The death of Cú Chulainn is one of the strangest images the Ulster Cycle leaves us with. Mortally wounded, betrayed by his own geasa, and refusing to fall, he ties himself upright to a standing stone (the Clochafarmore) so his enemies will still see him on his feet. He only "dies" when the Morrígan — in raven form — lands on his shoulder. That's the moment the war-band finally believes he's gone.
What I find compelling is how much of his arc is built on contradiction:
- A demigod son of Lugh who insists on dying as a mortal warrior
- Bound by geasa that are mutually exclusive (don't refuse hospitality / don't eat dog) he's doomed the moment they're invoked
- Kills his own son Connla because of an oath, in a scene that mirrors Sohrab/Rustam from the Shahnameh and Hildebrand/Hadubrand from the Germanic tradition
It's also one of the few hero-cycles where the *raven landing* is the death — not the wound, not the fall. The supernatural witness is what seals it.
I spent the last few weeks animating a long-form retelling of the full arc — birth, Connla, the Táin, the death at the stone, the Morrígan. Posting in case anyone's interested in the visual interpretation, but I'd also love to hear which version of his death you grew up with the Lady Gregory rendering, the Kinsella translation of the Táin, or one of the Irish-language sources. They differ in interesting ways on whether Lugaid takes the head or just the body.