Tochmarc Emire

"Tochmarc Emire" ("The Wooing of Emer") is one of the longest stories in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. It concerns the efforts of the hero Cúchulainn to marry Emer, who appears as his wife in other stories of the cycle, and his training in arms under the warrior-woman Scáthach. The fullest version is found in the Book of Leinster (c. 1160). Fragmentary versions are included in several manuscripts, including the Book of the Dun Cow (c. 1106) and manuscripts in the Stowe library. The "tochmarc" ("wooing" or "courtship") (along with cattle raids, voyages, feasts, births and deaths) is one of the genres of early Irish literature recognised in the manuscript corpus.

ummary

In Cúchulainn's youth he is so beautiful the Ulstermen worry that, without a wife of his own, he will steal their wives and ruin their daughters. They search all over Ireland for a suitable wife for him, but he will have none but Emer, daughter of Forgall Monach. However, Forgall is opposed to the match. He suggests that Cúchulainn should train in arms with the renowned warrior-woman Scáthach in the land of Alba (Scotland), hoping the ordeal will be too much for him and he will be killed. Cúchulainn takes up the challenge. In the meantime, Forgall offers Emer to Lugaid mac Nóis, a king of Munster, but when he hears that Emer loves Cúchulainn, Lugaid refuses her hand.

Scáthach teaches Cúchulainn all the arts of war, including the use of the Gáe Bulg, a terrible barbed spear, thrown with the foot, that has to be cut out of its victim. His fellow trainees include Ferdiad, who becomes Cúchulainn's best friend and foster-brother. During his time there, Scáthach faces a battle against Aífe, her rival and in some versions her twin sister. Scáthach, knowing Aífe's prowess, fears for Cúchulainn's life and gives him a powerful sleeping potion to keep him from the battle. However, because of Cúchulainn's great strength, it only puts him to sleep for an hour, and he soon joins the fray. He fights Aífe in single combat, and the two are evenly matched, but Cúchulainn distracts her by calling out that Aífe's horses and chariot, the things she values most in the world, have fallen off a cliff, and seizes her. He spares her life on the condition that she call off her enmity with Scáthach, and bear him a son.

Leaving Aífe pregnant, Cúchulainn returns from Scotland fully trained, but Forgall still refuses to let him marry Emer. Cúchulainn storms Forgall's fortress, killing twenty-four of Forgall's men, abducts Emer and steals Forgall's treasure. Forgall himself falls from the ramparts to his death. Conchobar has the "right of the first night" over all marriages of his subjects. He is afraid of Cúchulainn's reaction if he exercises it in this case, but is equally afraid of losing his authority if he does not. Cathbad suggests a solution: Conchobar sleeps with Emer on the night of the wedding, but Cathbad sleeps between them. [Thomas Kinsella, "The Táin", Oxford University Press, 1969, ISBN 0192810901, pp. 25-39]

Translations

The "Wooing of Emer" has appeared in translation many times including:

* Kuno Meyer, " [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T301021/ Wooing of Emer"] , "Archaeological Review" 1, London 1888
*Eleanor Hull, "The Cuchullin Saga", Dublin 1898 (abridged version of Meyer's translation).
*H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, "L'épopée celtique en Irlande", 1892 (French language|French)
*C.-J. Guyonvarc'h, "La courtise d'Emer, Version A", "Ogam" 11,1959 (French)
*A. Agrati and M. L. Magini, "La saga irlandese di Cu Chulainn", Milano 1982 (Italian)
*Thomas Kinsella, "The Táin", Oxford 1969

Related stories

In a related story, "Aided Óenfir Aífe" ("The Death of Aífe's Only Son"), Connla, the son Cúchulainn fathers on Aífe in "Tochmarc Emire", comes to Ireland at the age of seven to seek out his father. His extraordinary skills make him seem a threat, however, and because of a "geis" placed on him by his father, he refuses to identify himself, and Cúchulainn kills him in single combat, using the Gae Bulg. [Kinsella 1969, pp. 39-45]

In another related story, "Aided Derbforgaill" ("The Death of Derbforgaill"), the Scandinavian princess Derbforgaill, who Cúchulainn rescues from being sacrificed to the Fomorians in some versions of "Tochmarc Emire", comes to Ireland with her handmaid, in the form of a pair of swans, to seek Cúchulainn, who she has fallen in love with. Cúchulainn and his foster-son Lugaid Riab nDerg see the swans, and Cúchulainn shoots Derbforgaill down with his sling. The slingstone penetrates her womb, and to save her live Cúchulainn has to suck it from her side, but since he has tasted her blood he cannot marry her. Instead, he gives her to Lugaid, and they marry and have children. One day in deep winter, the men of Ulster make pillars of snow, and the women compete to see who can urinate the deepest into the pillar and prove herself the most desirable to men. Derbforgaill's urine reaches the ground, and the other women, out of jealousy, attack and mutilate her. Lugaid notices that the snow on the roof of her house has not melted, and realises she is close to death. He and Cúchulainn rush to the house, but Derbforgaill dies shortly after they arrive, and Lugaid dies of grief. Cúchulainn avengeds them by demolishing the house the women are inside, killing 150 of them. [Carl Marstrander (ed. & trans.), "The Deaths of Lugaid and Derbforgaill", "Ériu" 5, 1911, pp. 201-218]

In "Táin Bó Cúailnge" ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley"), two of the warriors Cúchulainn faces in single combat, Fer Báeth and Fer Diad, are his foster-brothers and fellow trainees under Scáthach. [Kinsella 1969, pp. 129, 168f.]

Adaptations

The story was adapted as a dramatic musical program, "Celtic Hero", for the National Public Radio series Radio Tales.

References