Charioteer of Cú Chulainn
Láeg mac Riangabra was the charioteer of Cú Chulainn — the man who drove the Grey of Macha and the Black of Saingliu through every battle of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, who stood at the ford while Cú Chulainn fought, who handed weapons across at need, who managed two supernatural horses at speed across broken ground while combat raged around him. He was the finest charioteer in Ireland, which is why he drove the finest warrior.
The charioteer’s role was not a secondary one. He drove the warrior into the thick of combat and back out again. He observed the enemy, identified incoming champions, described their weapons and their manner to his warrior before the fight began. He managed the logistics of a moving fighting platform. At the ford during the Táin, it was Láeg who passed the gae bolga to Cú Chulainn through the water at the decisive moment of the Fer Diad combat — the weapon that ended the three-day fight was handed across by the man who stood closest to Cú Chulainn of anyone in the mortal world.
He was there for everything. The Champion’s Portion fights. The single combats. The killing of Fer Diad. Every morning at the ford. He was the constant presence in Cú Chulainn’s most extreme and dangerous episodes — the steady voice while the warp-spasm distorted his master into something beyond human.
He died before Cú Chulainn. At the final battle of Muirthemne, Láeg was wounded defending him and did not survive. Cú Chulainn faced his death at the pillar stone without the man who had been at his side through every combat of the war. The Grey of Macha had already wept tears of blood — the horse and the charioteer felt what was coming before it arrived.
His brother Ibor was also a charioteer — the man who drove Cú Chulainn on the day he first took arms, the formal beginning of his warrior career. Chariotry ran in the family.
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