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Magical bull from Irish mythology

In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology Donn Cúailnge, the Brown Bull of Cooley, was an extremely fertile stud bull over whom the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley) was fought.

A ninth century rémscéla or foretale recounts how the tale came to be. In the 6th century, the poet Senchán Torpéist gathered the poets of Ireland together to see if any of them knew the story of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, but they all only knew parts of it. His son Muirgen came to the grave of Fergus mac Róich and spoke a poem, and Fergus' ghost appeared to him and related the events of the Táin as they happened.

He was originally a man named Friuch, a pig keeper, who worked for Bodb Dearg, king of the Munster sidh. He fell out with Rucht, who was a pig keeper for Ochall Ochne, king of the Connaught sidh. The two fought, transforming into various animal and human forms, ultimately becoming two worms which were swallowed by two cows and reborn as two bulls, Donn Cuailnge and Finnbhennach ("White horned"). Donn belonged to Dáire mac Fiachna, a cattle lord of Ulster; Finnbhennach was born into the herds of queen Medb of Connacht, but considered belonging to a woman beneath him and joined the herds of her husband, Ailill. Medb raised an army to steal Donn, and marched on Ulster. As Fergus mac Róich knew the terrain he was chosen to lead. The Mórrígan, in the form of a crow, warned Donn of the coming army, and Donn Cuailnge goes on a rampage. Cúchulainn met Medb's army on the mount of Slieve Foy and invoked the right of single combat at a ford, defeating a series of champions in a standoff lasting months.

The oldest recension of the tale is found in the Lebor na hUidre ("The Book of the Dun Cow"). This was in large part copied in the Lebor Buide Lecáin, ("The Yellow Book of Lecan"), which was completed around 1390.