Irish Myth: Historical Cycle Trivia Quiz

Answer: Married his aunt.

Cobthach the Meager, king of Bregia, coveted his brother Loegaire Lorc's position as High King of Erin. He feigned his own death so as to have an opportunity to murder Loegaire at the funeral. He then poisoned Loegaire's son Ailill Ane. Ailill's son Moen Ollam, known as Labraid Loingsech, was merely exiled, as his second cognomen implies ('exiled' in the Irish). Labraid eventually returned with 2,200 spearmen and took Cobthach's seat at Dinn Rig, whereupon he roasted his great-uncle and hundreds of those loyal to him, including thirty petty kings, in a giant oven. Labraid's own mother was roasted as well.

Answer: true, but they both died first

Baile was told, falsely (by a stranger or perhaps a ghost), that Ailinn was dead, and died of grief. Upon hearing of Baile's death, Ailinn in turn pined away until she died. A yew tree grew from Baile's grave, with a likeness of his face in its {branches;} an apple tree with Ailinn's face grew from hers. Both trees were made into writing tablets, and both were inscribed with love poetry.

The two tablets were thrown together and interleaved at a Samhain festival, and were brought, together, to the Ulster treasury at Tara.

Answer: Disappeared in a crystal boat with a fairy woman, never to be seen again

A supernaturally beautiful woman appeared to Conla in his father's hall, but although her voice could be heard by all, none but Conla could see her. She offered to bring him to the land of the Fairy, where he could live forever. Conn, mistrustful of mystic temptresses, had his druid drive the apparition {off;} before departing she gave Conla an apple which was sufficient to sustain him without other food for a month (a recurring trope of the Irish myths, and perhaps related to the soma-like berries of wisdom I discuss in more detail in my notes to Question 9 below).

At the end of the month she returned, and Conla could not be dissuaded from accompanying her.

Answer: The vengeful nature of a fairy harpist with quick hands and a sharp knife

The fairies resented the use of their mound for grazing, and so Fairy King Eoghanach laid it waste on three consecutive Samhains. King Ailill waited with his henchman Ferchess on the fourth Samhain, and observed three fairy-folk grazing their hornless cows on the mound. Unjustifiably possessive of the grazing rights, Ailill and Ferchess fell upon the fairy folk. Eoghanach was killed by Ferchess, and Eoghanach's son, the harpist Fer Fi, was driven off. Ailill violated Eoghanach's foster-daughter Aine, so she cut off his ear with her knife, whereupon he killed her with his spear.

Answer: He learned to play the harp so as to induce magical slumber.

Olc Aiche the smith-druid gave his daughter for a night to Art mac Conn because he wanted a royal grandchild. Soon after the boy Cormac was born, some versions of the tale have it that Olc Aiche placed five protective bands upon him, 'against slaying, drowning, fire, sorcery, wolves, against every evil.' In any event, soon afterwards Cormac was stolen from his mother Achtan by a she-wolf, who suckled him. Luigne Fer Tri later found the boy playing with wolf-pups in front of a cave, and took him in as foster-son.

When the boy was old enough to handle himself, Luigne brought him to Tara, where Lugaid mac Con reigned as king. ...Interestingly, mac Con got his name (literally, 'son of a bitch') from having been suckled as an infant by a dog himself.

Answer: Cormac slew the pretender king in single combat.

A woman's sheep grazed the queen's {woad;} in recompense, King Lugaid awarded his queen the sheep. Cormac corrected the harsh judgment, holding that 'More fitting would be one shearing for another' -- in other words, that the queen should get only the sheep's wool.

The judgment was seen as so sound that the half of the house in which the false judgment had been pronounced collapsed. According to some versions, Lugaid was so impressed he abdicated in favor of {Cormac;} according to others, Lugaid was expelled in Cormac's favor by popular will. (Wolf-boy thus succeeded dog-boy, and please see my quiz on 'Feral Children in Legend, Literature -- and Life' for many other examples of this sort of thing.) In any event, pursuant to operation of prophecy, Erin began to prosper once again after Cormac's ascension: rivers teemed with fish, droughts ended, etc.

Answer: Eithne daughter of Cathaer Mor

Eithne was the daughter of King Cathaer Mor, but was fostered to Buchet of Leinster. Eithne's brothers, uncontrollable by their doddering father, essentially drove Buchet and his household, including Eithne, out into the wilderness, where Cormac came upon them. Cormac asked Buchet for her hand, but Buchet had no authority to grant his consent, so the young lovers eloped. (Olwen was Welsh, as her name implies, and a giantess. Cailleach Bheur was (in Milton's phrase) the 'blew meager hag' of the Scottish Highlands, thought to have been a minor goddess before the Celts, remembered by them only as a witchy supernatural being. Tlachtga was an enchantress associated with Simon Magus.)

Answer: Congal Claen of Ulster slew Domnall mac Aedh of the Gaels

In 628, Congal Claen (Congal One-Eye, sometimes called Congal Squint-Eye, due to a bee-sting) of Ulster slew Suibne Menn of the Gaels. Domnall succeeded Suibne Menn. Domnall and Congal battled at Dun Cethirn, and Congal was defeated. Congal fled to the Scottish kingdom of Dal Riada, and enlisted the aid of King Domnall Brecc.

There Congal engineered an alliance among Picts, Saxons and Welsh, and returned to Ireland proper with a massive army. The battle that ensued in 637 is estimated to have been the largest battle ever fought on Irish {soil;} the skeletons of men and horses slain there still turn up today when highways are built in Ulster.

At the end of the day, Congal was slain by Domnall mac Aedh. Suibne (Sweeney) the Madman went mad, pursuant to the operations of the curse of St. Ronan, and as a result wrote many poems which survive to the present. Cennfaelad received a wound which, according to Cennfaelad, caused the part of his brain which caused him to forget to leak out of his head.

It is told that he was trepanned by St. Bricin, after which he was able to remember every word of all he had been taught, and was able to commit to writing much poetry and law which had until then only been learned and communicated orally.

Answer: Ends with the slaying of his father's killers

A druid prophesied that Maeldun must find his father's slayers by setting off for their island with no more than 17 men. But Maeldun's three foster-brothers swam after him, and rather than let them drown, Maeldun took them aboard. The result was that he was doomed to a fantastic Odyssey before he could land on the proper island.

When finally he got there, he forgave the murderers upon whom he had intended vengeance, having been mellowed by his wild experiences. The tale shows elements of pre-Christian, perhaps even pre-Celt ritual and knowledge -- i.e., ritual and wisdom associated with psychedelic fruit (a red berry or nut, like the hazelnuts of wisdom whose juices were consumed by Finn mac Cumhaill) whose consumption leads to special knowledge -- as well as elements of Christian faith -- i.e., the advice Maeldun receives from various monastics and anchorites. Both sources of wisdom probably contributed to Maeldun's enlightenment. Or maybe he was just tired after his long trip.

Answer: Anier satirized the Abbott of the neighboring monstery still more severely.

Anier kept himself alive by extracting a pledge to permit him to eat his viaticum, then insisting it was his sacred practice to digest it over nine days and nights, praying. Then an angel sent him a vision describing how to free King Cathal from the gluttonous demon that tormented him with hunger.

His reward for driving out the demon was both his freedom and the precious cloak belonging to the Abbott.