At Lunastal (Irish: Lunasa or Lughnasadh), we often focus on Lugh or perhaps his foster mother Tailtiu, and maybe his half-human son, the Irish hero Cuchulainn. But at this time of year, I like to focus on a Scottish character who plays a significant role in the Cuchulainn stories: the warrior queen Sgàthach.
According to accounts, Sgàthach, lived some time in the centuries on either side of 200 BC. She was a was a legendary warrior queen and martial arts master, who also possessed powers of prophecy and maintained magical defenses around her fortress & school. Typical of Celtic tales, she lived in some grey, shadowy area between a goddess and a human.
Indeed, her very name Scáthach means "Shadowy" in Gaelic, and her fortress (Dun Scaith) was on the Isle of Skye – the Isle of Shadows. She is mentioned in the Red Branch Cycle, a collection of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas that forms one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology. She appears in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology on a manuscript entitled Tochmarc Emire (the “Wooing of Emer”), which tells the story of how the Ulster hero Cú Chulainn won his wife Emer. There are at least 8 manuscript sources for Tochmarc Emire.
In short, over in Ulster, Cu Chulainn seeks to woo Emer, but her father, Forgall was not supportive. He agreed to their marriage only if Cu Chullainn would agree to perfect his warrior training at Sgàthach’s school, believing he would never survive the ordeal. He agrees to the challenge.
As Cu Chullain approaches her fortress, he learns from a youth that it was guarded by the Plain of Ill-Luck:
“On the hither half of the plain the feet of men would stick fast. On the further half the grass would rise and hold them fast on the points of its blades. The youth gave him a wheel and told him to follow its track thence across one-half of the plain. Then he gave him an apple, and told him to follow the ground where the apple would run, and that in such wise he would reach the far end of the plain. Thus Cuchulainn went across the plain…”
On his approach, he learned that he would need to cross a bridge that would throw back anyone attempting to cross it.
“Cuchulainn then tried three times to cross the bridge, and could not do it. The men jeered at him. Then he grew mad and jumped on the head of the bridge, and made the hero's salmon leap so that he got on its midst. And the other head of the bridge had not yet fully raised itself when he reached it, and threw himself from it, and was on the ground of the island.”
Sgàthach agreed to train Cuchulainn, and ended up sleeping with him (as did her daughter, and her enemy Aife), at which time she prophesied his future:
“When you are a peerless champion,
Great extremity awaits you,
Alone against the vast herd.
Warriors will be set aside against you,
Necks will be broken by you,
Your sword will strike strokes to the rear against Sétanta’s [Cuchulainn’s birth name] gory stream. H
ard-bladed, he will cut and conjure the trees by the sign of slaughters, by manly feats.
Cows will be carried off from your hill,
Captives will be forfeited by your people;
Harried by the troop for a fortnight,
Your cattle will walk the passes.
You will be alone in great hardship against the host.
Scarlet gushes of blood will strike
upon many variously-cloven shields.
A band of parasites that you will adhere to
will bring away many people and oxen.
Many wounds will be inflicted upon you, Cú Chulainn.
You will suffer a wound of revenge
in one of the encounters at the final breach.
From your red-pronged weapon
there will be defeat,
Men pierced against the furious wave,
against the whale equipped for exploits,
a whale performing feats with blows.
Women will wail and beat their hands in their troop,
Medb and Ailill boast of it.
A sick-bed awaits you
in the face of slaughters of great ferocity.
I see the very glossy Finnbennach
in great rage against Donn Cuailnge."
(P.L. Henry, published in the paper “Verba Scathaige“, Celtica 21, pp 191-207 (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1990).
In essence, Sgàthach is foretelling the entire tale of the Tain bo Cualigne, the Cattle Raid of Cooley.
She teaches him an entire litany of warrior feats, which are listed in the lore: the apple-feat, the thunder-feat, the blade-feat, the wind-feat, the spear-feat, the rope-feat, the body-feat, the cat's feat, the salmon-feat of a chariot-chief, the throw of the staff, the jump over, the whirl of a brave chariot-chief, the spear of the bellows, the boy of swiftness, the wheel-feat, the would-feat, the breath-feat, the hero's whoop, the blow and the counter-blow, running up a lance and righting the body on its point, the scythe-chariot, and the hero's twisting round the points of spears.
Her fortress can be visited today in Torskavaig. The roads are narrow and twisting, and there are no glitzy tourist facilities at the site or along the way. To access the site, one has to walk across a grassy flood plain, and when I did so last August, I couldn’t help but think of the “Plain of Ill-luck.” In the 14th Century, a small castle was bult on the site, which now lies in ruins. To access the main site, one has to cross where a drawbridge one stood: it has since rotted away, and only those willing to inch along a 5-inch ledge can actually get across. Not quite the 'salmon-leap,' but reminiscent nonetheless of the story.
At Lunastal, I cant help but think back of the legend of Sgàthach, and her magical presence on the rocky island that was the seat of her power…and of a genuine Scottish figure in the ancient Celtic lore.
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