Cú Chulainn is one of the most famous of all Celtic Irish mythological heroes. He rose to fame from his exceptional skills at the Irish sport of Hurling. He then solidified his legend by killing the monstrous hound of Culann. Cú Chulainn is most famous for his great berserker rage in battle; turning himself into a giant rage monster that would slaughter men by the hundreds!
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| Black and White Version |
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| Color Version |
My vision for my Cú Chulainn portrait was to try to sum up all the different components to his mythology in a single image. So Cú Chulainn himself is at the center carrying a hurley which he used to slay Culann's hound, and, thereby, earning the name Cú Chulainn which is Irish for Culann's hound (Cú Chulainn agreed to replace Culann's guard hound after killing it.) He is also carrying the magical barbed spear named Gáe Bulg.
The Celtic-style knotwork surrounding Cú Chulainn represents other elements from his mythology. In the top left you can see Cú Chulainn in his monstrous, berserker form. In the legends, Cú Chulainn morphs into a hulk-like monster and slaughters his enemies by the hundreds. The legends refer to this transformation as the "warp-spasm" or "ríastrad" in Irish. I chose to use the term "berserker" when titling this piece because of the similarities to the famous rage of the Viking berserker warriors.
At the top-right, the Irish goddess, the Morrigan, appears in her battle crow form. Cú Chulainn and the Morrigan have a close, but complicated relationship throughout the mythology. At his final battle, mortally wounded, Cú Chulainn tied himself upright against a stone so that he could die on his feet facing his enemies. Epic stuff. Even after dying in this upright position, Cú Chulainn's enemies were far too frightened of him to approach his body until the Morrigan, in her battle crow form landed on Cú Chulainn's shoulder proving that he was, indeed, dead. So i placed a Celtic style battle crow near Cú Chulainn's shoulder in my portrait of him.
Finally, towards the bottom you can see Culann's hound where Cú Chulainn got his name. Cú Chulainn is often referred to as "The Hound of Ulster", so I felt the inclusion of the hound from which Cú Chulainn got his namesake as absolutely necessary.
I took some artistic licence and depicted Cú Chulainn as a tartan clad woad warrior complete with Celtic neck torque. I kept his face shrouded in shadow with only his eyes piercing through the blackness to give him a sense of mysteriousness and even foreboding.
Hopefully, I did this great character some justice. Here are some more pictures of the original sketches and inked knotwork that became the final image:
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| Close up of Cú Chulainn's berserker arm |
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| Completed knotwork in pencil |
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| Final inked knotwork |
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