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Cath Almaine ‘The battle of Allen’

  • Old Irish
  • Cycles of the Kings
Context(s)The (textual) context(s) to which the present text belongs or in which it is cited in part or in whole.
  • independentThe text comes down in a relatively independent form as opposed to being embedded within a larger textual framework.
Language
  • Old Irish
Textual relationships
Related: Scéla Cormaic meic Cuilennáin ⁊ na crosánScéla Cormaic meic Cuilennáin ⁊ na crosánA brief Irish prose story, with poem, concerning the death of Cormac mac Cuilennáin, who was slain in the battle of Mag Ailbe (908). On the night before the battle, three entertainers (crossáin) promise the king to perform before him the following night, but the king and the crossáin do not live to meet again. By some act of divine providence, however, the crossáin are allowed to perform their art and utter a poem beg. Truaghán sin, a Rí na righ (10qq).

Classification

Cycles of the Kings
Cycles of the Kings
id. 80

Subjects

Cathal mac Finguine
Cathal mac Finguine
(d. 742)
A king of Munster from the Éoganacht Glendamnach, known for his military conflicts with kings of the Uí Néill, including Fergal mac Máele Dúin (d. 722) and the latter’s son Áed Allán (d. 743). In a Middle Irish narrative satire, Aislinge Meic Con Glinne, he is portrayed as being possessed by a demon of gluttony.

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Fergal mac Máele Dúin
Fergal mac Máele Dúin
(d. 722)
king of Tara from the Cenél nÉogain

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Cú Brettan mac Congusso
Cú Bret(t)an mac Congusso
(d. 740)
king of Fir Roiss (in modern-day Co. Monaghan); son of Congus; father of the Irish poets Blathmac and Donn Bó

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Donn Bó mac Con Brettan
Donn Bó mac Con Brettan
Irish poet; son of Cú Brettan mac Congusso

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Sources

Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.

[ed.] Ó Riain, Pádraig [ed.], Cath Almaine, Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series, 25, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.
CELT – edition: <link>
[ed.] [tr.] Stokes, Whitley [ed. and tr.], “The battle of Allen”, Revue Celtique 24 (1903): 41–70, 446 (add. and corr.).
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
[tr.] Ford, Patrick K. [tr.], The Celtic poets: songs and tales from early Ireland and Wales, Belmont, Massachusetts: Ford & Bailie, 1999.
56–63
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
October 2010, last updated: January 2024