Cover art by Asher Brown Durand

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Book of Leinster Book I

Notes

Author: Anonymous

• Augaine Már (Ugaine Mór) is a legendary High King of Ireland, ancestor of both the Connachta/Uí Néill and Leinster dynasties.
• Cobthach and Loegaire are his descendants, from whom the two great dynastic lines descend.
• Labraid Longsech (“the Exile” or “the Mariner”) is the famous Leinster king who avenged his kin at Dind Ríg (a royal fort on the Barrow river) — a well-known saga in early Irish tradition.
• Banba is a poetic name for Ireland.
• The final verse appears to be a synchronism, placing these events chronologically before the birth of Christ — a common feature of medieval Irish historical poetry.
• Dind Ríg = the royal hillfort associated with the Labraid Longsech massacre legend.

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Translation

Augaine the Great, son of the king of Ireland

1. {MS folio 35b} Augaine the Great, son of the king of Ireland — a famous high-king; his children seized the islands of Banba — a wondrous man.
2. From the strength of Cobthach over the plains of Brega — a power not to be concealed — Loegaire was a joyful day when he took the Liffey.
3. Labraid, grandson of Loegaire, from the smooth plain — at Dind Ríg it was a fierce onset of violence; he slew the royal dynasty.
4. The royal dynasty of Ireland — from them came feasting, generous, in equal succession; he slew them all — is it not thus that Labraid Longsech is known?
5. Ireland is full of his descendants — a rightful share with noble blood; Cobthach and Loegaire from both lines — two sons of one man.
6. {MS folio 35b35} It is from Cobthach that the seed of Conn is found in every place; and it is from Loegaire, moreover, that the double stock of Leinster comes.
7. Full is the count of the seven years beyond two hundreds — they waged war before the birth of Jesus in our harmonies.

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