Sacrifice
The Irish tell of the warrior Cuchulainn, who chose youth and heroism over long life. His passion for battle and women was unsurpassed. He died roped to a tree, having tied himself there so he could keep fighting a succession of Connacht men in single combat, despite his wounds. This dispute over cattle is one of Ireland’s most heroic of combats. Finally, none would face him. The Connacht warriors stood about, great buffoons that they were, afraid to go forward until they noticed that an otter was drinking Cuchculainn’s drying blood while a raven sat on his shoulder, pecking at his dead flesh.
Some Irish also believe that the spirit of Cuchulainn returns again and again to Ireland in every generation that has struggled to free that verdant island. In particular, they claim his spirit was present during the Easter Revolt in 1916, when the last, finally successful, rebellion for self-determination began. There is a quintessentially Irish statue of the dead Cuchulainn in the lobby of Dublin’s Post Office, the center of that worker-poet uprising.
And what if Cuchulainn has come back generation after generation? And not just seeking Irish liberation but also his own salvation from eternal war, with his saving grace, his solace, being music?
The Song of Cuchulainn
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The Last BattlePainting by Joshua Gray
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