#laegblogging

[finnlongman]

Writing my paper for the Celtic Students Conference and it includes me discussing Standish O'Grady's beautiful contributions to the world of Cú Chulainn/Láeg fanfiction, as is right and proper.

#laegblogging

[finnlongman]

Today I discovered that one of the first results when you do a Google image search for Láeg is my terrible stick person drawing of that scene from Oidheadh Con Culainn:

I'm proud of my SEO skills that the Cúbab comes so close to the top despite being terrible but also it is terrible. More Láeg art needed to push this one out, please.

And for anyone who would have suggested "hey, Finn, why not draw your own art of Láeg to use in your conference presentation?" ... this is why. Although since there's no art of this part of OCC, I might actually have to use this one.

#i have negative drawing abilities #non-visual brain and years of chronic wrist pain does not a visual artist make #laegblogging

[finnlongman]

Although Tír fo Thuinn is usually identified as an Otherworldly location, apparently some 19th century storytellers identified it as Tiree, which adds a fascinating new interpretation to the 18th century idea that Láeg is from there. Is Láeg from the Otherworld? No, he's just Scottish.

#scottish laeg... #laegblogging

[finnlongman]

The semantic shift of the word "agallamh" from medieval to modern Irish will never stop making me laugh because my brain keeps taking the modern meaning and misapplying it. Láeg is currently interviewing a horse.

#finn vs occ #laegblogging

[finnlongman]

The Ulidia conference team sent me a draft schedule (I'm not sure if they've sent it to everyone yet, but I'd emailed them about some accessibility issues so they might have thought I needed it early) and I discovered I'm scheduled right before someone I know, whom I hadn't expected to be at that conference. Messaged them a screenshot like, "Fancy seeing you here..." and received an almost immediate response:

Listen.

I am giving a very sensible paper about the changing use of the word popa across different recensions of Táin Bó Cúailnge and also why eDIL is slightly wrong about its definitions with regard to relative social status. It is the result of a lot of painstaking statistical analysis and I have been working very hard and there's absolutely nothing shitposty about it—

But I will also be arguing it's primarily an age-based familial* term. So. Yeah. I'm giving the daddy paper.

#*loosely defined: not necessarily blood family #how has it been over 3 years since i made that post omg #it was not a real paper in 2021. it is a real paper now #IT'S NOT CALLED THAT THOUGH #laegblogging

[finnlongman]

And Læg said: "Thou art a witless idiot, O Setanta. Is this a time to indulge thy mad freaks, when the Olnemacta are routing the Ultonians over all the right centre. If thou carest not for thyself have at least a care for thy charioteer, who, shieldless, hath no protection save what lies in thy skill and warlike prudence, of which right little dost thou possess."

O'Grady makes wild choices but this is perfect Láeg characterisation. He then threatens to quit and Cú Chulainn is like "aww come on it's not that bad, look, you've never been injured while hanging out with me, right?". Perfect.

#stop indulging your mad freaks cú #laegblogging #standish james o'grady

[finnlongman]

All this detailed research into a phopa and why Láeg never addresses Cú Chulainn this way and I've boiled it down to two possibilities:

There are strict criteria for when the term is appropriate, such as relative age of speaker and subject, which aren't being met; further study will reveal exactly what they are.

Láeg doesn't address Cú Chulainn this way because Láeg does not respect Cú Chulainn.

#it is quite possibly both #finn is not doing a phd #i think i would be less focused on laeg never using this term for cu chulainn if laeg never used this term at all #but since he uses it for conchobar it's like. okay so this is a choice #laegblogging #cu chulainn #ulster cycle #popa paper

[finnlongman]

I am glad I decided one of the things I'd discuss in this paper is modern depictions of Láeg, albeit without time to go into a lot of depth, because it is giving me an excuse to reread a bunch of things. Maybe after Sutcliff I'll check out Lady Gregory, since I suspect she's Sutcliff's other main source. I hadn't realised until today that O'Grady would be contributing to her work, though, and I'm fascinated to have discovered this via Láeg Backstory™ of all things.

#WHERE DOES HOSTAGE!LAEG COME FROM I'M SO INTRIGUED #laegblogging

[finnlongman]

I'm rereading The Hound of Ulster by Rosemary Sutcliff to check some details for my paper, and first of all can I just say that even though some of her choices extremely betray the fact that she's an anglophone author writing in 1963 based on Victorian sources/retellings, this book nevertheless slaps. She might be the only such writer who understands these characters, tbh, and especially the importance of Cú Chulainn being small.

Secondly, I've found a few incredibly weird and specific details, including one about Láeg, that either prove reliance on Standish James O'Grady – in this case The History of Ireland, not The Coming of Cuculain – or suggest there IS an actual source for that detail that both O'Grady and Sutcliff are drawing on, but which I've never encountered. The former seems more likely, but I'm still fascinated to know what gave O'Grady the idea and I'm going to have to dig into this further.

#the hound of ulster #rosemary sutcliff #laegblogging #it cannot be a medieval source because i would know it. surely. #so... eighteenth century? maybe? #there's one detail about a DIFFERENT character that o'grady could have adapted to be about laeg #and then sutcliff may have borrowed from him...

[finnlongman]

Coming to the conclusion that the author of Tóruigheacht Gruaidhe Griansholas shipped Cú Chulainn/Láeg to the point of actively (although subtly) dissing Fer Diad to make Láeg look better. He literally borrows one of Fer Diad's expressions of affection from early on in Comrac Fir Diad and gives it to Láeg -- in a scene in which Láeg swears he would rather die than kill Cú Chulainn, no matter how much you paid him. It's like he's going, "Oh, your character said that right before trying to fight Cú Chulainn to the death? Yeah, well, Láeg said that while proving his unswerving loyalty, so, like, who's really a better option here, huh?"

#seventeenth century shipping discourse #toruigheacht gruaidhe griansholus #comrac fir diad #laegblogging

[finnlongman]

An Táin Bot prompted some off-the-cuff TBC analysis just now, so I figured I'd paste the thread below so that it's backed up if Twitter disappears, and so youse can read it regardless of whether or not you're on the bird app. This is mostly exactly as it is on Twitter, except that I added the bit about O'Rahilly's translation, since I had space to do so:

'Daltán' is a diminutive of 'daltae': pupil, disciple, foster-child, ward, etc. So eDIL translates it as 'A little foster-child, a pupil; a term of endearment'. Why would Cú Chulainn use this term for Láeg, who is probably older than him?

Remember, this is the same recension of the Táin where Cú Chulainn repeatedly calls Láeg 'a phopa', a term of respect and endearment derived from 'father', usually used for an elder or a social superior.

(I talked about this a bit in my Oidheadh Con Culainn article.)

In this scene, Láeg has just described an Otherworldly being approaching them (Lug, in Recension 1, but he's not named in the Book of Leinster), and gone, "It's kinda weird, it's like nobody can see him even though he's walking straight past them."

Cú Chulainn responds with the line above -- essentially, "Yep, that would be because he's from the Otherworld." In O'Rahilly's translation, this is a little clearer as the meaning, I think: ‘That is true, my fosterling,’ said he. ‘That is one of my friends from the fairy mounds coming to commiserate with me.’ ('That is true' rather than 'In sooth' sounds both more like something an actual human would say, and also makes it clearer that he's agreeing with Láeg's understanding of events.)

So maybe the use of daltán is sarcastic, because he's pointing out something that seems obvious to him. Or it's genuine -- he's explaining something (Otherworld beings are only visible to the people they choose to show themselves to and/or you're a freak with the ability to see through their illusions, Láeg), so he's positioning himself as a teacher. Watch and learn, kid!

Dunno. Láeg's age is never confirmed, but he's almost certainly Cú Chulainn's elder, whether by a few months or by several years. That might be why Cú Chulainn calls him 'a phopa', possibly evoking an 'older brother' type fosterage relationship -- big bro Láeg.

(Again: I briefly discussed the evidence for considering Láeg to be Cú Chulainn's foster brother in my Oidheadh Con Culainn article, although I hope to write about that at more length some day. That's the article published in Quaestio Insularis, ftr.)

The use of 'a phopa' is still unusual, since it's usually used for a social superior, which Láeg certainly isn't. 'A daltán', in that regard, cleaves more to the expected hierarchies, but in the context of their wider relationship in this text, I feel it has to be sarcastic.

In fact, in Recension 1, Láeg takes on more of an advisory/teacher role himself, including giving legal advice to Cú Chulainn. I have an article about THAT coming eventually too, though it's still in peer review right now.

Regardless of the exact meaning or the vibes here, I think that it's definitely a term of endearment, as eDIL says. These two are always calling each other by nicknames and diminutives, and it's one of the reasons I find their relationship so interesting to explore.

This has been: off-the-cuff medieval Irish discussions with your host, Finn Longman. Tune in next time An Táin Bot shows up on my feed with a line that I have feelings about, for more unsolicited opinions.

#tain bo cuailnge #laeg mac riangabra #cu chulainn #laegblogging #the tain #medieval irish #ulster cycle

[finnlongman]

I received some useful further feedback on my article about Láeg in TBC today, but the really funny thing is that they flagged my use of the word 'master' (following O'Rahilly to translate tigerna, iirc) for Cú Chulainn in relation to Láeg and pointed out that the dynamic is actually more complicated than that and, by the way, was I aware that Cú Chulainn sometimes called Láeg "popa"?

And I feel like I need to email them back and be like: I could not possible be more aware of that if I tried. I am tormented by popa, I spent the entirety of February analysing popa, I will never be free of popa, save me, I was just trying to write one article where I didn't talk about popa and yet—

#i am probably the world expert in popa please don't do this to me #laegblogging

[finnlongman]

Also I love when a conversation about Láeg's secret competence takes a sharp turn towards the creatively comparative: "Have you read Gideon the Ninth? Because—"

#what if laeg is ianthe. #finn at iccs 2023 #laegblogging

[finnlongman]

Right, after procrastinating on it for literally months and then spending all evening agonising over two footnotes, I have finally submitted the revised version of my "Láeg in TBC" article. I have no idea what other stages it has to go through before publication (possibly just copyediting/formatting?), but hopefully that won't take quite as long as the previous stages have done.

I'll let you know once it's out -- the journal is open access, so if you're curious about how Láeg's characterisation changes across recensions of the Táin, you'll be able to find out.

#i was motivated to submit it because i realised i needed to self-cite in my phd #laegblogging

[finnlongman]

Oh... Láeg took him home...

[Text excerpted from Kaarina Hollo's article, "Cú Chulainn and Síd Truim", Ériu 49 (1998); quoted text being discussed is from Duanaire Finn.]

#i'm not crying you're crying #duanaire finn #cu chulainn #laegblogging #sid truim

[finnlongman]

Láeg in Tóruigheacht Gruaidhe Griansholus is so funny to me because he is responsible for 95% of the plot. He is the one to suggest they go on an international road trip and chase after this giant. He is the one who tells Cú Chulainn that no, they definitely shouldn't let Conall, Fergus, or Lóegaire come with them as back up, nor should they let Emer and Conchobar dissuade them from leaving.

I should point out that the reason everyone is trying to tell Cú Chulainn not to go (or at least not to go without protection) is because he is fifteen at this point.

Láeg.

You are being a terrible influence.

He is fifteen, you cannot take him on a global murder road trip with absolutely no supervision, what are you thinking

#this is so much funnier if you follow ccc-d and believe laeg is at most 16 himself here #two completely feral teenage boys #laegblogging #laeg mag riangabra #toruigheacht gruaidhe griansholus #cu chulainn