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*Fáitsine
Fergaile meic Máele Dúin
*"Fergal mac Máele Dúin's Prophecy"Editions
- J. O'Donovan (ed & tr), Annals of Ireland: Three Fragments (Dublin
1860).
- J. N. Radner (ed & tr), Fragmentary Annals of Ireland
(Dublin 1978) 60-66.
Manuscripts
Date
- The Fragmentary Annals make use of sources of varying
dates, but its language has been modernized (Early Modern Irish).
See Radner's introduction for details.
Characters
- Fergal mac Máele Dúin (710-722), king of
Ireland from Cenél nÉogain (a branch of the Northern
Uí Néill)
- Áed Allán (734-743), son of Fergal and king
of Ireland
- Níall Frossach (763-?, d. 778), son of Fergal and
king of Ireland. The date of his abdication is not certain.
- Congal Cennmagair (704-710), father of Fergal's wife and
king of Ireland from Cenél Conaill (a branch of the northern
Uí Néill)
Notes
- As Radner points out (p. 193), the purpose of this story is
to explain why Cenél nÉogain kings of Tara descend from
the younger rather than the elder son of Fergal.
- Also included are the birth tales of Áed
Allán and Níall Frossach.
Summary
In 721, Áed Allán and Níall Frossach visit their
father Fergal mac Máele Dúin, king of Ireland, at Ailech
Frigrenn. That night, Fergal finds Áed Allán and
his men drinking heavily but Níall and his men praying and
singing hymns. The next morning, Fergal foretells that Áed
will be a violent king, but Níall will be pious and just, and as
a result, all subsequent kings of Tara from their dynasty (Cenél
nÉogain) will descend from him rather than from Áed.
Áed's mother was a nun and the daughter of Congal Cennmagair,
king of Ireland. When she and Fergal fell in love, they took
pains to conceal their affair from her father. However, they were
betrayed by their go-between who led Congal in a rage to the house in
which they were meeting. Fergal hid under the blankets and the
woman sat on top of him, so that her father failed to find them
together when he entered. Congal then apologized to
his daughter for his suspicions and ordered the treacherous go-between
drowned. Nevertheless, that night his daughter conceived Áed
Allán. Later when he was born, she turned him over to two
women with orders to drown him. However, one of the women was a
relative of Fergal, and she decided to rear the child in secret.
Four years later, Áed's mother found out that he was not dead
when she happened upon the place where he was playing. She
rewarded the women who disobeyed her orders to kill the child and then
sent him to Fergal.
Níall Frossach's mother was the daughter of the king of the
Cíannachta and Fergal's wife. She had been barren till she
asked Luaithrinn, a nun, to pray for her. After that, she
conceived and bore Níall.
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