F 1.3: The Heroic Biography of Cormac mac Airt

by Tomás Ó Cathasaigh

1977. xiii + 138 pp.

€25

ISBN 1 85500 094 6

Foreword

This short work is devoted to some tales about Cormac mac Airt, who is celebrated in Irish tradition as one of the great kings of Tara. My original intention was to edit the Old Irish text, Scéla Éogain is Cormaic, the greater part of which recournts the Birth-tale of Cormac mac Airt, and to deal in an introduction with the structure and content of the tale. But it soon became apparent that this text could not adequately be treated without analysis of some other texts about Cormac. The central argument of the present work is that the Old Irish version of Cormac's Birth-tale is but one of a number of texts which make up his 'heroic biography', and which can therefore stand beside the more extensive heroic cycles of Cú Chulainn and Finn, which still tend to overshadow the cycles of the kings. For this reason, it seemed worthwhile to analyse the Birth-tale within the context of the whole cycle of tales about Cormac, and I have relegated my edition and translation of the Old Irish text to Part III: it remains, of course, an important part of the evidence on which the study is based.

Part I surveys briefly the development and application of the notion of the international heroic biography, and gives an account of some of the more important scholarly work on the hero of Irish tradition. The structure of Part II arises in part from that of the international biography: II.1 analyses the Birth-tale, which (it is argued) contains seven episodes of the heroic biography; II.2 deals with two independent tales, each of which contributes a further episode of the biography. Some other tales about Cormac are briefy examined in II.3, and II.4 is an attempt to assess the status of Cormac mac Airt in tradition and history. In II.5, the (mostly tentative) conclusions of the present work are set out.

My aim has been to ascertain the nature of the texts, and to understand the role of Cormac mac Airt in Irish tradition. I have tried to do justice to the themes of the texts, rather than to impose a preconceived theory upon the material. For the most part, I have confronted theoretical problems as they have arisen, and it is only in the interests of exposition that I have given a general account of the heroic biography in Part I. In addition to heroic themes, the cycle of Cormac mac Airt has themes expressing the Irish ideology of kingship, and political themes relating to the territory or status of particular peoples. I have tried to see these themes in the narrative contexts, as well as in the wider context of the ideology they express. The procedure adopted in this work seemed suitable for a thematic study of the tales of Cormac mac Airt, but a good deal of work will have to be done before a satisfactory methodology is developed for the analysis of early Irish prose texts. I shall be well satisfied if I have done something to illumniate the role of Cormac mac Airt and to stimulate discussion on the problem of methodology.

An advantage of dealing with a limited amount of material is that something of the richness of even the shorter Irish texts can be appreciated. Against this, there is the danger of drawing conclusions which might be modified or even negated by texts which have not been taken into account. In an effort to avoid this pitfall, I have tried to err on the side of diffidence in drawing inferences from the texts, and I would emphasize here that what I have said is valid only for the limited amount of material under consideration. I have said nothing of the role of Cormac mac Airt in the Fenian tales, in the belief that this can be assessed only in terms of a study of the Fenian cycle as a whole. Nor have I given more than a perfunctory account of the those tales in the cycle of Cormac mac Airt which recount the episodes of his reign (II.3): when these texts have been studied in greater detail, and their contents compared with those of other quasi-historical tales, it may be possible to set out with greater precision the political claims associated with the person of Cormac mac Airt.

Some explanation may be sought for the fact that I have been little concerned with the details of the development, over the centuries, of Cormac's role. It seemed to me that Cormac's role is already well established in the Old Irish version of his Birth-tale: he is already the ideal king, already a hero, and already son of Art son of Conn and hence presitge ancestor of the Dál Cuinn. Such also is his role in the later texts. There are, of course, some developments in matters of detail: a study of these developments would be a perfectly legitimate scholarly undertaking, but it is not what I have set out to do in these pages.

It is a pleasure to thank those who have helped me in preparing this work. My chief debt is to Professor D. A. Binchy: I first read Scéala Éogain is Cormaic with him, and in editing the text I have had his constant encouragement and advice. He has corrected some errors in the text and translation and made several suggestions. Professor Greene read the typescript and made some suggestions for its improvement. Finally, I must thank Professor Brian Ó Cuív, Dr Proinseas Ní Chatháin, Mr William Gillies and Miss Máire Herbert for their help. For errors which remain, and for all matters of opinion and interpretation, I am alone responsible.