Tonight we begin a new journey, to the island at the edge of the world: Ierne, which the Romans call Hibernia. Its people have the oldest stories in western Europe written in their own language: gods who came in clouds, heroes who fought alone against armies, and a giant who built a road across the sea.
Myths of Ireland · Part 1 · An introduction · B1–B2
The Four Cycles of Irish Mythology
Part 1 of Myths of Ireland: how the old stories of Ireland are organised into four great cycles (the Mythological Cycle of gods, the Ulster Cycle of Cú Chulainn, the Fenian Cycle of Fionn mac Cumhaill, and the Cycle of the Kings) and how they reached us through monks, storytellers and Yeats. The present simple for summaries (the story tells how…), the passive for sources (the tales were written down by monks), and the language of stories, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
A road across the sea? I like him already.
SOPHIA
Wait until you meet him, Marcos. But first we need a map. The scholars sort the Irish stories into four great cycles, like four rooms in a house. Tonight we walk through the house; in the next lessons we open each door.
PHILO
Four cycles, like the books of a library. Good: I like order.
Before you read
Ireland, from the stories of the storytellers to the manuscripts of the monks
For centuries, the stories of Ireland were told aloud by trained poets and storytellers, the filí and the seanchaithe, who learned hundreds of tales by heart. From about the 7th century, after Ireland became Christian, monks began to write them down in Irish, and later copied them into great manuscripts such as the Book of the Dun Cow (about 1100) and the Book of Leinster (about 1160). The monks kept the old gods and heroes, sometimes adding a Christian ending.
Modern scholars sort the tales into four cycles. The Mythological Cycle tells of the gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the peoples who invaded Ireland. The Ulster Cycle tells of the warriors of Ulster in a heroic age, above all Cú Chulainn, and the great epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley. The Fenian Cycle follows Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna, his son Oisín, and their hunts and loves. The Cycle of the Kings (or Historical Cycle) tells of kings, half real and half legend, such as Niall of the Nine Hostages and the mad king Suibhne.
Alongside the written cycles, the folk tradition kept stories of the aos sí, the fairy people, the banshee and the púca. In 1888 W. B. Yeats collected many of these in Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, and Lady Gregory retold the great cycles in English in 1902 and 1904. Many tales are linked to Samhain, the feast at the start of winter, when the doors between this world and the Otherworld stood open.
Every people keeps its memory in its stories.
The story
Retold for this lesson from the medieval Irish cycles, the Lebor Gabála Érenn (“The Book of the Taking of Ireland”), and the folk tradition collected by W. B. Yeats.
In the beginning, the old books say, Ireland was empty, and one people after another sailed to it from the sea: the people of Cessair, the people of Partholón, the people of Nemed, the Fir Bolg. Then, on the feast of Bealtaine, out of dark clouds that covered the sun for three days, came a shining people: the Tuatha Dé Danann, the people of the goddess Danu, the gods of Ireland. Their story, and their wars with the giant Fomorians, is the Mythological Cycle.
Long after them came the age of heroes. In Ulster, King Conchobar ruled at Emain Macha, and his greatest warrior was a boy called Sétanta, who killed the great hound of the smith Culann and promised to guard his house in its place, and so was called Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Culann. When Queen Medb of Connacht invaded Ulster to steal its famous brown bull, Cú Chulainn held back her whole army alone at a ford. This is the Ulster Cycle.
Later still, in the time of King Cormac mac Airt, the high king’s warriors were the Fianna, and their leader was Fionn mac Cumhaill, who gained all the world’s wisdom by burning his thumb on a magic salmon. Fionn hunted, fought, loved, and lost his bride Gráinne to the young Diarmuid; his son Oisín rode to Tír na nÓg, the Land of the Young. This is the Fenian Cycle.
And the Cycle of the Kings tells of kings, some real and some half legend: Niall of the Nine Hostages, the wise Cormac, and Suibhne, the king who went mad in battle and lived among the birds. Around all these, in every village, people told quieter stories of the fairy folk under the hills, the banshee who cries before a death, and the púca who changes shape in the night.
Read: the four rooms of the house
PHILO
Read the story and the background. What are the four cycles? Who is the main hero of each? Who wrote the stories down, and when?
SOPHIA
Then answer Section A.
The present simple for stories
MARCOS
The Ulster Cycle tells of Cú Chulainn. In the Táin, Queen Medb wants a famous bull. Fionn leads the Fianna.
SOPHIA
When we summarise a story, a film or a book, we use the present simple: The story tells how… In the end, the hero dies. When we tell it as history, we use the past.
The passive for sources
DEMETRIA
The tales were told aloud for centuries. They were written down by monks. They are kept in old manuscripts. They have been translated into many languages.
SOPHIA
be + past participle, with by for who did it. Very useful when we talk about where a story comes from: It was first recorded in the 12th century.
The language of stories
PHILO
a myth (about gods), a legend (about heroes, perhaps real), a folk tale (told by ordinary people), a saga, an epic, a cycle (a group of linked stories), the Otherworld, a hero, a quest.
SOPHIA
In Irish, a story is a scéal and a storyteller a seanchaí. Notice: a myth is not just “a false story”; it is a story that tells a people who they are.
Sophia’s comparison: the Greek cycles, and the books of the Torah
SOPHIA
We Greeks have our cycles too: the Theban cycle of Oedipus, the Trojan cycle of Achilles and Odysseus, the voyage of the Argonauts. Homer sang only one part of the Trojan cycle; others sang the rest.
PHILO
And our scriptures move from the beginning of the world to the patriarchs, from Egypt to the kings. And they too were told aloud before they were written, and copied by scribes, letter by letter. A people that forgets its stories forgets itself.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| the story tells how… / in the end… | present simple for summaries | The Táin tells how Medb wanted a bull. |
| were written down / are kept / have been translated | the passive for sources | The tales were written down by monks. |
| myth, legend, folk tale, saga, epic, cycle | story words | The Ulster Cycle is a group of linked tales. |
| the Otherworld | the world of gods and fairies | At Samhain the door to the Otherworld opened. |
| first recorded in | when a story was first written | It was first recorded in the 12th century. |
Practice
Read the story for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · The story
Read the story and choose the best answer.
1. How many cycles are there in Irish mythology?
2. Which cycle tells of the gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann?
3. Who is the great hero of the Ulster Cycle?
4. Who leads the Fianna in the Fenian Cycle?
5. Who wrote the stories down?
6. What did Yeats publish in 1888?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. The Ulster Cycle of Cú Chulainn. (tell, summary)
8. The tales were down by monks. (write)
9. They are in old manuscripts. (keep)
10. A group of linked stories is a .
11. A story about gods is a .
12. It was first in the 12th century. (write down, record)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “In the end, the hero dies.” (a summary)
14. “The tales were wrote down by monks.”
15. “The Fenian Cycle tell of Fionn.”
16. “They have been translated into many languages.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Map the cycles. In groups, draw the “house” of Irish mythology with four rooms. In each room, write the main heroes and one story you know or have heard of.
Discuss. 1. Why do you think the monks wrote down stories about pagan gods? 2. Which old stories does your country tell? 3. What is the difference between a myth, a legend and a folk tale?
Write (100–120 words). Summarise a story you know well in the present simple, and explain where it comes from using the passive.