Wars of the Irish Kings (22 page)

The battalions were now arranged and drawn up on both sides, in such order and in such manner, that a four-horsed chariot could run from one end to the other of the line, on both sides [on the heads of the soldiers standing in line]; and the battalions then made a stout, furious, barbarous, smashing onset on each other. But, alas! these were the faces of foes in battle-field, and not the faces of friends at a feast. And each party of them remembered their ancient animosities towards each other, and each party of them attacked the other. And it will be one of the wonders of the day of judgment to relate the description of this tremendous onset. And there arose a wild, impetuous, precipitate, furious, dark, frightful, voracious, merciless, combative, contentious, vulture, screaming and fluttering over their heads. And there arose also the satyrs, and the idiots, and the maniacs of the valleys, and the witches, and the goblins, and the ancient birds, and the destroying demons of the air and of the firmament, and the feeble demoniac phantom host; and they were screaming and comparing the valour and combat of both parties.

First then were drawn up there, Domhnall, son of Eimin, high steward of Alban, on Brian’s side, and Plait, son of the king of Lochlainn, brave champion of the foreigners; because of Plait having said the night before, that there was not a man in Erinn who was able to fight him, Domhnall, the son of Eimhin, immediately took him up, and each of them remembered this in the morning. Then Plait came forth from the battalion
of the men in armour, and said three times,
“Faras Domhnall,”
that is, “where is Domhnall?” Domhnall answered and said, “Here, thou reptile,” said he. They fought then, and each of them endeavoured to slaughter the other; and they fell by each other, and the way that they fell was, with the sword of each through the heart of the other; and the hair of each in the clinched hand of the other. And the combat of that pair was the first [of the battle].

The person who was on the flank of the battalion of the pirates, was Dunnall, son of Tuathal, king of Liphe, with ten hundred men armed for battle. There met him on the flank of Brian’s forces, against these, their equal in numbers and in might, namely, Ferghail Ua Ruairc, and Domhnall, son of Raghallach; and Gilla-na-Noemh, son of Domhnall O’Ferghail, and the nobles of the Ui Briuin and Conmaicni also. But now these attacked each other, and they detached themselves from the great body of the army, until there was the distance of a bow shot between them, on the north side of the great body; and they began to stab and hew each other. But these parties were equally matched in arms, in vesture, and in appearance. And none of them paid any attention to any evil that was done at Cluain-Tarbh on that day, excepting the evil and contention which they mutually occasioned against each other.

But they very nearly killed each other altogether; and historians do not relate that there survived of the Ui Briuin and Conmaicni, more than one hundred, with Ferghal Ua Ruairc; and the entire of the Ui Cendselaigh were routed there; and they were afterwards pursued to the battalion of the mail-clad men; for there was a wood of shelter near them, and they were in order of battle with their backs towards them; and it was then that nine of the household of Ferghal overtook Dunlang, the son of Tuathal, and killed him; and Mac an Trin, who was the captain of Ferghal’s household, beheaded him, and he brought the head to Ferghal to congratulate him on it. And they went then, the few of them that were left, into Brian’s battalion, and behind Murchadh’s standard; and they had Ferghal’s standard floating there, after the fall of all their other standards, and the killing of their chiefs, namely, ten standards and three score.

Then the fearful, murderous, hard-hearted, terrific, vehement, impetuous, battalion of the Danmarkians, and the vehement, irresistible, unanswerable phalanx; and the fine, intelligent, acute, fierce, valorous, mighty, royal, gifted, renowned, champions of the Dal Cais, and all the descendants
of Oilioll Olum met in one place; and there was fought between them a battle, furious, bloody, repulsive, crimson, gory, boisterous, manly, rough, fierce, unmerciful, hostile, on both sides; and they began to hew and cleave, and stab, and cut, to slaughter, to mutilate each other; and they maimed, and they cut comely, graceful, mailed bodies of noble, pleasant, courteous, affable, accomplished men on both sides there. That was the clashing of two bodies of equal hardness, and of two bodies moving in contrary directions, in one place. And it is not easy to imagine what to liken it to; but to nothing small could be likened the firm, stern, sudden, thunder-motion; and the stout, valiant, haughty billow-roll of these people on both sides.

I could compare it only to the variegated, boundless, wonderful firmament, that had cast a heavy sparkling shower of flaming stars over the surface of the earth; or to the startling fire-darting roar of the clouds and the heavenly orbs, confounded and crashed by all the winds, in contention, against each other. Or to the summit of heaven, or to the rapid, awfully great sea, and the fierce, contentious roaring of the four transparent, pure, harsh, directly opposing winds, in the act of breaking loose from the order of their respective positions. Or to the stern terrific judgment-day that had come, to confound, and break down the unity of the four surrounding elements, to crush and finally shiver the compact world, and to take vengeance on it.

To all these could I compare the smashing, powerful, strong, barbarous, shield-shining, target-bossed, red, sparkling, starry onset of the Clann Ludech, under the stout bright axes of the stern, murderous Danars, mutilating, and crushing them; and the gleaming, bright, glassy, hard, straight swords of the Dal Cais, in hard, powerful clashing against the free, sparkling, thrice-riveted, stout, powerful, protective armour of the piratical Danmarkians, smashing with them the bones of their bodies and their skulls, so that the sound of them, and the uproar of them, and the echo of them were reverberated from the caverns, and from the cliffs, and from the woods in the neighbourhood; and it became a work of great difficulty to the battalions on both sides to defend their clear sparkling eyes, and their flushed bright cheeks from the heavy showers of fiery sparks which were sent forth by the royal champions of the Clann Lughdech from the sharp fearful points of their bright gleaming swords, in hacking and cutting the firmly hooked mail-coats off them; and it was attested by the foreigners and foreign women who were watching from the battlements of Ath Cliath, as they beheld, that they used to see flashes of fire from them in the expanse of air on all sides.

Another attestation of this is the description which Maelsechlainn gave of that crush, when the Clann Colmain asked him for an account of the battle. It was then he said, “I never saw a battle like it, nor have I heard of its equal; and even if an angel of God attempted its description, I doubt if he could give it. But there was one circumstance that attracted my notice there, when the forces first came into contact, each began to pierce the other. There was a field, and a ditch, between us and them, and the sharp wind of the spring coming over them towards us; and it was not longer than the time that a cow could be milked, or two cows, that we continued there, when not one person of the two hosts could recognise another, though it might be his son or his brother that was nearest him, unless he should know his voice, and that he preciously knew the spot in which he was; we were so covered, as well our heads as our faces, and our clothes, with the drops of gory blood, carried by the force of the sharp cold wind which passed over them to us.

And even if we attempted to perform any deed of valour we were unable to do it, because our spears over our heads had become clogged and bound with long locks of hair, which the wind forced upon us, when cut away by well-aimed swords, and gleaming axes; so that it was half occupation to us to endeavour to disentangle, and cast them off. And it is one of the problems of Erinn, whether the valour of those who sustained that crushing assault was greater than ours who bore the sight of it without running distracted before the winds or fainting.”

We must now speak of Dunlang. He rushed on the host of the pirates, and spared not one of them, because he had no friendship at all for the foreigners. And he approached Cornabliteoc, and each of them made a rough, fierce, unmerciful assault on the other. Then came three of the people of Cornabliteoc in front of him, and they made three simultaneous thrusts at Dunlang. But, it was not on them Dunlang’s desire and attention were fixed, but on Cornabliteoc; for he gave him a rough, fierce, rapid blow of a spear, by which his ardour was excited, and his spirit roused, and his active mind occupied; for its rough point passed through him, both body, and body-armour. When this was perceived by Cornabliteoc’s people, they formed a firm, compact, hard-hearted circle
around him; and the thrice fifty of them that were there, turned themselves at the same time against Dunlang.

However, it is certain, that their defence procured neither respect nor mercy for their chief, for by Dunlang fell every one of them who waited to be wounded and beaten, until there remained no interposition between them; and they dealt ardent thrusts and fearful blows at each other. And this was one of the three hardest combats that took place at Cluain Tarbh, besides what Murchadh performed, of bone-breaking of heads and bodies. For his was the fierce rushing of a bull, and the scorching path of a royal champion. But to return, these brave champions nearly fell by each other; Dunlang, however, beheaded him.

We must next speak of Conaing. He faced Maelmordha, son of Murhcadh, king of Laghin, and sixteen men of the people were killed, each man of them, in front of his lord, before they themselves met, and fell by each other, viz., Conaing, king of Des-mhumha, and Maelmordha, king of Laghin.

We speak next of the men of Conacht. They advanced to the foreigners of Ath Cliath, and they attacked each other. And that was the decisive defeat that took place on the plain; for they were [almost] all killed, on both sides, there, for there escaped alive from it of the men of Conacht, one hundred only; and there escaped of the foreigners of Ath Cliath, but twenty, and it was at Dubhgall’s Bridge the last man of these was killed, viz., Arnaill Scot, and those who killed him were the household troops of Tadhg Ua Cellaigh. The full events of that battle, however, and its deeds, God alone knows; because everyone besides who could have had knowledge of it fell there on either side; and every man had sufficient to do to know his own adventures, from the greatness of his distress.

To return to Murchadh, son of Brian, the royal champion. He grasped his two valiant strong swords, viz., a sword in his right, and a sword in his left hand, for he was the last man in Erinn who had equal dexterity in striking with his right and with his left hand. He was the last man that had true valour in Erinn. It was he that pledged the word of a true champion, that he would not retreat one foot before the whole of the human race,
for any reason whatsoever but this alone, that he might die of his wounds. He was the last man in Erinn who was a match for a hundred. He was the last man who killed a hundred in one day ….

He was the metaphorical Hector of all-victorious Erinn, in religion, and in valour, and in championship, in generosity, and in munificence. He was the pleasant, affable, intelligent, accomplished Samson of the Hebrews, for promoting the prosperity and freedom of his fatherland and of his race, during his own career and time. He was the second powerful Hercules, who destroyed and exterminated serpents and monsters out of Erinn; who searched the lakes, and pools, and caverns, of noble-landed Fodhla [embodiment of the warrior as part of Ireland], whom no fortress or fastness in the world could resist. He was the Lugh Lamha-fada [Lug, the sun god who turned the tide at the second battle of Mag Tured], who, like him, sprang over every obstacle, laid bare every brave head, and exterminated and expelled the foreigners and pirates out of Erinn. He was the gate of battle, and the hurdle of conflict, and the sheltering tree, and the impregnable tower, against the enemies of his fatherland and of his race during his time and during his career.

When this very great, very valiant, royal champion, and brave powerful hero saw the crushing and the repulse which the Danars and the piratical Danmarkians gave to the Dal Cais, it operated on him like death, or a permanent blemish, to see the conflict of the foreigners with them; and he was seized with a boiling, terrible anger, and an excessive elevation, and greatness of spirit and mind. A bird of valour and championship arose in him, and fluttered over his head, and on his breath. And he made an active, brave, vigorous, sudden rush at the battalion of the Danmarkians, like a violent, impetuous, furious ox, that is difficult to catch; or like a fierce, tearing, swift, all-powerful lioness, that has been roused and robbed of her whelps; or like the fierce roll of an impetuous, deluging torrent, which shatters and smashes every thing that opposes it; and he made a hero’s breach, and a soldier’s field, through the battalion of the Danmarkians.

It is testified by his enemies after him, viz., the historians of the foreigners, and of the Laighin, that there fell fifty by his right hand, and fifty by his left, in that onset; and he never repeated a blow to any one, but only the one blow, and neither shield nor mail-coat was proof to resist any of those blows, or prevent its cutting the body, the skull, or the bone of every one of them. Thrice, now, passed he through the battalion in that manner. He was followed, too, by the great, impetuous, irresistible, matchless, phalanx of the Clann Luighdech, and the fine, lively, valiant, brave, fierce champions, of his own household, namely, seven score sons of kings that
were in his household; and the man of smallest patrimony amongst them was lord of a townland. These followed him sharply, quickly, and lightly, so that they touched each other foot to foot, and head to head, and body to body, behind him in every place that they came to. And it appeared to the people of Ath Cliath, who were watching them from their battlements, that not more numerous would be the sheaves floating over a great company reaping a field of oats; even though two or three battalions were working at it, than the hair flying with the wind from them, cut away by heavy gleaming axes, and by bright flaming swords. Whereupon the son of Amhlaibh, who was on the battlements of his watch tower, watching them, said, “Well do the foreigners reap the field,” said he, “many is the sheaf they let go from them.” “It will be at the end of the day that will be seen,” said Brian’s daughter, namely, the wife of [the son of] Amhlaibh.