Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure. Among Celts in close contact with Ancient Rome, s...
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One year, at Samhain, the people of Ulster gathered in Emain Macha. All the warriors of the Red Branch were there, with their wives and families. It was the tradition in Ulster to gather together and have each person tell stories of their bravery, and because Samhain was the time of year when the Otherworld is closest, any man who told a word of a lie would have his own sword cry out against him.
On this day, Cuchulainn and the poet Sencha were playing chess, waiting for the last of the Red Branch knights to arrive, when a flock of beautiful white birds alighted on the lake. All the women of Ulster were seized with the desire to have one. Having a bird to perch on each shoulder seemed to them to be the most important thing in the world, but none of the men were able to catch even a single bird.
Cuchulainn’s wife, Emer, stood up and said that her husband would be able to catch them, if she asked him to. At her word, Cuchulainn threw his sword in a great sweeping arc: it knocked all the birds out of the air, stunning them, but not killing a one. He gave two birds to every woman of Ulster, and then realized that there weren’t any left for his own Emer.
Emer said that she did not mind. Since she was the one who had asked him to catch the birds, it was her gift to give, and it would not be right for her to have two and for another woman to go without. But Cuchulainn was terribly upset that his wife, alone of all the women of Ulster, had no lovely birds to perch on her shoulders and sing in her ears. He swore to her that he would catch the most beautiful birds in Ireland for her. Not long after that, two birds came flying low over the lake, linked together with a chain of red gold, singing such beautiful music that they nearly put the whole company to sleep.
Sencha the poet told him that these birds seemed to have an enchantment behind them, and to leave them alone, but Cuchulainn put a stone into his sling and cast it at them, and to his shock, he missed! Emer begged him to let the birds alone, they were clearly Otherworldly, and he could catch some other birds for her, but he cast another stone at them, and missed again, and then in frustration threw his spear at them, and though he hit one bird on the wing, he did not knock them down.
Now this all upset Cuchulainn greatly: he had never missed a cast since the day he took up arms, but now he seemed to be good for nothing! He lay down by a pillar stone and fell asleep by the side of the lake, and he dreamed a strange dream. In his dream, two tall, stately women came walking towards him, and one of them was weeping. They approached him, and then the first woman smiled at him, and struck him with a horsewhip. The other then approached, and smiled, and struck him too. They took turns then, to beat him, still smiling, till he was more dead than alive, and then they walked away and left him.
When he woke from his sleep, Cuchulainn was bruised and battered head to foot, and he could barely move. He had to be carried to his sick bed, and he lay there recovering for a whole year.
