CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO

The learning of warrior skills in the Ulster tales is best divided into two groups. Firstly, there are those skills which are learned in the playing of games and the practicing of skills amongst the boy-corps. Although this seems like the first stage, some prior knowledge or perhaps aptitude for games and martial skills is expected.630 In the tales, one only has a description of Cú Chulainn‟s entry into the boy-corps. Cú Chulainn is an exceptional figure with, as discussed above, precocious development. One is not privy to the experience of the more „ordinary‟ or „average‟ potential warrior in the corps. The descriptions of Cú Chulainn‟s entry into the boy-corps, while it might tell little of the calibre and skill level of the boys whom are generally accepted into the corps, can reveal something of the nature and organisation of the processes that these warriors in training undergo at this stage of their learning.

It seems conceivable that some of the warriors will „graduate‟ from the corps when they take up arms and that that will represent the last of their formal training at arms. This learning of feats from an expert teacher represents the second group of skills learnt on the path to being a great warrior. From the descriptions in tales such as „The

628

Sayers, „Martial Feats in the Old Irish Ulster Cycle‟, p. 47.

629 _{One might assume that Sayers conflates „The Training of Cú Chulainn‟ (which also includes a list of}

feats) with „The Wooing of Emer‟ which covers some similar events.

630 _{There is reference to several Ulster chiefs claiming their abilities as warriors in order that they are}

chosen as Cú Chulainn‟s foster-parent. Although it is not explicitly stated, the fact that these warriors claim this might indicate that they may expect to have a hand in very early martial learning or that simply, they consider themselves worthy protectors of the child.

Wooing of Emer‟ and „The Training of Cú Chulainn‟ it is also clear that many warriors do undergo additional training at the hands of an expert teacher. Such teachers were predominantly female and their training facilities were offshore (perhaps in Scotland or on the Isle of Skye). Writing of „The Wooing of Emer‟, Chadwick suggests that perhaps the most remarkable aspect of that tale is „the way in which it is taken for granted that these martial feats be taught by these women and that establishments [or „schools‟ as she calls them] should exist for the purpose‟.631

Presumably, though, not every warrior was permitted to undertake this additional training. There is evidence to suggest that there were some minimum skill requirements that warriors had to possess in order to be either accepted at all (as in the case of Cú Chulainn‟s companions at the camp of Dordmir) or to pass the first stage of training (as evidenced by the lads who had been attempting to master the Bridge of Leaps for over a year in order to secure the next level of training).

Although Cú Chulainn is clearly exceptional, other highly ranked warriors also underwent almost as thorough a training as Cú Chulainn save for the learning of (possession of) the gae bolga, the weapon that, in the tales at least, only Cú Chulainn wields. Clearly though the weapon exists in type and technique before Cú Chulainn is educated in the feat as both Scáthach and Aífe are familiar with its use. In the „Training of Cú Chulainn‟, it is Scáthach that instructs Cú Chulainn in the use of the

gae bolga, and while discussing his, as yet unborn, child‟s education with Aífe, Cú

Chulainn tells Aífe that if it is a boy that she should train him in martial arts but that she should not teach him the gae bolga (for Cú Chulainn wishes to do that himself). Reading between the lines, then, it is clearly in Aífe‟s capacity to teach that skill, although it is not mentioned anywhere else that she has done so.

The term gae bolga goes mostly untranslated but the term is examined etymologically by Sayers in „Martial Feats in the Old Irish Ulster Cycle‟.632

In a later paper, however, Sayers translates the term as the „bellows or bag spear‟ describing it as „a multi-barbed spear deployed deceptively in an aquatic environment by Cú Chulainn

631 _{Chadwick, The Celts, p. 135. The issue of women instructors at these camps is more fully examined}

in Chapter Eight.

alone‟.633

The term gae bolga seemed to refer to the weapon itself as well as to the „feat‟ of being able to use it. These two are difficult to separate in practice though because if the warrior possessed the weapon, they also possessed the feat or skill of using the weapon and vice versa. In the tales, however, Cú Chulainn alone possesses the weapon and feat of the gae bolga.

The Táin has a passage which refers to the training that Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad underwent during their training at arms. In the section entitled „The Encounter with Ferdiad‟, the hosts (Ailill, Medb and their troops) decide that the next warrior to face Cú Chulainn must be Ferdiad because he was equal in every respect to Cú Chulainn save one, the possession and mastery of the weapon and feat of the gae bolga. The section describes the two warriors (Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad) as having had the same „fostermothers‟ in Scáthach, Uáthach and Aífe from whom they had learned „the arts of valour and arms‟.634

It is noteworthy that the learning of the feats, even for one as supremely talented as Cú Chulainn, was not an end-point and that practice was required to maintain the level of skill needed to perform the feats effectively. In the Táin, it is mentioned that Cú Chulainn was practicing his feats and that he used to do so „early every morning … that he might not forget or disremember them‟.635

Sayers has produced a comprehensive examination of the martial feats in the Ulster Cycle, including their identification, categorisation and evaluation of feasibility.636 Cú Chulainn, as an exceptional hero, has a long list of feats associated with him and these are listed in more or less similar forms in the various recensions of the Táin. Sayers identifies some 21 individual feats as mentioned in the LU (Recension I) version of the Táin. Excluding the feat of the gae bolga (as both individual to Cú Chulainn and not really fitting into his suggested pattern), Sayers suggests that there is a structure or pattern that can be identified which may indicate that the feats were practiced in a specific order.637

633 _{Sayers, „Games, Sport, and Para-Military Exercise in Early Ireland‟, p. 120.} 634 _{O‟Rahilly, Táin Bó Cúalnge: From the Book of Leinster, p. 211.}

635 _{O‟Rahilly, Táin Bó Cúalnge: From the Book of Leinster, p. 189.} 636

Sayers, „Martial Feats in the Old Irish Ulster Cycle‟.

Working on the dual assumptions that the feats are both humanly feasible and that they could have been performed alone, Sayers suggests the list of feats may represent a training schedule of sorts. The list begins with those feats of a callisthenic or juggling nature (possibly „loosening up‟ activities) proceeds through activities which utilise the whole body and focus on agility (rope walking, twisting, long and high jumps, sprinting) to strenuous weight events (such as the throwing of a wheel and the possible support of a human pyramid by one person). Breathing and voice activities („mass of shout‟, „crushing roar‟ and „hero‟s cry‟) followed once the heart rate was accelerated and then, finally, exercises involving the accurate use of weapons (controlled strokes and the „stunning shot‟). Stamina, says Sayers, would have been built up by repetition of individual feats or of the complete series.638

While even Sayers admits that his „schedule‟ of sorts is highly speculative and even that the lists of feats may be so listed as a literary systemisation only,639 there is the potential to see in his suggestions a structure which both explains and creates more questions about the nature and learning of the feats. The feats may be so ordered to give a training effect, perhaps to prevent injury through effective warm up, or they may have allowed the warrior to recall the elements though a simple but logical grouping of feats. On the other hand, if these feats were so structured and practiced in a particular order then what of the suggestion that some feats were learned before others? Could one conceive of a situation where the warriors would be introduced to the feats in a particular order, or, perhaps, where the warrior knows the structure and can perform some of the feats but others are skipped over until such time that they are capable of all feats? The role of the expert teacher then might become more complex as they become responsible for ensuring that the full repertoire of feats is known and completed. Again though, this is highly speculative and on the back of Sayers‟ speculation, is doubly so.

5.6 Conclusions

The early Irish Ulster tales provide a rich source of examples of physical activity and martial training engaged in by the warrior chiefs. From their arrival at the boy-corps

638

Sayers, „Martial Feats in the Old Irish Ulster Cycle‟, pp. 63-64.

camp in Emain Macha as mere children to their most brutal of battles, the warriors of Ulster were expected to learn and master a number of physical skills and feats. It could be argued that it is those feats which, for the most part, define the warrior to the society.

This chapter has outlined the various sports and games which feature in the martial learning of the warrior both at Emain Macha and at the hands of expert trainers abroad. Chapter Six delves further into the relationship between sports and games and combat in the tales. The nature of combat, in particular, single combat, will be examined with several examples, drawn from the tales, recounted to give a clearer understanding of the encounters. Chapter Six will also address the weaponry involved and the fluid transition of the sporting and military implements and the martial skills of the warrior as the circumstances altered. In fact, the utilisation of certain implements can be seen to be determined by the availability of that implement in a time of need rather than an actual decision on the „right‟ tool for the encounter.

Chapter Six

Sport-Like Activity and Combat in the Ulster Cycle 6.1 Introduction

The close relationship between sport-like activity and war-like activity in the ancient world has been investigated by several prominent sport historians.640 Johan Huizinga, in a seminal work on humans and the play element, suggests a close literal connection between war and sport (a form of play) in stating that „all fighting that is bound by rules bears the formal characteristics of play by that very limitation‟.641

These historians also indicate that there is a direct relationship between the nature of combat in a society and the types of training (often utilising sports and games) engaged in during martial learning.642 The warrior‟s training and experience will be reflected in the sphere of war and the realm of war will be reflected in the nature of the warrior‟s martial training. For instance, John Marshall Carter, writing on sports in pre-Feudal Europe, suggests that the sports of the Gallo-Roman nobility and the Germanic tribal nobility were closely linked to the practices of war for those societies, where hunting, archery and other activities simulated combat and sharpened the martial skills of warriors.643

Huizinga devotes an entire chapter to a consideration of the play element in war in

Homo Ludens and one aspect he discusses is single combat. Huizinga suggests that: „The single combat serves various purposes; it may be a demonstration of personal

aristeia [prowess or excellence], or it may be the prelude to a general conflict, or it may go on during the battle as episodes of it‟.644 Specifically, Huizinga considers the play element in duelling. He suggests that in the modern duel, it is the shedding of blood and not the killing that matters – the duel is symbolic and a play form.

640 _{As discussed in Chapter Two, both Baker and Cornell, for instance, link the activities of sport and}

war in the ancient world.

641 _{Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press,}

1955), p. 89. The relationship and indeed common elements between and among the notions of „play‟, „game‟ and „sport‟ were debated heatedly in philosophy of sport circles during the late 1980s and 1990s. The two principal „players‟ in this debate were Bernard Suits and Klaus Meier and despite difference of opinion on the nature of the relationship, there seemed no doubt that there was a relationship.

642 _{See in particular, Cornell, „On War and Games in the Ancient World‟, pp. 31-34.}

643 _{J. M. Carter, Medieval Games. Sports and Recreations in Feudal Society (Westport, CT:}

Greenwood Press, 1992), pp. 23-4.

Huizinga elucidates: „The spot where the duel is fought bears all the marks of a playground; the weapons have to be exactly alike as in certain games; there is a signal for the start and the finish, and a number of shots are prescribed. When blood flows, honour is vindicated and restored‟.645 Certainly the single combats in the Ulster Cycle, particularly in the Táin, rarely end with just the shedding of blood. These combats are regularly fought to the death. An understanding of the nature of combat in the Ulster Cycle tales is critical to an understanding of how sport and combat are related in these tales specifically.

This chapter is divided into two sections. The first section examines the nature of armed combat in the Ulster tales, particularly that of single combat, a highly ritualistic and rule-governed form of martial engagement. This section also examines the related concept of fír fer („fair play‟) which, to a large extent, governed the warriors in their martial encounters. The second and final section of this chapter examines the use of implements (both toys and weapons) in the Ulster tales. Specifically, this section looks at the fluidity with which these implements transition from the play setting of games and pastimes to the more serious arenas of organised martial learning, self-protection and, finally, war.646 The contention is that implements such as the hurley stick and ball, the javelin and the spear can be seen to occupy a situational relevance and „transition‟ to take on new meanings and possibilities as circumstances change from the benign (a way to amuse oneself on a long journey) to the more malignant (as a tool of combat).