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Editions

• V. Hull (ed), 'An Incomplete Version of the Imram Brain and Four Stories Concerning Mongan', ZCP xviii (1930) 27-419 (Ad-berad . . . p. 416-417).
• A. Lea (tr), 'Scél asa mBerar Combad hé Find Mac Cumaill Mongán 7 aní día fil Aided Fothaid Airgdig a Scél so sís: A Story from which it is Inferred that Mongán was Find mac Cumaill and Concerning the Cause of the Death of Fothad Airgdech', J. Koch (ed) The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe and Early Ireland & Wales. (Andover, MA 2000) 218-220.
  
• K. Meyer & A. Nutt (ed & tr), The Voyage of Bran.  2 Vols. (London 1895-1897) 45-52 (Vol. I).

Manuscripts

• TCD H.4.22
• Lebor na hUidre (p. 133a)
  
• TCD H.2.16 (p. 912)
• Betham 145 (p. 64)
  
• Egerton 88 (fo. 15b)
  

Date

• Late tenth or early eleventh century (Meyer & Nutt, Vol. I., 5)
  

Characters

• Mongán (d. 625), son of Fíachna mac Báetáin.  In some stories, Mongán is said to be the son of Manannán mac Lir or (as here) to be a reincarnation of Finn mac Cumaill.
• Forgoll, a poet
  
• Find mac Cumaill, leader of the Irish fíana and (here) foster-father of Caílte
• Caílte mac Rónáin, a champion of the fíana and (here) foster-son of Find
• Fothad Airgdech, one of the three Fothaid of the Connacht fíana, the other two being his brothers Fothad Canainne and Fothad Cairptech.
  

Notes

• This narrative is part of the Cycle of Mongán mac Fíachna and the Fenian Cycle.

One day, Mongán asks his poet Forgoll (who has apparently been making a nuisance of himself) about the violent death of Fothad Airgdech.  Forgoll says that the famous hero was killed at Dubthair in Leinster, but Mongán says that he is wrong.  The poet flies into a rage after being contradicted and threatens to satirize Mongán and to blight his land.  Mongán quickly offers to make restitution, but the poet will have nothing save Breothigernd, Mongán’s wife, as his compensation.  Mongán agrees but with the stipulation that he can redeem her before three days have passed.

When the third day arrives, Breothigernd is inconsolable.  Mongán, however, tells her not to despair, for a man is coming to help them.  Soon, a stranger carrying a spear-shaft without a head (dícheltair) makes a series of dramatic leaps over the ramparts of Ráth Mór and lands in the king's house.  Informed of the situation, the stranger claims that Forgoll is wrong and he can prove it.  He says that he himself was with Mongán, whom he calls Find, when the fíana met Fothad in battle near the Ollorba River.  There, the stranger killed Fothad by throwing a spear clean through him till the spearhead lodged in the ground behind him.  The stranger shows them the headless spear-shaft in his hand and then tells them where they can find Fothad’s grave and the missing spearhead.  These items are subsequently found, just as the stranger said, and (presumably) Breothigernd is redeemed.

The story ends by saying that the stranger was Caílte mac Rónáin, a famous Fenian hero, and that Mongán was the reincarnation of Find mac Cumaill, although he did not want people to know that.