{"id":368,"date":"2018-02-11T16:33:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T16:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehollyfest.org\/?page_id=368"},"modified":"2018-02-11T16:33:48","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T16:33:48","slug":"joseph-falaky-nagy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.thehollyfest.org\/index.php\/joseph-falaky-nagy\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Falaky Nagy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOnly the Lonely\u201d[1]<\/a><\/h1>\n

I dedicate this contribution to my esteemed fellow traveler in the realms of epic and myth, Dr Olga M. Davidson, in whose company no one could possibly feel lonely.<\/p>\n

In her examination of the themes underlying the tragic story of the violent encounter between heroic father and son in Persian epic and cognate Indo-European traditions, Davidson observes: \u201cRostam, like Achilles and C\u00fa Chulainn, makes it inevitable that there will be no hero like him. It is almost as if these heroes, these premature or rather immature fathers, go out of their way to ensure that they are one of a kind in their epic traditions. There was no hero as strong before them, nor will there be one as strong after them\u2014of that we may be certain.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Davidson\u2019s words ring especially true in the case of the Irish hero mentioned above, C\u00fa Chulainn, the story of whose slaying of his own son,[3]<\/a> in the wording of the medieval texts that tell it, unmistakably emphasizes this theme of singularity\u2014but of the son as well as of the father.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

When C\u00fa Chulainn, the hero and defender of the province of Ulster, departs from a female warrior (A\u00edfe) whom he has defeated and then impregnated in an episode of his martial training abroad, he gives her (and to his future offspring) the following instructions, knowing already that he has sired a son: \u201cWhen it [that is, the ring] fits him, let him come to seek me in Ireland, and let not a single person (\u00f3enfer<\/em>) deter him from his way, nor is he to identify himself to a single person (\u00f3enfiur<\/em>), nor is he to shirk from single combat [literally, \u201ccombat with a single person,\u201d comlann \u00f3enfir<\/em>].\u201d[5]<\/a> Later, wearing the ring, precocious, and eager for fame and adventure, the boy (named Connla) sets out to find the father he has never met. Upon arriving in Ireland on the Ulster seashore and in answer to a warrior sent to inquire about the unknown visitor\u2019s identity, Connla echoes C\u00fa Chulainn\u2019s instructions: \u201c\u2018I do not identify myself to a single person [\u00f3enfiur<\/em>]\u2019, said the lad, \u2018nor do I avoid [combat with] a single person [\u00f3enfer<\/em>]\u2019.\u201d[6]<\/a> The boy defeats and humiliates everyone who comes to ask his name. When it becomes obvious to the Ulster onlookers, including C\u00fa Chulainn, that the only one among them who can deal with this obstreperous and still anonymous stranger is C\u00fa Chulainn himself, the latter\u2019s wife Emer attempts to stop him. Using the rhetoric of singularity that dominates the text, she presciently proclaims: \u201c\u2018Do not commit kin-slaying upon your only son (\u00f3enmac<\/em>). . . I know what name would be revealed, if it is Connla the only son (\u00f3enmac<\/em>) of A\u00edfe that is down there [on the beach]\u2019.\u201d[7]<\/a> Proclaiming that his duty to uphold the honor of Ulster outweighs any concern he may have for this stranger who may be his son, C\u00fa Chulainn confronts Connla and, after being humiliated by the young warrior, resorts to his secret weapon, the mysterious gae bolga<\/em>, to disembowel his opponent, who otherwise would have defeated him. In identifying the weapon as one in whose use he was not trained by Sc\u00e1thach, his martial trainer (who had also been C\u00fa Chulainn\u2019s), the dying Connla reveals his kinship to C\u00fa Chulainn. Now a grieving father, the defender of Ulster carries his child to the company of the Ulstermen and gives him the opportunity to take his farewell from those who would have been his companions in arms, had Connla\u2019s destiny, which he reveals before dying, to have expanded the province into a world power within five years been realized. The story ends with the detail that, in commemoration of Connla\u2019s death, the Ulstermen kept their calves apart from their cows for three days, thereby projecting their loss onto the part of the animal realm by which status and wealth were measured.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

It is ironic, given what happens in this story, that C\u00fa Chulainn\u2019s son receives the name Connla<\/em>, which I would argue means \u2018(having the quality of being) very, universally dear\u2019,[9]<\/a> suggesting a figure who brings people together in appreciation of his \u201cdearness,\u201d lovability, and value to society. It is as if he were uniquely gifted in this regard and so, paradoxically, he is an \u00f3enfher<\/em> \u2018singular person\u2019 or \u00f3enmac <\/em>\u2018singular son or boy\u2019 as well. This uniqueness fatefully reflects that of his father, who proves to be the most formidable opponent with whom Connla, echoing his father, insists he will not avoid a duel. It is significant that the story does not feature a confrontation between Connla and more than one Ulsterman at a time. It is only after he is mortally wounded with an occult weapon C\u00fa Chulainn alone can use that Connla, upon his request, is enabled to come together with the Ulstermen as a whole, to celebrate ever so briefly his dearness to them, and their dearness to him. The alienation of the \u00f3enfher<\/em>\/\u00f3enmac<\/em> Connla, who only at the end of his short life can be reunited with his father and his people, leaves a gaping void in the future of the Ulstermen, who sorely miss an up-and-coming hero whom they hardly knew, and are left with a tantalizing prediction of what he could have brought about for them. The loneliest, most isolated figure of all, however, is really C\u00fa Chulainn: the \u00d3enfher<\/em> of not only this story but of the Ulster heroic cycle in general.<\/p>\n

Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures<\/em>
\nHarvard University<\/em><\/p>\n

Footnotes<\/h2>\n

[1]<\/a> The title refers to a popular Roy Orbison song, \u201cOnly the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel),\u201d penned by Orbison and Joe Melson, which was released in 1960. Two years before, in 1958, a completely different \u201cOnly the Lonely,\u201d by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, was recorded by Frank Sinatra. See http:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/detail.php?id=6967<\/a> (like the other websites cited below, last accessed December 13, 2017).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Olga M. Davidson, Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings<\/em> [Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1994], p. 140.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> A new and comprehensive survey of stories of this type and of the secondary literature that has accumulated concerning them can be found in Kevin Murray, The Early Finn Cycle<\/em> (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2017), pp. 64-73.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> The thoughts expressed here came to me in the wake of hearing the provocative paper by my colleague in Celtic studies, Professor Morgan Davies of Colgate University, on \u201cFather-Son Rivalry in Early Irish Narrative,\u201d delivered at the Sixteenth International Symposium of the Societas Celtologica Nordica at the Arctic University of Norway, Troms\u00f8, August 31-September 2, 2017. I thank our hosts at the event, Professors Cathinka Dahl Hambro and Eystein Dahl, for staging such a remarkably productive conference.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> In tan bas coimse d\u00f3, t\u00e1et dom chuindchidsea I n\u00c9re 7<\/sub> nacham berad \u00f3enfer dia chonair 7 <\/sub>nacha sloinded do \u00f3enfiur 7<\/sub> na f\u00e9mded comlann \u00f3enfir <\/em>(A.G. van Hamel, ed., Compert Con Culainn and Other Stories<\/em>, Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series 3 [Dublin: Stationery Office 1933], p. 11. The edited text is also available at: https:\/\/celt.ucc.ie\/published\/G301018\/index.html<\/a> and http:\/\/titus.uni-frankfurt.de\/texte\/etcs\/celt\/mir\/mirddm\/mirddt.htm<\/a>. A translation of the complete text into English is available in the edition of Kuno Meyer, \u201cThe death of Conla\u201d, \u00c9riu<\/em> 1 (1904): 113\u2013121, available at http:\/\/archive.org\/stream\/riujournalschoo02acadgoog#page\/n128\/mode\/2up<\/a>. The translations here are my own. The term \u00f3enf<\/em>(h<\/em>)er<\/em>, \u2018one, single man or person\u2019, in addition to standing out by virtue of its repeated and conspicuous use in this short text (a mere five pages [pp. 111-115] in van Hamel\u2019s edition), is highlighted in the title given to this tale in manuscript tradition, Aided \u00d3enfir A\u00edfe<\/em> \u2018The Death of A\u00edfe\u2019s Only Son\u2019. Davies, in the paper cited above, points out that the more usual way of expressing \u201conly son\u201d in medieval Irish would be \u00f3enmac<\/em>, which in fact also occurs in the text (see below). \u00d3en<\/em>, cognate with English \u201cone,\u201d in compound formations can also be rendered \u201cunique, without equal, peerless\u201d (see the Royal Irish Academy\u2019s Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language<\/em>, http:\/\/www.dil.ie\/<\/a>, s.v. \u00f3en <\/em>I [e]).<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> \u201cN\u00edm sloindim do \u00f3enfiur,\u201d ol in gillae,\u201c7<\/sub> n\u00ed imgabaim \u00f3enfer\u201d<\/em> (van Hamel, p. 12).<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> \u201cN\u00e1 fer fingail immot \u00f3enmac. . . . Atg\u00e9nsa cid ainm asind \u00f3n, maso Conlae \u00f3enmac A\u00edfe in mac fil t\u00eds<\/em>\u201d (van Hamel, p. 15).<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> van Hamel, p. 15.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> At the heart of this name is the adjective dil<\/em> \u2018dear, beloved, previous\u2019\u2014see Dictionary<\/em>, s.v. cunnla(cht)<\/em>, or connla<\/em>, from cunnail<\/em> (com- <\/em>+ dil). <\/em>See also 1 com-<\/em>, and 1 dil<\/em> \u2018dear\u2019,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOnly the Lonely\u201d[1] I dedicate this contribution to my esteemed fellow traveler in the realms of epic and myth, Dr Olga M. Davidson, in whose company no one could possibly feel lonely. In her examination of the themes underlying the tragic story of the violent encounter between heroic father and son in Persian epic and … <\/p>\n

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