What a campaign consumes
The Regamon narrative begins with the need to feed the forces assembling for the Táin. The proposed cattle expedition is therefore a logistical undertaking as well as an opportunity for heroic action. Its eventual settlement restores the stolen herd while transferring a defined marriage provision. A negotiated contribution replaces total seizure, showing that the story can distinguish different ways of moving resources.
Source: The Raid for the Cattle of Regamon — Leahy translation · Táin Bó Regamon, literal translation: council and final restitution agreement
A marriage promised after service
Fráech's proposed union with Findabair is tied to cattle and participation in the campaign. Even after the ring exposes Ailill's deception, the agreement still requires future service. Personal desire and political exchange cannot simply be separated into opposing spheres. The question is whose wishes count, which demands are legitimate, and what dangers the bargain imposes on those expected to fulfill it.
Source: The Raid for the Cattle of Fraech — Leahy translation · Táin Bó Fraích, literal translation, first section: initial marriage price and concluding agreement
The violence behind abundance
Flidais's herd provisions the army after a conquest that also captures people and household goods. Descriptions of exceptional plenty thus have a history of acquisition. Reading the preludes together makes visible the labor, ownership, and coercion behind military magnificence. This is a comparison of narrative economies in the selected texts, rather than a calculation of actual livestock numbers in an identifiable ancient war.
Source: The Driving of the Cattle of Flidais — Leahy translation · Táin Bó Flidais, literal translation: sack, seized cattle and recurring food supply
- Period / witness
- Medieval Irish prose and verse preserved in medieval and early modern manuscript witnesses; Leahy translation 1905–1906.
- Recording context
- This entry concerns the literary version named in its passages, transmitted by Christian-era Irish manuscript culture and translated by A. H. Leahy. Legendary settings are not dates of composition or evidence for a single pre-Christian canon.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
Explore time & place →Read the sources
These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
The Raid for the Cattle of Regamon — Leahy translation ↗
Anonymous Irish literary narratives; translated and arranged by Arthur Herbert Leahy (1857–1928) · Volume II, 1906; Project Gutenberg eBook released May 2004 and updated 29 June 2026
Edition & rights noteThe Raid for the Cattle of Fraech — Leahy translation ↗
Anonymous Irish literary narratives; translated and arranged by Arthur Herbert Leahy (1857–1928) · Volume II, 1906; Project Gutenberg eBook released May 2004 and updated 29 June 2026
Edition & rights noteThe Driving of the Cattle of Flidais — Leahy translation ↗
Anonymous Irish literary narratives; translated and arranged by Arthur Herbert Leahy (1857–1928) · Volume II, 1906; Project Gutenberg eBook released May 2004 and updated 29 June 2026
Edition & rights note