THE DANISH PERIOD
The first onfall of the Danes seems to have been made about the year
795, and for considerably over two centuries Erin was shaken from shore
to shore with ever-recurring alarms, and for many years every centre
of population lived in a state of terror, not knowing what a day might
bring forth. Monasteries and colleges were burnt again and again, and
built again and again, only to be reburnt. Numbers of invaluable books
were destroyed, gold and silver work was carried off in quantities, and
a state of unrest produced, which must have made learning in many parts
of the island well-nigh impossible.
Strange to say, despite the troubled condition of Ireland during these
two or three centuries, she produced a large number of poets and
scholars, the impulse given by the enthusiasm of the sixth and seventh
centuries being still strong upon her. Unquestionably the greatest
name amongst her men of learning during this period is that of the
statesman, ecclesiastic, poet and scholar, Cormac mac Culinan, who was
at once king and bishop of Cashel,[1] and one of the most striking
figures in both the literary and political history of these centuries.
To him we owe that valuable compilation, so often quoted already under
the title of "Cormac's Glossary," which is by far the oldest attempt
at a comparative vernacular dictionary made in any language of modern
Europe.[2] Of course it has been enlarged by subsequent writers, but
the idea and much of the matter remains Cormac's. In its original
conception, it was meant to explain and interpret words and phrases
which in the ninth century had become obscure to Irish scholars, and as
might be expected, it throws light on many pagan customs, on history,
law, romance, and mythology. Cormac's other literary effort was the
compilation of the Saltair of Cashel, now most unhappily lost, but it
appears to have been a great work. In it was contained the Book of
Rights,[3] drawn up for the readjustment of the relations existing
between princes and tribes, and still preserved. St. Benignus was
said to have originally composed in verse a complete statement of the
various rights, privileges, and duties of the High-king, the provincial
kings, and the local chieftains. This, like so much of ancient and
primitive law, was drawn up in verse so as to be thus stereotyped for
the future, and easily remembered at a time when books were scarce.
Cormac seems to have enlarged, modified, and brought it up to date to
suit the changing times, and it was subsequently redacted again in
Brian Boru's day in a sense favourable to Munster.[4] The king-bishop
was a most remarkable man and an excellent scholar. He appears to
have known Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Danish, and to have been one of
the finest Old Gaelic scholars of his day, and withal an accomplished
poet, though his verses are now lost. He was slain in battle in the
year 908,[5] under circumstances so curiously described in the
fragmentary annals edited by O'Donovan that it may be worth repeating
here. He was, as we know from other sources, betrothed to the Princess
Gormfhlaith or Gormly, daughter of Flann Sionna [Shinna], king of
Meath and High-king of Ireland, but determining to enter the Church
he returned her with her dowry to her father without consummating the
marriage; after this he took orders, and rose in time to be archbishop
of Cashel as well as king of Munster. Gormly, however, was married
against her will to Cearbhall [Caroll], king of Leinster. It was in
the year 908 that Flann, the High-king, with Caroll king of Leinster,
now his son-in-law, prepared to meet Munster and to assert by arms his
right to the presentation of the ancient church of Monasterevan, but it
seems probable that he also bore the king-archbishop a grudge for his
treatment of his daughter Gormly. Here is the annalistic account of the
sequel:--
DEATH OF CORMAC MAC CULINAN.[6]
"The great host of Munster was assembled by the same two, that is,
Flaherty,[7] [abbot of Scattery Island, in the Shannon], and Cormac
[mac Culinan], to demand hostages of Leinster and Ossory, and all the
men of Munster were in the same camp.... And noble ambassadors came
from Leinster from Caroll, son of Muirigan [king of that province],
to Cormac first, and they delivered a message of peace from the
Leinstermen, _i.e._, one peace to be in all Erin until May following
(it being then the second week in autumn), and to give hostages into
the keeping of Maenach, a holy, wise, and pious man, and of other
pious men, and to give jewels and much property to Cormac and Flaherty.
"Cormac was much rejoiced at being offered this peace, and he
afterward went to tell it to Flaherty and how he was offered it from
Leinster. When Flaherty heard this he was greatly horrified, and 't
was what he said, 'This shows,' said he, 'the littleness of thy mind
and the feebleness of thy nature, for thou art the son of a plebeian,'
and he said many other bitter and insulting words, which it would be
too long to repeat.
"The answer which Cormac made him was, 'I am certain,' Cormac said,
'of what the result of this [obstinacy of yours] will be, a battle
will be fought, O holy man,' said he, 'and [I] Cormac shall be under
a curse for it, and it is likely that it will be the cause of death
to thee [also].' And when he had said this he came into his own tent,
afflicted and sorrowful. And when he sat down he took a basketful of
apples and proceeded to divide them amongst his people and said, 'My
dear people,' he said, 'I shall never give you apples again from this
out for ever.' 'Is it so, O dear earthly lord?' said his people; 'why
art thou sorrowful and melancholy with us; it is often thou hast boded
evil for us?' 'It is,' [said Cormac,] 'as I say, and yet, dear people,
what melancholy thing have I said, for though I should not distribute
apples to you with my own hand, yet there shall be some one of you in
my place who will.' He afterwards ordered a watch to be set, and he
called to him the holy, pious, and wise man, Maenach, son of Siadhal
[Shiel], the chief co-arb or successor of Comhghall, and he made his
confession and will in his presence, and he took the body of Christ
from his hand, and he resigned the world in the presence of Maenach,
for he knew that he would be killed in battle, but he did not wish
that many others should know it. He also ordered that his body should
be brought to Cloyne if convenient, but if not to convey it to the
cemetery of Diarmuid, [grand]son of Aedh Roin, where he had studied
for a long time. He was very desirous, however, of being interred at
Cloyne of Mac Lenin. Maenach, however, was better pleased to have him
interred at Disert Diarmada, for that was one of [Saint] Comhghall's
towns, and Maenach was Comhghall's successor. This Maenach, son of
Shiel, was the wisest man of his time, and he now exerted himself much
to make peace, if it were possible, between the men of Leinster and
Munster.
"Many of the forces of Munster deserted unrestrained. There was
great noise, too, and dissension in the camp of the men of Munster
at this time, for they heard that Fiann, son of Malachy [High-king
of Ireland], was in the camp of the Leinster men [helping them] with
great forces of foot and horse. It was then Maenach said, 'Good men of
Munster,' said he, 'you ought to accept of the good hostages I have
offered you to be placed in the custody of pious men till May next,
namely, the son of Caroll, king of Leinster, and the son of the king
of Ossory.' All the men of Munster were saying that it was Flaherty
[the abbot], son of Inmainên alone who compelled them to go [to fight]
into Leinster.
"After this great complaint which they made, they came over Slieve
Mairgé from the west to Leithglinn Bridge. But Tibraidé, successor of
Ailbhé [of Emly], and many of the clergy along with him tarried at
Leithglinn, and also the servants of the army and the horses which
carried the provisions.
"After this trumpets were blown and signals for battle were given
by the men of Munster, and they went forward till they came to
Moy-Ailbhé.[8] Here they remained with their back to a thick wood
awaiting their enemies. The men of Munster divided themselves into
three equally large battalions, Flaherty, son of Inmainên, and
Ceallach, son of Caroll, king of Ossory, over the first division;
Cormac mac Culinan, king of Munster, over the middle division; Cormac,
son of Mothla, King of the Deisi, and the King of Kerry, and the kings
of many other tribes of West Munster, over the third division. They
afterwards came on in this order to Moy-Ailbhe. They were querulous
on account of the numbers of the enemy and their own fewness. Those
who were knowledgeable, that is those who were amongst themselves,
state that the Leinstermen and their forces amounted to three times
or four times the number of the men of Munster or more. Unsteady
was the order in which the men of Munster came to the battle. Very
pitiful was the wailing which was in the battle--as the learned who
were in the battle relate--the shrieks of the one host in the act
of being slaughtered and the shouts of the other host exulting over
that slaughter. There were two causes for which the men of Munster
suffered so sudden a defeat; for Céileachar, the brother of Cingégan,
suddenly mounted his horse and said, 'Nobles of Munster,' said he,
'fly suddenly from this abominable battle, and leave it between the
clergy themselves who could not be quiet without coming to battle,'
and afterwards he suddenly fled accompanied by great hosts. The
other cause of the defeat was: When Ceallach, son of Caroll, saw the
battalion in which were the chieftains of the King of Erin cutting
down his own battalion he mounted his horse and said to his own
people, 'Mount your horses and drive the enemy before you.' And though
he said this, it was not to really fight he said so but to fly.
Howsoever it resulted from these causes that the Munster battalion
fled together. Alas! pitiful and great was the slaughter throughout
Moy-Ailbhe afterwards. A cleric was not spared more than a layman,
there they were all equally killed. When a layman or a clergyman was
spared it was not out of mercy, it was done but out of covetousness,
to obtain a ransom from them, or to bring them into servitude. King
Cormac, however, escaped in the van of the first battalion, but the
horse leaped into a trench and he fell off it. When a party of his
people who were flying perceived this, they came to the King and put
him up on his horse again. It was then he saw a foster son of his own,
a noble of the Eoghanachts, Aedh by name, who was an adept in wisdom
and jurisprudence and history and Latin; and the King said to him,
'Beloved son,' said he, 'do not cling by me, but take thyself out of
it as well as thou canst; I told thee that I should be killed in this
battle.' A few remained along with Cormac, and he came forward along
the way on horseback, and the way was besmeared throughout with much
blood of men and horses. The hind feet of his horse slipped on the
slippery way in the track of blood, and the horse fell right back and
[Cormac's] back and neck were both broken, and he said, when falling,
'In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum,' and he gave up the
ghost; and the impious sons of malediction came and thrust spears
through his body, and cut off his head.
"Although much was the slaying on Moy-Ailbhe to the east of the
Barrow, yet the prowess of Leinster was not satiated with it, but they
followed up the rout westwards across Slieve Mairgé, and slew many
noblemen in that pursuit.
"In the very beginning of the battle Ceallach, son of Caroll, king
of Ossory, and his son were killed at once. Dispersedly, however,
others were killed from that out, both laity and clergy. There were
many good clergymen killed in this battle, as were also many kings and
chieftains. In it was slain Fogartach, son of Suibhne [Sweeny], an
adept in philosophy and divinity, King of Kerry, and Ailell, son of
Owen, the distinguished young sage and high-born nobleman, and Colman,
Abbot of Cenn-Etigh, Chief Ollav of the judicature of Erin, and hosts
of others also, quos longum est scribere....
"Then a party came up to Fiann, having the head of Cormac with them,
and 't was what they said to Fiann, 'Life and health, O powerful
victorious king, and Cormac's head to thee from us; and as is
customary with kings raise thy thigh and put this head under it and
press it with thy thigh.' Howsoever Flann spoke evil to them, it was
not thanks he gave them. 'It was an enormous act,' said he, 'to have
taken off the head of the holy bishop, but, however, I shall honour
it instead of crushing it.' Fiann took the head into his hand and
kissed it, and carried thrice round him the consecrated head of the
holy bishop and martyr. The head was afterwards honourably carried
away from him to the body where Meaenach, son of Shiel, successor of
Comhghall, was, and he carried the body of Cormac to Castledermot,
where it was honourably interred, and where it performs signs and
miracles.
"Why should not the heart repine and the mind sicken at this enormous
deed; the killing and the mangling with horrid arms of this holy man,
the most learned of all who came or shall come of the men of Erin for
ever? The complete master in Gaedhlic and Latin, the archbishop most
pious, most pure, miraculous in chastity and prayer, a proficient in
law and in every wisdom, knowledge, and science, a paragon of poetry
and learning, a head of charity and every virtue, a sage of education,
and head-king of the whole of the two Munster provinces in his time!"
Gormly, the betrothed, but afterwards repudiated wife of Cormac, was
also a poet, and there are many pieces ascribed to her. She was, as I
mentioned, married to Caroll king of Leinster, who was severely wounded
in this battle. He was carried home to be cured in his palace at Naas,
and Gormly the queen was constant in her attendance on him. One day,
however, as Caroll was becoming convalescent he fell to exulting over
the mutilation of Cormac at which he had been present. The queen, who
was sitting at the foot of his bed, rebuked him for it, and said that
the body of a good man had been most unworthily desecrated. At this
Caroll, who was still confined to bed, became angry and kicked her over
with his foot in the presence of all her attendants and ladies.
As her father, the High-king, would do nothing for her when she
besought him to wipe out the insult, and procure her reparation from
so unworthy a husband, her young kinsman Niall Glún-dubh, or the
Black-Kneed, took up her cause, and obtained for her a separation
from her husband and restoration of her dowry. When her husband was
killed, the year after this, by the Danes, she married Niall, who in
time succeeded to the throne as High-king of all Ireland, and who was
one of the noblest of her monarchs. He was slain in the end by the
Danes, and the monarchy passed away from the houses both of her father
and her husband, and she, the daughter of one High-king, the wife of
another, bewails in her old age the poverty and neglect into which
she had fallen. She dreamt one night that King Niall stood beside her,
and she made a leap forwards to clasp him in her arms, but struck
herself against the bed-post, and received a wound from which she never
recovered.[9] Many of her poems are lamentations on her kinsman and
husband Niall. They seem to have been current amongst the Highland as
well as the Irish Gaels, for here is a specimen jotted down in phonetic
spelling by the Scotch Dean Macgregor about the year 1512:
"Take, grey monk, thy foot away,
Lift it off the grave of Neill!
Too long thou heapest up the clay
On him who cannot feel.[10]
Monk, why must thou pile the earth
O'er the couch of noble Neill?
Above my friend of gentle birth
Thou strik'st a churlish heel.
Let him be, at least to-night,
Mournful monk of croaking voice,
Beneath thee lies my heart's delight,
Who made me to rejoice.
Monk, remove thy foot, I say!
Tread not on the sacred ground
Where he is shut from me away,
In cold and narrow bound!
I am Gormly--king of men
Was my father, Flann the brave.
I charge thee, stand thou not again,
Bald monk, upon his grave."
Another poet of the ninth century was Flanagan, son of Ceallach, king
of Bregia. He is quoted by the "Four Masters."[11] One poem of his, of
112 lines, on the deaths of the kings of Ireland, is preserved in the
Yellow Book of Lecan.
Mailmura, of Fahan, whom the "Four Masters" call a great poet, was a
contemporary of his, and wrote a poem on the Milesian Migrations.[12]
Several other poets lived in the ninth century, the chief of whom was
probably Flann mac Lonáin, for the "Four Masters" in recording his
death style him "the Virgil of the Scottic race, the chief ollamh of
all the Gaels, the best poet that was in Ireland in his time." Eight of
his poems, containing about one thousand lines, have survived. He was
from the neighbourhood of Slieve Echtgé, or Aughty, in South Connacht.
One of his poems records how Ilbrechtach the harper was travelling over
these barren mountains along with the celebrated poet Mac Liag, and,
as they paused to rest on Croghan Head, Mac Liag surveyed the prospect
beneath him, and said, "Many a hill and lake and fastness is in this
range; it were a great topographical knowledge to know them all." "If
Mac Lonáin were here," said the harper, "he could name them all, and
give the origin of their names as well." "Let this fellow be taken and
hanged," said Mac Liag. The harper begged respite till next day, and in
the meantime Mac Lonáin comes up and recites a poem of one hundred and
thirty-two lines beginning--_Aoibhinn aoibhinn Echtgé árd_.
Amongst other things, he relates that he met a Dalcassian--_i.e._, one
of Brian Boru's people from Clare--at Moy Finé in Galway, who had just
finished serving twelve months with a man in that place, from whom he
had received a cow and a cloak for payment. On his way home to the
Dalcassians with his cloak and his cow he met the poet, and said to
him--
"'Sing to me the history of my country,
It is sweet to my soul to hear it.
Thereupon I sang for him the poem,
Nor did he show himself the least loath:
All that he had earned--not mean nor meagre--
To me he gave it without deduction.
The upright Dalcassians heard of this,
They received him with honour in their assembly;
They gave to him--the noble race--
Ten cows for every quarter of his own cow.'"
Mac Lonáin was the contemporary of Cormac mac Culinan, whom he
eulogises.
Some other poets of great note flourished during the Danish period,
such as Cormac "an Eigeas," who composed the celebrated poem to
Muircheartach, or Murtagh of the Leather Cloaks,[13] son of the Niall
so bitterly lamented by Gormly, on the occasion of his marching round
Ireland, when he set out from his palace at ancient Aileach near
Derry, and returned to it again after levying tribute and receiving
hostages from every king and sub-king in Ireland. This great O'Neill
well deserved a poet's praise, for having taken Sitric, the Danish
lord of Dublin, Ceallachan of Munster, the king of Leinster, and
the royal heir of Connacht as hostages, he, understanding well that
in the interests of Ireland the High-kingship should be upheld,
positively refused to follow the advice of his own clan and march on
Tara, as they urged, to take hostages from Donagh the High-king. On
the contrary, he actually sent of his own accord all those that had
been given him during his circuit to this Donagh as supreme governor
of Ireland. Donagh, on his part, not to be out-done in magnanimity,
returned them again to Murtagh with the message that he, into whose
hands they had been delivered, was the proper person to keep them. It
was to commemorate this that Cormac wrote his poem of two hundred and
fifty-six lines:--
_"A Mhuircheartaigh Mheic Néill náir_
_Ro ghabhais giallu Inse-Fáil."_[14]
But the names of the poets Cinaeth or Kenneth O'Hartigan, and Eochaidh
O'Flynn, are the most celebrated amongst those of the tenth century.
Allusions to and quotations from the first, who died in 975, are
frequent, and nine or ten of his poems, containing some eight hundred
lines, have been preserved perfect for us. Of O'Flynn's pieces,
fourteen are enumerated by O'Reilly, containing in the aggregate
between seventeen and eighteen hundred lines. In them we find in
verse the whole early and mythical history of Ireland. We have, for
instance, one poem on the invasion of Partholan; one on the invasion
of the Fomorians; another on the division of Ireland between the sons
of Partholan; another on the destruction of the tower of Conaing and
the battles between the Fomorians and the Nemedians; another on the
journey of the Nemedians from Scithia and how some emigrated to Greece
and others to Britain after the destruction of Conairé's tower; another
on the invasion of the sons of Milesius; another on the history of
Emania built by Cimbaeth some three hundred years before Christ, up
to its destruction by the Three Collas in the year 331. This poet
in especial may be said to have crystallised into verse the mythic
history of Ireland with the names and reigns of the Irish kings, and
to have thrown them into the form of real history. O'Clery, in his
celebrated Book of Invasions, has drawn upon him very largely, quoting,
often at full length, no less than twelve of his poems. Hence many
people believe that he was one of the first to collect the floating
tribe-legends of very early Irish kings, and the race-myths of the
Tuatha De Danann and their contemporaries, and that he cast them into
that historical shape in which the later annalists record them, by
fitting them into a complete scheme of genealogical history like that
of the Old Testament. But whether all these things had taken solid
shape and form before he versified them anew we cannot now decide.
According to O'Reilly and O'Curry this poet died in 984, nine years
after O'Hartigan; but M. d'Arbois de Jubainville remarks that he has
been unable to find out any evidence for fixing upon this date.
A little later lived Mac Liag, whom Brian Boru elevated to the
rank of Arch-Ollamh of Erin, and who lived at his court at Kincora
in the closest relationship to him and his sons. He has been
credited--erroneously according to O'Curry--with the authorship
of a Life of Brian Boru, which unfortunately has perished, only a
single ancient leaf, in the hand-writing of the great antiquary Mac
Firbis, surviving. Several of his poems, however, are preserved,[15]
containing between twelve and thirteen hundred lines in all, and are
of the highest value as throwing light both on the social state and
the policy of Ireland under Brian. One of his poems gives a graphic
description of the tribute of Ireland being driven to Brian at his
palace in Kincora in the present county of Clare. The poet went out
from the court to have a look at the flocks and herds, and when he
returned he said to the King, "Here comes Erin's tribute of cows to
thee, many a fat cow and fat hog on the plain before thee." "Be they
ever so many," said the King, "they shall be all thine, thou noble
poet." Amongst the other part of the tribute which the poet describes
as coming in to Brian were one hundred and fifty butts of wine from the
Danes of Dublin, and a tun of wine for every day in the year from the
Danes of Limerick. He describes Brian as sitting at the head of the
great hall of Kincora,[16] the king of Connacht sat on his right hand
and the king of Ulster on his left; the king of Tir-Eóghain [Tyrone]
sat opposite to him. At the door-post nearest to Brian sat the king
of Leinster, and at the other post of the open door sat Donough, son
of Brian, and Malachy,[17] king of Meath. Murrough, the king's eldest
son who died so valiantly at Clontarf, sat in front of his father with
his back turned to him, with Angus, a prince of Meath, and the king of
Tirconnell on his left. One of his poems ends with two complimentary
stanzas to Brian Boru, his son Murrough, his nephew Conaing, and Tadhg
[Teig] O'Kelly, the king of Ui Máine--all four of whom a short time
afterwards were left stiff and stark upon the field of Clontarf.
The shadow of the bloody tragedy there enacted hangs heavily over all
Mac Liag's later poems and those of his contemporaries, and there are
few more pathetic pieces in the language than his wail over Kincora
left desolate by the death of almost every chieftain who had gone
forth from it to meet the Danes.
"Oh where, Kincora, is Brian the great!
Oh, where is the beauty that once was thine!
Oh, where are the princes and nobles that sate
At the feast in thy halls, and drank the red wine.[18]
Where, oh, Kincora?
* * * * *
And where is the youth of majestic height,
The faith-keeping prince of the Scots? Even he
As wide as his fame was, as great as his might,
Was tributary, oh, Kincora, to me!
Me, oh, Kincora.
They are gone, those heroes of royal birth,
Who plundered no churches, who broke no trust;
'Tis weary for me to be living on earth
When they, oh, Kincora, lie low in the dust!
Low, oh, Kincora."[19]
In the same strain does Mac Gilla Keefe,[20] another contemporary poet,
lament, in a piece which, according to a manuscript quoted by Hardiman,
called the "Leabhar Oiris," he composed when in the north of Greece,
whither he had travelled in the itinerant Milesian manner on his way to
try if he could find the site of Paradise. The poem begins:--
"Mournful night! and mournful WE!
Men we BE who know no peace.
We no GOLD for STRAINS of PRIDE
HOLD this SIDE the PLAINS of Greece."[21]
"'I remember my setting my face to pay a visit to Brian (Boru) and he
at that time feasting with Cian, the son of Mulloy,[22] and he thought
it long my being absent from him.'
"'God welcome you back to us,' cried Cian, 'O learned one, who comest
[back from the north] from the House of O'Neill. Poet, your wife is
saying that you have almost altogether forsaken your own house.'
"'You have been away for three quarters of year, except from yesterday
to to-day.' 'Why that,' said Murrough, son of Brian, 'is the message
of the raven from the ark!'
"'[Come now] tell us all the wealth you have brought from the north,'
said Brian, the High-king of the host of Carn i Neid, 'tell the nobles
of the men of Innisfail, and swear by my hand that you tell no lie.'
"'By the King who is above me,' [said I], 'this is what I brought from
the north, twenty steeds, ten ounces of gold, and ten score cows of
cattle.'
"'[Why] we, the two of us, shall give him more steeds and more cattle
[than that] without speaking of what Brian will give,' said Cian, the
son of Mulloy.
"'[And] by the King of Heaven who has brought me into silence this
night, and who has darkened my brightness, I got ten times as much as
that at the banquet before Brian lay down.
"'I got seven town-lands, Oh, King of the Kings, who hast sent me from
the west, and a half town-land [besides] near every palace in which
Brian used to be.'
"Said Murrough, good son of Brian, 'To-morrow'--and it was scarce
sensible for him--'as much as you have got last night you shall get
from me myself, and get it with my love.'"[23]
Mag Liag was not at Clontarf himself, but his friend and fellow-poet,
Errard mac Coisé [Cŭsha] was in the train of Malachy, king of Meath,
to whom he was then attached. This poet gave Mac Liag a minute account
of the battle, and Mac Liag himself visited the spot before the slain
had been interred, as we see from another of his poems. In a kind of
dialogue between him and Mac Coisé he makes the latter relate to him
the names of the fallen, and describe the positions in which their dead
bodies were found upon the battlefield. It is exceedingly probable
that it was Mac Liag, perhaps with Mac Coisé's aid, who compiled that
most valuable chronicle called the "Wars of the Gael with the Gaill,"
_i.e._, of the Irish with the Northmen.[24] This narrative bears both
external and internal evidence of its antiquity, for there is a portion
of it preserved in the Book of Leinster, a MS. of about the year 1150.
"The author," says Dr. Todd, who has edited it,[25] "was either
himself an eye-witness of the battle of Clontarf, or else compiled his
narrative from the testimony of eye-witnesses." It is edited in 121
chapters, and is sufficiently long to fill over a hundred of these
pages. Beginning with the earliest Danish invasion at the close of
the eighth century, it traces the progress of the Northmen in forty
chapters up to the time when Mathgamhain [Mahon] and Brian were ruling
over the Dalcassians. After that the book concerns itself chiefly with
the history of Brian, describing the deaths of his brother Mahon, and
the revenge he took, and his gradual but irregular attainment of the
High-kingship, he being the first of the race of Eber who had reached
this dignity for hundreds of years. The distress suffered by the Irish
at the hands of the white foreigners (the Norwegians) and the black
foreigners (the Danes)--who, by the way, were bitter enemies and often
fought with each other, even on Irish soil--is graphically described.
The Northmen put, says the writer,
"a king [of their own] over every territory, and a chief over every
chieftaincy, and an abbot over every church, and a steward over every
village, and a soldier in every house, so that none of the men of Erin
had power to give even the milk of his cow, or as much as the clutch
of eggs of one hen in succour or in kindness to an aged man or to a
friend, but was forced to preserve them for this foreign steward or
bailiff or soldier. And though there were but one milk-giving cow in
the house, she durst not be milked for an infant of one night, nor for
a sick person, but must be kept for the steward or bailiff or soldier
of the foreigners. And however long he might be absent from the house
his share or his supply durst not be lessened: although there were in
the house but one cow, it must be killed for the meal of one night, if
the means of supply could not be otherwise procured....
"In a word," continues the writer in a strain of characteristic
hyperbole, "although there were an hundred sharp, ready, cool,
never-resting, brazen tongues in each head, and a hundred garrulous,
loud-unceasing voices from each tongue, they could not recount nor
narrate, nor enumerate, nor tell, what all the Gael suffered in
common, both men and women, laity and clergy, old and young, noble and
ignoble, of hardship and of injury, and of oppression in every house,
from these valiant, wrathful, foreign, purely-pagan people.
"And though numerous were the oft-victorious clans of the
many-familied Erin," yet could they do nothing against the "untamed,
implacable hordes by whom that oppression was inflicted, because
of the excellence of their polished, ample, treble-heavy, trusty,
glittering corslets, and their hard, strong, valiant swords, and
well-rivetted long spears, and ready brilliant arms of valour,
besides; and because of the greatness of their achievements and of
their deeds, their bravery, their valour, their strength, their venom,
and their ferocity, and because of the excess of their thirst and
their hunger for the brave, fruitful, nobly-inhabited, smooth-plained,
sweet-grassy land of Erin, full of cataracts, rivers, bays."
The book ends with the battle of Clontarf and the "return from
Fingall," _i.e._, the march of the Dalcassians to their homes in
Munster. The death of Brian in this great battle fought on Good Friday,
the 23rd of April,[26] 1014, is thus described:--
DEATH OF BRIAN BORUMHA AT CLONTARF.
"As for Brian, son of Cenneidigh [Kennedy], when the battalions joined
arms in the battle, his skin was spread for him, and he opened his
psalter and joined his hands, and began to pray after the battle had
commenced, and there was no one with him but his own attendant, whose
name was Latean (from whom are the O'Lateans still in Munster.)[27]
Brian said to the attendant, 'Look thou at the battalions and the
combat whilst I sing the psalms.' He sang fifty psalms and fifty
prayers and fifty paternosters, and after that he asked the attendant
how were the battalions. And the attendant answered, 'Mixed and
closely confronted are the battalions, and each of them has come
within the grasp of the other, and not louder on my ears would be the
echo of blows from Tomar's wood if seven battalions were cutting it
down, than the thud-blows on heads and bones and sculls between them.'
And he asked how was Murchadh's [Murrough's son's] standard, and the
attendant said, 'It stands, and many of the banners of the Dál Cais
[North Munster, _i.e._, Brian's own men] around it, and many heads
thrown to it, and a multitude of trophies and spoils with heads of
foreigners are along with it.' 'That is good news indeed,' said Brian.
"His skin cushion was readjusted beneath him, and he sang the psalms
and the prayers and the paters as before, and he again asked the
attendant how the battalions were, and the attendant answered and
said, 'There is not living on earth the man who could distinguish one
from the other, for the greater part of the hosts on each side are
fallen, and those who are alive are so covered with spatterings of
crimson blood and armour, that a man could not know his own son--they
are so intermingled.' He then asked how was Murchadh's standard. The
attendant said it was far from him, and that it passed through the
battalions westward, and was still standing. Brian said, 'The men of
Erin will be well,' said he, 'so long as that standard stands, for
their courage and valour shall remain in them all, so long as they can
see that standard.'
"His cushion was readjusted under Brian, and he sang fifty psalms
and fifty prayers and fifty paters, and all that time the fighting
continued. After that he again asked the attendant how went the
battalions, and the attendant answered, 'It is like as if Tomar's wood
were after burning its undergrowth and young trees, and that seven
battalions had been for six weeks cutting them down, and it with its
stately trees and huge oaks still standing, just so are the battalions
on both sides, after the greater part of them have fallen leaving but
a few valiant heroes and great chieftains still standing. So are
the battalions on both sides pierced and wounded and scattered, and
they are disorganised all round like the grindings of a mill turning
the wrong way; and the foreigners are now defeated, and Murchadh's
standard is fallen.' 'That is piteous news,' said Brian; 'by my word,'
said he, 'the generosity and valour of Erin fell when that standard
fell; and truly Erin has fallen of that, for there shall never come
after him a champion like him. And what the better were I though I
should escape this, and though it were the sovereignty of the world I
should attain, after the fall of Murchadh and Conaing and the other
nobles of the Dál Cais.'
"'Woe is me,' said the attendant, 'if thou wouldst take my advice thou
wouldst get thee to thy horse, and we would go to the camp and remain
there amongst the gillies, and every one who comes out of the battle
will come to us, and round us they will rally, for the battalions are
now mixed in confusion, and a party of the foreigners have rejected
the idea of retreating to the sea, and we know not who shall come to
us where we now are.'
"'Oh God; boy,' said Brian, 'flight becomes me not, and I myself know
that I shall not go from here alive, and what should it profit me
though I did, for Aoibheall [Eevil][28] of Craig Liath [Lee-a], came
to me last night,' said he, 'and she told me that the first of my sons
whom I should see this day would be he who should succeed me in the
sovereignty, and that is Donough,[29] and go thou OLatean,' said he,
'and take these steeds with thee, and receive my blessing and carry
out my will after me, that is to say, my body and soul to God and to
St. Patrick, and that I am to be carried to Armagh, and my blessing
to Donough for discharging my last bequests after me, that is to say,
twelve score cows to be given to the co-arb of Patrick and the Society
of Armagh, and their own proper dues to Killaloe and the Churches of
Munster, and he knows that I have not wealth of gold or silver, but
he is to pay them in return for my blessing and for his succeeding
me. Go this night to Sord [Swords] and desire them to come to-morrow
early for my body, and to convey it thence to Damhliag of Cianan,
and then let them carry it to Lughmhagh [Loo-wā, _i.e._, Louth], and
let Maelmuiré mac Eochadha, the co-arb of Patrick and the Society of
Armagh come to meet me at Lughmhagh.'
"While they were engaged in this conversation the attendant perceived
a party of the foreigners approaching them. The Earl Brodar was there
and two warriors along with him.
"'There are people coming towards us here,' said the attendant.
"'What kind of people?' said Brian.
"'Blue stark-naked people,' said the attendant.
"'My woe,' said Brian, 'they are the foreigners of the armour, and it
is not for good they come.'
"While he was saying this he arose and stepped off his cushion and
unsheathed his sword. Brodar passed him by and noticed him not. One
of the three who were there and who had been in Brian's service
said '_Cing, Cing_!' said he, that is, 'This is the king.' '_No,
no! but príst príst_,' says Brodar, 'not he,' said he, 'but a noble
priest.' 'By no means,' said the soldier, 'but it is the great king
Brian.' Brodar then turned round and appeared with a bright gleaming
battle-axe in his hand, with the handle set in the middle [of the
head]. When Brian saw him he looked intently at him, and gave him a
sword-blow that cut off the left leg at the knee and the right leg at
the foot. The foreigner gave Brian a stroke which crushed his head
utterly, and Brian killed the second man that was with Brodar, and
they fell mutually by each other.
"There was not done in Erin, since Christianity--except the beheading
of Cormac mac Culinan--any greater deed than this. He was, in
sooth, one of the three best that ever were born in Erin, and one
of the three men who most caused Erin to prosper, namely, Lugh the
Long-handed, and Finn mac Cúmhail [Cool], and Brian, son of Kennedy;
for it was he that released the men of Erin and its women from the
bondage and iniquity of the foreigners and the pirates. It was he that
gained five-and-twenty battles over the foreigners, and who killed
them and banished them.... In short, Erin fell by the death of Brian."
The "War of the Gael with the Gaill" appears to me to be a book which
throws a strong light upon the genesis and value of the historical
saga of Ireland. Here is a real historical narrative of unquestionable
authority, and of the very highest value for the history of these
countries, which is contemporaneous,[30] or almost so, with the events
which it relates. Its accuracy on matters of fact have been abundantly
proved from Danish as well as from Irish sources. And yet the whole
account is dressed up and bedizened in that peculiarly Irish garb which
had become stereotyped as the dress of Irish history. It contains the
exaggeration, the necessary touch of the marvellous, and above all the
poetry, without which no Irish composition could hope for a welcome.
First as to the exaggeration: the whole piece is full of it. A good
example is the description of the armies meeting on Clontarf:--
"It will be one of the wonders of the day of judgment to relate the
description of this tremendous onset. There arose a wild, impetuous,
precipitate, furious, dark, frightful, voracious, merciless,
combative, contentious vulture, screaming and fluttering over their
heads. There arose also the Bocanachs and the Bananachs and the wild
people of the glens, and the witches and the goblins and the ancient
birds, and the destroying demons of the air and firmament, and the
feeble demoniac phantom host, and they were screaming and comparing
the valour and combat of both parties."
The reader expected some traditional flourish such as this, and the
essential truth of the narrative is no whit impaired by it.
Nor does the miraculous episode of Dunlang O'Hartigan, fresh from the
embraces of the fairy queen, foretelling to Murrough that he must fall,
detract from the truth that he does fall. Dunlang had promised Murrough
not to abandon him, and he appears beside him on the very eve of the
battle. Murrough gently reproaches him and says:--
"'Great must be the love and attachment of some woman for thee which
has induced thee to abandon me.' 'Alas, O King,' answered Dunlang,
'the delight which I have abandoned for thee is greater, if thou didst
but know it, namely, life without death,[31] without cold, without
thirst, without hunger, without decay, beyond any delight of the
delights of the earth to me, until the judgment, and heaven after the
judgment, and if I had not pledged my word to thee I would not have
come here, and, moreover, it is fated for me to die on the day that
thou shalt die.'
"'Shall I receive death this day then?' said Murrough.
"'Thou shalt, indeed,' said Dunlang, 'and Brian and Conaing shall
receive it, and almost all the nobles of Erin, and Turlough thy son.'
"'That is no good encouragement to fight,' said Murrough, 'and if we
had had such news we would not have told it to _thee_, and moreover,'
said Murrough, 'often was I offered in hills, and in fairy mansions,
this world and these gifts, but I never abandoned for one night my
country nor mine inheritance for them.'"
Some such touch as this, of the weird and the miraculous, the reader
also expected.
As for poetry, the whole piece is full of it. It contains over five
hundred lines of verse, in poems attributed to Brian Boru himself and
his brother Mahon, to Maelmhuadh or Molloy, who so treacherously slew
Mahon, to the sister of Aedh Finnliath [Finleea], king of Ireland in
869;[32] to Cormac mac Culinan, the king-bishop; to Cuan O'Lochain,
a great poet who died in 1024; to Beg mac Dé the prophet, and to
Columcille, his contemporary; to Colman mac Lenin, the poet-saint; to
Gilla Mududa O'Cassidy, a poet contemporaneous with Mac Liag; to Mac
Liag himself; to Gilla Comgaill O'Slevin, inciting O'Neill against
Brian; to a poet called Mahon's blind man; to St. Bercan the prophet;
to an unnamed cleric, and to at least six anonymous poets.
I have dwelt at some length upon these peculiarities of composition,
because I wish to lay stress on the fact that the narrative form and
the romantic dress in which the early history of Ireland is preserved
(through the medium of sagas) need not detract from its substantial
veracity. We can prove the minute accuracy of the Clontarf story
and there seems scarcely more reason to doubt that of the battle of
Moyrath, fought in Adamnan's time, or possibly the _substantial_
accuracy of the battles of Cnoca, or of Moy Léana; we must, however,
remember that with each fresh redaction, fresh miraculous agencies, and
fresh verbiage were added.
The battle of Clontarf put an end to the dream of a Danish kingdom
in Ireland, and though numerous bodies of the Northmen remained in
their sea-coast settlements, and continued for many years after this
to give much trouble, yet it put a stop to all further invasion from
their mother country, and once more the centres of Irish learning and
civilisation could breathe freely.
[1] It was not he, however, who built Cormac's Chapel at Cashel, but
Cormac Mac Carthy, in the twelfth century. I am not sure whether Cashel
had been formed into an archiepiscopal see at this time, but he is
certainly called bishop of Cashel.
[2] The celebrated Vocabularius S. Galli was, according to Zimmer, the
work of an Irish monk.
[3] Leabhar na gCeart.
[4] It has been most carefully edited and translated in a large volume
by O'Donovan for the Celtic Society, in 1847.
[5] 903 according to the "Four Masters."
[6] From the fragment copied by Duald Mac Firbis in 1643 from a vellum
MS. of Mac Egan of Ormond, a chief professor of the old Brehon Law,
a MS. which was so worn as to be in places illegible at the time Mac
Firbis copied it; published by O'Donovan for the Archæological Society.
I have altered O'Donovan's translation very slightly.
[7] In Irish, "Flaithbheartach."
[8] The plain where this battle of Bealach Múghna or Ballaghmoon was
fought is in the very south of the county Kildare, about 2½ miles to
the north of the town of Carlow.
[9] So it is stated in Mac Echagain's Annals of Clonmacnois, but
O'Curry thinks this is a mistake and that she did recover.
[10] The first verse runs thus in modern Gaelic:
"Beir a mhanaigh leat do chos
Tóg anois i de thaoibh Néill
Is ró mhór chuiris de chré
Ar an té le' luidhinn féin."
See p. 75 of the Gaelic part of the book of the Dean of Lismore.
Literally: "Monk, remove thy foot, lift it off the grave of Niall, too
long heapest thou the earth on him by whom I fain would lie!
"Too long dost thou, O monk there, heap the earth on noble Niall. Go
gently, brown friend, press not the earth with thy sole.
"Do not firmly close the grave; sorrowful, cleric, is thy office; lift
[thy foot] off the bright Niall Black-knee; monk, remove thy foot!
"The son of the descendant of Niall of the white gold, 'tis not of my
will that he is bound [in the grave]; let his grave and stone be left:
monk, remove thy foot!
"I am Gormly, who compose the verse; daughter of hardy Flann. Stand not
upon his grave! Monk, remove thy foot!"
[11] One of his pieces, quoted by the "Four Masters," shows he was a
true poet. It is on the death of the king, Aedh Finnliath, who died in
877, and runs thus:--
"Long is the wintry night,
With fierce gusts of wind,
Under pressing grief we have to encounter it,
Since the red-speared king of the noble house lives no longer.
It is awful to observe
The waves from the bottom heaving,
To these may be compared
All those who with us lament him."
_See_ O'Curry's "Manners and Customs," vol. ii. p. 96, and "Four
Masters" _sub anno._
[12] Published by the Irish Archæological Society in the "Irish
Nennius," in 1847.
[13] Na gcochal croicinn.
[14]
"O Muircheartach, son of noble Niall,
Thou hast taken hostages of Inisfail."
[15] The "Four Masters" thought so highly of Mac Liag's poetry that
they actually go out of their way to record both the first verse he
ever composed and the last. An extraordinary compliment!
[16] Or Kancora, in Irish _Ceann Coradh--i.e._, "the head of the weir."
[17] In Irish "Maelsheachlainn," often contracted into the sound of
"M'louglinn," and now always Anglicised Malachy.
[18] Thus Mangan; in the original--
"A Chinn-Choradh, caidhi Brian,
No caidhi an sciamh do bhi ort;
Caidhi maithe no meic righ
Ga n-ibhmís fín ad port?"
[19] Literally: "O Kincora, where is Brian? or where is the splendour
that was upon thee? Where are the nobles and the sons of kings with
whom we used to drink wine in thy halls.... Where is the man most
striking of size, the son of the king of Alba who never forsook us?
Although great were his valour and his deeds, he used to pay tribute to
me (the poet), O Kincora.... They have gone, side by side, the sons of
kings who never plundered church; there shall never be their like in
the world again, so in my wisdom I testify, O Kincora."
_See_ Hardiman's "Irish Minstrelsy," vol. ii. p. 196, where the text
of this poem is published, with a fearful metrical translation which,
under the influence of Macpherson, calls the Dalcassian princes "the
flower of Temora"! which, however, is advantageously used to rhyme with
Kincora!
[20] In Irish: "Mac Giolla Caoimh."
[21] This verse is an imitation of the original, which runs--
"Uathmhar [i] an oidhche _anocht_
A chuideacht [fhíor-]_bhocht_ gan bhréig,
Crodh ni SA[O]ILTÎ dh[ao]ibh air DHUAN
Air an TTAOIBHSI THUAIDH do'n nGréig."
_See_ Hardiman's "Irish Minstrelsy," vol. ii. p. 202, where a poetical
version of this lyric is given in the metre of Campbell's "Exile of
Erin"! He does not say from what MS. he has taken this poem. O'Curry is
silent on Mac Gilla Keefe, but O'Reilly mentions another poem of his on
the provinces of Munster.
[22] In Irish, "Maolmhuadh."
[23] I am not sure that I have translated this correctly.
"Do rádh Murchadh deagh-mhac Bhriain
Air na mhárach, 's níor chiall uaidh
Uiriod a bhfuairís aréir
Geabhair uaim féin's ni air th-fhuath."
[24] Charles O'Conor ascribes it to him, but neither Keating, the "Four
Masters," nor Colgan, who all make use of it, mention a word about the
author.
[25] In the "Master of the Rolls" Series, in 1867. "That the work was
compiled from contemporary materials," says Dr. Todd, "may be proved
by curious incidental evidence. It is stated in the account given of
the Battle of Clontarf that the full tide in Dublin Bay on the day of
the battle (23rd April, 1014) coincided with sunrise, and that the
returning tide at evening aided considerably in the defeat of the
enemy. It occurred to the editor, on considering this passage, that a
criterion might be derived from it to test the truth of the narrative
and of the date assigned by the Irish Annals to the Battle of Clontarf.
He therefore proposed to the Rev. Samuel Haughton, M.D., Fellow of
Trinity College, and Professor of Geology in the University of Dublin,
to solve for him this problem: 'What was the hour of high water at the
shore of Clontarf in Dublin Bay on the 23rd of April, 1014.' The editor
did not make known to Dr. Haughton the object he had in view in this
question, and the coincidence of the result obtained with the ancient
narrative is therefore the more valuable and curious."
Dr. Haughton read a paper on the mathematics of this complex and
difficult question before the Royal Irish Academy, in May, 1861, in
which he proved that the tide--a neap tide--was full along the Clontarf
shore at about 5h. 30m. a.m., and that the evening tide was full in
about 5h. 55m. p.m. "The truth of the narrative," says Dr. Todd, "is
thus most strikingly established. In the month of April the sun rises
at from 5h. 30m. to 4h.30m. The full tide in the morning therefore
coincided nearly with sunrise; a fact which holds a most important
place in the history of the battle, and proves that our author if not
himself an eye-witness, must have derived his information from those
who were. 'None others,' as Dr. Haughton observes, 'would have invented
the fact that the battle began at sunrise and that the tide was then
full in. The importance of the time of tide became evident at the close
of the day, when the returned tide prevented the escape of the Danes
from the Clontarf shore to the north bank of the Liffey.'"
[26] An ancient Irish missal preserved in the Bodleian contains this
petition for the Irish king and his army, in its Litany for _Easter
Eve_: "Ut regem Hibernensium et exercitum ejus conservare digneris--ut
eis vitam et sanctitatem atque victoriam dones." If this missal is
posterior to 1014 it must have been the reminiscence of Clontarf which
inspired the prayer for the day following the battle. If the missal is
older than the battle, then the coincidence is curious. The prayer was
just a day late. The same missal mentions in its Litanies the names
Patrick, Brendan, Brigit, Columba, Finnian, Ciaran, and St. Fursa, and
contains collect, secret and post communion pro rege [for the Irish
king].
[27] Evidently the interpolation of a copyist.
[28] The family _banshee_ of the Royal house of Munster.
[29] In Irish, Donnchadh, pronounced "Dunnăχa," as Murchadh is
pronounced "Murrăχa," in English Murrough.
[30] It is edited from the Book of Leinster, a MS. which was copied
about 1150, which contains the first 28 chapters, from a vellum of
about two centuries later, which wants five chapters at the beginning
and eight at the end, and from a perfect transcript made by the
indefatigable Brother Michael O'Clery in 1635 "out of the book of
Cuconnacht O'Daly," who died according to the "Four Masters," in 1139.
[31] _I.e._, Beside his fairy lover. This incident is greatly expanded
in the modern MS. story of the Battle of Clontarf, of which there
exist numerous copies; in these the gliding of history into romance is
very apparent. In the modern version the fairy Aoibheall is introduced
begging O'Hartigan not to fight and promising him life and happiness
for two hundred years if he will put off fighting for only one day.
"A Dhunlaing seachain an cath
Gus an mhaidin amárach.
Geobhair da chéad bliadhan de ré
Agus seachain cath aon-laé."
[32] This is genuine, and is also quoted by the "Four Masters" and
O'Clery in his Book of Invasions. Probably all the poems are genuine
except the prophecies and the pieces put into the mouths of the actors,
that is of Brian, Mahon, Molloy, and the cleric. These were probably
composed by the writer of the history.