Fled Bricrenn

Fled Bricrenn, Fled Bricrend, Fleadh Bhricreann. Irish title for an Ulster Cycle narrative known in English as Briccriu's Feast. Composed as early as the 8th century, but probably drawing on ancient antecedents, the story exists in four variant texts written in the 11th century, one of which is in the Book of the Dun Cow [Lebor na hUidre]. The entire narrative merges two barely related motives: (a) Briccriu's inciting of competition for the champion's portion [Ir. curadhmhír]; (b) the champion's bargain or beheading contest. An irascible mischief-maker, Briccriu's usual epithets are neimthenga, nemhthenga [poison-tongued], and biltenga [evil-mouthed].

The trouble begins when the Ulster heroes are reluctant to attend a party at the sumptuous new house Briccriu has built at Dún Rudraige [Dundrum, Co. Down], fashioned after the banquet hall at Tara. The host's reputation is enough to deter them. But Briccriu threatens to set all Ulster in turmoil if they do not come: each father and son will be set against each other, even the two breasts of each woman will strike against each other until they are destroyed. Faced with such certain consequences, many acquiesce, but only on the condition that Briccriu himself should not enter the house. Undeterred, Briccriu sets about tempting the vanity of three heroes before they arrive. He goes first to Lóegaire Buadach, urging him to claim the champion's portion of succulent milk-fed pork for himself because he is the most deserving. Then he taunts Conall Cernach and Cúchulainn in similar vein. When all three arrive in the hall, Briccriu withdraws as he has promised, asking only that the heroes decide among themselves who should have the champion's portion. The predictable tumult follows, ending only when the wise Sencha mac Ailella divides the pork among the whole company.

Briccriu next turns his wiles to the consorts of the heroes. Seeing that Fedelm Noíchrothach, wife of Lóegaire, has consumed much wine, he urges her to take precedence over all other women of Ulster by entering his hall first. With the same words he also tempts Lendabair, wife of Conall Cernach, and Emer, wife of Cúchulainn. Losing all pretence of dignity, the three women rush with their entourages to Dún Rudraige. Outside the door they compete in a boasting contest about their husbands, with the result that Conall and Lóegaire tear down the pillars of the house so that Fedelm and Lendabair may enter. But Cúchulainn simply lifts his side of the building, allowing Emer and her ladies a stately entrance, and also sliding Briccriu and his spouse into the mud among the dogs.

As the title to the champion's portion is still not settled, the three withdraw to Connacht for a contest presided over by Ercol. Cúchulainn's primacy is represented by a gold cup, but the others do not accept the judgement, and so all return to Emain Macha. Again they travel to seek an end to the dispute, this time to Cú Roí in south-western Ireland, who also judges Cúchulainn first, a verdict the others refuse. This stalemate leads to the most celebrated sequence in Fled Bricrenn, one in which Briccriu takes no part.

Back again at Emain Macha, the heroes are startled one evening by the entrance of a giant, loathsome churl [Ir. bachlach] who shouts a daunting challenge: anyone present may cut off his head if he may do the same to them the following night. First Lóegaire and then Conall accept, lopping off the head easily, but when a headless churl returned the next night, they shirk their part of the bargain. At last Cúchulainn accepts the challenge; when the churl returned, Cúchulainn lowers his head, ready to accept the fatal blow. The huge churl raises his axe as high as he can, but brings down only the blunt edge, sparing Cúchulainn. The churl then calls out that Cúchulainn's bravery establishes his primacy over the other heroes, and reveals himself to be Cú Roí in disguise, who has returned to vindicate his judgement. From that day Cúchulainn is always awarded the champion's portion.

The ultimate unity of the two seemingly disconnected motives is often justified by reference to the classical commentator Posidonius (1st cent. BC), who described both contests over status-conferring joints of pork and throat-slitting challenges among the ancient Celts. The beheading bargain (folk motif: M221) has been much commented upon, especially its links to the English romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (14th cent.).

Bibliography

See Whitley A. Stokes , Irische Texte, ser. 2 (1) (1884), 164–217;
George Henderson (ed. and trans.), Fled Bricrenn: The Feast of Bricriu (London, 1899);
Kaarina Hollo , ‘A Critical Edition of Fled Bricrenn ocus Loinges mac nDuíl Dermait’, dissertation, Harvard University, 1992;
T. P. Cross and C. H. Slover (eds.), Ancient Irish Tales (New York, 1936), 254–80;
Edgar Slotkin , ‘The Structure of Fled Bricrenn Before and After Lebor na hUidre Interpolations’, Ériu, 29 (1978), 64–77. Eimar O'Duffy dramatized the narrative in Bricriu's Feast: A Comedy in Three Acts (Dublin, 1919).