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"The Otherworld Adventure of Láegaire mac Crimthainn"

Editions

• T. P. Cross (ed & tr), 'Laegaire mac Crimthainn's Visit to Fairyland', Modern Philology xiii (1916) 731-739.
  
• K. Jackson (ed & tr), 'The Adventure of Laeghaire mac Crimhthainn', Speculum 17 (1942) 377-389.
  
• M. Joynt, The Golden Legends of the Gael (Dublin, not dated), Part I, 45 ff. (a free translation).
• S. H. O'Grady (ed & tr), Silva Gadelica. 2 Vols. (London 1892) I, 256 (text), II, 290 (translation).
  

Manuscripts

• The Book of Lismore (fol. 125)
• The Book of Leinster (fols. 275b-276b)
  

Date

• "Apart from modernizations, the language of the prose parts is still good Old Irish, probably of the second half of the ninth century" (Jackson 377).
• "In general, the verse seems to be very early Middle Irish rather than late Old. . . .  The second quarter or middle of the tenth century seems a likely date" (Jackson 378).
  

Characters

• Láegaire mac Crimthainn
• Crimthann Cas, father of Láegaire and king of Connacht.  (His dynastic affiliations are unclear, but he is probably of the prehistoric Connachta.)
  

• This is the only extant narrative in which Laegaire mac Crimthainn plays a major role.
• The poetry, which was composed later than the prose, only appears in the Book of Leinster copy.
• The story itself has much in common with the other Echtrai or "Otherworld Adventures."
• Mag Mell, the "Plain of Delights," is a common name for the Otherworld in early Irish literature.
  

On the morning after an assembly at Énloch (Co. Roscommon), the men of Connacht see a man dressed in expensive clothing approaching them through the mist.  After being welcomed by Láegaire, the stranger explains that he is Fíachna mac Rétach of the Otherworld and that he has come to ask the men of Connacht for troops to help him win back his wife.  She was first abducted by Eochaid mac Sáil, but when Fíachna killed him in battle, she went to Goll mac Duilb (Eochaid’s nephew) in Dún Maige Mell.  Fíachna has besieged this fort seven times without success and is obliged to fight again that very day.  He promises to give gold and silver to any who would help him.  Fíachna then chants a poem about the prowess of otherworldly warriors.

As Fíachna walks away, Láegaire runs after him with fifty men and follow him beneath the surface of the lake (presumably Énloch).  There they see the battlelines already drawn up with Fíachna’s forces on one side, Goll’s on the other.  Both sides taunt one another and then the battle is joined.  Láegaire and his men kill Goll and all his soldiers without suffering a single casualty.  He then joins the siege of Dún Maige Mell and demands that Osnad ingen Echach Amlabair, Fíachna’s wife, be released now that Goll, their king, is dead.  When Osnad comes out, she chants a poem about how she loved her captors--Eochaid and Goll--but is now ready to return to Fíachna.  (It seems she was a willing participant in her own abduction.)

Láegaire returns Osnad to Fíachna and that night he sleeps with (i.e. marries) Dér Gréine, Fíachna’s daughter.  Upon the morrow, Láegaire wishes to get news of his own people, and Fíachna gives him and his men horses for the journey.  However, if they wish to return to Mag Mell, Fíachna says, they must not dismount.  When Láegaire and his men return to the site of the assembly at Énloch, they find out that an entire year has passed, though it seemed to them only a day.  Crimthann begs his son to stay, but Láegaire chants a poem extolling the virtues of the Otherworld.  He then returns to the Otherworld where he shares the kingship with Fíachna, and he has not come out since.