The three drinking-horns of Cormac úa Cuinn

The three drinking horns of Cormac úa Cuinn' (From the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum)

Once on a time Aed Oridnide, son of Niall Frosach, son of Feargal, son of Maelduin, came to establish order in the province of Connacht. He crossed Eas Ruaid, and his table-servants and his drinking-horns were lost therein. Aed came to Corca Tri, and rested at the house of the king of Corca Tri. Fifty of the kings of Erin accompanied Aed.

Aed ate a meal on Sunday night along with the kings: but though he ate he drank not a draught, for he had no drinking-horn, because his horns and his quaighs were lost at Ath Enaig, above Eas Ruaid, as the army was crossing. His way was, that he drank never a draught from any other vessel, since he was weaned from his mother, save only from a horn. A grief it was for the king of Corca Tri and his consort that all should be drinking, and the king of Erin refusing to drink. Angal raised his hands to God, and persisted (?) in taking neither sleep nor food till morning. And on the morrow his wife said to him: ‘Go,’ said she, ‘to Guaire mac Colmain at Durlas (for that was the home of hospitality and generosity from the time of Dathi onward) to see if you would get a horn there through his hospitable bounty.’ Angal, king of Corca Tri, stepped out through the door of the rath, and his right foot stumbled, so that a stone fell from its place in the fort; and it was the stone that covered the mouth of the flue wherein were the three horns that were the best in all Ireland; namely, the Twisted Horn, and the Litan, and the Eel. These were the cups that were brought by Cormac ua Cuinn over the sea; and Nia mac Lugna Firtri, the second foster-brother of Cormac ua Cuinn, had hidden them after Cormac was slain; and Cairbre Lifechair came over the sea, and though he found the other horns, these horns were not found till the time of the p.188 saints and of Aed Oridnide mac Neill. For a veil was spread over them by God, till He discovered them to the king of Corca Tri, by reason of his hospitable bounty.

Angal offered thanks to God, and bore off the horns, full of mead all three. He put them in the hands of Aed Oirdnide, king of Erin, who gave thanks to God, and put the Litan in the hands of the king of Ulster, the Eel-Horn in the hands of the king of Connacht, and reserved to himself the Twisted Horn.

Afterwards it descended to Maelsechlainn mac Domhnaill; and he offered it to God and to Ciaran, jointly, till the Day of Judgement.

Finit.

¹

E. J. Gwynn

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Notes

1. Corca Tri is a tribal name, applied to a territory which included the present baronies of Gallen, in Mayo, and Leyny and Corran, in Sligo (Four Masters, a 885: Martyrology of Oengus, Index). Corran is the Irish Corann (Rev. Celt., xv. 477). Our text says that Cormac's horns were hidden by Niamh mac Lugna ⁊ trit an dara comalta do Chormac. This is evidently corrupt. Cormac's foster-brothers were the sons of Lugna Firtri, king of Corann, who sheltered Cormac's mother Etan (Silva Gadelica, II. 286). I therefore emend the text by substituting 'Firtri' for the meaningless ⁊ trit. 'Nia mor mac Lugna Firtri' is mentioned in the Book of Ballymote as "the son of Cormac's mother": see Irische Texte, III. 185, where 'Lugdech' should be 'Lugna'. It appears, then, that Etan was taken to wife by Lugna, and bore him this son. The two foster-brothers mentioned in Silva Gadelica, II. 288, Ochomon and Nathnach, may have been Lugna's sons by another wife. As Corann is part of the territory of the Corca Firtri, it may be assumed that Lugna Firtri, king of Corann, belonged to that tribe: probably he was their king, and ancestor of the Angal who comes into our story. The Genealogy of the Gailenga of Corann is given in the Book of Lecan, 427. col. 3. Lugna Firtri is there called Lugna Fertri, and is said to have been grandson of Fiachu Suide, and descended from Morann mac Lir. The explanation of his cognomen given in the Coir Anmann (Ir. Texte, III. 382) is evidently fanciful. ⇐