Maev

Also known as: Maev of Croghan / Medb / Queen Maev · Family: Connaught · Role: ruler · First appears: The Courtship of Etain · Egerton Version · Part 1

Maev, also known as Maev of Croghan or Medb, ruled Connaught with Ailill. In Mac Datho’s Boar, the pair sent for the hound; after the armies of Connaught and Ulster gathered and the boar was served, a dispute over its portions brought the armies to blows. At the plain of Ailbe, their charioteer Fer-loga killed the hound when it seized their chariot poles. Later, in both versions of The Exile of the Sons of Usnach, Maev and Ailill welcomed exiles from Ulster, including Fergus mac Rog; one account says they “found a welcome and support.”

In The Combat at the Ford, Maev sent heralds to summon Ferdia to fight Cuchulain. When Ferdia refused, she used threats of satire and reproach to compel him, and promised him rewards including her daughter Findabair as his wife. She then set him the choice of fighting six champions or Cuchulain, while Ferdia secured a condition on the promised rewards. Findabair is also named as Maev’s daughter in the tale; in Táin Bó Fraích, Maev and Ailill offered her in marriage to Fraech if he returned with his cows from Cualnge.

In Táin Bó Fraích, Maev and Ailill welcomed Fraech and his company at Cruachan, where he played chess with Maev for three days and three nights before his company received food. Later, in The Raid for the Cattle of Regamon, Maev and Ailill sent their seven sons—Maine Morgor, Maine Mingar, Maine Aithremail, Maine Mathremail, Maine Milbel, Maine Moepert, and Maine Condageb-uile—to obtain cattle. When they were in distress at Ath Briuin, Maev and her allies went to help them.