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Editions

• D. A. Binchy (ed.), Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin (Dublin 1975).

• K. Meyer (ed.), ‘Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin’, in O. J. Bergin et al. eds, Anecdota from Irish Manuscripts I (Dublin 1901) 1-15.

• R. Thurneysen (tr.), ‘Eine irische Parallele zur Tristan-Sage’, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie xliii (1924) 385-402.

Manuscripts

• The Yellow Book of Lecan, cols. 786-94.
  

Date

• ‘Basically the language of our text, prose and verse alike, is Old Irish, but it is not earlier than the second half of the ninth century’ (Binchy xiv).  However, as Binchy admits, it contains a number of later forms.
  

Characters

• Cano mac Gartnáin (d. 688): king of Scottish Dál Ríata and the grandson of Áedán mac Gabráin (d. 606) of Dál Ríata.  In the present text, however, Cano is said to be the grandson of Áedán’s brother Áed mac Gabráin, whom Binchy regards as a fictitious person.

• Díarmait and Bláthmac (d. 665): both sons of Áed Sláine and joint kings of Tara from Síl nÁedo Sláine (a branch of the Southern Uí Néill)

• Guaire Aidne (d. c. 663): king of Connacht from the Uí Fíachrach Aidne and the father of Créd

• Créd: the daughter of Guaire and Cano’s love interest

• Senchán: Guaire’s court poet

• Marcán mac Tommáin (d. 653): king of the Uí Maine and the husband of Créd

• Colcu mac Marcáin: the son of Marcán and the adversary of Cano

• Illand mac Scanláin: king of the Corco Loígde (but see Binchy p. xxiv)
  

Notes

• The story is premised on the famous exile-and-return formula that is used as the basis of a number of king-tales written in medieval Europe.

• A lot of the scholarship on this story has centered on the romance of Cano and Créd and its possible relationship to the Tristan story.

• Concerning the genre of SCmG, Binchy remarks that ‘the story of Cano is possibly the earliest example in Irish of the “historical romance” in which fragments of ancient legend are affixed to a definite historical character’ (xvii).

• The historical premise of the tale, however, contains a number of anachronisms and fabrications (See Binchy 1975 xvii ff.)

Summary

Áedán and Gartnán are fighting for the kingdom of Scotland.  One night, Áedán attacks Gartnán at his home on Skye and kills him and his men.  Cano, Gartnán’s son, flees to Ireland with a force of fifty warriors and fifty servants.

Cano and his men are welcomed by Díarmait and Bláthmac, the two sons of Áed Sláine and the joint-kings of Tara.  Áedán, however, sends a messenger to Ireland in an attempt to bride the kings to kill their guest.  His attempt, though, proves unsuccessful because Díarmait’s daughter, who has been in love with Cano since before they met, learns of the plot and tells him.  Cano goes to Díarmait and Bláthmac, but they assure him that they have no intention of killing him.  Bláthmac even advises Cano to pursue Áedán’s messenger and kill him as soon as he crosses the border.  Cano does overtake the messenger at sea but decides to let him go.  Later, Díarmait praises Cano for his ‘forbearance’ (ainmne) and tells him that God has revealed that Cano will one day be king of Scotland and that he will rule for twenty-four years.

Cano then goes into Connacht where he stays at the house of Marcán, who is the husband of Créd, the daughter of Guaire Aidne.  Créd is in love with Cano who seeks her projection on his journey to her father’s court.

Cano then stays three months with Guaire and his poet Senchán, who objects to the king supporting Cano and his men on their resources.  Senchán causes Cano and his men some trouble during a hunting expedition, and so Cano decides to leave Guaire’s court and stay with Illand mac Scandláin, the king of Corcu Loígde, in Munster.  During their final feast at Guaire’s court, Créd puts a sleeping spell (bricht súain) on everyone present except for herself and Cano.  She wants him to be her lover, but Cano refuses so long as he is in exile.  However, he says that if he becomes king, he will make her his wife.  He gives her a stone which came out of his mother’s mouth and which contains his life-force (is issin liic ro-buí a anim), as a token of his promise.

Cano and his men are given a warm welcome by Illand and promised a great deal of provisions to maintain them.  During their three-year sojourn in Corco Loígde, Cano and his men consume a good deal of Illand’s stores.  Then, hostages arrive from Scotland promising Cano the kingship.  Illand is sad to see him leave but gives him lavish going-away presents.

A year after Cano has taken the kingship, he sees a bloody wave wash up to his curach while he is out fishing.  He realizes that it is an omen and that Illand has been slain (as it turns out by his own kin).  Cano then gathers a host of Saxons, Britons, and Scotsmen and invades Corco Loíge, where he avenges Illand’s death and makes his son king.  Afterwards, he returns to Scotland.

Each year, he attempts to meet Créd at Inber Colptha, but he is always thwarted by Colcu mac Marcáin.  Then one year, the lovers attempt to meet at Loch Créda.  Colcu again intercepts Cano.  There is a fight and Cano is wounded.  However, when Créd catches sight of his face, she assumes the worst and smashes her skull against a rock.  In the process, though, the stone that contains Cano’s life-force is also broken, and Cano himself dies within a few days.