Mac Cécht (warrior)
Mac Cécht (Early Modern Irish: Mac Céacht) is the patronymic or cognomen ("son of power") given to one or two warrior champions from Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of early Irish literature. The personages may be identifical or may have been conflated at some stage, although the connection is nowhere made explicit and different fathers are ascribed to them in the tales.
Mac Cécht mac Snáide Techid (Togail Bruidne Dá Derga)
Mac Cécht first appears in the tale
Mac Cécht's role in the tale is recalled in a dindsenchas prose text on Ráith Cnámrossa, which gives his father's name in garbled form as Slaite Seched of Connacht.[1] He is presented as the fosterfather of Lé Fer Flaith, son of Conaire, whom he tried to bring into safety when Dá Derga's hostel was on fire. However, the boy, who was kept in the hollow of his shield,[2] died a threefold death in Corra Ednecha, having been mangled, burnt and drowned through Mac Cécht's sheer force, heat and sweat as the warrior was attempting to rescue the king. Mac Cécht buried the remaining bones, cnám-fhros "bone-shower", in a place afterwards called Cnámross. The text then offers two alternative explanations for the placename.
Monodar son of Conrach Cas, called 'Mac Cécht' (Cath Bóinde)
In the late Middle Irish tale Cath Bóinde ("The Battle of the Boyne") – also Ferchuitred Medba ("Medb's husband allowance") – Mac Cécht is the nickname for Monodar son of Conrach Cas, a warrior who supposedly lived in
Monodar appears later in exile in
The etymological derivation is recalled in the late Middle Irish tract Cóir Anmann ("The Fitness of Names"), item 158:
- Maccecht .i. mac dorighne écht n-annsom .i. domharbh sé a dhearbhbhrathair feisin a comhracc .i. Tinne mac Connrach. Rí Connacht tra Tinne intansin & domharbh Monodhar mac Conrach é. Conid iarsin n-echt sin doríne Monodhar tucadh 'Maccecht' fair. Conodhur proprium nomen eius.
- “Maccecht, that is, a son (macc) that committed the cruellest homicide (écht), for he killed in combat his own brother, even Tinne son of Connra. Now Tinne was at that time king of Connaught, and Monodar, son of Connra, killed him, whereupon for that homicide which Monodar had perpetrated (the name) Macc-echt was given him. Conodar was his proper name."
A Conadar mac Cécht also makes brief appearances as a chieftain and champion of Medb's retinue in Ulster Cycle tales of the Glenmasan manuscript (15th century).[3]
Notes
- ^ Rennes Dindsenchas, no. 31.
- ^ The boy was taken under Mac Cécht's arm(pit) according to Togail Bruidne Dá Derga and his death is mentioned only by the interpolator of the Lebor na hUidre version.
- ^ D. MacKinnon, "The Glenmasan manuscript." The Celtic Review 1 (1904–05): p. 297; 2 (1905–06): 28–9; 3 (1906–07): 14–5.
References
Togail Bruidne Dá Derga (Recension II), ed. Eleanor Knott (1936). Togail Bruidne Da Derga. Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series 8. Dublin: DIAS.; tr. Whitley Stokes (1901–1902). "The Destruction of Dá Derga's Hostel". Revue Celtique. 22–3: 9–61, 165–215, 282–329, 390–437 (vol. 22), 88 (vol. 23).
- Cath Bóinde, ed. Joseph O'Neill, "Cath Boinde." Ériu 2 (1905): 173–85.
- Rennes Whitley Stokes, "The Prose Tales in the Rennes Dindshenchas." Revue Celtique 15 (1894): 277–336. Available from Thesaurus Linguae Hibernicae
- Cóir Anmann, ed. and tr. Whitley Stokes, "Cóir Anmann (Fitness of Names).” Irische Text mit Wörterbuch. Dritte Serie, 2 Heft. Leipzig, 1897. p. 288–411. Edition available from CELT, translation available from Mary Jones.