Táin, which deals with Cuchlainn's childhood. All of this might seem to suggest that The Táin exists as a single coherent text; instead, versions of the story are to be found in several sources, most famously fa·mous·ly adv. 1. In a way or to an extent that is well known: "his famously neurotic mannerisms [are] lampooned in the novels of Evelyn Waugh" Book of the Dunn Cow and Book of Leinster Poet Ciaran Carson's new translation, which stitches together these fragments, is a remarkable achievement. He has not been tempted to make the original's weirder - in the true meaning of the word - sections any more realistic. Rather, he has injected in·ject·ed adj. 1. Of or relating to a substance introduced into the body. 2. Of or relating to a blood vessel that is visibly distended with blood. injected 1. introduced by injection. 2. congested. a poetical po·et·i·cal adj. 1. Poetic. 2. Fancifully depicted or embellished; idealized. po·et  i·cal·ly adv. magic into the text that embraces the other-worldliness of a realm in which the goddess of death, the Morrigan, pays frequent visits and humans are gifted with superhuman su·per·hu·man adj. 1. Above or beyond the human; preternatural or supernatural. 2. Beyond ordinary or normal human ability, power, or experience: "soldiers driven mad by superhuman misery" powers that, as ever, bring tragic consequences. Most moving of all is his treatment of the gore-bespattered figure of Cúchulainn. After he is tricked in the combat that ends with the death of his friend Fer Diad, the warrior turns from a figure of myth into someone recognisably human, riven rive v. rived, riv·en also rived, riv·ing, rives v.tr. 1. To rend or tear apart. 2. To break into pieces, as by a blow; cleave or split asunder. 3. by conflicting emotions. This is the translation that the Tain so long has required to unpack See pack. its more subtle mysteries. 
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