Cu Chulainn

Hound of Ulster

Cu Chulainn, the great champion of Ulster in Irish myth, won his name as a boy by slaying the smith Culann's fearsome hound and pledging to guard the smith's house in its place. In battle he was seized by the riastrad, a monstrous war-frenzy that contorted his body, and wielded the barbed spear Gae Bolg. Defending Ulster single-handed in the Tain Bo Cuailnge, he met his death lashed upright to a standing stone so that he might face his enemies even as he died.