Part 4

Bangor, of course, was also the source for the famous Immram Brain MaicFebail, Voyage of Bran of which Douglas Hyde wrote,

“I know of few things in literature comparable to this lovely description, one so mystic and so sensuous, of the joys of the other world. But to my mind it breathes the very essence of Celtic Glamour and is shot through and through with the Celtic love of form, beauty, landscape, company and the society of women.”

In the course of Bran’s voyage to the other world, the god Manannan appears announcing the birth of the historical Dalaradian prince, Mongan son of Fiachna (about a separate cycle of tales exists, one of which, Compert Mongain, is closely related to a passage in Immram Brain). In the poem Manannan foretells the part he himself would play in the birth of Mongan, prophesying, however, that eventual bloodshed would fall upon the Dalaradian household.

Kumo Meyer in his translation of the Voyage of Bran, describes it thus:

‘Mannanan, the descendent of Lir, will be
A vigorous bed-fellow to Cantigern;
He shall be called to his son in the beautiful world,
Fiachna will acknowledge him as a son.

‘He will delight the company of all the Sidhe,
He will be the darling of every goodly land,
He will make known secrets – a course of wisdom –
In the world, without being feared.

He will be in the shape of every beast,
Both on the azure sea and on land,
He will be a dragon before hosts at the onset,
He will be a wolf of every great forest.

He will be a stag with horns of silver
In the land where chariots are driven,
He will be a speckled salmon in full pool,
He will be a seal, he will be a fair white swan.

‘He will be throughout long ages
An hundred years in a fair kingship,
He will cut down battalions, – a lasting grave –
He will redden fields, a wheel around the track.

‘It will be about kings with a champion
That he will be known as a valiant hero,
Into the strongholds of a land on a height
I shall send an appointed end from Islay.

‘High shall I place him with princes,
He will be overcome by a son of error;
Mannanan, the son of Lir,
Will be his father, his tutor.

‘He will be – his time will be short –
Fifty years in this world:
A dragonstone from the sea will kill him
In the fight at Senlabor.

The Annals of Tigernach record that ‘Mongan mac Fiachna Lurgan was struck with a stone by Artuir (Arthur) son of Bicour the Briton and died.’ A verse follows:

‘Cold is the wind over Islay;
There are warriors in Kintyre,
They will commit a cruel deed therefor,
They will kill Mongan, son of Fiachna.

To be continued