Early Irish Myths and Sagas by Various
Author:Various
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-10-25T00:00:00+00:00
The Death of AÃfeâs Only Son
Introduction
âThe Death of AÃfeâs Only Sonâ is an Irish Sohrab and Rustum story, more international than Irish in feeling and probably not very old. It is the title that is distinctively Irish; one would expect âThe Death of Cú Chulaindâs Only Sonâ, but this title may reflect an older, matrilinear system of descent â just as the son of Deichtine is Conchuburâs heir, so the son of AÃfe might be Cú Chulaindâs. The home of Scáthach and AÃfe, not given here, is presumably in the north of Britain.
That Cú Chulaind has a son at all further suggests that the tale is late, for he is only a boy when he goes away to learn weaponry from the warrior-woman Scáthach, and at the time of the cattle raid of Cúailnge he appears to be only seventeen. Condlae, moreover, is simply a regenerated version of his father: he demonstrates the same arrogance, performs the same feats and is fully a match for Cú Chulaind in combat save for mastery of the gáe bolga, a kind of spear thrust. The reference to Rome and the un-Celtic lack of emotional restraint at the end of the tale also point to a late formulation. Even the rhetorical sections â where Condere calls Condlae âthe stuff of bloodâ and warns him against turning his âjaws and spearsâ (turning the left side of oneâs chariot towards an enemy signalled hostile intent), or where Cú Chulaind describes Condlaeâs gore upon his skin as a âmist of bloodâ and predicts that his spears will âsuck the fair javelinâ â do not seem very old, though in some phrases they are quite corrupt.
âThe Death of AÃfeâs Only Sonâ is the source, at some distance, for Yeatsâs play On Baileâs Strand.
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