Here is the Panegyric of Conn’s son Cormac and
the
Death of Finn son of Cumhall
A
monarch,
noble and worshipful, that attained to rule Ireland:
Cormac, son of Art son of Conn of the Hundred Battles.
Subsequently he reigned over her for forty years, excepting
the two during which Ulster usurped: that is to say Fergus
Black-knee for one year, and Eochaid Gonnat for another.
Twice in fact the Ulidians deposed Cormac. The same Cormac
too was for four months missing from among his people nor,
until he himself came back and told his adventures, was it
known in what direction he was gone.
To proceed: saving David’s son Solomon there never was in
the world a king that for lustre of his intellect, for
opulence oi his reign, might be likened to Cormac. For he
never gave judgment but he had the three judicial
requisites: that of a mind gifted with sagacity; that of
judicial precedent, and that of bai
bias. As a
result of which judgments’ wisdom and science it was that
in Cormac’s time the calf commonly was born at the term of
three months’ gestation; in his day a sack of wheat was
produced from every ridge; in his day the
colpach-heifers
were already calved cows. Any river that was but knee-deep,
in his time a salmon was got there in every one mesh of the
net. In his time the cow had her udderful of biestings. In
his time. it was with the finger’s tip that men might
gather honey [as they walked], seeing that for the
righteousness of Cormac’s governance it was rained down
from Heaven. In his time it was that vessels could not be
had for the milk, for the kine shed their milk without
cessation.
That king was comparable to Octavius Augustus also: for
even as to the former every one paid Caesarian [i.e.
imperial] tribute for his patrimony; so to Cormac likewise
all men out of their own natural localities paid the royal
rent, for Cormac never deprived any one of that which was
his own.
In the world there was not a king like Cormac: for he it
was that excelled in form, in figure and in vesture; in
size, in justice and in equity; in his eyes too, in either
one of which were seven pupils, as Senuath the poet tells
us when he says
“Beautiful
was the difference that was between them which were a
variegated pair: for in the man’s eyes fourteen pupils were
extant."
He it
was that in respect of sagacity, of wisdom, of eloquence,
of action and of valour, of royal sway, of domination, of
splendour, of emulation, of ethics and of race, was
vigorous in his Own time. Of Ireland he made a land of
promise: she being then free of theft, of rapine, of
violence; exempt from all necessity of watching, of
herding, and without perplexity in the matter of either
meat or raiment to affect any man.
But in the way of Cormac’s eulogy this [that we have said]
is all too little; for unless that an angel should instruct
him a man may not declare it all. Great were his power and
control over the men of Ireland, seeing that (unless one
rendered Cormac military service) none of them dared
abstain from work.
Now he whom Cormac had for chief of the household and for
stipendiary master of the hounds was Finn son of Cumhall;
for the primest leader that the king of Ireland had was his
master of the hounds always.
Warrior better than Finn never struck his hand into a
chief’s: inasmuch as for service he was a soldier, a
hospitaller for hospitality, and in heroism a hero; in
fighting functions he was a fighting man, and in strength
was a champion worthy of a king; so that ever since, and
from that time until this day, it is with Finn that every
such is co-ordinated. Forby all which, Finn with the king’s
especial bands enjoyed general right and exercise of chase
and venery throughout Ireland.
Where Finn’s abiding was mostly was in Almha
of
Leinster; but when decrepitude and old age weighed on him
(Cormac also being now gone) he dwelt in
Almha permanently;
unless that he might have occasion to make some passing
excursion out of it. She that was spouse to Finn was Fatha
Canann’s daughter, Smirgat; she was a prophetess and wise
woman, and had told him that whensoever he should drink a
draught out of a horn that act would end his life; so that
thenceforth he never took a drink out of a horn, but out
of cuach
[scot.
‘quaighs ‘].
One day Finn sallied out of Almha, and by-and-by found
himself in the place called adharcha iuchbadh in Offaley;
there on a hillside he came upon a well, out of which he
took a drink. Under his ‘knowledge-tooth’ he put his thumb
then, and worked the incantation of teinm laeghda, whereby
it was revealed to him that the end of his term and of his
life was come; and he sang these quatrains following:
The
prophecy is befallen Finn...
Then he
went on till he reached druim
Bregh [i.e.
‘the Ridge of Bregia’], in which country existed causes of
enmity to Finn and the Fianna; for by him it was that
Uirgrenn, of the tribe called the Luiaghne of Tara, fell
once. These gathered now, with Uirgrenn’s three sons, and
Aichlech More: son namely of Duibrenn, that was third man
of the sons of Uirgrenn. Between them is fought an
extraordinary and a ruthless battle, manly, masculine and
fierce, in which all and several recalled to mind their
grievances (whether remote or more immediately touching
themselves) that they had the one against the other. At
Brea upon the Boyne: that is where that battle came off;
they were at the hand-to-hand work for a length of time,
and till on both sides their mischiefs were very many. The
fight was won against Finn, and he perished in it.
Duibrenn’s son Aichlech: by him Finn fell, and he it was
that beheaded him; wherefore in order to the commemoration
of the deed, and to bring the ignorant to the way of
knowledge, the sennachie
sung
these quatrains:
Brea’s
great battle of exploits bright ...
This
then, according to archaeological verity and as experts
relate it, is Finn’s death; but his origin they declare
variously. Some of them say that he was of the
corca-Oiche
in
ua
Fidhgeinte; others
again assert (and this is the truth of the matter) that he
was of the úi
Tairrsigh of
Offaley, which were of the Attacotti, as Maelmura has said
in the chronicle: six stocks there are that shall have
territorial settlement, but are not of Breogan’s people,
viz, the Garbraighe
of
the Suca;
the úi
Tairrsigh; the
Galeoin of Leinster [and others].
They of Leinster however state that Finn was great-grandson
to Nuada Necht, and that his pedigree is this: Finn, son of
Cumhail son of Sualtach son of Baeiscne son of Nuada Necht.
The above is Cormac’s Panegyric and Finn’s Death.
Finis
SOURCE
Silva
Gadelica. ed.
and trans. Standish Hayes O'Grady. 1892. reprint: NY: C.
Lemma Publishing Corporation, 1970.