Chapter 5 rituals of conflict reduction in táin bó

Anyone who remembers childhood can recall the boundaries between his own gang and the next. For childish empires carve up space as quickly as do full-grown warrior bands. (The Irish Countryman, Arensberg 1959, 108)

And of course, the stories of the cycle can startle the modern reader with their seemingly unusual mixture of high drama and rough humor (see Tymoczko 1983, 8 for a summary). Literary scholars who are accustomed to conventional works do not often raise the Ulster Cycle as an example of sophistication, but I suggest that the tradition is not a primitive form of art but is rather a sophisticated narrative tradition that was vital to ancient Irish life. Specifically, some tales of the Ulster Cycle may have functioned to depict and support rituals that controlled the destructive effects of inter- and intratribal conflicts. The rituals depicted in the tales often seem dependent on a chiefdom-level of society.

I will focus on three tales of the cycle. TBC depicts rituals that helped define borders and regulate contacts across them, especially by reducing the possibility of mass warfare; Scéla Mucce Meic Dathó ('The Tale of Mac Dathó's Pig') depicts the channeling of intertribal hostilities over status into verbal rather than physical combat; and Fled Bricrend ('The Feast of Bricriu') comments upon the arrogance and danger of status pursuits by making them comically penalizing. All of these patterns of narrative, which may have reflected categories of actual behavior, depict the ideal rituals of conflict reduction of the early Irish period (from about the sixth century A.D. to the twelfth century) and the consequences of ignoring them.

I will summarize TBC here; the other tales will be summarized when they are discussed. Murphy's Saga and Myth in Ancient Ireland (1961) is useful as a general introduction to early Irish tradition. I have culled elements of the following synopses from this book and added my own comments.

Boundary markers or stones were regarded as sacred by many peoples... Cruel and severe punishments were meted out to those who removed landmarks. (Leach 1972, 58)

Pastoralism makes border behaviors interesting because it directly affects the integrity of tribal borders. The movement of people and animals toward valuable grazing areas could be a constant challenge to the territorial concerns of neighbors. Historical sources indicate that life in early Ireland was a not simple act of staying on one's own side of a line. Ireland's ancient laws, chronicles, and sagas were often concerned with trespassing. The entire TBC concerns a massive trespass, one might say, of Connacht's army into Ulster's territory. In the law tracts, trespass is handled with detail. One might fear a squatter on one's land, for example, because, "It is an offense to squat or farm on another's land without permission. However...a man can establish right of ownership of land if his presence thereon is uncontested for a period of time" (Kelly 1988, 109). An offense against property includes 'animal trespass'. Kelly (1988, 142-143) writes:

Although Ireland was not overpopulated by modern standards, we must measure the idea of crowding by ancient standards. For example, pre-Norman Ireland may have had a population of under 500,000 (Byrne 1971, 160). That number does not sound too high. Today, Ireland's population is in the millions, and although the landscape is well used, one does not see crowds of people rubbing elbows. But such a viewpoint must be tempered by several facts. First, the population of Ireland is now sedentary, and boundaries are surveyed and set and laws are established by an accepted state government. Second, agriculture is now a highly refined science; modern farmers have agricultural surplus and efficient storage techniques for food and fodder (of course, some foods are imported). The effects of higher population are not so much felt today because farms and the economy in general yield more than ever before.

But this was not the case in the early periods. Then, as now, Ireland was graced with a relatively temperate climate that encouraged the growth of large herds and, therefore, encouraged pastoralism. This pastoralism was not confined to privately owned farms that had well-defined hedges and fences, but rather we should imagine the ancient herders as traveling further across the joint tribal land than the modern farmer does within his privately owned pastures. Also, consider that ancient farmers may have relied more on their livestock for subsistence than modern farmers — they were not protected from agricultural catastrophes by a diversity of foods, the storage of food and fodder, or by the surpluses of a complex state society. For instance, the fair climate allowed herds to graze year round, so storage technology such as byres was not well developed, if at all, and hay was not cut for storage; but an unusually harsh winter might decimate cattle suddenly (O'Corrain 1972, 54).

Indeed, TBC does seem to take place during the winter, a possibility that makes sense because of the potential cattle decimations discussed above and because of the "food energy pulse" of post-harvest days. The poet stresses more than once that the season is winter, in both recensions. The Connachtmen are shown to be suffering a harsh winter snowfall; their hardships are made quite evident. See, for example, TBC-I, 133; TBC-II, 151-152. Cú Chulainn's single-handed fight against Connacht is said to have occurred through the three months of winter, in TBC-I (216), and between the beginning of the season of Samain, which begins November 1, to the beginning of Imbolc, or spring, February 1, in TBC-II (244). By analogy, anthropologists have found that "rituals of rebellion" have occurred in Africa during seasonal changes that bring about increased nutrition. Dirks (1988, 859) writes,

Although Ireland is far from Africa, note some similarities; Ireland also seemed to have engaged in ceremonies during harvest — the beginning of Samain on November 1 was a time of assemblies (in which political affairs were settled), feasting, and games (see Rees and Rees 1961, 156, 168-171 for some examples). If TBC is any evidence, hostilities could also take place at this time; certainly the harvest would be the best time to equip a war-band with food for a raid of any proportion and would be a time when men were free from some agricultural labor. And as I will be discussing throughout this chapter, the war depicted in TBC was far from lacking in social amenities — truces, terms of warfare, and other ritual practices that avoided or reduced destruction of life were factors in this great raid. The comparison with the African harvest and associated behaviors is not out of place and ties medieval Irish behavior, including depiction of ritual behavior in the sagas, with the material pressures acting on society.

In estimating the size of the herding population, we must realize that not every region of Ireland invested in livestock to the same degree (Byrne 1971, 139). No doubt people living in prime agricultural land relied mostly on growing their food, and at the other extreme, people living near extensive moors and uplands relied heavily on their livestock (note, though, that the climate was slightly colder in early medieval times than at present, probably making more land marginal, fitter for rough grazing). In medieval times, cattle was herded by youths (O'Corrain 1972, 53-54), a behavior continued almost to modern times. We must also use ethnographic analogies, though their relevance to the medieval situation is not certain. Let us make an analogy and support it with general information on other pastoral peoples as much as possible. For example, in nineteenth-century Londonderry, males and females from 10 to 16 years of age were used to herd cattle in the moors and upland pastures of summer (Evans 1957, 36). Other nomadic peoples today also employ children to care for cattle: in general, responsibility in pastoral communities is given to children at relatively early ages (Goldschmidt 1976, 21; compare also recent Nuer [Africa] practices: Evans-Pritchard 1968 rpt./1940, 61). This fact tempts us to see Cú Chulainn's (the 17-year-old hero of TBC) youthful responsibilities in a revealing light.

Let us assume conservatively (given the fact that families tended to be large in medieval farming communities to balance high infant mortality rates) that a family of 5 had 2 out of 3 surviving children old enough to herd animals (in the range of 10 to 16 years old, as observed above), and assume further that both these children would have been so used in communities that relied heavily on pastoralism. Furthermore, if married children lived with elderly parents or other kinfolk who were able to help watch the farm (i.e., watching very young children, etc.), then some of the adults may have been free to help in pastoral duties when the heaviest work of tillage was over. Adults may have been required to help make butter in situ: "There are references to women going to the herds in the mountains where they engaged in butter-making" (O'Corrain 1972, 54). Milk products would have been a summer staple (ibid, 55), and the literature has "...references to the macha samraid, the summer milking-place in the hills" (ibid). Add to these adults some adult males who may have accompanied the herders precisely for defensive purposes. I am led to think that a considerable number of people could have been travelling across their tribal outlands during the most 'pastoral' part of the year; perhaps as high as 40 percent of the communities was available, and possibly more, if older children and some adults were so employed. This possibility roughly indicates the magnitude of this society's concern with border disputes over grazing, wherein large numbers of a community could become involved in conflicts in areas of prime grazing. The larger the herd, and the more dispersed (perhaps a function of the number of people available to break up the herd to exploit various pastures), then the increased likelihood for conflicts with competing groups both within and outside their own tribe. Surely disputes could arise between the members of a tribe; probably such quarrels were mediated by the tribal laws (see Note 2). But when groups from different tribes had a quarrel, we cannot expect laws to have applied, and violence was always a potential.

Let us also imagine that the mobile elements of various communities were faced with varying fertility of pastures. The production of tribal grazing grounds was bound to vary through seasons and years, and unlike the more sedentary farmer, the herder is better prepared to rapidly move his livelihood — please forgive the clíché — to where the grass is greener. Now, also recall that the generally mild climate might complicate these matters when an unpredictably harsh winter arrived and, as I mentioned, no fodder existed to help the animals through the time. A significant portion of the community would be eager to drive their starving cattle wherever grass could be found. Of course, trespassing would have been a risky thing in an age where head-hunting may have been an acceptable hobby. But trespassing was, perhaps, an acceptable gamble when people and animals were hungry — death in warfare was a risk, but hunger was a certainty.

What I am saying is that early medieval Ireland offered considerable opportunity for border disputes involving cattle herding. Trespassing must have indeed been common, for the ancient law tracts give it detailed treatment. Where recognized roads did not exist, the tracts defined specific rules for the driving of cattle. The cattle road was called a bothár; and "The fact that the law tracts make special arrangements for cattle driving when a bothár was not available indicates that such droving roads were common" (O'Corrain 1972, 67). But sometimes trespassing went beyond risk and shouting matches between irate herders, for "military transhumance" is recorded from that time, a practice in which cattle were purposely driven to the pastures of rival neighbors (ibid, 54); and pastures (buaile) might also be raided in time of war (ibid). No doubt these occasions prompted punitive raids and became the stuff of saga. Note that this kind of transhumance occurred as late as 1390 when "... cattle themselves are being used as an aggressive weapon to wreak havoc on the enemies' lands..." (Simms 1986, 382). Apparently cattle-raiding tales such as TBC could have had some social context after the Old Irish period, perhaps into the Middle Irish period of the LL-TBC.

It was entirely appropriate for heroic society to be fixated on cattle raids because cows were the medium of wealth and honor in Irish society. O'Corrain writes: