Gallicenae (52 page)

Conduct of the Ulati:
Tradition does not say that the upper classes in Ulster were especially oppressive. However, the Uí Néill seem to have had little difficulty in keeping the Aregésla (or Airgialla), about whom more later, a puppet power. This has given some modern writers the idea that a malcontent population was present in the first place—a suggestion we have followed. Granted, at the worst the yoke would have been far lighter than that upon the peoples of the Roman Empire or, for that matter, virtually everybody today. The Irish aristocrats were not saints or libertarians, but they lacked the apparatus available to organized governments.

Starving:
Among the early Irish, a man who had a grievance against one more powerful, and could not otherwise get redress, often sat down at the door of the latter and fasted. If this did not shame the second party into making a settlement, then he too was expected to deny himself food, and it became an endurance contest.

Sinand:
The River Shannon. The territory we have described Niall as taking includes present-day County Cavan and part of Monaghan. Of course, our depiction of events is purely conjectural, and some modern scholars deny that it could have happened this way at all.

Mag Slecht:
The “Plain of Prostrations,” In County Cavan, where stood the idols of Cromb Cróche (or Crom Cruach) and his twelve attendants. The chronicles say these were the most powerful and revered gods in Ireland until St. Patrick overthrew them.

The lunar eclipse:
This took place on 13 July 390 (Gregorian calendar).

The comet of 390:
It is recorded as having been visible from 22 August to 17 September (Gregorian dates). The magnitude is not known, but it was presumably conspicuous.

Polaris:
Prior to the development of elevators, locations in a tall building were less desirable the farther up they were. Structures of this height were forbidden in Rome as being too hazardous, but we suppose the Ysans had more confidence in their architects, and knew how to make self-bracing frameworks.

Corentinus’s sermon:
Few if any Christians of this period denied the reality of pagan gods. Sometimes they were considered to be mere euhemerizations, but oftener demons or, at best, beings with certain powers and perhaps without evil intentions, to whom it was nevertheless wrong to pay divine honors.

XIII

Lúgnassat
(later
Lugnasad):
A harvest festival taking its name from the god Lug. In Christian times it occurred on 1 August. The English know it as Lammas, though that name has another derivation. Lacking the Roman calendar, the pagan Celts must have set the date some other way; we guess that the moon helped determine it.

Fairs:
The ancient Irish held a number of such events, at various localities each year. Religious as well as secular, they were open to all.

Cromb Cróche and the death of Domnuald:
Our description of the sanctuary and the ceremonies that took place there is conjectural, though based on the chronicles, on local traditions in the area said to have held it, and on similar things in other milieus. Domnuald and his fate are imaginary, but the story does go that the slaying of a son of his made Niall ready to kill the hostages he had from the folk of the murderers.

Éricc
(later
eraic):
Akin to the Teutonic weregild, a payment to an injured party of his heirs, the amount depending on the actual harm done and the possible provocation.

Honor price:
Unlike the Germanic peoples, the Irish made some effort to equalize justice between rich and poor. A man of rank, who owed an éricc, must pay in addition an amount of goods which increased with his social standing.

Clón Tarui:
Now Clontarf, a district of Dublin.

Tallten:
Now Teltown, on the River Blackwater in County Meath. Our description of the size and importance of the fair
(óenach)
there is not exaggerated; like its counterparts, it continued for centuries
after Ireland became Christian, so reliable records exist. That an eponymous goddess should have been buried at the site is not unique. For example, though the Nordic god Baldr died in the early days of the world, he seems to have had a cult.

The Dagdae
(later
Dagda):
A god especially wise. His well is our invention.

Mag Mell:
The Plain of Honey, one of the paradises that Celtic myth located afar in the western ocean. Sometimes the name was applied to all of them together. The Celts do not appear to have had any clear or consistent ideas about an afterlife. There are mentions of favored persons whose souls were borne west to abide a while before returning and being reincarnated. Probably the most usual supposition was that the dead inhabited their graves, coming out to spook around on the eves of Beltene and Samain.

Irish arts and crafts:
The glorious works that remain to us prove that, for all its violence and technological backwardness, this society had as keen a sense for beauty as ever the Greeks did.

Expulsion of the Irish from Wales:
This is attested.

Eóganachta:
The royal family, or rather set of families claiming a common ancestor, in Munster.

Tanist:
The heir apparent of an Irish king, chosen well beforehand. It was doubtless done in the hope of an orderly succession. Any man with royal blood and no physical impairment, whether born in or out of wedlock, could become king if he had the power to enforce his claim. This could easily lead to war between rival pretenders. The laws and institutions of Rome had decayed so far that the Empire must needs invent something of the kind for itself, the Caesar associated with the Augustus.

Nath Í:
Tradition says that this nephew of Niall succeeded him. The medieval account of his career creates so many chronological problems that several modern scholars have decided he must be purely fictional and that Niall—if he himself ever lived—should be dated a generation later than he is in the chronicles. It may be; or it may not. Given all the uncertainties, we have felt free to stay with the tradition, which better fits our story, and to put in modifications or new material of our own. The contradictions in the sources
could
mainly be due to their authors, drawing on oral history handed down for lifetimes, getting different persons and their acts confused with each other.

The Walls of the Ulati:
Known as the Black Pig’s Dyke, remnants of ancient fortifications—earthen walls and fosses—occur approximately along the southern boundary of Ulster. They may have been raised in imitation of Roman works, or they may be older than that. They were probably not a continuous line of defense, but rather a set of strongpoints for controlling movement along the main routes of travel. Elsewhere, forest, bog and other natural obstacles would have sufficiently hindered invaders or retreating cattle rustlers.
Commandments and prohibitions laid on royal persons:
Those mentioned here are in the annals. A taboo applying to an individual or a class of people was known as a
gess
(later
geas),
plural
gessa.

The redemption of the hostages:
This is in the tradition, though it does not state where they were from. We have put the incident just after Lúgnassat, partly so we could describe a little of the fair, partly because the chronicles say that the Rock of Cashel was revealed “when the leaves were yellow,” which must have been in autumn.

Darioritum (Venetorum):
Vannes.

Tambilis and Gratillonius:
Most peoples, including our own until recent times, have considered a girl of sixteen to be nubile.

Veneti:
A tribe in southern Brittany. Under the Empire, tribes had no independence and their identities gradually eroded, but they did constitute units of local government, not totally unlike American states.

XIV

The Síd Drommen
(or
Sídtie-Druimm):
This is one of several names the great rock originally bore. They all suggest the supernatural.

The finding of Cashel:
We have tried to synthesize the legends, omitting Christian elements that the chroniclers inserted. There are enough pagan ones. Swine were anciently associated with the dead, which may be why kings could not own them. The yew, one of the three trees the Irish held sacred (together with the hazel and the rowan), was a patron of the Eóganachta; the name of their ancestor, Eógan, means “yew.” At his ceremony of accession, a new king always stood on a flagstone
(lecc).

The career of Conual:
It is not known when or how Cashel and the kingdom that grew from it were actually founded. We have followed tradition as far as possible, including parts that some modern scholars hold to be purely mythical. For example, Byrne considers Conual’s second wife, Amend, a humanized sun goddess, daughter of the lightning (Bolg). That may be. Yet it seems quite plausible that Conual made a political marriage, and that his early successes were in large part due to the awe inspired by the seemingly supernatural circumstances of his advent—circumstances that may have been accidental or may have been engineered, but that he, who had been exposed to Roman civilization, was quick to take advantage of. Some authorities suggest that he was a Christian. We suppose not, if only because the chronicles declare that his grandson was the first king of Cashel to take the Faith, and the tale of that baptism by St. Patrick is too delightful to give up willingly. Hardly any historian disputes that a Roman-style fortress was erected on the outcrop sometime in the late fourth or early fifth century; that the name Cassel, later Caisel, now Cashel, derives from Latin
Castellum,
meaning such a stronghold; and that from this nucleus developed
the kingdom of Munster. Eventually deeded to the Church, the rock became an important ecclesiastical site.

Aregésla
(later
Airgialta):
Occupying, approximately, what are now Counties Monaghan, Cavan, and Leitrim, this kingdom does appear to have been established as a puppet of Niall or his sons. Our account of the founding is conjectural. Giving local chieftains authority over the rites of Mag Slecht would not have debarred the kings of Tara from that ready access to Crom Cruach which the legend of St. Patrick says they had.

Niall of the Nine Hostages:
By this name is the ancestor of the Uí Néill dynasties known to history. Just when or how he got the sobriquet is unknown. At any given time, any king of importance surely held more than nine individual hostages. Hence the reference must be to some who were especially significant. According to one chronicle, Niall had them from each of the Fifths of Ireland, and four from Britain; according to another, besides the five Irish, they were from Scotland (the Picts), the Britons, the Saxons, and the Franks. This makes little or no sense. For once we go along with modern commentators and suppose that the nine were of the Aregésla, whose establishment as subordinate allies marked a turning part in the destiny of the Uí Néill.

The hallowing of the newborn:
There is no reason why a healthy woman who has given birth should not get up and walk about, at least for fairly short distances, a few hours later.

Niall Náegéslach
(later
Nóigiallach):
Niall of the Nine Hostages. It is our conjecture that he took advantage of Stilicho’s departure to ravage Britain and so assert his power in the face of Conual Corcc’s spectacular successes. It squares with the tradition. Certainly Scotic raids increased about this time.

The Loógis:
Presumably this set of tribes gave their name to present-day County Laoighis; but the sources indicate that they held the western frontiers of Leinster as far down as the sea.

Ossraige:
A kingdom occupying the western parts of what are now Counties Laoighis and Kilkenny. Apparently it had a subordinate relation to the Leinster high kings, somewhat like that of the Aregésla to the Uí Néill.

The origin of the Lagini:
We repeat the legends.

Dun Alinni:
Near present-day Kildare.

Fomóri:
A legendary race who harassed the Firi Bolg in ancient times and whom the Children of Danu expelled.

Eochaid’s raid:
This, and its aftermath, are traditional tales, though of course we have filled in many details as best we could.

XV

Menstrual pad:
Today’s convenient sanitary napkins and tampons are quite a recent development, but people have always had the problem
to cope with as best they could, and we may suppose the upper-class Ysan women had arrangements available to them that were better than most.

Vervain:
Now more commonly known as verbena. Both the Romans and the Gauls credited it with numerous wonderful properties.

Irish gold:
The country was rich in this metal, though in the course of centuries the sources would be exhausted.

Praetorian prefect:
For some discussion of this high office, see the notes to
Roma Mater.

Salomon:
A form of the name closer to the original than “Solomon” and still common on the Continent. The early Church made little use of the Old Testament, except for a few lyrical and prophetic parts, so it is natural that Gratillonius would be ignorant of ancient Jewish history, while a scholarly sort like Apuleius could be well versed in it.

XVI

Carsa:
Another conjectural family name. We fancy that it could relate to Carsac, a village in the Dordogne where we have spent pleasant days.

Cadurci:
A Gallic tribe inhabiting the Dordogne.

Garumna:
The River Garonne.

The Armorican run:
Archeological evidence shows that commerce was still going on between southern France and Brittany.

The shipping season:
In the ancient world, this was generally from April through October. The virtual cessation of maritime traffic in the winter was less for fear of storms—most ships were quite seaworthy—than because weather made navigation difficult.