Táin Bó Cúailnge
The central epic of early Irish literature, telling of a war fought over a famous brown bull.
Also: The Cattle Raid of Cooley, the Táin
The Táin Bó Cúailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley, is the great tale of the Ulster Cycle, written down in its surviving forms between about the eighth and the twelfth centuries. Queen Medb of Connacht, wanting to match her husband's prize white-horned bull, sets out with an army to seize the Donn Cúailnge, the brown bull of Cooley, from Ulster. While the men of Ulster lie under a curse, the young hero Cú Chulainn holds off her army alone at the fords. The tale ends with the brown bull killing the white-horned bull and then dying himself. Cattle raids were a real part of life in early Ireland, where wealth was counted in cattle.