Tain Bo Cuailnge meaning the Cattle Raid of Cooley is a legendary epic from early Irish literature. The Táin Bó Cuailnge represents the oldest vernacular tale of Western Europe, predating both Beowulf and Homer’s Odyssey. It describes the invasion of Ulster by the armies of Queen Medb of Connaught and her husband Ailill intending to steal the Brown Bull of Cuailnge. They are faced only by the boy warrior Cuchulainn, the rest of the men of Ulster being incapacitated by an ancient curse placed by the ancient Celtic goddess of war, Macha. Cuchulainn is young enough to be free of the curse, he manages to hold off the invading armies until the Ulstermen are free of the curse.*
So it's another very old and very long story with heroes and bad guys and gods and goddesses and curses and timeless truths to puzzle out? So what makes this Celtic story different from the last two stories? Hmmm...
* From: Western Paradigm: Evidence of Predetermination. Archive for Feb 2009. A very interesting blog full of interesting
little articles about everything of interest that can be found at: http://westernparadigm.wordpress.com/2009/02/
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