Researching my heritage I didn’t have to look far to find the name Niall Noigiallach (Niall of the Nine Hostages.)  In researching possible connections to the O’Neills and McNeils in my own genealogy I looked at Niall’s.  He is a fascinating figure in Irish History and Legend, and, as you might expect, this is true of the genealogical connections to this Ard Righ (High King) of Ireland.

Within the scope of this discussion are a legendary (but could it be credible?) connection deep into antiquity, all the way back to Adam.  Christian monks recorded this connection, but was the adding of this part of the genealogy a fabrication or an inescapably obvious connection to the oral tradition that substantiated his right to rule?

Niall was a Milesian King and there are some who would doubt the historicity of this as much as they might the Tuatha de Dana or the Partholonians.  The Book of Invasions would seem somewhat pointless if it was based on nothing at all.  How much of what is put down to myth was real and what impact did this have on Niall in particular, but Ireland in general?

Niall raided Britain and perhaps as far as the Continent, among his abductions was a certain boy named Succat, a boy who would become a transformational force in Ireland known to the world as St. Patrick, the patron of Ireland.  Niall’s son, Loegaire, met this escaped slave brought to Ireland by his father.  As such, I think Niall, the Ui Niall, and Ireland generally faced transformation because of his actions and his descendants continued the process.  One of the most famous Early Irish Churchmen was Columcille who was himself a prince of the Ui Niall dynasty.

I think it is undeniable that Niall Noigiallach is a transformational figure.  In Irish History and Legend he holds a place between the two.  In addition to the title “Nine Hostages” the epithet “Semi-Legendary” is applied to Niall.  Some don’t believe he was all that the Four-Masters said he was, but DNA forces most to admit that, if nothing else, he was.

There is no end of argument about the Ard Righship of Ireland.  Many if not most experts doubt that in the imbroglio that was Irish pre-Christian politics a true over-king that ruled the entirety of Ireland was possible.  Many even argue that nobody back then claimed the title and that it is an invention of later imaginative documentation and dynastic justification after the fact.

All these may be true, but Niall stands at a crossroads in history where, while once, in the dim pagan past, every small Tuath had its king, afterward is seen the  unification and record keeping of Christian monks that made claims a bit more testable, at least to historians.

Strange too (a Christian like me would say miraculous)that Milesian Ireland, so violent, so war prone, should be converted to Christianity so readily and with so little blood-shed.  Christianity’s story is one of violent repressions failing to halt the spread of the Gospel, one after another, after another.  Why in Ireland, where among the elite, war was very nearly a religion of its own, would Christianity conquer bloodlessly?  Why in Ireland did the Irish, feeling they were not made to suffer, invented new sorts of martyrdom, Green and White, that influenced not only the Irish, but the Continent as well? 

It may be that Niall, standing at this crossroad, holds some light to shed on this miracle.

LSO

PS.  This is an introduction of sorts.  I have been working on a post that has swelled to many thousand words.  My goal here should be shorter posts and as time passed and new posts went wanting I realized that I needed to change my approach to this vast topic.  The above is long on assertion and hints, but short on facts.  I’ve broached a myriad of topics in this one little post which I will link to from this as I produce them a bit at a time.

If asked to name three Irish kings it is likely that the names Brian Boru, Conn of the Hundred Battles, or Niall of the Nine Hostages would come up in the conversation.  Conn, because he just sounds like he’d rock, I mean “Hundred Battles,” yeah. 

Niall would come up because there is a pretty good chance you are related to him.  So, because I’m one of his relations (and thereby Conn Cetchathach), I’d like to talk about Niall Noigiallach.

The Real Niall

There are those who would place Niall under the heading of “Legendary Kings,” and by this they would mean that Niall of the Nine Hostages was a fabrication, not historical.  I think that is just stupid.  I’m sure his relatedness to so many might account for some embellishment, but don’t tell me he didn’t exist, that makes no sense at all.  One of the reasons that I tend to believe some of these old tales, especially as they concern hereditary claims to royal titles is this excellent book available free online: After the Flood by Bill Cooper.

But to pare the man from the legend let me say that he was the son of Eochaid Mugmedon.  There have been a lot of Eochaids in Irish History and so, like his son, Nine Hostages, Eochaid had a descriptive bye name that meant “Slave Lord.”  Also of interest in understanding the family dynamic is that Eochaid came to his kingship after killing the man who had taken it from Eochaid’s father only the year before.

Niall’s mother was Cairenn Chasdub (of the dark curly hair) who was reputed to be the daughter of Sachell Balb, king of the Saxons.  Apparently, poor Cairenn was a bit out of her depth in the Slave Lord’s household, because Eochaid the king had another wife, Mongfionn, who forced Cairenn into virtual slavery and forced her to expose Niall, that is to abandon him to the elements. 

Likely Eochaid was off enforcing the Boroma (cattle tribute) in Leinster or fighting off somebody’s son who he’d had to shorten by a head for high-kingship.  Although, he might have known all this and not really cared, it is hard to attribute a high degree of  paternal affection from the name “Slave Lord.”

Anyway, this would be a much shorter tale had Mongfionn succeeded in getting rid of Cairenn’s son.  Left to the elements, Niall was saved and raised by Torna, a poet.  Being raised by a poet usually works out well.  This theme of notable personages being raised by poets might be the sort of exaggerations that kept poets in high regard, even reverence.

Mongfionn, for her part, went on to try to poison her brother or Niall, or perhaps both.  She is remembered so fondly that she became a goddess celebrated and associated with Samhain, perhaps for her maternal advocacy, but more likely for killing herself in her efforts to get her oldest son Brian the kingship.  Anyhow, she is remembered when the dead come near and the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest, perhaps as a warning, perhaps because a woman so implacable could not be stopped by something so mundane as death.

A small aside here.  Though I certainly do not condone Mongfionn’s attributed actions, it does occur to me that if you were going to have a mom, I’d much prefer a fierce, take no prisoners, advocate like Mongfionn to a milk-toasty Cairenn leaving poor Niall out by the well to get pecked to death by birds.  Perhaps being raised by a bard looks pretty good compared to that model of maternal indifference.  Interestingly, the Irish had a strong tradition of fosterage among their elites.  Perhaps this of Mongfionn is a source of that.  Perhaps it is the inevitable effect of multiple marriages.

Niall returns from his poetical upbringing and has somewhere learned the sort of things that keep him alive, frees his mother, the Saxon princess, and puts him in favor of his father, the Slave Lord.  I’m pretty sure these skills must have included a fair amount of skill with objects with sharp edges as that seems the sort of competence that would most please Eochaid.

I should also point out that there is a tradition among Celts of supporting or elevating individuals of competence to positions of leadership instead of purely relying on blood-lines.  If Cairenn were truly Saxon and not just a
British King’s child who would one day be overrun by Saxons it would be all the more pointed, that the Ard Righ should be half Saxon over all Ireland would be amazing.

And yet it is amazing even at that.  Cairenn, no matter the race of her parentage, was not Irish, she had no political power that might follow in her train, or even keep her out of abject servitude. 

Mongfionn on the other hand was an Irish Princess, daughter of the king of Munster.  She obviously had some power as she moves, first to have her brother rule in her son’s stead, and then to remove him by poison when he didn’t step aside.  More to the point, no matter the truth of her, that is Mongfionn, she is the mother of Mugmedon’s sons who would found the Connachta. 

So how could Niall achieve what he did?  How could he even survive much less take his father’s position?  Legends relate two events that speak to this question of how.  First, the sons of Eochaid are set a test.  They are locked in a forge which is lit afire and then the boys are judged as to what they choose to save out of the fire.  Niall is judged to be the winner.

Next they are sent out hunting.  They all grow thirsty and one at a time they go in search of water.  Not far off, a hideous hag, guards a well and demands a kiss to get water.  Most refuse, Niall gives her a proper kiss (or much more than that if some tellings are true) and the loathly lady turns into a beautiful woman who is the Sovereignty of Ireland.  For hundreds of years it will be the Ui Niall who control Tara and stand as high kings of Ireland.

You can read these tales and more from the Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon.

Niall founds the Ui Niall or rather, in following in the fine tradition of Eochaid Mugmedon, he raids, and dominates, and fathers sons who will hold leadership in Ulster and Meath for hundreds of years.  Such is the power of this one man, Niall of the Nine Hostages, or at least that division of the Irish that claim him.

I think his significance doesn’t end with his relation to the leadership of pagan Ireland.  He is involved in the foundation of Christian Ireland as well. It is Niall’s raiding in Britain that brought a young Succat to Ireland.  God works in mysterious ways.  It is Niall of the Nine Hostage’s own son, King Laoghaire, who, confronted with a magic beyond his understanding, converts to Christianity.

The conversion, begun near the hill of Tara, arguably the spiritual center of Ireland, sticks.  Perhaps the most notable church leader after Patrick is himself a prince of the Ui Neill, that is Columcille.

So Niall Noigiallach sits at this cusp of Irish history.  He is a notable culmination of Irish political power despite being the son of a foreign princess.  He raids outside the insular boundaries of the five fifths of Ireland taking hostages and holding sovereignty in Scotland, Britain, Mann, and perhaps Brittany on the European mainland.  Perhaps the origin of his name was more provincial, the name Noigiallach, that one of his first conquests brought a hostage from each of the nine Tuatha of Airgialla in the south of Ulster.  Whatever the truth of it, Niall’s influence and his raiding went out from there as far as the continent even if Airgialla was the source of his bye name. 

I have imagined the Airgialla origin of his name as the beginning of the symbol that seems to follow his legacy as well, that of the Red Hand.  Read the Red Hand Of Niall,  Or my re-imagining of a more traditional legend about the symbol of the Red Hand of Ulster.

I’m sure you are familiar with the naming convention of many Celtic peoples where a son is named after his father or at least a notable fore-bearer.  Among the Irish you have Mc and Mac and O s which are really Ui s.  The Welsh use Ap and Map the same way.  In short O’Neill means grandson of Neill whereas MacNeill means son of Neill.

How else to keep separate all the Anguses and Rhaurys and Eochaids?  Ah, well, before the application of the now traditional surnames, notable personages received Bye Names (at least we have theirs recorded, likely everybody had them).  After all, in the list of High Kings of Ireland alone there are plenty of Eochaids and Aedhs and Nialls.  Fortunately there are nickname like descriptive names that when added to their given names help to keep track of just which one you are talking about.

Interestingly many people who’s surname is O’Neill or MacNeill might think that their name comes from the famous Niall of the Nine Hostages.  They may share genetics with Noigiallach but the name comes from a later Niall, Niall Glundubh, that is Black Knee.

Much more mysterious to me than how Niall Nine Hostages got his name is what in the world happened to stick Niall Glundubh with the bye name Black Knee.  Does anyone out there know the origin of Black Knee?

All in all, from Nuada Airgetlam (silver hand) to Conn Cetchathach (of the Hundred Battles) to Eochaid Mugmedon (Slave Lord) to Elim Oillfinshneachta (Snow that tasted of wine) to Finnachta Fleadhach (the festive) Bye Names are just good clean fun.

Write me down as a yeah vote on renewing this tradition.

LSO

Where I Was

Just a quickie here:  I had a real forehead slapper moment just a few minutes ago talking to my friend and co-worker, Lezel.  I was following up on my tip to look at “After the Flood” by Bill Cooper.  (Do check it out as it is available online.)

So she said she hadn’t and one of the reasons was because she had another book in the cue and told me a little about it. . .          . . . and I don’t know what it was called because it hit me as she was talking about taxation without representation and kids that our current situation is exactly that.

What am I talking about?  Well think about it.  This whole wonderful experiment in freedom began on the pretext, founded in the Magna Carta, that there should be no taxation without representation.  Our freedoms are established on natural law that flows from our Creator, but before the Magna Carta the view was that the divine right of kings trumped the rights of mere mortals.

No Taxation Without Representation

So here we are in a new century arguing about how we’ve rejected our founding, at least that’s what the Tea Party People are going on about.  They are sick of an over-reaching government, they want it reined in, they are concerned about the National Debt, at this posting about $43,638 per citizen.

It is right that we are.  Let me point out that Rights have everything to do with it too.  Our nation, which has wonderfully propounded the rights of the individual for so long, is currently violating some of the most fundamental and foundational rights of all.  In particular, of course, I’m referring to “No Taxation Without Representation,” the rallying cry of the founding and a current travesty being perpetrated on our children.

The debt we are loading on future generations IS immoral, not only in the most absolute sense of what God thinks  (see number eight) of stealing someone else’s money, but also in the social contract sense of having a document and a set of values laid out in a Constitution that we are violating at the expense of children without franchise.  They have no vote, but they will pay this debt or they will be buried by it.

On the one-hand, Liberal Dems are willing to spend money for political payoffs to their constituencies (ACORN) AND loot the public coffers to feather their own nests and those of their supporters, foreign and domestic, whereas on the other, Republican Neo-Conservatives are busily war profiteering on the backs of our service men and women, and, in contrast to their stated values, spent money faster than any other regime in history, this last one excepted. See Obama Debt.

Disgusting

What has been lost in the conversation to this point is that what we are doing to kids is a direct violation of the values of our founding, that we are selling them into slavery, that they have no voice though they are going to be left with the debt that their taxes can not possibly pay.  So to quote a founding document, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it . . .”

I have needed to establish a timeline of the events in the socio-political development of Tir Na Nua.  I continue to do research to aid me in creating a world that is both interesting and informative.  By interesting I probably mean entertaining and enjoyable.  By informative I mean that it should seem realistic, internally consistent, in the world of Tir Na Nua, and should echo names and themes from Earth’s Celtic History.

In order to accomplish that, I have been digging onto a little bit of History.  I’ve been searching for names and stories that I find interesting.  If the interest that brought you to my site is Celtic legends, lore, or history you might like this site: Ireland’s History in Maps.  I’ve taken note when something of interest comes up that seems to bear on this subject. 

An example of something I’d put into the “something of interest” category might be a book like Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.  It has been awhile since I read this book, but if I remember right, the main idea was basically that societies grow and advance based on the resources that they have available, initially the type of food plants and animals and later mineral and other advantages.  Anyway, part of the fascination I have with imagining a technology loss and imagining how a society might begin again with what they have at hand comes from thinking about this book.  At least it was informed by it.

Recently I heard about another concept that I’d like to incorporate.  The book is The Fourth Turning by Neil Howe and William Strauss.  Sadly, I had to return the copy I borrowed from the library, but my initial perusal built on an interview I heard on Coast to Coast AM.  

The subtitle of the book is “an American Prophecy”  because the authors lay out their belief that we are on the verge of potentially catastrophic events that will be dealt with by a heroic generation of people who will be forced to more or less recreate our society in response to the challenges of this catastrophe. 

They base this expectation on the fact that there have been seven such heroic remakings beginning in the late Middle Ages that shaped America.  This is an idea that Greeks and Etruscans and Romans all recognized, this rhythm in history.  The rhythm is close to a century, but is actually tied to the length of a long human life. 

In this approximately 100 years, there are 4 generations.  Each of these generations seem be typified or led by four archetypes that Howe and Strauss called Heroes, Artists, Prophets, and Nomads.

Paraphrasing and laying it out hot from my fevered memory, the hero generation comes of age at this fourth turning, when there is a sense of unease and then WHAM! the catastrophe hits.  These children of a Nomad generation tend to be pampered and valued maybe as a reaction to the abandonment the Nomads received at the hands of their Prophet parents. These Prophet generation people were too busy righting “wrongs” and rejecting the previous social order to take care of the next generation.

That leaves only the Artist generation to speak about.  The Artists are the refiners of what the hero generation hath wrot.  That is to say that after the crisis is averted (or perhaps not) this follow on generation, children of the Heroes refine and systematize things to an increasing degree that eventually seems to make people so crazy that when they are done polishing their father’s edifices there follows Prophets who will oppose and reject what has been made to the degree that the seeds will be laid for the next horrendous catastrophe, perhaps because the Prophets neglect their children.

I suspect that I’m getting some of this wrong so I really need to get that book reserved again, but you get the jest of it.  Four archetypes moving through the seasons of life that seem to cycle through a series of transitions that usually leads to a big war if there isn’t another disaster to occupy the heroes.  Neat!

So it is definitely a Big Picture sort of thing.  I found it intriguing.  I plan to find some way to weave it into Tir na Nua, probably in the Background.

LSO