Tír Na Nòg And Its Underdressed Hero From “Celtic” Mythology

In this blog, I investigate how Tír Na Nòg uses Irish mythology to give the game a “Celtic” flair and showcase where the game character Cú Chulainn diverges from the source material.

As you might have noticed, I’ve used quotation marks around the term “Celtic” (from here on out just Celtic) in the title. The use of the quotation marks is very intentional because when you research any aspect of Celtic culture and history, you will always find people discussing the problematic nature of the term and the idea behind it. So to prevent you from simply being thrown into the deep end, I thought it might be nice to start this blog with a little background information.

The first problem of the term lies in the fact that different people and disciplines interpret Celtic in different ways. For linguists, a Celt is someone who speaks (or spoke) a Celtic language. Historians, on the other hand, see Celtic as anything (historical figures, tribes, events, etc.) relating to speakers of Celtic languages. Geneticists use the term to describe various genetic traits that are often found among Celtic language speakers. And lastly, we have the archaeologists, who use Celtic as the term to classify ancient material found in numerous sites related to speakers of Celtic languages. 

The second problem presents itself when we actually look at the Celtic languages and their speakers. By now, most Celtic languages, such as Lepontic, Celtiberian, Gaulish, and Pictish, have died out, but there are a few that are still spoken today. Think of Irish, Welsh, and Breton. Understandably, these languages have been grouped under one name because they originate from the same Proto-Indo-European language tree. But when we look at its speakers and the grouping together of different cultural groups, it becomes problematic. As far as is known, the people that we now refer to as Celtic never identified as Celtic themselves. The similarities in language and culture are why, in modern times, they have been grouped under the term Celtic, even though some of the groups differed vastly from one another.

The reason I am still going to use the term Celt(ic) in my blogs and future works is because it is all-encompassing and just incredibly easy to use. When I say “imagine a Celt” to anyone, they will immediately form an image in their head of a “Celt.” Whether this is historically, archaeologically, etc., accurate doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you, as a reader, now know exactly what I’ll be talking about.

Irish Mythology In The 80s

The game tries to evoke a Celtic feeling throughout the game in various ways. Every bit of writing on the screen is written in a Celtic font, which looks similar to fonts used for other fantasy media. The font combined with the 8-bit style makes it hard to read for those with less than perfect sight, but you have to admit that it does look whimsical!

The surroundings are filled with forests, mountains, and open plains, with the occasional standing stone or cairn spread throughout. Besides the random rings and gems that can be found, Cú Chulainn also comes across objects with a mythological background, such as Dagda’s Cauldron. Additionally, he encounters various figures and enemies like the Sidhe. Although music is absent, and beeps are the only sound the game makes, it becomes obvious that the developers were very aware of the Celtic myths they based the game on, and did their best to fill Tír Na Nòg with every bit of Celtic theming they could add.

(Image Credit: Spectrum Computing. This still shows the layout of the game screen, as well as the abovementioned Celtic font, the foresty surroundings, and the Sidhe (left).)

The Point Where Medieval Stories Meet 80s Video Games

Ultimately, it is the hero of the game, Cú Chulainn, who is perhaps the most interesting addition to the game. The main protagonist is a heroic figure from Irish mythology, with maybe the most well-known myths being ‘The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulainn’ and ‘The Cattle-Raid of Cooley.’ These stories belong to the Ulster Cycle, which is set in a distant, legendary past. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the character of Cú Chulainn was first created, because many stories were orally transmitted before they were eventually transcribed. One of the earliest manuscripts that he appears in, however, is Leabhar na hUidre (‘Book of the Dun Cow,’ c. 1106) and Lebor Laighnech (‘Book of Leinster,’ c. 1160). When you think of those old-timey, medieval books made from animal-skin parchment (vellum), and colourful, decorated letters… that’s what these manuscripts are!

Tír Na Nòg shows Cú Chulainn as a tall lad with long hair and no clothing besides a pair of trousers. His appearance doesn’t really match that of someone who is going off on a quest where he has to fight enemies. So why did Gargoyle Games decide to design their main character this way? It was a conscious choice. After all, they designed him the same way again in their prequel Dun Darach (although this time he has a shirt on).

If we look at the source material, we get some limited descriptions of what Cú Chulainn looked like and what he wore. Tom Peete Cross’s & Clark Harris Slover’s translation of the Ulster Cycle tells us that Cú Chulainn was considered a beautiful boy with long, blond, flowing locks, seven toes on each foot, seven fingers on each hand, seven pupils in each eye, which glittered with seven gem-like sparkles, and four moles on each cheek in the colours blue, crimson, green, and yellow. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether you think this sounds ‘beautiful’ or maybe kind of terrifying.

We also get a description of what he wears both on and off the battlefield. In one instance, he makes a big deal about testing the armour he is going to wear for durability before putting it on. And in yet another instance, he is dressed in fine clothing, such as a shirt and mantle.

A Hero In Contrast With Civilisation

But this brings us to a very interesting train of thought. If Gargoyle Games had dressed the main character in a full set of armour or another full set of clothing, he would have looked like an ordinary hero or traveller. By dressing him in nothing more than a pair of trousers, they, either intentionally or unintentionally, singled Cú Chulainn out. No normal man would be foolish enough to go on a quest where he has to fight monsters and enemies, and track through the wilderness, in only a pair of trousers. This is perhaps a tool to make the player realise that there is more to this character than originally thought. This, however, suggests that this was an intentional choice by the developers, which I cannot confirm.

Nonetheless, it is an interesting point of discussion. Singling Cú Chulainn out evokes the concept of ‘the other.’ It refers to a person or group of people who are considered or perceived as being fundamentally different from another (more dominant) group. A normal man wouldn’t go on a quest half-naked, but a supernatural man or a demigod might. In the end, someone who is supernaturally or divinely gifted won’t have trouble fighting off enemies even if he is less protected. 

In the Ulster Cycle, Cú Chulainn undergoes a physical transformation when he goes into a raging frenzy in battle. It is yet another reminder that this is a very special man. Undergoing physical transformations is something that we nowadays would attribute to something supernatural. And although we don’t see this transformation in the game, it might be that the developers chose to show his supernatural ‘otherness’ in a different way: the lack of armour.

(Video credit: Modern Retro Gaming News)

As I mentioned previously, this is a very old game, with limitations to what it can and can’t do, visually. But through perhaps a very deliberate design choice, Gargoyle Games was still able to work the necessary elements of Cú Chulainn’s character into the game. If it was a conscious decision, it is a very clever one. To design the character in a way that allows for free interpretation and adds to the storytelling perspective in an unexpected way is incredibly creative and perhaps needed in a game that is otherwise quite restricted. Redesigning and rewriting these types of features, which make a character who they are, is a necessary component of adapting historical and mythological material into modern media. Of course, there is also the possibility that I’m simply reaching too far and that they designed Cú Chulainn this way because they thought it looked cool. But I will leave that up to you!

For those who haven’t gotten their fill of Tír Na Nòg yet, they might want to take a look at the game manual for extra lore!