| Page 23 | |
Cahir Mór, made it his fortress. The story of “Cath Almaine,” the battle of Allen, which is not to be confused with a historic battle in a.d. 722, was when the hero Fergal Mac Máile Dúin fought with the warriors of Leinster. He was slain and his head cut off. The head being where the soul reposes, it was treated well and set up on a pike while Badb, one of the triune goddesses of death and battle, hovered above it in the form of a crow. That evening the head of Donn Bó, who had also been slain and decapitated, began to sing a song of praise for Fergal. Donn Bó had been famed for his song in life.
[W] See Amathaon.
[I] Son of Milesius, a warrior and poet who compares closely to Taliesin in Welsh myth. It is Amairgen who pronounced the first judgment in Ireland and decided that Eremon should be the first Milesian king of the country. Three poems are accredited to Amairgen. The first is his famous and extraordinary incantation to Ireland given in the Leabhar Gabhála (Book of Invasions), in which he subsumes everything into his own being. The philosophical outlook of this poem parallels the Hindu concepts in the Bhagavadgita. More importantly, there is a parallel in the Welsh tradition in Taliesin’s song at Arthur’s court.
A second Amairgen appears in Irish myth in the person of the father of Conall Cearnach and foster father to the poet Athairne. He also is a poet, and during Bricriu’s Feast he boasts of his valour, wisdom, fortune, and eloquence.
[W] The son of Don. He appears in the story about the tasks of Culhwch—some 40 tasks that have to be accomplished in order to win the hand of Olwen. In one case a great hill has to be ploughed, sown, and reaped all in a single day. Only Amathaon is capable of this task, but he refuses. He seems to be a god of agriculture but appears fighting against Bran in the battle of Achren.
[W] Son of Arthur by whom he was slain and buried.
[I] One of four people who survived the Deluge outside Noah’s Ark, the story obviously entering Irish myth with the coming of Christianity.
[W] One of two hunting dogs that can only be held by Cyledyr in the story of Culhwch and Olwen; the other is Aethlem.
[I] See Aonghus.
| |