The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig (Old Irish: Scéla Muicce Meicc Da Thó) is a legendary tale in the Ulster Cycle.
The story tells of a dispute between the Connachta, led by Ailill and Medb, and the Ulaid, led by Conchobar mac Nessa, over the acquisition of the hound of Leinster, Ailbe. The dispute is ultimately resolved through the plan of the king of Leinster, Mac Da Thó, to hold a feast at his hostel, at which a fight breaks out over the assignment of the curadmír or champion's portion.
The work is an example of early Irish literature, written primarily in prose attributed to an unknown author of Leinster c. AD 800, and survives in at least six manuscripts, written between the 12th and 18th centuries. The story was apparently popular in the Middle Ages and later times, and became the subject of a number of independent poems.
Although apparently the quintessential Ulster Cycle story in many respects, the tale's composition also displays a sophisticated satiric quality as a parody of the genre.
Manuscripts and editions
The texts are preserved in 6 manuscripts:
L Book of Leinster; Trinity College, Dublin
H H.3.18, Trinity College, Dublin
Hl Harley MS. 5280, fol. 40r-42r (old pagination; fol. 50, 52, 53r, rec. pag.); British Library R Rawlinson B. 512, fol. 105 v 2–108 r 2; Bodleian Library, Oxford. Edinburgh. MS. XXXVI, fol. 86r-91v; National Library of Scotland H.6.8, pp. 37–50; Trinity College, Dublin.
The text was edited by Rudolf Thurneysen (1935) as a single book, the LHHl texts with the R text printed below.
Sources and composition
Of The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pigs six manuscripts, the earliest and best form of the story is preserved in three texts: the Book of Leinster, in the paper leaves of H.3.18 in Trinity College, Dublin, and in the Harley 5280 manuscript in the British Library (formerly the British Museum). The earliest of these is the Book of Leinster, written c. AD 1160; the Harley 5280 manuscript was written in the first half of the 16th century, whereas H.3.18 was written c. 1700. In two of these manuscripts, H.3.18 and Harley 5280, the story is called Scēla muici M(ei)c Dathó, "Tidings of the pig of MacDathó". In the Book of Leinster, the story is similarly entitled Incipit Scēl Mucci M(ei)c Dathó. These texts are independent of each other, but are believed to be derived from a common source. Linguistically, this source is believed to be a lost 10th- or 11th-century transcript of a previous version dating to c. 800. The scene of the story, and its familiarity with the area of modern County Kildare, suggests a Leinster authorship; though it appears that the south-west of Ireland was also not unknown to the author.
A fourth version is recorded in the 15th-century MS Rawlinson B 512, now in the Bodleian Library, which is less accurate and conservative than the first three. In this redaction, the story is designated Scaradh Ulad ocus Connacht im choin M(ei)c Dá-Thó ocus immá muic, "The Separation of the Ulstermen and the Connaughtmen on account of the dog of Mac Dá-Thó and his pig". The manuscript does not preserve the original text with any accuracy, but contains innovations, expansions and other deviations in almost every section. This remoulding might date to the 11th or 12th century: The text is written by the same scribe as Baile in Scáil, which he took from the 11th century Book of Dub-Da-Leithe, leading Celticist Kuno Meyer to conclude the Rawlinson B 512 version was derived from the same source.
Linguistically, the text of Rawlinson B 512 is similar to Harley 5280, especially at the beginning; and there are also innovations in common with the Book of Leinster, showing that the redactor clearly had more than one manuscript at his disposal. In one instance the diction seems to come closer to the form of the original than any other surviving manuscript. An interpolation concerning Cú Roí points to this version's origin in Munster. In spite of some miscomprehension of the story on the part of the revisionist scribe, the literary style as a whole is somewhat smoother than in the earlier version, which Rudolf Thurneysen points out is of help for the understanding of the tale.