For those of you who don't know the story, the kingdom of Connacht, led by king Ailill and queen Medb, stages an invasion of Ulster, and all that stands in their way is a teenage rookie border guard called Cú Chulainn. He's a prodigy, and despite his small stature, in skill he has always been head and shoulders above his contemporaries in Ulster's youth corps - but he's never been tested against men. Among them, men he loves, including Fergus, former king of Ulster in exile in Connacht, and Cú Chulainn's former foster-father. He's issued a challenge of single combat, hoping to hold up the army's progress until his king can gather his army.
It's a story of war, coming of age and divided loyalties set in the pre-Christian Iron Age. The story is the centrepiece of a group of tales known as the Ulster Cycle, the oldest Irish legendary tradition and probably the oldest European legendary tradition outside Greece and Rome, which has been referred to as a "window on the Iron Age". The hero, Cú Chulainn, was the inspiration for 2000AD's Sláine.
No comments:
Post a Comment