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« The Táin

Characters in the Táin

Everyone who matters in the raid, in alphabetical order. Names follow Thomas Kinsella's spellings. If your book spells a name differently, look it up under other spellings at the bottom of the page.

Jump to: Major characters | Minor characters | Musters and lists | Other spellings

Major characters

  • Ailill Ailill mac Mata Also spelled: Ailill mac Máta, Ailell Medb's husband and king of Connacht, who matches her goods for goods, jokes about her bedfellows, and runs the camp's schemes against Cúchulainn.
  • Conchobor Nes's son, Cathbad's son, king of Ulster Also spelled: Conor mac Nessa, Conchobar mac Nessa, Conchobhar mac Neasa, Conor, King Conor The high king of Ulster at Emain Macha, who is lying in his pangs while Cúchulainn holds the border, then rises and brings the men of Ulster to the last battle.
  • Cúchulainn The Hound of Culann Also spelled: Cú Chulainn, Cuchulain, Cuchullin, Cuchullain, Setanta, Hound of Ulster Sétanta, the Ulster boy-warrior who holds the four provinces of Ireland at the fords alone while the men of Ulster lie in their pangs.
  • Donn Cuailnge The Brown Bull of Cuailnge Also spelled: Donn Cúailnge, Brown Bull of Cooley, Brown Bull of Cúailnge, Donn of Cúailnge The brown bull of Dáire mac Fiachna in Cuailnge, once a pig-keeper, whom Medb and Ailill raise an army to take and who kills the white-horned bull of Connacht at the end.
  • Emer Also spelled: Eimer, Eimear Forgall Monach's daughter, who names the price for Cúchulainn to have her, is carried off over her father's ramparts, and is his wife ever after.
  • Ferdia The horn-skinned warrior from Irrus Domnann Also spelled: Ferdiad, Fer Diad, Fer Diad mac Damáin, Ferdiadh, Fear Diadh Cúchulainn's foster-brother, bought by Medb to fight him at the ford, who fights for four days and dies on the gae bolga.
  • Fergus mac Roich Also spelled: Fergus mac Róich, Fergus mac Roig, Fergus son of Roy The former king of Ulster who leads the Ulster exiles in Medb's army, sleeps with Medb, loses his sword, and spends the war trying to keep his foster-son alive.
  • Finnabair Also spelled: Findabair, Fionnabhair, Finnavar Medb and Ailill's daughter, offered to every champion who might kill Cúchulainn, who dies of shame in one episode and stays with him at the end of another.
  • Laeg mac Riangabra Cúchulainn's charioteer Also spelled: Láeg mac Riangabra, Láeg, Loeg Cúchulainn's charioteer, who describes who is coming, keeps the fire and the fords watched, mocks him up out of the water, and sends the gae bolga down the stream to Ferdia.
  • Medb Medb of Cruachan Also spelled: Maeve, Queen Maeve, Medhbh, Meadhbh, Maedb The queen of Connacht who goes to war with Ireland's four provinces to match her husband's bull, and loses the fight and her dignity to Cúchulainn.
  • Morrígan The Great Queen Also spelled: Morrígu, Mórrígan, The Morrígan, Morrigu A war goddess who chants to the Brown Bull in bird shape, comes against Cúchulainn at the ford as an eel, a she-wolf and a heifer, and is healed by him without his knowing her.
  • Scáthach The Shadowy One Also spelled: Scáthach, Scathach The woman warrior and prophetess in Alba who teaches Cúchulainn and Ferdia the craft of arms and the gae bolga, and whose pupils end up fighting each other at the ford.

Minor characters

Musters and lists

Names that only turn up in a muster or a catalogue.

Other spellings