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Editions

• W. Stokes (ed. & tr.), ‘A Note about Fiacha Muillethan’, RC 11 (1890) 41-5.

Manuscripts

• The Book of Lecan, p. 337
  

Date

• Middle Irish, likely later rather than earlier
  

Characters

• Éogan Mór: the son of Ailill Ólomm and the king of Munster.  He is an ancestor of the Éoganachta.
  

• Tréith mac Da Chrega: a druid and the father of Moncha

• Moncha: the mother of Fíacha Muillethan

• Fíacha Muillethan: the son of Éogan Mór and Moncha and later king of Munster.

• Cormac Cas: the son of Ailill Ólomm and king of Munster.  He is regarded as the ancestor of Dál Cais.

• Mog Ruith: a famous Munster thaumaturge.  He is regarded as the ancestor of the Fir Maige Féne.

Notes

• There are a number of different versions of the birth of Fíacha Muillethan: this independent narrative from the Book of Lecan, Cóir Anmann § 42, Cath Maige Mucrama §§ 39-43, and the opening paragraph of Scéla Éogain 7 Cormaic.  All these versions tell essentially the same story, although they vary in word choice and in detail.

• This story is fascinating for what it suggests about the role human actions play in the fulfillment of destiny.

Summary

En route to the Battle of Mag Mucrama, Éogan Mór spends the night at the house of Tréith mac Da Chrega, who has a daughter named Moncha.  Éogan asks Tréith if he can sleep with the girl, and Tréith agrees telling Moncha that she will bear a son who is destined to become the king of Munster and the progenitor of a long line of kings.

That night, Moncha sleeps with Éogan and nine months later she goes into labor.  However, her father tells her that, if she should give birth right then, her son would only be the son of a druid (bid clann druad), but if she should give birth to him upon the morrow, he would be a king and his descendants would be royal (bid ríg in mac 7 bid rígda a cland).  Moncha vows to delay the birth, and on the next day, she gives birth to Fíachu Muillethan ‘broad-crowed’, so called because his head flattened out on the stone his mother straddled to delay his birth.

Years later after the death of Cormac Cas, Fíacha assumes the kingship of the province.  Some time later, Cormac mac Airt invades Munster, and Fíacha sends for Mog Ruith, the famous Munster druid, and promises him land in exchange for helping him repel Cormac.  With the druid’s assistance, Cormac is defeated and forced to give hostages to Fíacha.

The story ends by noting that Fíacha is also called Fíacha Fer dá Líach ‘a man of two sorrows’: the first, the death of his father at the battle of Mag Murcama and the second, the death of his mother in childbirth.