The Chat: Queen Maedhbh

A change in chat strategy followed by the reading of The Violent Death of Maedhbh.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

To Falchal Roatara. You're very welcome here, friend, to the post show chat. This is probably I think the fifth time now that I have recorded a chat for this episode about Queen Maeve and ended up deleting it. I had made a post-show chat for the last episode as well, the Abbot of Drumnaw, and ultimately decided not to post it, thinking that there was something just not sitting with me about the chat in general. This morning I was out for a walk and listening once again to the almanac of Ireland, and Marchan was interviewing a storyteller, and they were talking about how you get something different from the story each time. And each person gets something different from the story. And I thought, yeah, it's not really my place nor my desire to tell anybody what they ought to think about a story. And so the whole idea of having a chat where I talk about what I think about it, is not really that important. That being said, I am the one that writes these, and so my aim, I'm sure, influences what I choose to write. Um but beyond that, and even with that, I don't really want to tell you what to think about it, or what you should concentrate on when you hear it, because whatever comes out to you is what you need to hear at that time, and that's the way it should go. So, from this point on, if there is a chat for an episode, and there may not be for everyone, that it will just be perhaps a related story, something that was left out due to time or due to the flow of the thing that I wrote, and maybe this not working with it. But there really won't be anything about what I think about it, and I think that's for the best. So, what I'm gonna do here is go through a couple little notes that I thought were interesting about uh things that didn't make it in, and then uh I was gonna read a rave shale, but couldn't find the version I wanted to read, so I'm going to read The Violent Death of Mave, which is very interesting because it doesn't just tell about the violent death of Maive, but also about the death of her sister, and some mmm interesting activities of her sister prior to that, which probably speaks to the whole idea of a sovereignty goddess and who has the right to rule. So, that being said, we'll first go through the notes and then read that story. The first note I have here talks about after the taun. I already mentioned that the bulls die, both of them, the white and the brown, and in that way Mave and Alil are equal, but they don't die right away, they continue fighting across the land, pieces of the white bull are strewn about the land, and the brown himself eventually dies, and in both cases they influence the names of places across the land, which is something that we see in other stories, in many other cultures. The experience of living on a land where you know the stories about it, and the stories are very deep, is something that I find foreign, because I myself am unrooted from the land, and I wonder in cultures where, or times where, maybe it's a better way to say, we are unrooted from the land, how does it affect the way we act toward it? And if we had these stories about the land, particularly if they were sacred stories, would that change the way that we treat it? Would it change littering? Would it change extraction-based ways of living? I wonder. And would it change how we think about ourselves and how we value ourselves as a part of that living world, as a part of that story, and depending on your point of view, as a part of divinity. The next thing I thought I would mention is that after the Taun, Alil and Maeve make peace with Ulster for seven years. We saw in the story of the Kaliach the significance of the number seven, and we see it again here. It is a number that comes up often, along with the numbers three and nine. And the last thing I'll mention before reading the story is that there's one very short story on Duchispunk i.e., that is talking about why this place is named the way it is. That part's not super important, but one of the characters whose name is Gar, it is mentioned, is the son of Fergus MacRoeg and Maive. So apparently they had at least one son together. This is the translation of Adad Maiva by Vernon Hull, which was published in 1938. And I will say that I am only an intermediate speaker of Irish, and I am accustomed to reading things written in modern modern Irish, and so the pronunciation of some of these non standardized ways of spelling may be a little off. I apologize for that. Yenhime Mojiho I will do my best. What is the cause of the violent death of Mave, the daughter of Uha Fela from Tawar? The three sons of Fingal were Conal Anglach and Uka Find and Uka Failig. Now Uka Felig had three sons and three daughters. The three sons were Bresh and Nor and Lohar, that is, the three Finns of Amen. The three daughters were Ethni Utak, for this reason she was called Ethni Utak, Ethni the Terrible, namely she used to eat the flesh of infants, so that the children always disliked her to be mentioned, and Mav of Kruhu and Klohru of Kruhu, concerning whom it was said the three daughters of Uha Fela, a report along the north were Ethniutah, Mav of Kruhu, and Klohru. Now Klohru was queen in Kruhu before Maev took the sovereignty. That was by force from Ucha. The three sons of Ucha were attempting to take away the kingship from their father. Klohru came to hinder and to restrain them. Nevertheless, they then proclaimed battle against Ucha. Klohru came to them. Are you intending to outrage your father? she said. It is a great injustice that will be done. It is indeed a necessity, said the youths. Do you leave any descendants at all? The woman inquired. Not any at all, the youths said. It is possible that you will fall in battle through your unrighteousness. Come to me, she said, to see whether you will leave descendants with me, for it's my time of conception. That is done. Each man went to her in turn, and good came thereof, namely Lul Rivnader, of the Red Stripes, the son of the three fins of Amen. Do not come now, she said, against your father. It is sufficient unrighteousness for you to have sexual union with your sister without coming to engage in battle with your father. That then hindered them from the victory in the battle. Now Klohru used to spend the tributes of Conch in Inish Clohrun on Lokri. They say indeed that Maeve killed her, and that through her side the sword brought forth Ferbademakonchabar. Afterwards the aforesaid Maeve assumed the kingship of Conak and took Aliel into sovereignty with her, and she was wont to spend the tributes of Conach in Inish Clothrun, and it was a taboo for her not to bathe herself every morning in the well at the entrance to the island. Then, once upon a time, Ferbada went to Inish Clochrund, and he stuck a stake on the flagstone on which Maeve was accustomed to perform her abulations, and he fastened a rope to the top of the stake, a stake that was as high as Maeve, and he stretched the rope back and forth across Lochri. He bore the rope to his house. Whenever afterwards the youths of Ulster were wont to be playing, this was Ferbuda's game. He used to stretch his rope between the two stakes, and he was wont to cast between them, and he never ceased until he struck the apple that was on top of the stake. Now once upon a time there was a great assembly between the men of Conak from the west and those of Ulster from the east around Loch Rhe, and Maeve happened to be bathing herself early in the morning in the well above the self same Loch. Beautiful is yonder form, said each one. Who is that? Ferbada asked. The sister of your mother, Al answered. He was eating a piece of cheese. He did not then tarry to seek a stone. He put the piece of cheese in the sling. When Maeve's forehead was turned toward them, he let fly the piece of cheese, and it struck her on the crown of her head, so that he killed her by the one cast in vengeance of his mother. That is the death of Maeve. That's it. And I usually don't post chat notes on the sub stack because it's not scripted and I don't want to type it up. But I will post this story because I wonder if it's kind of confusing to understand as I'm reading it. So for ease of clarity, it will be posted when this chat goes live. Another thing I'll be posting is pictures from the hike that I took to Queen Maeve's Cairn in the past summer of 2025. I was inspired to write that hike as the meditation of this topic, because I know it's not possible for everyone to go and see it themselves. And I thought, well, this is a way perhaps one can imagine oneself there. And so I think I wouldn't look at the pictures before you do the meditation, because I think it's kind of neat to see what your own mind comes up with, but certainly if you want to, go right ahead. If you've already looked at pictures, go right ahead, no problem. But I will be posting my pictures to accompany that, just so you can see kind of what inspired me to write that meditation the way that I did and as a companion piece for it. I guess I that's all I have to say about that. If you haven't already read the taun or heard the taun, I would certainly recommend that. As I've mentioned before, Fireside, very great retelling of the Taun, Kinsella's translation is what I myself read. It's worth it to read it. It is one of the great Irish cycles, and it is itself very interesting, regardless of who you're rooting for or what character appeals to you the most. And that's it for me. Slan Gol. I'll see you next time. As of now I'm planning to talk about Kubaba or Magna Matar Armata, but we'll see if I finish writing that script in time. So uh Fekimehu next time. Bye bye.