The Death of Cuchulain by W.B. Yeats

A man came slowly from the setting sun, 

To Forgail's daughter, Emer, in her dun, 

And found her dyeing cloth with subtle care, 

And said, casting aside his draggled hair: 

"I am Aleel, the swineherd, whom you bid.

Go dwell upon the sea cliffs, vapour hid; 

But now my years of watching are no more." 

Then Emer cast her web upon the floor, 

And stretching her arms, red with the dye, 

Parted her lips with a loud sudden cry. 

Looking on her, Aleel, the swineherd, said: 

"Not any god alive, nor mortal dead, 

Has slain so mighty armies, so great kings, 

Nor won the gold that now Cuchulain brings." 

"Why do you tremble thus from feet to crown?" 

Aleel, the swineherd, wept and cast him down 

Upon the web-heaped floor, and thus his word: 

"With him is one sweet-throated like a bird." 

"Who bade you tell these things?" and then she cried 

To those about, "Beat him with thongs of hide 

And drive him from the door." 

And thus it was: 

And where her son, Finmole, on the smooth grass 

Was driving cattle, came she with swift feet, 

And called out to him, " Son, it is not meet 

That you stay idling here with flocks and herds." 

"I long have waited, mother, for those words: 

But wherefore now?" 

"There is a man to die; 

You have the heaviest arm under the sky." 

"My father dwells among the sea-worn bands 

And breaks the ridge of battle with his hands." 

"Nay, you are taller than Cuchulain, son." 

"He is the mightiest man in ship or dun." 

"Nay, he is old and sad with many wars, 

And weary of the crash of battle cars." 

"I only ask what way my journey lies, 

For God, who made you bitter, made you wise." 

"The Red Branch kings a tireless banquet keep, 

Where the sun falls into the Western deep. 

Go there, and dwell on the green forest rim; 

But tell alone your name and house to him 

Whose blade compels, and bid them send you one 

Who has a like vow from their triple dun." 

Between the lavish shelter of a wood 

And the gray tide, the Red Branch multitude 

Feasted, and with them old Cuchulain dwelt, 

And his young dear one close beside him knelt, 

And gazed upon the wisdom of his eyes, 

More mournful than the depth of starry skies, 

And pondered on the wonder of his days; 

And all around the harp-string told his praise, 

And Concobar, the Red Branch king of kings, 

With his own fingers touched the brazen strings. 

At last Cuchulain spake: " A young man strays 

Driving the deer along the woody ways. 

I often hear him singing to and fro, 

I often hear the sweet sound of his bow. 

Seek out what man he is." 

One went and came. 

"He bade me let all know he gives his name 

At the sword point, and bade me bring him one 

Who had a like vow from our triple dun." 

"I only of the Red Branch hosted now," 

Cuchulain cried, "have made and keep that vow." 

After short fighting in the leafy shade, 

He spake to the young man, "Is there no maid 

Who loves you, no white arms to wrap you round, 

Or do you long for the dim sleepy ground, 

That you come here to meet this ancient sword?" 

"The dooms of men are in God's hidden hoard." 

"Your head a while seemed like a woman's head 

That I loved once." 

Again the fighting sped, 

But now the war rage in Cuchulain woke, 

And through the other's shield his long blade broke, 

And pierced him. 

"Speak before your breath is done." 

"I am Finmole, mighty Cuchulain's son." 

"I put you from your pain. I can no more." 

While day its burden on to evening bore, 

With head bowed on his knees Cuchulain stayed; 

Then Concobar sent that sweet-throated maid, 

And she, to win him, his gray hair caressed; 

In vain her arms, in vain her soft white breast. 

Then Concobar, the subtlest of all men, 

Ranking his Druids round him ten by ten, 

Spake thus: "Cuchulain will dwell there and brood, 

For three days more in dreadful quietude, 

And then arise, and raving slay us all. 

Go, cast on him delusions magical, 

That he may fight the waves of the loud sea." 

And ten by ten under a quicken tree, 

The Druids chaunted, swaying in their hands 

Tall wands of alder, and white quicken wands. 

In three days' time, Cuchulain with a moan 

Stood up, and came to the long sands alone: 

For four days warred he with the bitter tide; 

And the waves flowed above him, and he died.

Background

This poem tells the story of Cuchulain’s death after mistakenly killing his own son, who is sent to face him in combat by his mother “Emer” because of Emer’s jealousy that Cuchulain is with another woman. This type of storyline is sometimes called a “reverse Oedipus tale”, in reference to the story of Oedipus Rex by the Greek playwright Sophocles, which is a story about a King who kills his father.

Yeats’ telling differs from that of the version of the story found in Irish Bardic literature. The author noted: “Cuhillin was the great warrior of the Conorian cycle. My poem is founded on the West of Ireland legend given by Curtin in “Myths and Folklore of Ireland”. The bardic tale is quite different.”. Curtin refers to the Irish American folklorist Jeremiah Curtin. Yeats believed Curtin’s version to be an alternative telling preserved from an oral tradition.

Ever the romantic, in 1892 amidst the ongoing Gaelic Revival, Yeats in a letter to the “United Ireland” newspaper named Curtin among several authors as “setting before us a table spread with strange Gaelic fruits, from which an ever-growing band of makers of song and story shall draw food for their souls”.

Synopsis

A man named Aleel, a swineherd brings news to Emer, daughter of Forgail who is Cuchulain’s wife. Aleel was instructed to keep watch by the cliffs for Cuchulain’s return “for years”, but instead, returns alone and tells her trembling that Cuchulain has taken another woman - “With him is one sweet-throated like a bird”. 

This enrages Emer, who, after originally performing an act of sorcery, proclaims that Aleel be beaten and driven from her home. She then summons her son Finmole, who she sees as now stronger than Cuchulain, who is “old and sad with many wars”. She instructs him to go and kill his father, without revealing his identity to anyone else.

Finmole finds Cuchulain, at a banquet by the Red Branch Kings of Ulster, where he is with the unnamed woman who made Emer jealous. The two eventually meet and begin to fight. 

Cuchulain, not recognising his son, but remarking he looks like a woman he once knew, asks him the reason he has for coming to fight. Cuchulain eventually lands a killing blow on his son, who reveals his identity as he is dying. Shocked, Cuchulain finishes him to put him out of his misery.

Those around him fear for their lives from an enraged Cuchulain after killing his own son. The unnamed woman tries to soothe him, and King Conchobar summons his druids to cast a spell upon him. By their magic, Cuchulain is then compelled to go into the sea, and wars with it for four days, until eventually succumbing to the strength of the waves dies himself.

Characters

Cuchulain

The central hero of the “Ulster Cycle” in Irish Bardic literature. Called Setanta as a boy, he slays the guard dog of Culain in defence by driving a sliotar down its throat with his hurley. He replaces the dog as guard, and becomes known as Cuchulain, meaning the hound of Culain.

“Emer”/Aoife

The mother of Finmole, named “Emer” in the poem, however this differs from the Bardic literature, where she is called Aoife, and his Wife Emer is a different woman. 

In the Bardic tale “The Wooing of Emer / Tochmarc Emire”, Cuchulain is made to undergo a series of trials before being allowed to marry a woman named Emer, later his wife and daughter of Forgall Manach.

One of his trials involves Cuchulain spending time in Scotland, where he fathers a child with a woman called Aoife, a warrior woman. This is the child that is killed in this poem by him. In this telling, the child is called Connla.

Finmole/Conlán/Connla

Cuchulain’s son, here named “Finmole” by Yeats, and called “Conlán” in Jeremiah Curtin’s book. Fathered in Scotland, with the woman called Emer in the poem, and Aoife in Bardic Literature.

In the Bardic tale “Aided Oenfhir Aife / The Death of the Only Son of Aoife”, Connla travels from Scotland and meets his father. Emer (daughter of Forgall, and not his mother) suspects the boy is Cuchulain’s son, pleads with him not to fight, to no avail. In Curtin’s telling, Aoife is said to be greatly jealous of Emer.

The Red Branch Kings

Yeats wrote that they were “the circle of warriors who preceded the Fenian cycle by about two hundred years, according to Bardic chronology, and gathered around Conchobar, also called Conor, as the Fenian circle gathered around Fin.

Conchobar

Conchobar MacNessa, King of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle. In Bardic literature, Cuchulain’s mother is the sister of Conchobar.