The Tain as a Mythology

The Egerton 1782 was produced by the Ui Mhaoil Chonaire scribes, although there is not any research available to tell us if the scribes were native Irish scribes. We have to make an assumption based on the time period, so it is possible that these scribes were Anglo-Irish or native Irish that had been educated in Britain and influenced by European writing styles. .
             The Tain was first rewritten in the 12th century in which it went under three different recensions. For the sake of this research paper and limited time the only version of The Tain that will be used is the one translated by Ciaran Carson. The Tain is a tale that is a part of the Ulster Cycle, which is a group of eight interrelated stories that recount the exploits of the Ulaid, the prehistoric people of the Northern Ireland. This group of people's history was not mentioned in Book of Invasions that the king of Munster wrote, but there is a possibility that one of the stories from this book influenced The Tain. The most difficult part of this research is trying to pinpoint where The Tain originated, which led other scholars to argue whether or not the story was an epic or exegesis. John J. Fisher wrote about the form and the genesis of the The Tain, and he believes that there are few formal parallels in the early Middle Ages in the TheTain that do not match any content outside of the early Irish tradition. According to John J. Fisher, the issue is the length and depth of the story and the prose and verse literature form that the story has (Fisher, John J. JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.).
             The Tain's literature form is called prosimetrical according to John J. Fisher, which is a form of writing that can be dated back to its earliest literary genre called Mennippean Satire. In the article Kim McCone explains that the Mennippean Satire is named after its inventor Menippus, and there are only small pieces of his works that are included with the works of a second century Greek writer, Lucian.