Kings Home

Updates

The Sagas

The Kings

The Dynasties

Copyright Information

Early Irish Literature Links

D. Wiley Homepage

Hastings College

Contact

Editions

• J. O’Donovan (ed & tr), Annals of Ireland: Three Fragments (Dublin 1860)
• J. N. Radner (ed & tr), Fragmentary Annals of Ireland (Dublin 1978) 4-9.
  

Manuscripts

• Brussels MS 5301-5320
  

Date

• Early Modern Irish in its present form and not likely to be a modernization of a much earlier text according to Radner 1978.
  

Characters

• Áed Uaridnach mac Domnaill (d. 612), king of Tara from the Cenél nÉogain branch of the Northern Uí Néill.

• Muru Othna (d. c. 650), an obscure early Irish saint from Cenél nÉogain.
  

Notes

• This story, which survives only as part of the Fragmentary Annals, provides yet another example of the bizarre piety occasionally met with in Medieval Literature.  (One is reminded of the Blessed Angela of Foligno (1248–1309) who drank the water in which she bathed a leper.)

• It is also an example of a very common theme in early Irish literature, in which a nobleman becomes king through the intercession of a saint but loses it (and his life) some time later by offending God.
  

Summary

While traveling through Othan Muru, Áed Uaridnach stopped and washed his hands and face in the River Othan.  A warrior who was with him told him not to do that since the cleric Muru had his privy (fíaltech) over that river.  Áed, however, was not put off and even went so far as to take three gulps of the water, for, as he said, ‘the water into which his faeces go is a sacrament to me’ (as sacarbaicc leam an t-uisce i ttéid a imthelgum).

When Muru got wind of that, he called Áed to him and promised him the kingship of Tara, victory over his enemies, and a death in old age.  Soon, Áed did, in fact, become king, and when he did, he granted some fertile lands to Muru.

Long before he reached old age, however, Áed was stricken with a mortal illness (gallar báis).  He summoned Muru to him and told the cleric that he had neglected his penance, since the saint had promised him a long life.  Muru asked the king to confess his sins, and Áed admitted to a couple sins of pride, but the cleric said those were not the cause of his illness.  Finally, Áed confessed his abiding hatred of the Laigin and his desire to exterminate their men and enslave their women.  This was the cause of his illness, for, as Muru said, the prayers of Brigit were stronger than his own.  Muru then advised him to make a sacrifice to God (which presumably the king did).  Áed was anointed and given communion.  He then died and went straight to heaven.