The Ulster cycle, like many other ancient works of epic, have fascinated the public for generations. Its popularity would explain the amount of scholarly focus by academics on these tales. Nowhere is this better exemplified than Scéla Mucce Meic Dathó, a tale so extensively studied that a wide range of often colliding interpretations have been set out for it, none more convincing or credible than the other. The aim of this essay is to compare and discuss such various readings of the ancient Ulster narrative.
In order to cover as much ground as possible, we will concentrate on three broad categories of interpretations: the tale as portrait of heroic society, the tale as literary satire and the tale as a moral reading. The essay will finish with my own personal view on the matter at hand.
One important aspect of this society appears through the running theme of thecuradmír, the ‘Champion’s Portion’, which could be argued to be central to this tale