Fedelm (sometimes spelled Feidelm) is a female prophet and fili, or learned poet, in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. She appears in the great epic Táin Bó Cuailnge, in which she foretells the armies of Medb and Ailill mac Máta will face against the Ulaid and their greatest champion, Cú Chulainn. A prophetess of the same name appears in another tale, which associates her with Cú Chulainn.

[edit] Táin Bó Cuailnge

Fedelm appears in the in the opening scene of the Táin Bó Cuailnge, preserved in Recension I.^[1] Intent on an invasion of Ulster, Queen Medb and Ailill mac Máta, the rulers of Connacht, have mustered a large army from all four provinces of Ireland. Just when they set out, they are met on the road by Fedelm, a young woman of blonde hair and beautiful appearance, who is armed, carries a weaver's beam and rides in a chariot.^[2] She identifies herself as a banfhili (female poet) from Connacht and claimes to have come from Alba, where she had learnt the art of prophecy to the extent that she boasted the skill of imbas forosnai, or all-encompassing illuminating knowledge.^[3] Asked by Medb, who addresses her as prophetess (banfháith), to foretell the future of the army, Fedelm predicts carnage. Medb refuses to accept it, since the Ulstermen had been recently overcome by a mysterious condition which had debilitated them completely. However, Fedelm repeats her prophecy and in a poetic description of the bloody encounters to follow, named Cú Chulainn as their most terrifying opponent.^[4]

[edit] Name and other appearances

The name "Fedelm" name matches the character's role in the Táin Bó Cuailnge, as it appears to mean "prophetess" and to derive from the proto-Celtic stem wēd- / wid- "to know, to see". She has been compared to Veleda, the prophetess described by Tacitus.^[5] The name is not uncommon; the Táin and other texts name a daughter of Conchobar mac Nessa Fedelm Noíchrothach.^[1] It is probably related to the common male name "Fedlimid".^[1]

Though the name is not unique, it is not impossible that the Fedelm of the Táin is the same character as the Fedelm Foltcháin ("of the Lovely Hair") who appears in a brief and difficult Irish text known as Fedelm and Cú Chulainn or Ces Ulad ("The Affliction of the Ulstermen").^[1] The transmitted text, preserved only in the 16th-century London, BL, Harleian MS 5250, is imperfect and the translations attempted by Vernam Hull and John Carey therefore differ on a number of counts. It tells that one day (before the invasion), Cú Chulainn and his charioteer Láeg come to the River Boyne to learn imbas (as Carey translates) or to obtain "riches" (Hull). On the opposite bank stands Fedelm and her husband Elcmaire, who notice the intruders and their chariot laden with items of fidchell and búanbach and with Cú Chulainn's catch of birds. When Cú Chulainn manages to catch a speckled salmon with his spear, Elcmaire goes into the ford and flings a pillar stone towards the chariot, but Cú Chulainn cuts off both his thumbs and both his big toes. Fedelm then utters the prophecy (Hull has "promised") that she would appear naked to the Ulstermen and become Cú Chulainn's lover. This she does after a year and a day. The text ends by suggesting that her appearance to the Ulstermen is what caused their aforesaid debility.^[6] This explanation of the Debility of the Ulstermen differs considerably from that given by Noinden Ulad and related texts.

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

• Koch, John T. "Fedelm." In Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopaedia. Santa Barbara et al., 2006. pp. 736-7.
• Táin Bó Cuailnge (Recension I), ed. Cecile O'Rahilly, Táin Bó Cúailnge Recension I. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Dublin, 1976.
• Koch, John T. "Imbas forosnai." In Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopaedia. Santa Barbara et al., 2006. p. 958.
• Táin Bó Cuailnge (Recension I), ed. Cecile O'Rahilly, Táin Bó Cúailnge Recension I. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Dublin, 1976.
• Cú Chulainn and Fedelm (also Ces Ulad), ed. Kuno Meyer, "Mitteilungen aus irischen Handschriften (Fortsetzung)." ZCP 8 (1912): p. 120; tr. Vernam Hull, "Ces Ulad." ZCP 29 (1962-64); tr. John Carey, The Celtic Heroic Age, ed. J.T. Koch and J. Carey. 3d ed. Andover et al., 2000. pp. 67-8.

[edit] Further reading

• Sayers, William. "Old Irish Fert, `Tie-pole', Fertas `Swingletree', and the Seeress Fedelm." Études Celtiques 21 (1984): 171-83.
• Enright, Michael J. Lady with a Mead Cup. Ritual, Prophecy and Lordship in the European Warband from La Tène to the Viking Age. Dublin, 1996.