Winifred Faraday

The Cattle-raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cuailnge): an Old Irish Prose-epic (Dodo Press) Winifred Faraday

Publisher Marketing: Tain Bo Cuailnge the driving-off of cows of Cooley, more usually rendered The Cattle Raid of Cooley or The Tain) is a legendary tale from early Irish literature, often considered an epic, although it is written primarily in prose rather than verse. It tells of a war against Ulster by the Connacht queen Medb and her husband Ailill, who intend to steal the stud bull Donn Cuailnge, opposed only by the teenage Ulster hero Cuchulainn. Traditionally set in the 1st century AD in an essentially pre-Christian heroic age, the Tain is the central text of a group of tales known as the Ulster Cycle. It survives in two main written versions or recensions in 12th century manuscripts, the first a compilation largely written in Old Irish, the second a more consistent work in Middle Irish.