Pictish Mystic · Lore · Ulster Cycle
The Violent Death of Medb
Queen Medb of Connacht led armies against Ulster and outlived most of its heroes. This old tale says she was killed in the end by a piece of cheese. It is told here from Vernam Hull's translation of Aided Meidbe. These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
The Daughters of Eochaid Feidlech
Eochaid Feidlech, king at Tara, had three sons and three daughters. The sons were Bres, Nár and Lothur, called the three Finns of Emain. The daughters were Eithne, Medb of Cruachu and Clothru of Cruachu.
Clothru Stops a Battle
Clothru was queen in Cruachu before Medb. Her three brothers rose against their own father to take his kingship, and she went to stop them. "It is a great injustice that will be done," she told them. She could not turn them, but before the battle she bore them a son, Lugaid Riab nDerg, Lugaid of the Red Stripes. "Do not come against your father," she warned them. That, the tale says, is what kept them from winning the battle.
The Island On Loch Rí
Clothru used to spend the tributes of Connacht on her island, Inis Clothrann on Loch Rí. The tale says Medb killed her there, and that Clothru's child was cut from her side with swords. That child was Furbaide, son of Conchobar. Medb then took the kingship of Connacht, took Ailill as her king, and kept the island for herself. It was a tabu for her not to bathe every morning in the well at the island's landing place.
Furbaide's Game
Furbaide grew up among the youths of Ulster. One day he went to Inis Clothrann, set a stake in the flagstone where Medb bathed, a stake as tall as she was, and measured a rope from it back across Loch Rí. He took that rope home. Whenever the youths of Ulster played, Furbaide played his own game: he stretched the rope between two stakes and slung stones at an apple on top of the far stake, and he never stopped until he struck it.
a Single Cast
Later there was a great gathering of the men of Connacht and the men of Ulster around Loch Rí. Early one morning Medb was bathing in the well above the lake. "Beautiful is yonder form," everyone said. "Who is that?" asked Furbaide. "The sister of your mother," they answered. He was eating a piece of cheese. He did not stop to look for a stone. He put the cheese in his sling, and when Medb's forehead turned towards them, he let it fly. It struck her on the crown of the head, and she died of that one cast, in vengeance for his mother.
"That is the death of Medb," the old text ends.
These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
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