Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm a quarter Irish on my father's side (the other half of that half is Scottish), and the rest comes from Germany with a little bit of French mixed in. Therefore, I consider myself a purebred Celt. Also, St. Patrick's Day is my third-favorite holiday of the year (after Halloween and Christmas, and right before April Fool's Day). I figured I'd do an Irish myth today, perhaps something from the Ulster Cycle. But it's a long story and I got to it kind of late, so I'll just cover a section of it.

THE CATTLE RAID OF COOLEY
Queen Medb of Connaught wished to acquire the legendary brown bull of Cooley (Donn Cualinge in Irish), who was extremely fertile and desirable as breeding stock. So, naturally, what does she do? She decides to wage a war. Over a bull.

CU CHULAINN
The central hero-figure in the Cattle Raid of Cooley story, he was the son of the god Lugh and a mortal woman, Deichtire. Originally known as Setanta, Cu Chulainn got his name when he killed Culann the smith's bloodhound, then offers to take its place. Cu Chulainn means "Hound of Culann." During the Cattle Raid of Cooley, Cu Chulainn (then seventeen) is the only one of the Ulster men unaffected by a supernatural illness unleashed by the goddess Macha, whom the King of Ulster offended. He invoked the right of single combat at fords and defeated hundreds of Medb's soldiers in this fashion.

Years later, Cu Chulainn's final battle came when he saw a bean nighe washing his bloodstained clothes in the ford. (According to Irish tradition, the bean nighe is an omen foretelling one's death.) He was mortally wounded by a spear belonging to Lugaid, the son of Cu Roi, a warrior Cu Chulainn had killed. Now comes my favorite part of the story--Cu Chulainn tied himself to a standing stone and continued to fight valiantly until the last breath left his lungs. Until a raven landed on his shoulder, Lugaid and his comrades were hesitant to approach Cu Chulainn's lifeless body, out of fear that he was not yet dead. Finally, Lugaid cut Cu Chulainn's head off as a trophy, but the fallen warrior's sword fell and severed Lugaid's hand. Lugaid was eventually killed by Conall Cernach, who had sworn to avenge Cu Chulainn's death.