Coire Sois, The Cauldron of Knowledge: A Companion to Early Irish Saga

7. The Threefold Death in Early Irish Sources

7 The Threefold Death in Early Irish Sources ( 1 9 9 4 ) Irish versions of the threefold death have been the subject of scholarly interest since 1940, when Kenneth Jackson published his article“The Motive of the Threefold Death in the Story of Suibhne Geilt.” He introduced the topic as follows:“The motive of the Threefold Death is a popular tale of the well-known international type current in Europe in medieval and modern times.A prophet foretells that a certain man will die in three different ways (generally including by fire and water). This is thought to be incredible and to prove him no true seer, so that the man feels quite secure. In the sequel the prophecy comes true” (Jackson 1940, 535). The morphology of the motif has been more fully set out by Joan Radner in “The Significance of the Threefold Death in Celtic Tradition” (1983, 183f.): 101 102 THEMES In its most fully realized form, it has five parts—five distinct ordered stages that serve to advance the action: (1) The future victim commits an offense. (2) There is immediately a prophecy, almost always delivered by a cleric, that the offender will be punished for his offense by a threefold death. (3) Disbelief in the prophecy is expressed. (4) The events of the story bring about a reversal, and belief may be explicitly expressed. (5) The prophecy is fulfilled and the offender/victim is killed. Jackson’s article was concerned with the occurrence of the motif in material which has to do with “the well-known Irish legend” of Suibne Geilt (Jackson 1940, 536), and with the relationship of this with material concerning Myrddin/Merlin and Lailoken, who are British figures of the Suibne type.The version of the Suibne legend which furnished Jackson with an instance of the motif was not the well-known Buile Suibne (O’Keeffe 1913; 1931),but rather a poem beginning A ben Graig is graccda sain1 (Stokes 1908, 26–28), which is one of a set of five poems concerning St. Moling and Suibne, the language of which“seems to point strongly to the eleventh century” (Jackson 1940, 538). These poems are referred to as the Anecdota poems, after their place of publication. Jackson prefaced his treatment of this material with a list of instances of the motif from other sources, medieval and modern, including two early twelfth-century Latin poems, two modern Welsh versions, and various “modern Esthonian folk versions.” The Irish material mentioned by Jackson comprises accounts of the deaths of four men: (1) The death of Áed Dub (Áed the Black) of the Cruithin, murderer (in the year 565) of Diarmait mac Cerbaill, who was of the Southern Uí Néill and king of Tara, is recounted in Adomnán’s seventh-century Life of Columba (Anderson and Anderson 1991, 64–67). (2) Diarmait mac Cerbaill’s death, which is not described in detail by Adomnán, is the subject of Aided Diarmata Meic Cerbaill (O’Grady 1892,1:72–82; 2:76–88; Rayner 1988,17–31),which is tentatively dated by Jackson (1940, 535) to the eleventh century. (The threefold death of Diarmait mac Cerbaill is also recounted in the Irish Life of St. Brendan of Clonfert [Plummer 1922, 1:44–95 at 88–90; 2:44–92 at 85–87]; there is an incomplete account in Stair ar Aed baclámh [O’Grady 1892, 1:66–72; 2:70–76].) (3) The death of Muirchertach mac Erca, a Northern Uí Néill king of Tara, is the subject of Aided Muirchertaig Meic Erca (Nic Dhonnchadha 1964; Cross and Slover 1969, 518–32; Guyonvarc’h 1983). The text is late Middle Irish or early Modern Irish; Jackson (1940, 535) suggests that it may be as late as the fourteenth century. Muirchertach is said to have been slain in 534, but Francis John Byrne (1973, 102) observes that his “absolute historicity” is open to question. (4) The death of Grác,St.Moling’s herdsman,and murderer (in the seventh century) of Suibne Geilt, is recounted, as we have seen, in the Anecdota poems; there is a prose account in the Middle Irish Life of Moling (Stokes 1907, 32–36). There are, as we shall see, many other cases of threefold death in early Irish sources, but it is in the death-stories of these four men that...