16 Facts About Medb

Medb is the enemy of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster, and is best known for starting the Tain Bo Cuailnge to steal Ulster's prize stud bull Donn Cuailnge.

Medb is strong-willed, ambitious, cunning and promiscuous, and is an archetypal warrior queen.

Medb is believed by some to be a manifestation of the sovereignty goddess.

Medb is described as a fair haired wolf queen, whose form was so beautiful that it robbed men of two-thirds of their valor upon seeing her.

Eochaid gave Conchobar another of his daughters, Eithne, but Medb murdered her while she was pregnant; her son Furbaide was born by posthumous caesarian section.

However, Tinni regained a share of the throne when he and Medb later became lovers.

Medb did not have a son called Maine, so she renamed all her sons as follows:.

Medb insisted that she be equal in wealth with her husband, and started the Cattle Raid of Cooley when she discovered that Ailill was one powerful stud bull richer than her.

Medb discovered that the only rival to Ailill's bull, Finnbennach, was Donn Cuailnge, owned by Daire mac Fiachna, a vassal of Conchobar's.

Also, throughout the Tain Bo Cuailnge Medb has several encounters with Cuchulainn in which he kills either her pets or handmaidens and the place in which they were killed is then named after them, which illustrates the importance of landscape throughout the text of the Tain Bo Cuailnge.

Out of jealousy for his affair with Medb, Ailill had Fergus killed.

Medb tasked him to keep an eye on Ailill, who was seeing other women.

Medb took a rope and measured the distance between the pool and the shore, and practised with his sling until he could hit an apple on top of a stake Medb's height from that distance.

Medb was succeeded to the throne of Connacht by her son Maine Athramail.

Medb's home in Rathcroghan, County Roscommon is a potential burial site, with a long low slab named 'Misgaun Medb' being given as the most likely location.

Medb's "pillow talk" argument with her consort contains suggestions of matrilineality, as does Ailill's taking his name from his mother Mata Muirisc.