Dáire mac Fiachna
Also spelled: Dáire mac Fiachna
The Cuailnge owner of the Brown Bull, who agrees to lend it to Medb, then swears she will not have it.
Overview
Dáire mac Fiachna's cow drank the maggot from the river Cronn in Cuailnge, and the Brown Bull sprang from it. When Mac Roth offers fifty yearling heifers, land on the Plain of Ai and Medb's thighs for a year's loan, Dáire is so delighted he jumps till the seams of his cushion burst. Then two of the messengers say Ailill and Medb would have taken the bull anyway, his steward rages, and Dáire swears nothing leaves his house unless he chooses, and only his habit of not murdering messengers keeps them alive. Medb says it will be taken by force, and at the end of the Táin the bull goes back to Cuib, where he had lived with Dáire's milkless cow.
‘By the gods I worship, nothing leaves here unless I choose to let it!’
Connections
Related characters
- Donn Cuailnge (His bull, begotten from a maggot drunk by his cow)
- Mac Roth (Medb's messenger, whom he first welcomed and then refused)
- Medb (Offered him the loan terms; she vowed to take the bull by force)
Places
- Ai Plain
- Cuailnge (The territory where his house stands)
- River Cronn
Appears in chapters
Appears in
- Medb tells Mac Roth to offer Dáire mac Fiachna a portion of the Plain of Ai if Dáire himself brings the bull. At Ai Plain. In Chapter I: The Pillow Talk.
- One of the two worms that become the bulls gets into the spring of the river Cronn in Cuailnge, where a cow of Dáire mac Fiachna drinks it, and Donn Cuailnge is born. At Cuailnge. In The Quarrel of the Two Pig-keepers, and how the Bulls were Begotten.
- Mac Roth tells Medb that the best bull in Ireland is in Dáire mac Fiachna's house in Cuailnge, goes there, and is made welcome. At Cuailnge. In Chapter I: The Pillow Talk.
- A worm gets into the spring of the river Cronn in Cuailnge, where a cow of Dáire mac Fiachna drinks it and Donn Cuailnge is born. At River Cronn. In The Quarrel of the Two Pig-keepers, and how the Bulls were Begotten.