The cultural context of late Viking-Age Ireland, to which the tale Cath Maige Tuired (The Second Battle of Mag Tuired) belongs, is one of interaction and integration. This creates an environment in which cultural hybridity becomes paramount. Examining premodern texts in the light of postmodern hybridity theory is relatively rare at present; this chapter makes a case for using hybridity theory in analysing premodern literatures in situations where ample parallels can be drawn between the cultural dynamics of the medieval context and the postcolonial experience. Cath Maige Tuired presents us with the ideal literary platform for considering cultural identity and hybridity since the tale is a product of a transitional era whose preoccupations and prejudices are clearly reflected in the narrative representations of the Fomoiri and the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Cath Maige Tuired has been repeatedly identified as one of the key narratives of Irish pseudo-history. The term ‘pseudo-history’ refers to accounts of history which distort the commonly accepted facts by, for example, accepting legends and myths as reality. Through intricate intertextual referencing pseudo-history has the potential to become accepted as fact; especially as it instinctively avoids questioning its sources of history. The sense of reliability is increased by plotting the pseudo-historic accounts on commonly known and accepted classical works in order to achieve literary coherence. In the Irish context, the term pseudo-history refers to a corpus of literary material which outlines a fictional origin story of Ireland and its peoples.