There once was a Celtic goddess, a fairy woman, a woman of the Sidhe named Macha.
Her story sets the stage for the greatest epic in Irish mythology, the Táin Bó Cúailnge. This story is often remembered for its curse, but really, it's the story of a birth.
Here’s the most basic version of the story (you can hear it in depth over on the KnotWork Storytelling podcast):
Macha left her place in the Otherworld and decided to take a human lover for a year. She became the woman of the house and made only one request: “tell no one about me.” Unfortunately, Cruinn couldn’t keep his good fortune a secret and when he went to the harvest festival at Samhain, he bragged that his new wife could outrace the king’s fastest horses.
Spoiler alert: Macha won. She won even though she was nine months pregnant and gave birth the moment she crossed the finish line.
Enraged at being treated so cruelly, Macha lays an infamous curse upon all the men of Ulster: In the moments of greatest need, the fighting men of Ulster shall be struck down with the pangs of childbirth for nine days and nights.
Macha exits the story immediately afterwards and her fate is unclear. She left her imprint upon the land, however. The place where the race was run and the babes were born was called Emain Macha, meaning the Twins of Macha. This is the place of modern Armagh in Northern Ireland’s County Down.
Yes, Men Can Suffer the Pains of Childbirth, Too
As I said, in Episode 6 of the KnotWork Podcast, The Birth of a Heroine, I tell you my own extended version of Macha’s tale. And then I discuss the story with my friend Barb Buckner Suarez, a brilliant childbirth educator and the host of the Birth Happens podcast.
Barb is way more impressed by the power of the birthing person than she is by the astounding athlete who could outrun a herd of swiftest horses. Call it an occupational hazard or call it the simple, miraculous truth: the fact that birth happens is always the most awesome thing of all.
It’s no wonder that, through our modern feminist lens, we see Macha’s greatest triumph in the delivery of healthy twins. Over the centuries, however, Macha was remembered for a very different reason: that curse.
Depending on whether you were of the nine generations of Ulstermen who were incapacitated by the curse or whether you were a member of the opposing army, you would like have seen Macha in a different light. But, even the warriors from Munster or Connacht who might have benefitted from the Ulstermen’s weakness and won some battles as their opponents lay writhing in pain, probably weren’t cheering Macha’s legacy.
Think about the nature of the curse and millennia of human nature… The warriors were not paralyzed or struck blind. They didn’t get the shits or bleed from their ears. No, the men were cursed with pains that would only have belonged to women. Surely that double hit of emasculation and unimaginable pain would have made those guys wish Macha had just threatened to take all their fingernails.
How a Two Thousand Year Old Myth Supports the LGBTQ Community Today
It only seems fitting, that a story with a unique, gender bending twist would give space for Barb and me to talk about gender, inclusivity, and the recognition that birthing is not strictly women’s work.
I love the way Barb describes her journey toward more inclusive language and why “pregnant person” is a good choice. We talk about how we can continue to embrace the fullness that is held in “mother” and “father,” even as we affirm the experiences of trans folk and other members of the LGBTQ who are giving birth and need to be held by language, too.
The story of Macha and the Curse of the Ulstermen was written down in the Metrical Dindshenchas (“The Lore of Place Names”) sometime between the 11th and 15th centuries and probably recounts stories first told in the first century BCE. Though we didn’t have a chance to really get into this during the episode, it’s remarkable that this particular tale, which is about a woman giving birth, would give us an opportunity to look at birth as an experience shared by all people, regardless of gender.
Yes, there are deep elements of misogyny in this story (the fact that a pregnant woman is forced to race, the fact that suffering women’s pains are the worst curse at all) but it’s these very terrible and strange elements that allowed it to endure. And now, in our hands, the story can become something new and powerful. What once seemed preposterous - men, suffering the pains of birth?!? - is now part of lived experience as our understanding of gender expands and trans folk are able to explore the fullest expression of being.
Once again, this is why we come back to mythology and folklore. We’re not seeking some “simpler time” or an imaginary realm. We’re looking for all the tools we can to understand this current moment and do better as we step into the future.
Wait, But the Episode (“Birth of a Heroine”) Has a Totally Gendered Title, Doesn’t It?
Guess what, heroines aren’t necessarily women and heroes aren’t necessarily male.
In The Heroine's Journey: For Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Culture, Gail Carriger dives deep into what distinguishes the journeys of the heroine and the hero in a way that’s based on the construction of narrative, not just biology and acculturation. She makes great points about how heroines and heroes are determined by their actions and situations, not by their gender.
Carriger outlines the Heroine’s Journey in a way that will be familiar to those who have spent time with Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler. Her list of “Heroine’s Journey Basic Beats” begins with “The Descent”:
Familial network is broken
Pleas are ignored, resulting in an abdication of power
Withdrawal is involuntary
Keep an ear out for these elements in Macha’s story and you’ll notice what a remarkable example of the heroine’s journey this story is!