Drawn from Irish oral tradition, the Tain Bo cuailnge, or “Cattle-Raid of cuailnge” (often anglicized as “Cooley”), invokes stories that may have been circulating since pre- Christian times (pre-fifth century C.E.). The manuscript based on these oral tales survives, albeit fragmentarily, in the Book of the Dun Cow (Lebor na hUidre), which was produced in the midlands of Ireland at the monastery of Clonmacnois in the late eleventh century. Portions of this version of the text, written in Old and Middle Irish, are datable to as early as the eighth or ninth century. A later version figures in the twelfth-century manuscript known as the Book of Leinster, and even later versions appear in post-twelfth-century manuscripts. Clearly The Tain, as the text is commonly called, was prized by the learned community of medieval Ireland; references to the work, and the story that it features, appear in other literature produced in the early Middle Ages. The fact that the manuscript appears in different versions reflects the oral tradition from which it emanates. Traditional Irish-speaking storytellers, as well as those of western Scotland (where Scottish Gaelic is spoken, a cousin to Irish), were well-known for their extraordinary memories and their abilities to regale an audience with stories, some of which could last an entire evening or longer.
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