1
Cuchulainn and Beowulf: Chaos at the Celtic Frontier and the Germanic Center
Folklore of many civilizations recounts the duality between cosmos and chaos.
This opposition, discussed by later medieval writers, recurs in both eighth century AngloSaxon poetry and Celtic sagas, specifically in Beowulf and in Táin Bó Cuailnge (TBC). In
particular, cosmos and chaos are manifested through the behaviours of the Germanic hero
Beowulf and the Irish champion Cuchulainn, who fulfill similar roles within their
respective tales: both are agents of chaos controlled by the cosmic ideals espoused by the
heroic ethos in which each exists. However, the difference in integration of these chaotic
heroes within their communities – Cuchulainn remains at Ulster’s borders while Beowulf
becomes Geatland’s political center – reflects the different values of these societies:
while the more cosmic Celtic outlook distances itself physically and figuratively from the
chaotic, the Germanic worldview tends ever toward chaos and doom.
Cosmos and chaos must be understood in the context of the hero to examine their
use in Anglo-Saxon and Celtic literature. In an analysis of Irish texts, here extended to
Anglo-Saxon works as well, scholar Tom Sjöblom writes that cosmos implies “the
complicated network of familiar and structured,” – that is, ordered – “reality shared by all
members of the [community]” (Sjöblom 160). In direct contrast, chaos is “outside the
tribal experience of meaningful order of Being, forming an unstructured and unknown
‘otherness’…[it is] everything opposed to cosmos” (160); it is the disordered and the
wild. The hero is a liminal figure, occupying a “threshold area…between the profane
cosmos and the areas of reality from which it is separated but about which it needs to
know” (162). The line between the hero as agent of chaos or cosmos, then, is blurred.
2
In Táin Bó Cuailnge, Cuchulainn’s chaotic nature is manifested through
emotional and physical disorder during combat. In war, Cuchulainn becomes battlecrazed, consumed in “hacking and hewing and smiting and slaughtering” (TBC 143)
because “so fierce [is] his fury” (153). While motivated out of desire to protect Ulster,
Cuchulainn cannot restrain his anger: “he [attacks]…in hatred” (155), not only out of
heroic duty, believing “bravery is battle-madness” (204). Proinsias MacCana explains
that “the hero…fired with an ardent fury…[has] sacred power…marked by…accession of
physical heat” (MacCana 105); therefore, Cuchulainn’s “battle ardour is…a magicoreligious experience” (105). It is this “sacred power,” born of the chaos of Cuchulainn’s
“fatal rage” (TBC 185), that provides him with the “surge of martial vigour” (MacCana
105) that allows him to accomplish his warrior deeds and wreak havoc on his enemies.
Cuchulainn’s madness is accompanied by physical chaos through the riastradh or
“warp-spasm” (TBC 150). In combat, Cuchulainn harnesses his anger and channels it into
a bodily distortion that overtakes him: “he squeezed one eye narrower than the eye of a
needle, he opened the other wider than the mouth of a goblet…he peeled back his lips to
the eye-teeth till his gullet showed” (77). In addition, the “hero-halo” (77) that surrounds
Cuchulainn may be the source of the physical heat MacCana discusses. Cuchulainn
transforms into “a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of” (150). Both
Cuchulainn’s emotions and physical appearance embody chaos in the thick of battle,
indicating his role as an agent of chaos within his society’s cosmic confines.
Despite this chaotic nature, Cuchulainn is largely controlled by the cosmic values
of honour and loyalty espoused by his fellow Ulstermen. In the heat of his battle-fury,
Cuchulainn does not distinguish between friend and foe: following his first foray, he
returns home, vowing, “if a man isn’t found to fight me, I’ll spill the blood of everyone in
3
this court” (TBC 91-92). The Ulstermen must “send naked women to meet him” (91) to
force Cuchulainn to “[hide] his countenance” (92), thereby permitting them to cool his
hostile rage in vats of cold water. Cuchulainn is embarrassed by the shame he has brought
upon Ulster’s women, and this reminder of honour restrains his fury – the cool cosmic
contains the fiery chaotic. As Ann Dooley explains, Cuchulainn’s “wildness and his
incrementally socialized self are frequently at odds” (Dooley 110); as a result, “control of
the young hero’s aggression…is achieved only with difficulty and is always in danger of
breaking down” (110). Control of an agent of chaos is itself chaotic and involuntary.
Ironically, Cuchulainn’s cosmic obligations cause further destruction, including
his own. Cuchulainn’s loyalty to Ulster forces him to duel his son, Connla, and his fosterbrother, Ferdia, when they threaten his country’s reputation. He must kill them to avoid
“ill-fame and shame” (TBC 191), despite familial bonds. Cuchulainn is bound by his
honour; as Sjöblom writes of his refusal of bribes, “Cuchulainn doesn’t actually have a
choice…[his failure] would have fundamental effects on the social structure of his world”
(Sjöblom 163) – he would violate his cosmic values. In the end, it is a violation of this
nature that brings about his death, as he is forced to break his gessi and give up his
power; his cosmic ties shattered, he is left vulnerable to the chaotic magic that eventually
kills him. Chaos, autonomous and uncontrolled, is destroyed in Celtic literature.
The Germanic Beowulf, similar to Cuchulainn, manifests his chaotic nature
through his ambition-fueled battle-fury. Beowulf is repeatedly described as “battlehardened, enraged” (Beowulf 1539) during combat. Like Cuchulainn, his anger reinforces
his liminality and the chaotic abilities that permit him to succeed. This temper is shared
with his enemies: “both [Beowulf and Grendel] were angry,/ fierce” (769-770) and
“hateful to each/ was the life of the other” (814-815). Martin Puhvel notes that Beowulf’s
4
fury is suggestive of the Scandinavian “berserkr rage, a state thought of as a possession
of maniacal nature…warriors were believed to imagine themselves transformed into
fierce beasts of prey and often to act accordingly…to lend [them] supernatural strength”
(Puhvel 48). This anger, then, reveals Beowulf to be another wild agent of chaos. Scholar
Scott Gwara goes so far as to associate Beowulf with wreccan, “warriors ‘forced out’ or
exiled from their homelands, mostly because of…impetuous violence” (Gwara 16).
While Beowulf himself is not exiled, he is sired by the exile Ecgtheow, and Gwara
further notes that the wrecca “identity is socially liminal…[they] are exiled for the same
ruthless ambition that motivates other foreign fighters seeking glory abroad” (16). This is
reminiscent of Beowulf’s own reckless glory-seeking: he was “the most eager for fame”
(Beowulf 3182). Beowulf’s anger, driven by ambition, connects him with chaos.
In addition to his battle-frenzy, there are textual similarities between Beowulf and
his monstrous foes, again indicative of his chaotic status. During the fight with Grendel,
the poet deliberately makes unclear whom he is describing: “the monster reached out/
towards him with his hands – he quickly grabbed him/ with evil intent, and sat up against
his arm” (Beowulf 747-749). Beowulf and Grendel become a single entwined figure.
Furthermore, the Old English word aglæca, which has many translations including
“monster” and “awesome one,” is used in lines 739 and 2592 to refer to Grendel, the
dragon, or Beowulf, reinforcing the connection between the hero and these chaotic
beings. Beowulf, the “hall-guardian” (666), is pitted against Grendel, a fellow “housewarden” (770), his mother, a “guardian of the abyss” (2136), and the dragon, a “barrow’s
guardian” (3066); Beowulf is again linked to his foes through their function as guardians.
These associations agree with Johann Köberl’s conclusion that “Grendel and Beowulf
share a co-extensive identity, Beowulf serving as Grendel’s ‘alter-ego’” (Gwara 18).
5
Beowulf’s pairing through battle and text with his enemies showcases his chaotic nature
and explains his ability to defeat them – it takes one to know one.
Like Cuchulainn, Beowulf and his monster “brethren” are bound by cosmic ties of
honour and kinship. Beowulf’s glory is tied to his ability to keep promises: he boasts, “I
shall perform/ a deed of manly courage, or in this mead-hall/ I will await the end of my
days,” (Beowulf 636-638). Beowulf is not being arrogant; he is vowing to succeed or die.
To flee battle would bring shame on him and his fellow Geats, violating his code to “let
him who can/ bring about fame before death – that is best” (1387-1388). Loyalty to his
countrymen imposes further obligations on him in the event of their death: he must seek
revenge or demand weregild from the killer. As he tells Hrothgar in the wake of the old
king’s inability to exact compensation for his dead thanes, “better/ to avenge one’s friend
than to mourn overmuch” (1384-1385). Beowulf’s monsters also adhere to such cosmic
duties: Grendel’s mother enters Heorot “to avenge her son’s death” (1278) while the
dragon attacks Geatland to recover stolen gold; to ignore such transgressions would be
dishonourable on their parts as well. This observance of cosmic codes of conduct – those
of honour and loyalty – by Beowulf and the monsters demonstrates the control of chaos
by such values in Germanic society, as described in Anglo-Saxon literature.
While both Cuchulainn and Beowulf are agents of chaos limited by cosmic heroic
ideals, it is significant that each hero performs the same role at different locations within
their respective societies: Cuchulainn at the frontier, and Beowulf at the center. In Táin
Bó Cuailnge, Cuchulainn functions primarily at the borders of Ulster, as he “[fights
enemies] one by one at the ford” (TBC 117). Sjöblom remarks that Cuchulainn and his
gáe bolga seem “to be made especially for fighting at fords” (Sjöblom 163), which form
“natural boundaries” (163), thereby highlighting Cuchulainn’s peripheral place as
6
Ulster’s “guardian of the borders” (163). This earns him the literal name, “Hound of
Culann” (TBC 84), for he “will be your hound, and guard” (84). In contrast, Beowulf,
also a guardian, functions from within Germanic society, battling Grendel and his mother
only once they have invaded Heorot, “the greatest of halls” (Beowulf 78), which lies at
the heart of Hrothgar’s court, and attacking the firedrake only after “his own home,/ best
of buildings, had burned in waves of fire” (2325-2326). Beowulf does not fight at the
borders; he awaits his foes in mead-halls and strikes them after they have entered his
domain. Chaos enters the Germanic home, but is kept on the outskirts of Celtic society.
Furthermore, Beowulf becomes an aged king, whereas Cuchulainn dies a young
warrior. Sjöblom explains that the king in Irish literature is the axis mundi, the “centre of
the cosmos” (Sjöblom 160) within society, while “the boundary between cosmos and
chaos is the abode of…the hero” (162). This is apparent in the tales of Cuchulainn, as
Conchobar remains king and Cuchulainn is restricted to the borders of Ulster, beyond the
cosmos and closer to the chaos he embodies. However, the Germanic hero is not
necessarily “the creative and disturbing counterpart of the king” (164). Beowulf is still a
guardian, but not only of borders; as king he is “protector of earls” (Beowulf 791) much
like Hrothgar is “protector of the Scyldings” (1321). The Germanic king is “guardian of
his homeland” (1702) and is thus functionally the same as the “hall-thane” (719) who
fends off monsters; this is why it is Hrothgar’s “grief…[his] great sorrow” (148-149) to
be incapable of fighting Grendel and why Beowulf’s deeds and his continued
championship of his home make it such that “[none are] more worthy to rule” (861) than
this “good king” (2390). When Beowulf dies, the Geatish protection and cosmos are
shattered, and “this folk may expect/ a time of trouble” (2910-2911). How ironic that
Beowulf, an agent of chaos, should occupy the cosmic throne of Germanic society.
7
Paralleling this difference in social incorporation between Cuchulainn and
Beowulf is the distinction between more chaotic Germanic attitudes compared to Celtic
worldviews. In his book, The Dark Ages, W. P. Ker relates the Germanic focus on a
doomed wyrd where “the realm of Chaos…is to rise against the gods and overcome
them” (Ker 56) and where “the winning side is Chaos and Unreason” (58). The
Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse, must occur in the end. The fate of the gods is also that
of their mortal followers, as some “heroes who have fallen in battle on earth…[are] the
fellows of the gods in the last conflict” (56); these are the hæleð under heofenum J. R. R.
Tolkien discusses in his essay, “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” Tolkien explains
that Germanic heroism – the ethos Beowulf participates in – was “heathen, noble, and
hopeless” (Tolkien 118), and “death [was] not an easy/ thing to escape…all must come/
to that place” (Beowulf 1002-1005). Geatland is doomed whether or not Beowulf dies.
This bleakness, this “paradox of defeat inevitable yet unacknowledged” (Tolkien 114),
renders the Germanic hero awe-inspiring. Consider Byrhtwold’s words, “made for a
man’s last and hopeless day” (115 note 8), at the battle of Maldon: “thought must be the
sterner, heart the bolder, mood must be the stouter, as our strength lessens…may he
lament who thinks now to run away” (www.utexas.edu). The Germanic worldview does
not despise chaos; rather, it respects and exalts it as a superior foe. Beowulf’s long
kingship is a political and social manifestation of this: chaos survives and rules.
Celtic outlooks, in contrast, lack such apocalypticism. There is no recorded Irish
equivalent for the Germanic Ragnarok; instead, chaos and cosmos exist in continuous
equilibrium, with neither overcoming the other. Ker even believes that the Irish
worldview, expressed in its literature, shows “a certain tendency to order, a shaping force
that reduces the absurdities and dwells on the more human aspect, bringing heroism
8
nearer to…‘deliberate valour’…and further from the sensational rage of the Distorted”
(Ker 325). For example, Cuchulainn’s feats are graded on a mortal scale, not a
supernatural one: when he fights magical foes like giants, he is accused of playing with
“his friends from the fairy world” (“Bricriu’s Feast” 264) and the accomplishment is
ignored; only achievements of his “human aspect” are praised. Cuchulainn’s death in
youth does not bring about troubled times or social upheaval: the extent of the
Ulstermen’s mourning for their hero’s death is to “not consent to return in triumph to
Emain Macha that week” (“The Death of Cú Chulainn” 132). The cosmos of Ulster is
eternally preserved. Because Cuchulainn and the chaos he embodies are kept at the fringe
of Celtic society, the hero’s death has acute effects on Ulster, rather than the long-term
ruin Beowulf’s death forebodes for Geatland. The Germanic tendency toward chaos and
the Celtic desire to maintain cosmos is reflected in the manner in which their respective
heroes, both agents of chaos, carry out their not dissimilar functions within their societies.
In Táin Bó Cuailnge and Beowulf, the hero’s physical and social position within
his community reflects, respectively, the Celtic maintenance of cosmos and the Germanic
veneration of chaos. Cuchulainn’s outcast station on Ulster’s periphery demonstrates
segregation of the chaotic out of desire to preserve the cosmic Irish ethos. In contrast,
Beowulf’s guardianship of the hall – the physical and psychological center of his society
– combined with his role as chaotic protector-king, underscores the doomed wyrd his
world believes in and which ultimately comes to pass. These two heroes, though sharing
some similarities, are different: Cuchulainn is ever the chaotic watchdog, shackled to the
Celtic cosmos with the iron collar of honour and the chains of loyalty, while Beowulf,
himself a royal dragon, strides into the mead-hall, belching a chaotic fire that engulfs all.
9
Bibliography
Beowulf, trans. R. M. Liuzza. 2nd ed. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2012. Print. Facing
Page Translation.
“Bricriu’s Feast.” In Ancient Irish Tales, trans. Tom Peete Cross and Clark Harris Slover
(1936; rpt. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1988): 254-280.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Novato, CA: New World Library,
2008. Print.
Chambers, R. W. "Beowulf, and the 'Heroic Age' in England." Man's Unconquerable
Mind ; Studies of English Writers, from Bede to A.E. Housman and W.P. Ker.
London: J. Cape, 1952. N. pag. Print.
“The Death of Cú Chulainn,” trans. John Carey. In The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary
Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe and Early Ireland and Wales, ed. John T. Koch
(Malden, MA: Celtic Studies Publications, 1995): 124-133.
Dooley, Ann. Playing the Hero: Reading the Irish Saga Táin Bó Cúailnge. Toronto:
University of Toronto, 2006. Print.
Gwara, Scott. Heroic Identity in the World of Beowulf. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Print.
Ker, W. P. The Dark Ages. London, UK: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1955. Print.
MacCana, Proinsias. Celtic Mythology. Feltham: Hamlyn, 1970. Print.
“Old English Online: Lesson 6.” Home | The University of Texas at Austin. Web.
<http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/engol-6-R.html>.
Puhvel, Martin. Beowulf and Celtic Tradition. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier UP, 1979.
Print.
10
Sjöblom, Tom, “On the Threshold: The Sacredness of Borders in Early Irish Literature.”
In Ulidia: Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Ulster Cycle
of Tales, ed. J. P. Mallory and G. Stackman (Belfast: December Publications,
1994): 159-164.
The Táin: From the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cualinge, trans. Thomas Kinsella Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2002. Print.
Tolkien, J. R. R. Beowulf and the Critics. Ed. Michael D. C. Drout. Tempe, AZ: Arizona
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002. Print.
Tolkien, J. R. R. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” Beowulf: a Verse Translation:
Authoritative Texts, Contexts, Criticism. By Daniel Donoghue and Seamus
Heaney. New York: Norton, 2002. 103-30. Print.
Williams, David. Cain and Beowulf: A Study in Secular Allegory. Toronto: University of
Toronto, 1982. Print.
11
Abstract:
The duality between cosmos and chaos is a recurring literary theme, manifested
particularly in the behaviours of the Irish champion, Cuchulainn, and the Anglo-Saxon
hero, Beowulf. Within the paradigm of the cosmic and the chaotic defined by Tom
Sjöblom, both protagonists behave as agents of chaos controlled, and often limited, by the
cosmic ideals espoused by the heroic ethos in which they live.
Cuchulainn showcases his chaotic nature in combat, emotionally and physically,
through his rage and through the riastradh, unable to check his fury unless shamed in his
honour to his cosmos, and so maintained at Ulster’s frontier by the ford. Ultimately, a
violation of such cosmic bonds, in the form of his gessi, brings about his death: chaos,
autonomous and uncontrolled, is destroyed in Celtic literature. Similarly, Beowulf is
associated with wreccan and the berserkr due to his chaotic battle frenzy, so much so that
the distinction between hero and monster is blurred in descriptions of both Beowulf and
his foes as “guardians” and aglæca. Unlike Cuchulainn, however, Beowulf does not die
young, but becomes Geatland’s king and cosmic center.
This difference in integration of these heroes within their communities –
Cuchulainn at the periphery and Beowulf at the core – reflects the different values of
these societies: while the more cosmic Celtic outlook distances itself physically and
figuratively from the chaotic, the Germanic worldview, within Anglo-Saxon literature,
tends ever toward its inevitable wyrd. Because Cuchulainn and chaos are kept at Ulster’s
fringe, the hero’s death has acute effects on Ulster, rather than the long-term ruin
Beowulf’s death forebodes for Geatland. According to W. P. Ker, it is the Celtic
emphasis on the more cosmic “human aspect” that distinguishes it from the Anglo-Saxon
veneration of chaos. Ultimately, this allows Ulster to survive, while Geatland is doomed
to burn.
12
Keywords:
1. Beowulf
2. Cuchulainn
3. Cosmos
4. Chaos
5. Integration