The Destruction of Eocho Mac Mairedo,
or The Overflowing of Lough Neagh

Aided Eecdach maic Maíreda
Lebor Na h-Uidre

ed. and trans. J. O'Beirne Crowe

good king took Muma (Munster), namely Mairid, son of Cairid. He had two good sons, namely Eochaid and Rib. Ebliu, on the other hand, daughter of Guare, from the Plain of Mac Indoc, it is she who was wife to Mairid. She threw mind upon his son, that is, on Eochaid. It is from that Ebliu too is named the Mountain of Ebliu. Now, she was at importuning of the lad for long periods. Now, at last she threw a request upon him, that he would go on elopement with her : Rib, on the other hand, said to his brother that should he bring this woman with him, he would himself be under disgrace, and that he would go from the country with him. Eochaid accordingly brought Ebliu with him on elopement, and Rib comes with them : ten hundred their number of men.

It is how they came with flocks and with herds with them. Their druids said to them that it was not in one place it was destined for them to take inheritance. They separate, accordingly, at the Way of the Two Flags. Rib goes westwards to the Land of Game (?) of Midir, and of the Mac Oc. Midir comes to them, and a haltered horse with him with a straddle on him, after he had killed their horses before.

He put all their property, on him so that he carried it with them until he comes to the Plain of Arbthiu, that is, the place in which Loch Ri is to day. The nag lies down with them there, and drops his urine, until it was a fountain, so that it is that which came over them after that, until it drowned them all ; so that it is Loch Ri. Eocho also goes until he reached the Plain of Mac Indoc. A large man came to them, and orders them out of the territory, and they did not obey him. The man accordingly kills all their horses that night. The same man comes on the morrow, and he said to them : "I shall kill your people all to-night," he says, "unless ye leave the country in which ye are." "Thou hast done much of evil to us already," says Eochaid, "to kill all our horses ; though we had a desire to go, we are not able to proceed without horses." Oengus gives a large horse to them, and he puts their luggage all on him, and he told them not to tent the horse ; and that they should not allow rest to him that he might not drop his urine, that it might not be a cause of death to them.

They set off after that on a Sunday in the middle month of Autumn, until they reached Liath-muine in the Ulaid (Ulster). They all proceed to approach the horse, and they take off their property together off him, and none of them turned the horse's face to the opposite track. The horse sheds with them after that, until there was a well. Eocho after that makes a house about the well, and a door to it, and one woman at the watching of it.

Eocho after that contested the half sovereignty of the Ulaid against Muridach, son of Fiacha Findamnas [He was son of Iriel Glunmair, son of Conall Cernach.] Now, on a certain occasion that the woman did not close the well, Lind Muni sprang up over Liath-muni, and Eocho, with his family, were drowned in it, save Liban, and Conaing and Curnari Idiot. It is from that Conaing, too, Dalm Buain, and Dal Sailne have descended. Now, Curnari used to be foretelling them that the lake would come over them, so that it is then he said :

Come ye, come ye, take ye implements, knit ye boats,
Lind Muine will come over Liath-muine with a side of surge :
Ariu and Conaing will be drowned in the broad flood ;
Liban will swim eastwards, westwards, hither, thither, over each sea.

It was true for him that, for Liban was three hundred years along the sea, and her lap-dog in the shape of an otter after her, every path she used to go, without parting from her at all continually. So that it is herself who related her movements to Beoan, son of Inli, when he caught her in his nets ; so that it is then she sang the words which follow accordingly:

I

Beneath Eocho's lake [Loch Neagh] an abode for me,
On protection of strong tents, - a flock used to ascend ;
Appointed beneath the breasts of barques,
Wave my roof, strand my side-wall.

II

The desire of little mares, the closet
Not usual a little sorrow upon it :
Woe is he to whom smiles a smile
The woman from waves of tide.

III

As rest from wild, raging wave,
Which scatters brine with storms of angers :
Pull thou Drinker to strand,
Let me little one (?) to land.

IV

Seize thou Drinker in thy presence,
Long since it received lake's flood :
Three hundred years since I am here,
Since drowned in it was Eocho Find.

V

Many a trouble in every place,
Not well has destined for us the Son of the Woman -
A plain in which used to be troops of horses
That it is a boat that sails it !

VI

The fountain of the handsome son of Mairid
Dashes a shower against a noble residence :
Its tide of heroes of broad steeds, a stream
Which every one used to traverse on foot.

VII

While I was under full lake's flood,
I meditated on the King of noble heaven ;
I beseech the Father who is holy,
I ask a drop of white baptism.

VIII

I was the likeness of mighty monsters,
I swam merry, shining sea :
Wave carried me over Letha's flood,
In salmon's shape save my head.

IX

Whether I was a person, whether I was a monster,
The Kings of Mag Breg loved me :
It was no nick-name, I was a Beauty¹,
The King who rules ocean preserved me.

X

Alas a morn, a morn of Tuesday,
I found not boat, I found not barque ;
It is on it went, it was a clear story,
Liud Muine over Liath-muine.

XI

With me from morn to Mag Cecht,
This is instruction about my sailing :
We reached storm and cold,
Wave drove me to sea-strand.

XII

Alone for me in my great sea-swell,
I swam ocean of rough glens :
I a sea-pig wave fattens,
Plunge into my monster-teeming, raging storm.

XIII

A cold storm compelled me
To cold ocean of difficult shelters,
The sea-belch of bright Lochn Echach
So that I am the great sea-grazer.

XIV

Curnan of a hundred valours foretold
This story that has come to us :
A fountain that was in our house
It is it that would send us over sea.

XV

Long my residence here,
As my King ordained for me :
When God from heaven directed me
To the presence of the man, living Brenand.

XVI

"Go not, Brenand, go not,
Until I address thee clearly :
Tell me for the sake of God from heaven,
What king is over Loch Lein."

XVII

"I shall tell to thee, no erring saying,
It is King Fiachna of white shoulder :
He hath possessed a mark from the Son of God.
The same who came from heaven."

XVIII

"A thought for every one is the torture of the Son of God,
Because it is He who sways each king :
Guardian of the Saints of splendid festivals,
Great God who judges every thing."

XIX

I was not the great sea-grazer,
I was not the strong strander :
I taste little fish an early morn,
Beneath Lochn Echach, abode of birds.

XX

Time for me a-going to heaven,
Parting with trouble, perhaps it is not too soon ;
I taste little fish an early morn,
Beneath Lochn Echach, an abode for me.

XXI

I pray Brenand for ever and ever,
While I am beneath floods of surge,
For true assistance from black profanity :
May he for long aid me good Funche I Beneath L.

XXII

The well of the handsome son of Mairid
On bright flood we went from it :
Above it, around it sea sprung,
And in the land in which it is under it.

Beneath Eocho's lake

It is that accordingly which greatest scattered the Ulaid along Erin the eruption of Lochn Echach along land. A name accordingly was given to Liban after the baptizing of her, viz. Sea-birth, that is, Birth of sea. Her half as a salmon it was, and her other half as a person. It is of her the historian sang these rounds :

I

"Sea-birth" she is "a birth with victories"
Daughter of very haughty Eocho :
She went beyond tributes justly,
Though Jesus put her into a strange shape.

II

This woman loved every dwelling,
Liban daughter of that man :
She enjoyed life beneath the heavy stream,
Until she gave voice to Colomb. [St Columba]

III

By means of his net and of his tree [boat ],
Beoan the fisherman of Comgall
Gave her after her journey in the east,
So that he [Comgall] baptized the mournful one.

IV

Wonderful the shape, out of it was water,
God who wrought the manifest miracle :
Her face water- black was a girl :
Her half of ever- strong salmon !

V

When said " capaip Hlaetni,"
Comely Oengus tla Aiblen
"My science Great God" it is
Great birth of the Sea, Sea-birth.

Now, Liban and Airiu were two daughters of Eocho Find, son of Mairid. Airiu, wife of Curnan, was drowned it in. Curnan therefore died of grief for her: hence is named Carn Curnan, on account of the death of Curnan there. Now, Liban was a full year in her grianan beneath the lake, and her lap-dog in her presence in it, and God protecting her against the waters of Loch Echach, until she said on a certain day in it : "Lord," she says, "would that I were in the shape of the salmons, that I might be along the sea at co-swimming with them !" She was turned after that into the shape of salmons, and her lap-dog was turned into the shape of an otter, so that it used to be after her under the waters, and under the seas, every path she used to go on every side : so that she was from the time of Eocho Maic Maireda to the time of Comgall of Bendchor in that way.

Comgall sent from him Beoan Mac Indli from Teach Dabeoc to Rome for conversation with Gregory on the head of order and rule. The time, however, the crew of Beoan's curach were a-sailing over the sea, they heard the celebration of angels beneath the curach. Beoan asked : "What is it about which this celebration is ?" he says : "It is I who makes it," says Liban. "Who art thou ?" says Beoan. "Liban, the daughter of Eocho Mac Maireda, I," she says. "What causes to thee being in that manner ?" he says. "I am three hundred years beneath the sea," she says, "and it is for it I have come for telling to thee my appointment with thee westwards to Inber larba, and let me be attended on with you for the sake of the saints of Dal Araide on this day at the end of a year : and say thou that to Comgall and to the rest of the saints." "I shall not say that," says Beoan, "save unless its price be given me." What price dost thou ask ?" she says." "Thy burial with myself in my monastery." "Thou shalt have that then," she says.

Beoan came from the east after that, and he related to Comgall and to the rest of the saints the story of the sea-grazer. The year had come off by that, and the nets were prepared, and she was taken in the net of Fergus from Miliuc. She was brought to land, and her story and form was a wonder. Several came to see her, and she in the boat, and water about her in it. The Chief of the Ua Conaing was in it like every one, and a purple cloak about him. She was accordingly constantly looking at him. The youth asked her : "If thy attention goes to the cloak," he says, "thou shalt have it." "No," she says, "not for this I am looking at it all, but a cloak of purple that was about Eochaid the day he was drowned. Grace be on thee too," she says, "and on the man of thy place (successor), as a price of that ; and may it not be necessary to ask who is the man of thy place for ever in every assembly in which he may be."

There came up a terrible, black, large hero, and he killed her lap-dog. She left to him and his tribe their heroism on their filths, and inability to avenge evils done to them, until they should fast at her hands. The yout'h prostrates himself to her after that. There was then a contention about her. Comgall said she was his, because it was on his territory she was caught. Fergus too said she was his, because it was in his net she happened. Beoan again said that she was his, because she pledged herself to him. Now, all those saints fasted, that God might give a judgment between them about their contention.

The angel said to a certain person there : "Two wild oxen will come to-morrow from Carnd Airend," he says, "and put ye the chariot on them, and the direction they shall bring her, allow ye to them." The oxen came on the morrow, as the angel foretold it, and they brought her to Tech Dabeoc. The clerics gave her her choice after that, namely, her baptizing and her going to heaven a once in that hour, or her waiting the same period [three hundred years] and her going to heaven after long ages. It is the choice she took her dying then. Comgall baptized her, and it is the name he gave her Sea-birth, that is, Birth of the Sea ; or Sea-grazer, that is, Grazer of the Sea. Another name for her also is Funche [Whiting]. Miracles and wonders are also done through her there, and she is, like every holy virgin with honor and with reverence, as God ordained to her in heaven.

1. Liban here alludes to the supposed derivation of her name, that is "white beauty", not "woman of the sea".

création : 30/10/2009

Sources : J. O'Beirne Crowe, The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archeological Association of Ireland