entreated—just was the reward—
that her name should be on the entire hill.
Nuadu the druid was a fierce man;
by him was built a fort strong and high:
by him alum was rubbed on the rock
over the whole fort after it was marked out.
All white is the fort (bitter strife),
as it had received the lime of all Erin,
from the alum he put on his house,
thence is Almu so named.
[Translated by Edward Gwynn]
The Hill of Allen was originally a síd where the Otherworld, ruled by Nuadu, was located. The naming of the hill is further contested by the piece of verse which states that ‘Almu is the name of the man who got the place in the time of Nemed’, while another extract from the poem alludes to a woman ‘from whom Almu is so called’; a name ending in ‘u’ signifies a goddess, and Almu is named as the wife of Nuadu, also a deity.
The hill also has a strong association with Finn mac Cumhail*; according to the Dindshenchas,* Muirne, the granddaughter of Nuadu, married Cumall (although in truth she was carried off by Cumall in an act that led to the Battle of Castleknock – see the section on Dublin) and their eldest son was Finn. The hill was granted to Finn by his mother and became his chief seat and that of the Fianna.* Finn was watched over by an Otherworld woman known as a bean faith or fée; this blending of the mythological cycle with the Fenian cycle is a product of eleventh- and twelfth-century storytellers plying their craft to create a romantic set of tales.
This sacred hill became a centre of the Fianna* and not, as some suggest, a possible seat for the Kings of Leinster. O’Donovan wrote in 1837: ‘I traversed the hill but could find upon it no monuments from which it could be inferred that it was ever a royal seat.’ It is easier to see Almhain during the third century AD as the centre for the Fianna who represented the military wing of the Kings of Leinster, who were based at Dún Aillinne (Knockaulin) [55] less than ten miles south (discussed below).
A number of battles were fought here, but the most detailed is the battle of Almhain fought between Fergal mac Maelduin, King of Ulster at Grianán of Ailech, and Murchadh mac Brain, King of Leinster, over the bóraime, a tribute imposed on the Leinster men by the King of Tara. The payment was in cattle, and its imposition was for generations a cause of domestic warfare. Whether or not Fergal saw himself as a King of Tara is a moot point, but he left his fortress in present-day Donegal and travelled south-east to claim what he felt was a just tribute. According to ancient historians, the battle, in which Fergal was defeated, was the ‘fiercest ever fought in Ireland’. According to the Annals of the Four Masters, 160 Ulstermen were killed at this battle:
At mid-day at Almhain,
in defence of the cows of Breaghmhainé
a red-mouthed beaked vulture raised
a shout of exultation over the head of Fergal.
Murchadh put off his former disability,
many a brave man did he cut to the ground;
he turned his arms against Fergal,
with his immense body of Fianna at Almhain.
[Translated by John O’Donovan]
In this battle there is reference made to musicians being in the train of the king while the king was pursuing warfare. The instruments played were harps and pipes [cúisech]. The Druid’s Shout or Géim Druadh was a chant which was performed at the Battle of Almhain.
Murchadh’s kingdom extended to Breaghmainé, which is in Meath; the Ua Brains kingdom extended to Meath at that time. The mac Brans are an east Ulster family and take their name from the raven, that is, ‘Bran’, the Irish for the said bird.
Ten miles south-east of the Hill of Allen and two miles south-west of Kilcullen on the N78 is Knockaulin (Dún Ailinne), the royal seat of Leinster. It is a large hillfort with the bank outside the ditch or fosse, where the earthen rampart of the fort still surrounds its summit. Having the ditch on the inside gives credence to the probability that Knockaulin was a royal enclosure of assembly and ceremonial activities. The fort, which covers nearly forty acres, lasted from the Late Bronze Age through to the Iron Age and up to the Middle Ages. Excavation revealed that a large, circular, wooden structure probably existed within the enclosure. The defences are built on a steep hill slope to strengthen the fort against attack. Evidence of Neolithic occupation has been found here, and the discovery of glass beads, coarse pottery and a sword of the La Tène type is evidence that habitation existed here during the second century BC, the Early Iron Age. Although O’Rahilly has conjectured that Dind Ríg is a possible site for Ptolemy’s Dunon, Dún Ailinne must also be considered as a serious candidate for this honour.
Ederscél, who was King of Ireland for five years, was slain at Dún Ailinne by Nuadu Necht, a king with strong associations with the Hill of Allen. Ederscél’s father was Eógan, a grandson of Oilill Olum, who reigned for five years as King of Ireland. His son was Conaire Mór, and he also reigned as King of Ireland. Nuadu may have been connected to the Nodons from the River Severn, and thus the slaying of Ederscél may well have been the result of an invasionary force. They may have stemmed the flow of the Munster clans under Ederscél. These places present fragmentary historical evidence from a people living during the Iron Age. The name Nuadu figures prominently both here and at Almu, ten miles over, may well have been applied to sons, grandsons and so on, so that the progenitor’s name was held through many generations. During the Late Iron Age, Finn mac Cumhail* kills Nuadu, who has by now become a god with his síd at Almhain.
The óenach or fair at Carman possibly tells us more about the early history of Kildare, and by extension, Leinster than any other place in Leinster apart from Tara, which was a kingdom unto itself. Generally it was seen as being located on the Plain of the Liffey (Magh Life). The River Liffey runs nine miles through Wicklow, nine miles through County Dublin and thirty-one miles through Kildare.
The following verse includes noted places connected to the fair at Carman:
The noble Aillinn he shall inhabit,
The famous Carman he shall obtain;
He shall rule over the venerable Almhain,
The impregnable Nas he shall strengthen.
The above verse is part of the will of Cathair Mór, King of Leinster, in the second century, and is addressed to his son Fiacha, the progenitor of most of the subsequent Kings of Leinster.
In the Críth Gablach (laws of settlement or agreement) it is stated that every king is expected to hold an óenach for the people of his túath. Other laws stress the duty of the king to have the site for the óenach cleared and prepared. The legal sources do not explicitly say so, but it is generally agreed that the óenach was held in early August, corresponding with the Feast of Lughnasa.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
