For all its conflicts, combats, and enemies, Táin Bó Cúailnge provides a range of affectionate vocabulary expressing less antagonistic relationships between characters. In this paper, I will examine the frequent use of popa, particularly by Cú Chulainn, to address friends, allies, and experts. This term of respect and endearment with its paternal connotations is typically used to address an elder or social superior, although eDIL notes the occasional use of the term “familiarly to an inferior”. A close study of the term in the Táin reveal that such uses are more than occasional: in the Book of Leinster text, 40% of all uses of popa are addressed by Cú Chulainn to his charioteer Láeg. Perhaps more strikingly, given that Cú Chulainn is his social superior and master, Láeg never uses the term in return, although he does use it to describe Conchobar. By examining these “familiar” uses of popa in conjunction with its more conventional use as a mark of deference to a superior, I will propose a more nuanced reading of the hierarchies at work, the affection being expressed, and the precise connotations of the term itself. I will also highlight changes in the use of the term across different recensions of the Táin, and how this reflects a broader chronological trend.

Cú Chulainn’s charioteer, Láeg mac Ríangabra, is a shadowy figure. He is almost always at Cú Chulainn’s side, present in stories from the Old Irish period through to the eighteenth century, but while Cú Chulainn’s biography is well known, Láeg’s remains understudied. Closer examination reveals multiple possibilities for Láeg’s origins, contradictory accounts of how he became Cú Chulainn’s charioteer, and even disagreement about his ultimate fate. Láeg may have a connection to the Otherworld and/or to Connacht; he may have two siblings or eight; he may die with Cú Chulainn, or outlive him; he may be a champion in his own right, defeated in battle by Cú Chulainn, or he may be Cú Chulainn’s foster-brother, raised by his side. These variant traditions reveal the complexities of Láeg’s character, as well as the priorities and interests of individual authors and redactors. In this paper, I will trace these varied and contradictory biographies, attempting to construct not a definitive timeline of Láeg’s life, but a map of the possibilities that informed his depiction across Ulster Cycle tales throughout the centuries.

The seventeenth-century romantic adventure tale Tóruigheacht Gruaidhe Griansholus (‘The Pursuit of Gruaidh Ghriansholus’) depicts Cú Chulainn on a journey around the world, slaying giants and rescuing transformed maidens – accompanied, as always, by Láeg mac Riangabra, his faithful charioteer. But Láeg’s role in this text goes far beyond his usual position as Cú Chulainn’s driver and weapons master: as well as the expansion of his responsibilities to encompass sailing Cú Chulainn’s ship, Tóruigheacht Gruaidhe Griansholus portrays Láeg as a champion in his own right, capable of vanquishing groups of enemies sent against Cú Chulainn, sometimes with Cú Chulainn’s own weapons. This idea first appears in less developed form in the later versions of Táin Bó Cúailnge (the fragmentary third recension, and the fifteenth-century Stowe version of Comrac Fir Diad). As such, its presence in Tóruigheacht Gruaidhe Griansholus illustrates the author’s use and development of earlier material to create a new tale shaped by early modern literary sensibilities. Moreover, this story also reflects the developing interest in Láeg and his relationship with Cú Chulainn during the early modern period, placing significant emphasis on the loyalty and love between them, such that Láeg expresses a desire to die at Cú Chulainn’s side and be buried in his grave. In this paper, I will demonstrate how a close reading of Láeg in Tóruigheacht Gruaidhe Griansholus thus illuminates not only this understudied text itself, but also the wider literary development of the Ulster Cycle after the medieval period.

Láeg mac Riangabra, Cú Chulainn’s charioteer, is the hero’s closest and often only companion, and he remains faithful to his master even amidst mortal danger. Never is this more clearly illustrated than in ‘The Death of Cú Chulainn’, known variously as Aided/Oidheadh Con Culainn or Brislech Mór Maige Muirthemne, which shows the two in their final battle together. In this paper I will explore the significant differences between the Middle Irish and the Early Modern versions of this narrative, and the crucial – but different – role that Láeg plays in each. The Middle Irish version of the tale, from the Book of Leinster, reflects Láeg’s function as a double and narrative foil for Cú Chulainn himself, and his death shortly before Cú Chulainn’s prefigures the hero’s own downfall. Meanwhile, the Early Modern versions of the text show Láeg in his function as mediator and messenger for Cú Chulainn: he is wounded, but survives to assist the dying Cú Chulainn and to take news of his death back to Ulster, where he mourns him alongside Emer, Cú Chulainn’s wife. Although surviving in a great many late manuscripts, this later version lacks a full translation into English, and so these developments have largely passed unremarked. However, they provide a fascinating insight into the aspects or functions that Láeg performs in other Ulster Cycle texts, and illustrate both divergence and development in the tradition.

The medieval Irish hero Cú Chulainn is often read as a hypermasculine figure, with his martial pre-eminence and extreme feats in combat seen as expressions of heroic masculinity. Yet he is small and beardless – facts frequently remarked upon by his opponents – and he is an outsider, marked by his exemption from the curse that renders the men of the Ulaid unable to fight. None of these traits are unique to Cú Chulainn: he can be read as conforming to a heroic ideal, reflected in Classical and chivalric literature, or as a precocious youth, made liminal by his age. However, I would argue that the Táin problematises Cú Chulainn’s masculinity, repeatedly presenting it as atypical and outside of societal norms, and that by interrogating his gender more closely, we can disrupt these conventional readings and offer an alternative. I will therefore explore a transmasculine reading of Cú Chulainn, showing how he transgresses categorisation not necessarily (or solely) because he is precocious and has assumed a ‘man’s role’ before it is expected, but because he has done so without it being expected at all. Moreover, I will discuss how, far from undermining his heroic identity, this instead helps to constitute it.