The medieval Irish literati organised their work into genres such as the Cattle Raid (Táin Bó), adventure (Echtra), the Voyage (Imram), the Feast (Fled or Feis), the Wooing (Tochmarc), the Conception (Compert) and the Death (Aided), rather than the familiar but relatively modern division into cycles.
Its likely this story had a similar prominence in the endemic oral literature before medieval Christian redactors put them in written form.
Among these are the following: It seems to have been customary in ancient Ireland to precede the recital of "The Great Táin" and other very long tales with a number of shorter stories.
These preludes, or remscéla, are sometimes incorrectly regarded as a part of the Táin Bó Cúailnge due to the static nature of printed and bound materials.
[citation needed] Many of the lesser tána were well-suited to serve as remscéla as these could be framed as preludes to the epic events at Cúailnge.